Sensate

       One of the symptoms of the present age is the fact that we see life, things, facts all so differently. It was a lament just days ago on FaceBook. People who hold both sides of the political arena had apparently agreed at how differently we all perceive things. Seeing exactly the same thing, studies have shown that our political persuasion and other factors help us interpret "facts" to support our own agenda. 

         Yet here in today's passage you'd think just in the hearing of facts we would not come to summary judgments about things that only align with our beliefs. Let those who have ears hear. In other parts of Scripture you might easily see a phrase, 'let those who have eyes, see. 

        Ears and eyes are but two senses that God has graced us with to perceive our world and to seek truth. It is truly up to us to hone our skills and use them wisely. But eyes and ears are just the start.  What else has God graced us with to ascertain the truth of the created world, of love and life?  Jesus would be quick to point out the example before us of the blossoms of the field and note that they do not worry about being fed or clothed.  We have an exhaustive array at our disposal to seek God, truth, wisdom and love.  How have you used those tools lately?

          When Jesus returns or when we meet our maker and God calls us to account in some way for our actions and inactions, will we fumfer? Will we repeat words similar to the Pharisees and Sadducee's and say, if only you had told us?  Jesus said you had the laws and the prophets, does someone need to die for you to understand?  I don't think God's created world and the senses we are given, including our brains and intellect, can be dismissed by us. We are accountable. We are given these gifts for a reason.

       A man is told to evacuate in the face of a looming flood. He stays put in his home. The water rises and truck comes by. He refuses the truck and says that God will save him. The water reaches the first floor and the man climbs to the roof. A boat comes by to save him and he refuses. God will save me he says. A helicopter comes along which he similarly refuses. The man drowns. At the pearly gates he approaches with a quizzical look. I thought that you would save me Lord.  The answer he gets is that he was given warnings, a truck , a boat and a helicopter, what more could I have done to save you?

        We often look at life with the jaded glasses of arrogance, political and religious fervor. God gives us eyes, ears and myriad real and tangible things in life to seek truth and salvation.  Hate, a will to power, our own vision of justice, willful ignorance are not on God's agenda - ever. Can we learn to use the tools at our disposal to learn, grow and love? If not, we will be held accountable - perhaps in more practical and earthly ways than we might imagine even before we get to the pearly gates.

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.