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S. Pentecost 7.26 Matt. 13:1-9, 18-23

‘Hear then the parable of the sower…’

But the standard translation I read you from the ESV (which follows the King James in the essentials as the NIV, NRSV, NKJV all do) in this case is so terrible you haven’t really heard it, not what Jesus actually says, anyway…

So here’s a literal translation of the last section vs. 18-23. You can grab a bible, follow along and spot the difference which is mainly: translating participles as participles which aren’t showing different people’s consistent responses to the word, but rather showing your own constantly shifting (and shifty!) ways of being with Jesus, your multitudinous ways of rejecting the Word. Ready? ‘And away we go…’ 🙂

“You then: hear the parable of the sower. All, hearing the word of the kingdom and not understanding, the evil one comes and snatches away what is being sown in his heart—this is along the path being sown. Then the rocky being sown—this is the word hearing and straightaway with joy receiving, then has no root in himself, but is temporary; arising then troubles or persecution because of the word, straightaway he falls away. Then into the thorns being sown—this is the word hearing and the cares of the age and the deceit of riches chokes the word and fruitless becomes. Then the good soil being sown—this is the word hearing and understanding who then bears fruit and yields sometimes a hundred, then sixty, then thirty.”

Mmm, mmm; like Yoda sounds, it does! Not because I love Yoda (though love him, I do), but because that’s how the Greek sounds if you follow the word order which I and a handful of other scholars have come to think is actually important. That it sounds like Yoda when you do that is a feature not a bug, to me… 😉

The problem is that what are participles, differing ways of being with Jesus from moment to moment are rendered as permanent static nouns by the Calvinist translations (all we have, sadly) as if we’re predestined to be always stuck in one of the 4 ways of responding to the Word, when, really they’re fluid forms of living we cycle through minute by minute, second by second… 😉

The problem?

Well this parable (like all of ‘em!) is a sort of Rorschach Test. It’s not giving you information. It’s a test to show where you stand with Jesus. How you read it’s showing where you are this second in relation to him. But when our constantly shifting ways of relating to Jesus are rendered—as all our Reformed English bible translations have it—as dead, static nouns, the way we’re predestined always to be, then ‘Jerusalem: we have a problem…’

When I read the ESV translation for our Gospel, where did you find yourself in the story? Did you go, “OK, so we’ve got 4 kinds of people. First person hears the word and it bounces off her like a rubber ball on concrete… bad girl!

The second guy hears the word and at first hears it with joy—I won’t say giddy but not not giddy—like a schoolboy crush on the head cheerleader that (because deep down, he’s pretty shallow 😉 won’t last and when the going gets tough, he’ll move on to the next one… bad boy!

The third girl, a bit of prickly pear, hears how rich Jesus is and as a gold-digger latches onto him, but as soon as Jesus gets arrested, thrown in jail and his followers are rounded up, she realizes he is not the One for her and moves on… bad girl!

The fourth, as a confessional Lutheran, 4th gen LCMS, hears the word and reads the bible through 10 times before they turn 12, understands we’re justified by grace alone through faith alone for Christ’s sake! and bears fruit a 100-fold and goes into church work, or is on church council (60-fold), or attends service every Sunday unless there’s a big football game (30-fold) and lives happily ever after…

You conclude you’re the 4th person and figure it’s all smooth sailing from here?

Well, that’s how I read the parable from Lutheran grade school through Lutheran college, ecumenical div school and the first 10 or 15 years of parish ministry. But when I started translating the Greek more diligently as step 1 of sermon writing (thanks Step Bible™ for making it easy!), I noticed these are all participles and I realized that I’d been fooled by the Calvinist translators… again!

And the parable—like the drawing that looks like a rabbit and then shifts and becomes a woman with a hat and then you can see how it flips back and forth from rabbit to woman with hat depending on where you focus, flipped for me and instead of being a picture of what others do with Jesus, became a picture of what he does with me and all the ways I resist him, all the ways I tend to ‘run the verbs’ having Main Character Syndrome pretty bad!

I realized—as Nathan said to David “You the man!”—that I am all 4 seasons at once! I’m not just statically stuck in the 4th way of being. I cycle through all of them: concrete parking lot and super ball bouncing off, shallow schoolboy with ever-shifting cheerleader crushes (not that there’s anything wrong that ;-), gold digging hussy just using Jesus for greedy gain, and sometimes actually hearing the word and going: “Wow. I believe! It’s all true, everything the scriptures say about him…”

And everything scriptures say about me—how hard-hearted, shallow, selfish I am—at least 3/4 of the time!—and only occasionally actually gob-smacked and head over heels for Jesus, ready to follow him anywhere, like The Smiths, but really meaning it, non-ironically: “And if a double-decker bus crashes into us/ to die by your side/ is such a heavenly way to die”.

And realizing (with sadness 😉 that the moment I think and feel that, I’m already going, “So this means I’m going to heaven, right? And what kind of place will I have there? How do I secure the top spot?” and then I’ve ‘paved paradise and put up a parking lot’…

God has predestined us to this 4th mystical blessed state of pure faith, love and trust in him. But he won’t drag us into heaven by the hair, kicking and screaming. If you insist (like a Disney princess 😉 on just being you, he’ll let you, if that’s your heart’s desire…

So he lets me shift, sometimes in a minute, between all 4 seasons so that I can see how disappointing the first 3 are. And if taking up the cross, suffering and dying with Jesus daily is the only way to kill off the first 3 mees, well then: Jesus! Bring it!, and make it quick, will you?

Faith is a dance with Jesus. Nothing else matters: world, family, friends, wealth, power, not really. Just Jesus. Tango with him, and everything else falls into place. Every Sunday, Jesus comes to you by Word and Sacrament, and the Great Dance begins…

And when you let Jesus lead and art flow over you… the Peace, surpassing all understanding guards your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Amen.