How Do You Hear the Word of God?
A Homily on Isaiah 55:1-13 and Matthew 13:1-9,
18-23
Prepared by George Lyons
For the Sixth Sunday after Trinity
Epworth-in-the-Foothills,
Both the Old Testament lesson from the Prophet Isaiah
and the Gospel lesson from Matthew are invitations to hear the word of the Lord. The Hebrew and Greek terms for
"hear" and "obey" are from the same word-families. Really
to hear requires more than having our auditory nerves stimulated. To hear in
the full biblical sense is to hearken, to heed, to obey. So Jesus invites his
audience: "He who has ears, let him hear" (Matt 13:9; NIV; emphasis
added). She who has ears, let her hear.
Isaiah reports Yahweh's invitation
to people who are hungry and thirsty, who have eaten bread and drunk water, and milk, and wine, but remain
unsatisfied: "Listen, listen to me, and eat
what is good, / and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. / Give ear
and come to me; / hear me, that your soul may live" (Isa
55:2c-3b; NIV [emphasis added]).
To hear Yahweh aright is to seek him, to turn to him in
prayer, repentance, and trusting obedience. To worship God requires us to
listen to him. And so the prophet extends another invitation, in verses omitted
in our Old Testament reading: "Seek
[Yahweh] while he may be found; / call on him while he is near. / Let the
wicked forsake his way / and the evil man his thoughts. / Let him turn to
[Yahweh], and he will have mercy on him, / and to our God, for he will freely
pardon" (Isa 55:6-7; NIV).
God does not waste his words. He speaks with the expectation
that he will be heard and heeded. His words are not booming bass notes that
thunder in our ears, impressing us with their power, only to fade away when the
storm of divine revelation moves on and life returns to normal. His words are
not artfully crafted lines designed only to win our admiration for their
literary merit. God's words intend to do something.
The prophet presumes that God has plans and designs,
purposes and intentions; and that God has not left us in the dark about them.
The prophet is convinced of the reality of divine revelation. Too often our
stubborn, even stupid, plans clash with God's purposes and frustrate the
divine-human communion and cooperation he desires. But even the grandest of
human aspirations are no substitute for God's words and will.
.
. . My thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither
are your ways my ways,
declares [Yahweh].
As
the heavens are higher than the earth,
so
are my ways higher than your ways
and
my thoughts than your thoughts.
As
the rain and the snow
come
down from heaven,
and
do not return to it
without
watering the earth
and
making it bud and flourish,
so
that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so
is my word that goes out from my mouth:
It
will not return to me empty,
but
will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent
it" (Isa 55:8-11; NIV).
It is not my design to survey the plans and purposes of God.
It is to consider how we hear the word of God. Long experience in the Church
has taught us to associate the expression "word of God" with the
Scriptures, and rightly so. In the Preface to his collected sermons, John Wesley
wrote:
I am a creature of a day, passing through life as an arrow
through the air. I am a spirit come from God, and returning to God: Just
hovering over the great gulf; till, a few moments hence, I am no more seen; I
drop into an unchangeable eternity! I want to know one thing, the way to
heaven; how to land safe on that happy shore. God himself has condescended to
teach the way: For this very end he came from heaven. He hath written it down
in a book. O give me that book! At any price, give me the book of God! I have
it: Here is knowledge enough for me. Let me be homo unius libri [ a person,
comparatively speaking, of one book]. Here then I am, far from the busy ways of
men. I sit down alone: Only God is here. In his presence I open, I read his book,
for this end, to find the way to heaven. Is there a doubt concerning the
meaning of what I read? Does anything appear dark or intricate? I lift up my
heart to the Father of Lights: "Lord, is it not thy word, 'If any man
lack wisdom, let him ask of God?' Thou 'givest liberally, and upbraidest not.'
Thou hast said, 'If any be willing to do thy will, he shall know.' I am willing
to do, let me know, thy will." I then search after and consider parallel
passages of Scripture, "comparing spiritual things with spiritual." I
meditate thereon with all the attention and earnestness of which my mind is
capable. If any doubt still remains, I consult those who are experienced in the
things of God; and then the writings whereby, being dead, they yet speak. And what
I thus learn, that I teach (Wesley's Works, v. 5).
The invitation to hear and heed the
word of God is at the very least a call to serious Bible-study. There are more
different translations of the Bible in English than there are translations in
all other languages combined. We have no reasonable excuse for not studying the
Bible. Scripture study
is not only for itinerant evangelists like John Wesley or New Testament
professors.
A Wesleyan cannot help but notice that the invitation to
come hear and heed the words of Yahweh is universal. "Come, all you who are thirsty . . ." (Isa
55:1; NIV; emphasis added). The invitation is not limited to the rich. Even the
poor are welcome "Come, buy . . . without money and without cost"
(Isa 55:1c). The call is not merely for the righteous. Even the wicked are
invited to turn to God and promised "he will have mercy"
"our God . . . will freely pardon" (Isa 55:7; NIV). The invitation is
not simply for a chosen people, nor only for those Jews who satisfy the demands
of the law. Isaiah 56 extends Yahweh's invitation even further to include
foreigners and eunuchs (v 3). This word is a message of grace full, free, and
for everyone who will truly listen (see v 8).
The Bible is the written "word of
God;" but Christ alone is the living "Word of God." Jesus was
and is the bodied-forth revelation of God's gracious invitation to universal
salvation. As God-incarnate, his person as well as his deeds and words revealed
the God of holy love. He incarnated grace that is full and free and for all. He
lived and preached good news to anyone who would listen. He called fishermen
and tax-gatherers and malcontents and prostitutes to become his followers. And
he told stories all could understand, if they would. We call these parables
earthly stories about heavenly realities.
Today's Gospel lesson is a curious
parable about the fate of the word of God in the ears and lives of its intended audience. The spoken-word is
compared to sown-seed and those who hear the word are compared to soil an
appropriate analogy for creatures of dust. Jesus presents himself, and anyone
who, like he, speaks the good news about the
Farmers in the
Some seeds
did not survive long enough to have soil turned over to cover them and
germinate because the ground where they fell was untillable.
The wind
carried some seed to well-beaten paths through fields. In a world with few
paved roads, there was no use plowing the part of the field that years of
travelers had made into a thoroughfare. Seed on such paths eventually became
bird-food. But broadcast-sowing made such waste inevitable.
Some seed
inevitably fell on thin soil, where rocks were not far beneath the surface. If
such seed sprouted at all, it would be doomed to wither and die for lack of
sufficient soil for its roots to grow.
When my wife and I visited
Weeds are
weeds precisely because they grow where no one wants them. All who have tried
to keep dandelions out of their lawns know that the battle is unending. Early
this spring I decided to give my dandelions an extra-lethal dose of lawn weed
killer. The spots where weeds had been are now clearly visible as distinct
brown spots. The dandelions in those spots are well and truly dead; but so is
the grass. My most recent survey of my lawn revealed a prolific crop of
dandelions in other spots, a thriving morning-glory patch, and miscellaneous
other weeds. Unless such weeds are eliminated, they eventually crowd out the grass
and take over the lawn.
Some seed
fell among weeds that choked the sprouting wheat before it had a chance to grow
to maturity. How? By robbing it of vital nutrients, blocking it from the
necessary warmth of the cooler springtime sunlight, and taking the place the
farmer had intended for wheat.
But some seed
fell on receptive soil and grew to maturity and fruitfulness. Some soil
produced 100, some 60, some 30 times as many grains on a single stalk as the
seed sown there.
Those who
hear the word of God are like different kinds of soil. The fate of the seed is
determined by the state of the soil. But wait! This sounds as if some are
predestined to be saved and others to be lost.
Parables,
like all illustrations, are always flawed by the possibility of being
misunderstood and misapplied. Jesus' comparison of different kinds of people
and different kinds of soil should not lead us to presume that some people are
naturally disposed to reject God's word and others to accept it. Jesus'
invitation to hear implies that our response to God's word determines what kind
of soil we are. It is not the kind of person we are that determines whether or
not we will hear the word of God as we should. It is, on the contrary, the way
we hear the word of God that determines the kind of person we are. The point of
the parable is not to accept our destiny. It is to allow the word of God to
shape our destiny. Jesus' point is not to be more careful where we sow the
gospel-seed. It is, instead, a call to consider how we hear the gospel.
How many ways
can seed sown broadcast-style be lost? At least as many ways as people may
respond inappropriately to the proclaimed word of God. The message of salvation
free-for-the-asking seems too good to be true. Grace is dangerous, naοve, and
wasteful. What if evil people take advantage of such liberal openness free
bread for the taking? What if some who come into the Gospel Mission and hear
the sermon, come only for the free meal, shelter, and a bed for the night; and
then return to their self-destructive ways the next morning? What of all our
futile efforts invested on people who refuse to repent? Sometimes we knew they
were unlikely to stick with the church anyway; so why bother? Wouldn't we do
well to invest our time and energy and words on those who are most
responsive? Shouldnt we take demographic surveys and concentrate our efforts
on those most-likely to succeed? Of course, we should, if we're savvy
business-people and profit is the bottom-line. But since when did the word of
God become a commodity?
The good news
of the Parable of the Sower is that receptive soil is productive beyond
imagination. Twenty-two years in Nazarene higher education have made me
extremely modest about by ability to predict long-term success based on
student-performance in my classes. And so, as a good Wesleyan, I preach and
teach as if anyone who hears the good news may be saved and successful from
God's perspective.
There are
lots of ways seed sown broadcast-style can be productive. So why should we
concentrate on the failures? Look at the success! Yahweh says, "My word .
. . shall not return to me empty, / but it shall accomplish that which I
purpose, / and succeed in the thing for which I sent it" (Isa 55:11). This
is no promise of universal salvation. Because God works in non-coercive ways,
not everyone will hear and heed his word. Not everyone will respond to the
invitation to come to the feast of salvation and eat and drink freely to their
souls' content. But those who do respond will be fruitful well beyond their
numbers. Look what became of just twelve not-so-promising disciples!
The question is not, Will God's word
accomplish its intended purpose? It is, How will you hear, truly hear and heed,
the word of God?
Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine
and milk
without money and without cost.
Why spend
money on what is not bread,
and your labor on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen
to me, and eat what is good,
and your soul will delight in the richest of fare.
Give ear and
come to me;
hear me, that your soul may live.
I will make an
everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
[And] you will
go out in joy
and be led forth in peace (Isa 55:1-3; 12ab; NIV).