Reflection National Lockdown Wednesday 22 July 2020

Jeremiah 1:1, 4-10                Psalm 71:1-6; 15-17              Matthew 13:1-9

Good day dear friends, 

St. Mary Magdalene 22 July

The feast of St. Mary Magdalene is considered one of the most mystical of feasts, and it is said that of all the songs of the saints, that of Mary Magdalene is the sweetest and strongest because her love was so great. That love was praised by Jesus Himself who said that because much was forgiven her, she loved much. Where she is buried, no one knows. Legend has her dying in Provence, France, in a cavern where she spent her last days, and her body resting in the chapel of St. Maximin in the Maritime Alps. Another has her buried in Ephesus where she went with St. John after the Resurrection. This latter view is more likely, and St. Willibald, the English pilgrim to the Holy Land in the eighth century, was shown her tomb there.

The collects for St. Mary Magdalene:

Merciful Lord

your Son restored Saint Mary Magdalene

            to health of body and mind

and called her to be a witness of his resurrection:

cleanse us and make us new

that we may serve you in the power of his risen life;

who with you and the Holy Spirit is alive and reigns

one God, now and for ever.  Amen.

God of grace and glory,

your Son send Mary Magdalene as the first

witness to his resurrection:

give us the same courage and love,

that we may boldly proclaim his risen life:

who with you and the Holy Spirit is alive and reigns,

one God, now and forever.    Amen.

Jeremiah’s early call to the work and office of a prophet is stated in the opening verses of our text. He was to be a prophet, not to the Jewish nation as the chosen people only, but to the neighbouring nations as well. God ordained Jeremiah a prophet to the nations, or against the nation dependent upon what relationship they find themselves in with their God. The Jewish nation, the elect had learned the ways and practises of the neighbouring nations and engaged in idolatrous worship and are thus numbered amongst them and the prophecy is thus against them.  They were to be warned that they would be expected to “drink the cup of the Lord’s anger” and will be “yoked and bridled” because of their wayward behaviour.  This call narrative came into being in the way it did as a sign of God establishing His power as part of His eternal plan of salvation. Jeremiah was to be certain as to where he got His commission from, in whose service he stood and to whom he would have to account.  Before Jeremiah was born, God in His counsel designed him to be a prophet unto the people and gave him, his being in pursuance of God’s purpose as demonstrated by the words “formed him in the belly” and “brought him forth out of the womb”. This is God saying that He, God was the rightful owner and may use Jeremiah as He, God may see fit and proper for His purposes without the consent of the vessel. “I knew thee, and I sanctified thee,” is to say that God will determine what he should be and for now it is to be God’s prophet, set aside for this particular office. Jeremiah like all other prophets was called to the office of a prophet and then equipped for the work he was to do. He was destined, formed and provided with what was needed to fulfil his calling. This came as a surprise to Jeremiah and he was overwhelmed by the enormity of the task and he modestly declined the honour bestowed upon him. Jeremiah objected and thought himself to be unqualified, lacking the ability to express himself confidently and unable to enforce God’s message as a young child to “great men and multitudes” in his “Lord, God behold I cannot speak” speech. God then graciously assured him that He, God would stand by him in carrying out his work. Jeremiah was “set over the nations” not to demand tribute from them or enrich himself, but to “root out, and pull down, and destroy”, and “to build and plant.” He was to be the reformer who would end the idolatry and wickedness of the people and bring an end to these vicious habits and customs they became used to. These were to be replaced with good religious virtues and practices that were good and acceptable and that goodwill or misfortune would depend on them being in the right relationship with their God or not. The nations were to have set before them “life and death, good and evil”, according to God’s declaration of the method he takes with kingdoms and nations.

What God has designed us for, He will call us to for God’s plans and purposes cannot be frustrated.  The knowledge of God is fail-safe, His purposes consistent and He’s works well designed and executed. We do not know what God intends for us, but he does and we should not let our calling and ministry suffer through our weaknesses, fear and reserve of our own competence. God’s message should be delivered in his own words because the safety of God’s kingdom is decided according to the purpose and word of God.

Matthew makes a brief introduction to The Discourse of the Parables, describing Jesus who teaches in the boat, on the shore, and the many people around Him who listen. Without asking permission from the religious authority, He began to teach the people, who liked to listen to Him. Jesus teaches from a boat at sea and his teaching is earthy, using images of seeds and soil. The parable of the sower is uncommon in that Jesus offers a symbolic interpretation of it to his disciples. The interpretation focuses on the reaction of the seed by various kinds of soil as a metaphor for changing responses to “the word of the kingdom”.

Jesus’ clear explanation of what each element in the parable represents would seem to leave little for the reader but also raises some troubling questions like who qualifies as “good soil” and who not?  Is there any hope for the tough, stony, and prickly soil? Are these designed to be fruitless forever?

At that time, it was not easy to live from farming because the land was full of stones, there was little rain and too much sun. The parable of the sower describes that which we all know and do: the seed thrown by the planter falls on the ground along the road, another part falls among the stones and thistles; still another part falls on good earth, where, according to the quality of the land, will produce thirty, sixty and even up to one hundredfold. The parable does not give everything immediately, but pushes one to think and to make your own discoveries, starting with the experience which the listeners have of the seed.  It does not provide us with a doctrinal position but appeals to creativity and participation.

There are many in Matthew’s story that “hear the word of the kingdom and do not understand”, including the religious leaders who are hostile to Jesus’ ministry from the beginning. The crowds responded positively to Jesus, especially to his miracles of healing but turned against Jesus at the end and demanded his crucifixion, leaving us to wonder about their understanding of these parables. The disciples themselves might be included among those who fall away “when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word”

What about the good soil? Who are those “who hear the word and understand it, who indeed bear fruit” and yield an abundant harvest? In Matthew’s story it seems they are the least likely ones, the “the tax collectors and the prostitutes”

What is remarkable is that in spite of these failings, Jesus does not give up on the people or His disciples, He continues to invest in them, even to the point of entrusting the future of his mission to them, failing, sinful humans. The sower scatters his seed carelessly, recklessly, seemingly wasting much of the seed on ground that holds little promise for a fruitful harvest. Jesus invests in people who look similarly unpromising. He wastes his time with tax collectors and sinners, with lepers, the demon-possessed, and all manner of outcasts and yet he promises that his wasteful sowing of the word will produce an abundant harvest.

Sometimes we are the road side, sometimes the rock; other times the thorns or thistles, and other times good earth. What am I? What are we in our community? Which are the fruits which the Word of God is producing in my life, in my family, and in our community: thirty, sixty, one hundredfold?

 “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” The parables speak of the things in daily life, for the people of that time as well as for us today. Our experience of these things becomes for us a means to discover the presence of the mystery of God in our lifes.