Capable of reception

        This is a fascinating reading. It had never really occurred to me before that what Jesus is having us do is to make a judgment of sorts about who is suitable to be recipients of the Word. Who is the good soil? Who are the thorns? Perhaps it is just a statement about how each can receive the word. Will I receive and live the message of God's love to the full? Will I allow the message to be choked by the message the world gives, one of materialism, hate and selfishness?

         There is an interesting view of this passage from Luke based on the two holy people that the Church recalls today, Lydia of Thyatira and John Eliot. In one case the 'seed' of God's word was taken up by an unlikely person, Lydia, the merchant of Purple who is believed to be the first European convert to Christianity. That Lydia is relatively powerful,  rich and a woman, only adds import to the remembrance.  But not terribly surprising when you consider that it is the 'women folk' that were the first witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus. These kinds of historical notations seem to be lost among the Euro centric, male dominated Church of Rome. Women, including the Sainted mother of Jesus have often played a pivotal role in God's plans, just not nearly as much in the religions and churches that claim God's will.

       The second person the Episcopal church remembers this day is John Eliot. Here is  man of faith, vision and boundless love. John began preaching and converting native Americans in 1646. That would be hundreds of years before native Americans were proclaimed as 'soul-less' and not fully human by leaders of the Roman church. John was ahead of his time. John saw that everyone is suitable soil for God's message of love and salvation. John did not wallow in some false, arrogant, self centered notion that he was saved and that others were not even worthy of hearing the Word.  John learned the native language and even translated the Bible into their native tongue as well. 

       When we really hear the word of God and embrace it in it's totality, it is not a self centered arrogance that springs forth. The sign of good and sustained acceptance (soil) and growth is a thankfulness and a strong desire to share and give back to others in love, not superiority or judgment.

       My mind never wanders far from the notions of how organized religions often do feel superior and make grand judgments about people. While the Roman church in it's grand hypocrisies labels people of the LGBTQ community as "intrinsically disordered", how often does that same church reach out in love and compassion? Let's forget about understanding because I think that understanding is beyond that church.  I am sure the language and ways of the native Americans were beyond John Eliot's understanding as well. Their ways are what had subsequent missionaries simply label the natives as barbarians and sub human and they stopped there. John had the vision but perhaps more so, he had the love and growth of truly accepting the message of the Word.

        Who is it that we dismiss or judge as unacceptable to receive the Word?  Do we judge some people as unfit to receive the Word or incapable of receiving it?  I know that I do.  On that I know I am on rocky ground, pun intended with today's passage.

        For good soil, good ears, open hearts and outstretched arms we pray this day.

Luke 8:1-15

Soon afterwards he went on through cities and villages, proclaiming and bringing the good news of the kingdom of God. The twelve were with him,as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, and Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza, and Susanna, and many others, who provided for them out of their resources.

 When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: ‘A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.’ As he said this, he called out, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

 Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that
“looking they may not perceive,
   and listening they may not understand.”

 ‘Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones on the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe only for a while and in a time of testing fall away. As for what fell among the thorns, these are the ones who hear; but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. But as for that in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.