Sermon for Pentecost 7: "Ears On the Word"

 + 7^th Sunday after Pentecost – 7.16.23 +

Series A: Isaiah 55:10-13; Romans 8:12-17; Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Beautiful Savior Lutheran

Milton, WA

 

 

Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

 

The batter approaches the plate. Steps into the box. Waits for the first pitch. A swing. And a miss. It’s sinker. Strike one. The coach yells out, “Keep your eye on the ball.” This familiar baseball phrase finds its way into our daily conversations when we want to encourage someone to keep focus on and be attentive to what’s important.

 

Something similar happens whenever Jesus is preaching, especially in the parable of the sower. Only instead of our eyes, Jesus calls us to use our ears. “Keep your ears on my word,” Jesus says. 

 

“He who has ears let him hear.” “Ears to hear” are faith ears that hear everything Jesus teaches in light of His death and resurrection. Ears attuned to the Word, listening for the voice of their shepherd.

 

Hearing Jesus’ word is a central theme of the parable of the sower. Hearing the word he sows, plants, gives growth, tends, and bears fruit in those who hear his word all by the power of his saving word. 

 

Why does Jesus want us to keep our ears on his word? Because it’s God’s word does that the work. God’s word is sown. God’s word saves. God’s word gives life. God grows his word within you. By his word God bears fruit in your life as well. God’s word does the work. 

 

“A sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. ⁵ Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil,⁶ but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. ⁷ Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. ⁸ Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 

 

It’s easy to hear this familiar parable and let our ears jump immediately to the various kinds of soil Jesus mentions in his parable – the rocky, thorny, or shallow ground. These are important parts of Jesus’ parable, but it’s always tempting to hear this parable and turn our ears inward. What kind of soil am I? Am I rocky, thorny, shallow, or good soil? 

 

Jesus doesn’t tell us this parable to take our eyes and ears off of him and onto ourselves, however. Just the opposite. Keep your ears on the word of God, because it is the word of God that does the work.

 

Nothing good happens when we take our ears off of Jesus’ word. Remember in Genesis, how like a raven, the devil quickly snatched the seed of God’s word away from Adam and Eve. “Did God really say?” They took their ears off the word. The same thing happens to us. Although there are plenty of other words to listen to in the world around us, only Jesus’ word saves, gives life, and bears fruit.

 

So Jesus calls us to keep our ears on the word that he sows, plants, and gives that we would have life and salvation. Jesus calls us to hear his word that he has sown. Jesus even helps us by unpacking the meaning of his parable.  

The seed is the Gospel of the kingdom, in a word the seed is Jesus, the promised Seed. The soils are various conditions of the heart. The hard pavement is the unbelieving, hardened heart. Though the Gospel is heard, it pings right off the hardened heart. This happens when people hear the word of forgiveness in Jesus, but they don’t think they need to be forgiven. It’s tempting to turn our ears and hearts inward and follow our hearts rather than listen to God’s word. To rely on our feelings rather than the Word of Christ, to feel good about ourselves rather than die to sin and live in Christ. “Keep your ears on my word that replaces your heart of stone with a heart tuned to my word,” Jesus says.

 

Some seed fell among the rocks. This is shallow soil of shallow hearing. A faith based on feelings is faith with no root, a shallow faith unable to endure the heat of persecution, hardship, and testing. This is what happens when you use your heart as a barometer of God’s presence and the Spirit’s working. However, faith based on feelings and enthusiasms does not endure. This is not the kind of faith that can endure under the sword of Islam. the hammer and sickle of communism, or any hostile persecution. For that you need an objective word – Baptism, Absolution, Body and Blood. Something outside of yourself and certain, no matter how you happen to feel. Keep your ears on my word that roots you deeply in my death and resurrection, Jesus says.

 

Some seed fell among the thorns. The thorns are the cares and concerns of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. Anxieties such as what will we eat, what will we wear. Houses, investments, portfolios, retirement. Another way of looking at this is to ask ourselves, what gets in the way of our hearing of God’s word. What cares, worries, and concerns draw our ears away from God’s word and onto some other word? Keep your ears on my word, Jesus says, and remember the birds, how greatly he clothes and feeds them, and how you are of much more value than they.

 

Keep your ears and eyes on the word of God and Christ the sower. This is the good news in this parable. The sower sows the seed. Generously. Abundantly. All over the place. The word is preached whether men like it or not. Whether they listen or not. Whether they believe it or not. The Divine Sower casts the word of Jesus, the good news that in Jesus there is forgiveness, life, and salvation. That in Jesus there is no condemnation under the Law. That in Jesus there is peace and hope. 

 

Jesus not only sows his seed, he turns our ears to his word. That is how we live as his baptized people. We preach the Word. We baptize. We call men to repentance. Few seem to hear it. Many times it pings off hardened hearts. Some of it gets a shallow, superficial hearing. Some gets choked out by riches and cares. Hearts grow cold. People fall away. We get discouraged. We stop trusting the Word and start doing it our way instead of God’s way. We try to make the Word more palatable.

 

This is why Jesus’ parable of the sower does not call us to turn our attention inward, to examine our hearts and question, “What kind of soil am I?” No, this parable turns our ears outward…to Jesus’ word; to the good news of Jesus crucified and risen for you. To Christ the generous and gracious sower. Keep your ears on his word. Because, as Isaiah declares, it is His word that does the work of creating life, sustaining our lives in him, and bearing fruit in our lives.

 

“For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

 

Keep your ears on Jesus’ word. Because Jesus’ word saves. His word gives life – his life laid down for you; his life buried in the ground like a seed for you; his life raised up again for you, the first fruits in his resurrection. His grows his word within you every time you hear it in his house and daily in your own homes. By his word He bears fruit in your life as well in your callings in life at home, here in his congregation, and out in the world.

In all these things, God’s word does the work to save you, keep you, and bear fruit in you. A bountiful, abundant, overflowing harvest – all by his gracious word of life. 

 

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard and keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.