Today’s Gospel July 10, 2011

From the Common Lectionary The Parable of the Sower:

Ἐν δὲ τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ ἐξελθὼν ὁ ᾿Ιησοῦς τῆς οἰκίας ἐκάθητο παρὰ τὴν θάλασσαν· 2 καὶ συνήχθησαν πρὸς αὐτὸν ὄχλοι πολλοί, ὥστε αὐτὸν εἰς πλοῖον ἐμβάντα καθῆσθαι, καὶ πᾶς ὁ ὄχλος ἐπὶ τὸν αἰγιαλὸν εἱστήκει. 3 καὶ ἐλάλησεν αὐτοῖς πολλὰ ἐν παραβολαῖς λέγων· 4 ἰδοὺ ἐξῆλθεν ὁ σπείρων τοῦ σπεῖραι. καὶ ἐν τῷ σπείρειν αὐτὸν ἃ μὲν ἔπεσε παρὰ τὴν ὁδόν, καὶ ἐλθόντα τὰ πετεινὰ κατέφαγεν αὐτά· 5 ἄλλα δὲ ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ τὰ πετρώδη, ὅπου οὐκ εἶχε γῆν πολλήν, καὶ εὐθέως ἐξανέτειλε διὰ τὸ μὴ ἔχειν βάθος γῆς, 6 ἡλίου δὲ ἀνατείλαντος ἐκαυματίσθη, καὶ διὰ τὸ μὴ ἔχειν ρίζαν ἐξηράνθη· 7 ἄλλα δὲ ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ τὰς ἀκάνθας, καὶ ἀνέβησαν αἱ ἄκανθαι καὶ ἀπέπνιξαν αὐτά· 8 ἄλλα δὲ ἔπεσεν ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν τὴν καλὴν καὶ ἐδίδου καρπὸν ὃ μὲν ἑκατόν, ὃ δὲ ἐξήκοντα, ὃ δὲ τριάκοντα. 9 ὁ ἔχων ὦτα ἀκούειν ἀκουέτω.

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῾Υμεῖς οὖν ἀκούσατε τὴν παραβολὴν τοῦ σπείραντος. 19 παντὸς ἀκούοντος τὸν λόγον τῆς βασιλείας καὶ μὴ συνιέντος, ἔρχεται ὁ πονηρὸς καὶ αἴρει τὸ ἐσπαρμένον ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ· οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ παρὰ τὴν ὁδὸν σπαρείς. 20 ὁ δὲ ἐπὶ τὰ πετρώδη σπαρείς, οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ τὸν λόγον ἀκούων καὶ εὐθέως μετὰ χαρᾶς δεχόμενος καὶ λαμβάνων αὐτόν· 21 οὐκ ἔχει δὲ ρίζαν ἐν ἑαυτῷ, ἀλλὰ πρόσκαιρός ἐστι, γενομένης δὲ θλίψεως ἢ διωγμοῦ διὰ τὸν λόγον εὐθὺς σκανδαλίζεται. 22 ὁ δὲ εἰς τὰς ἀκάνθας σπαρείς, οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ τὸν λόγον ἀκούων καὶ ἡ μέριμνα τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου καὶ ἡ ἀπάτη τοῦ πλούτου συμπνίγει τὸν λόγον, καὶ ἄκαρπος γίνεται. 23 ὁ δὲ ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν τὴν καλὴν σπαρείς, οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ τὸν λόγον ἀκούων καὶ συνιῶν· ὃς δὴ καρποφορεῖ καὶ ποιεῖ ὃ μὲν ἑκατόν, ὃ δὲ ἑξήκοντα, ὃ δὲ τριάκοντα. Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

This is an interesting parable for someone like myself, who lives in a state where atop the Capital Building there is a statue known as the Sower.  Especially someone who is in the teaching profession and who spends some time meditating on whether or not the lessons taught really fall on fertile ground or not.  The gospel lesson is about spiritual matters, it’s a parable and ought not be looked at too literally.  Yet one can’t quite help thinking that Jesus is meditating on Himself as teacher and wondering whether his words, his lessons fall on fertile ground or not.  One wonders whether the stony ground (τὰ πετρώδη) referred to in the lesson are those, who like the Pharisees, do not have their minds open enough, or their thoughts deep enough, that they might allow the lessons to take root.  Are we stuck in a shallow stony soil of Dogmatism where the possibility of discovering new meanings in our conscious lives, are unable to take sufficient root that our minds wither away.  Perhaps we don’t hear the word with delight so that it can take root, in the deeper soil that we ought to be for minds (verse 20). 

I often wonder about this: are we so shallow and so stuck in our dogmas and clichés, that we have no depth of thought (soil) in our minds so the ideas we are taught cannot take root and flourish.  It seems that way.  This seems to be the problem with our education system today, that we cram a bunch of facts into stony ground and expect the student to get it and move on.  But the seed, the idea, never takes root, for the soil is so crammed full of stones there is no place for the root to grow and receive nourishment.  We have become rich in information, but poor in knowledge.  There is little depth to our thinking anymore, because in some sense we are stuck in the stones of the facts we memorized to pass the true-false, multiple-choice parts of tests and soon that information is either gobbled up by our desire for fun times, or the stony soil does not allow us to receive the idea with delight and let it take root in the depths of our consciousness.  If one thinks of stones as facts or dogmas in this case, the analogy works quite well for my profession, especially for the professional teaching Philosophy.  I have noticed in students that once an idea is received with delight (μετὰ χαρᾶς) it seems to take root and that idea becomes related to a number of other ideas in the mind of the student and flourishes, like a root which grows deeper and deeper into the soil and entangles itself into ever more and deeper soil.  Is the Christ asking us to have sufficient enthusiasm for the idea to allow it to flourish, sufficient depth of thought to give it space to grow.  I think so, and I think the parable is really asking us to forsake our shallow dogmatic fact oriented ideologies for deeper understanding of what it is that we are supposed to be about as conscious beings.  And perhaps even more importantly, He is asking us to have that depth of thought with delight, to take delight in our deeper and more involved thoughts.