Marty Folsom—Year A Proper 10

Anthony: All right, our next passage is Matthew 13:1–9, 18–23. It is a Revised Common Lectionary passage for Proper 10 in Ordinary Time, July 12. Marty, would you read it for us, please?

Marty: Yes.

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. ² Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. ³ And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seeds fell on a path, and the birds came and ate them up. ⁵ Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, 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 brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ⁹ If you have ears, hear!”.

¹⁸ “Hear, then, the parable of the sower. ¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. ²⁰ As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, ²¹ yet such a person has no root but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. ²² As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. ²³ But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

Anthony: Before we get into exegeting the text, what, if anything, would you want preachers and teachers to know or be cautious about when it comes to the parables?

Marty: The trick with parables of the kingdom is that we really quickly jump to thinking we need to build the kingdom.

Anthony: Come on.

Marty: But the point here really is this, these are parables of the kingdom. The kingdom of God is present, active, and waiting to do work. And so, the ability to align ourself with, to submit to, to yield to the work of the Spirit ― it’s really a matter of ourself getting out of the sense that he’s somewhere and he’s going to give me the power to do my work for the kingdom here, or someday the kingdom will come and then all will be done.

No. The kingdom is here and now. And so, our ability to simply let our hearts be penetrated by the here and nowness of God is where the root goes all the way down into our hearts and does something. But it’s just us all allowing the kingdom to be the shaping of who we are. So, it is just so easy for the question, what should, what do I need to do to take over, instead of what is the kingdom proclaimed here and what’s it doing, and how do I just not get in the way?

Anthony: Oh. Yeah, that’s a good word. And speaking of good word, when we come to the written word, we’re looking for God. We’re looking for the God revealed in Jesus Christ. So, tell us about what this parable reveals about God, and the second part of this, a theological, anthropological question what does it reveal about God and what does it reveal about us, humanity?

Marty: I think it’s an amazing thing that the world just grows, and we take it for granted. But to say all of this is here because of the intention of a God who created a world that is the very space within which we live, and to even recognize in our human life, we are alive, we are seeds on the soil because we have been given life and the ability to grow and to bloom.

And so, to recognize even ourselves as seeds who have this capacity to grow or not to grow, it’s all because God has given us already that life-giving capacity for his work to bring to fulfillment that which he intended from the very beginning.

So, to recognize that it, what it says about God is always the God of life. He is always about positioning us where life can happen. And the nature of what it is that humans are is that we have a tendency to place ourself away from what it is that will allow God’s life to work in us. So, the different kinds of soil and places that we might be. I’m not a lover of the city, and it’s partly just the way you can be six inches from somebody else in an apartment.

Anthony: Yeah.

Marty: So, you’re right next to people, but you’re apart from them. And no, the seed has no capacity to know and be known, to love and connect, to serve. If you hear them bumping against the walls, that may be as close a relationship as you have. And the image of a small town, which I heard something that Matt Canlis did this week, spending time in Scotland in a church at Godspeed, and saying, you know, “I had to slow down enough to where I didn’t expect people to come to my office as though that was the ground that people grew in. I had to be in the ground where they are, and the smaller the village, the closer we get.”

Anthony: Yeah.

Marty: And so, the positioning of ourself and the slowing down to the speed that God goes is, in a sense, allowing for the soil to do the work that it does to nurture the kind of relationship with God and one another, to be a community where this growth happens, and there’s hundredfold, sixtyfold.

So, you can imagine in a town of 100 people, you know all 100 people, and there’s a sense of love and appreciation for each person that’s there. Whereas you may be in a building of 1,000 people and you know no one.

Anthony: Yeah.

Marty: They’re all there, but nothing is growing. And so, to simply attune ourself to the nature of what does it look like to avail ourself to be those who listen, look, speak with others, and whether we pray out loud for them or not, to be the presence of prayer, that is the presence of the kingdom.

Because the kingdom of God is always just God here and now bringing a yes. How do I be that to that person walking through the door? Maybe I help them hold the door. Maybe I give them a smile. All of those things is being fertile ground for the kingdom to do a work. It is possible in the city. I think it’s just not as good, a good a soil as maybe a smaller place might be.

So, the nature of soil, I think there is a sense where we do make choices that align with positioning ourself both in the place, but also how we will be in the place. And so, I’ve often thought I would love to see a book where somebody just takes a mailman who says, “This town is my congregation, and every place where I drop off mail or packages, I’m going to get to know the people and love them.”

And to see this happen for 50 years, that his soil was this town, his commitment was to be the presence of the kingdom, and when he dies, that the whole town comes out, Christians and non-Christians going, “this person was like the presence of God among us. He cared. He brought us together.”

Anthony: Yes.

Marty: “He spoke our language. He knew us, and we came to know him.” That’s, in a sense, the fulfillment of what this parable invites us into, the hundredfold, that everyone would celebrate not his death, but the life that he lived that brought life to them.

Anthony: And friends, the documentary that Marty referenced from Matt Canlis called Godspeed, I highly recommend. Just Google Godspeed Matt Canlis. Watch and learn and grow, and I just crack up every time I see it where the priest tells him, “You don’t have an office. Your office is out there. Go be with the people.” It’s awesome.

Marty: Yes.