9 Pentecost Yr A

The Kingdom of God is like a farmer who sows seeds, some fall on the path and the birds eat them up, some fall on the rocky soil and they spring up and wither quickly, some fall among thorns and are choked, others fall on fertile ground and bring forth grain. The Kingdom of God is like… always precedes a story like this one, whether or not the words are actually there. Jesus teaches his hearers about the Kingdom of God when he tells these stories that at times seem so difficult to enter into. But remember, you are always a character in these stories; you can find yourself there somewhere.

These Kingdom of God stories, these parables, are all about you and me and our role in God’s kingdom. We are agents of new creation; the new creation is the Kingdom of God. God began something absolutely new with Jesus. Just as God created the heavens and the earth and all the creatures in the beginning, God recreates the heavens and the earth with this new thing he does in Jesus. In the incarnation, in the word made flesh, in the midst of you and me. This new thing is the Kingdom, it is the new creation, it is where you and I belong, it is where you and I live.

In this particular Kingdom of God story, it is clear that the Kingdom is diverse. There is the path, the rocky soil, the thorns, and the fertile ground. In God’s Kingdom, we are at one time or another like any one of these soils. I’m not going to say to you today be like the fertile soil or else. I don’t think that’s the way of the Kingdom. The way of the Kingdom is that as human beings we are at one time or another like the thorns, or the stony path, or the rocky soil, or the fertile ground. But it is also very clear that when we are like the fertile soil, we will bear fruit. And bearing fruit is what the gospel writer Matthew is all about. The marker of one who participates fully as an agent of new creation, as a co-creator with God of this absolutely new thing that God is doing, is the fruit.

There is not a single story that tells us exactly what kind of fruit we should bear. There are stories about figs, olives, dates, pomegranates, which would all make an interesting salad. And there are no stories about tomatoes or mangos that are themselves delicious. The stories of the Kingdom are about fruit that is good and healthy.

Being an agent of new creation, participating in the story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, is a fruit bearing activity. It is to encounter Jesus in our midst, it is to live a life transformed by the resurrection so that resurrection is abundantly evident in all you do. Living as an agent of new creation is to take incarnation seriously. God in the flesh, God in our midst, is a reality that is embodied by people we may encounter every day.

I was up at the office of the Pennington county treasurer just the other day. Now anyone whose last name begins with L was informed quite some time ago that it would be a good idea to take care of license tabs before the 30th of June, because a whole new computer system would be coming online and there surely would be some bugs to work out. Well, I took care of our cars, Rick actually did, before the end of June, so we figured that was that. But Willie, on his way to EYE, said that he thought the tabs on the Honda were expired. Now, I thought to myself, I took care of that when I transferred that title after we bought that car from Fr. Bill’s estate, but at the same time I thought, why would he be telling me that now, those tabs would have expired in May. Well, I took a look and low and behold, the tabs were expired, I had completely overlooked transferring that title. So now, knowing there were long lines at the treasurer’s office, I had to go and take care of transferring a title that I really thought I had already done.

So, I went, brought the book I’ve been reading, and prepared to wait in line. I purposely did not look at the time; it only makes me nervous, although my hunch is I waited in line for an hour and a half. I was behind a family with three little ones, and they were delightful. When I was finally the one at the front of the line, I went as soon as called, “next person in line!”

I briefly told my story to Jerri, the Pennington County Treasurers Office clerk, and plunked the 2-inch thick file folder that Bill kept on the Honda on the counter top. I pulled out the title and the bill of sale, and Jerri looked at them quickly and then asked, do you have a release of lien? I must have looked dumbfounded. I began to look through the 2-inch file, and said to her that it must be here, Fr. Bill kept every piece of paper including cancelled checks. Well, it wasn’t there. I think I could have cried.

But this is where fruit bearing comes into this story. Jerri got on the phone to Wells Fargo bank, it was Norwest Bank when Bill took out that loan, and stayed on the phone until she got someone to fax her a “release of lien.” I imagine that I stood in front of Jerri’s counter spot for at least another 45 minutes, while she worked some sort of magic to make this happen.

Jerri could as easily have told me to go away and figure this thing out myself, as making it happen herself. After a couple weeks of long lines and a computer system that had bugs yet to be worked out, Jerri could have been cross with me, she could have told me there was nothing she could do until I had the piece of paper I needed. Whether or not Jerri intended, she was an agent of new creation. She called out of me my best; she turned a difficult situation into a blessing. Not only did I leave the Pennington County Courthouse that day with new license plates, I had spent a solid two hours reading a great book, I had enjoyed the company, I had witnessed incarnation and resurrection, and I went away knowing that Jesus is alive and well in our lives.

Fertile ground receives the seed, and the seed is transformed into something that is absolutely different than it was when it went into the ground. All transformation presupposes death. The fruit that is born from the fertile ground and the seed is fruit that is born from suffering and death. There is no other way. When we walk with Jesus, we open our lives to the suffering and death that is inherent on the way. But when we walk with Jesus, we also become agents of new creation, bearers of the love that God has for all of us. We proclaim God’s love and delight by the fruit that we bear.

I’d like to finish today with the words to a song written and recorded by a woman out of Sioux Falls, Sara Thomsen. The song itself is a parable, and helps me to hear the Kingdom of God is like…..

Darkness cover me
like a blanket of night
oh, cover me lightly

Shadows gather around me
Deepening darkness
Whispering softly

Holy Maker of Moonlight
Singing through the starlight

Keeper of all life
Hidden seed deep in the dark soil of the earth
Fertile ground, womb of the night, bring us new birth

Alleluia. The Spirit of the Lord renews the face of the earth:
Come let us adore him. Alleluia.