Psalms 45 * 47, 48; Ezra 5:1-17; Revelation 4:1-11; Matthew 13:1-9This passage from Matthew today has a depth and breadth to it that is mind blowing. In a half dozen verses Jesus sums up the world, how people operate within it. If we look at the seeds as human souls (and the sower being God), we find that some souls fall on paths, non-depth soil, among rocky ground, some on good soil. There is a seeming randomness to the falling of the seeds that brings sadness with it. There is joy as well, for the seeds that make it to good soil bring forth different kinds of product: "some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty." From that last, we can also see jealousy having a place to take root, which adds another layer of complexity to this reading. "Why does that shoot of grain get to have a hundredfold yield and I only have thirty?"
These stories of individualized gifts litter scripture, most meant to help us rejoice in not only other's gifts, but our own as well. The mystery of why some seeds of the sower land on pavement and are never given the opportunity to root, or the ones given a more difficult existence (or none at all) is harder to explain away. That is the sad part. Joy and sadness together, complexity and simplicity combined together..... life in all its glory and mystery.
jfd+
Copyright 2009, The Rev. John F. Dwyer. All Rights Reserved.
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