Do You Hear What I Hear?
Tony E Dillon Hansen
Sermon based upon Matthew 13:1-9,18-23, Genesis 25:19-34, Psalm 65
Opening Prayer
What Jacob does to Esau is mischievous to say the least. Here, Esau has been working in the field and is thirsty and hungry. Jacob uses the soup he has as bait “to trade” for Esau’s birthright - the privileges of being the first born.
I often question Why didn’t Esau “like his birthright”? The Burden? Dislike of parental discord? Something else?
What do we do when we are hungry and thirsty is maybe go get something out of the pantry or fridge. We go looking for it or order it even. Yet when we are hungry really physically hungry, we do things that lack reason. Instead of the nutritious, we may reach for the snack cakes or bag of chips. (I am guilty of doing this too.)
So we can’t really knock Esau for doing this. When he comes back from the field, there is brother with a bowl of soup, and Esau fixes his eyes upon the food. He probably could have went to a different person and got something to eat without any trade. But right here, there is food and Jacob has it.
Jacob, being the trickster, almost teasing, “Oh you want some of this…?” You can almost see Jacob whisking smells and maybe taking a spoonful “mmmm…”
I as a younger brother in my own family can see a bit of myself in Jacob, and you can probably tell.
With this moment, Esau’s eyes grow big. He becomes desperate and makes trade in his hunger.
It is an awful predicament to be hungry and see someone with food. Think of that every time you pull up to a stoplight with person holding sign asking for food while in your car - coffee, sandwich or groceries. What privilege do we leverage in those moments to offer nothing to the hungry?
We will come back to Esau in a moment so we can look at our lesson from Matthew.
Here, Jesus doles out the parable of the sower where Jesus describes how seeds tossed in the wrong places fail to grow into what they could be. Every seed has a chance to be something but we have to tend them to be something.
Of course on first listen, most people don’t quite get the connection, so Jesus goes further and tells us what each the seeds represents - so you don’t have to be confused as to what Jesus meant.
Now it is “Christmas in July” with Prime Day safely behind us and many channels showing “holiday” films to celebrate. Thus it feels appropriate to ask “Do you hear what I hear?”
This is a valid question because that is what Jesus does here.
What do you hear when you hear the Gospel? What do you do when you hear or read these words? Do you meet it with joy but set no roots in it? Do we let material wealth, greed and status choke out the meaning of God’s peace, love and grace for all so there is no place or welcome for others in our hearts? Do you hear the words but leave God’s work to someone else. After all, aren’t we so busy with our own lives that we have no time for anything else? How privileged that must be.
So in this parable Jesus uses the story to pose questions for us. What do you hear? What do you do? What do we do as people of God, as a community of God, because many do not understand even though they hear and read? Many will hear and read these words and do nothing.
The words that I say are mere words, but feel them rooted in the Spirit. Do you let the Spirit work in you? Do you let God speak to you, open you, and lift you? As one commentator suggests, having experienced the grace and spirit do you become grace filled? Do you demonstrate that love, that grace, that Spirit, to others? Or is it something else?
What do you hear from the Gospel that lifts you and inspires you to be more than yourself - to be community? When you get that inspiration, what prevents you from letting that Gospel bear fruit in you? What does the words of Jesus yield in your heart? What do you share of that Gospel with others around you ?
No we don’t want to keep it all to ourselves for that is greedy and gluttonous. We don’t want to despise what is so great of God in our lives and give away the blessing that God has given to us.
Maybe, you are Jacob and only offer what you have for a trade? What transaction are you needing to do embody the Spirit in your lives? Yet Jacob recognizes the blessing and desires to experience it. Jacob uses the opportunity to get that in his life. It took time, but he gets to experience the blessing.
Thing is that seeds take time to grow. What are you doing to let that growth happen in you?
Maybe, that is what Esau should have remembered - is that despite hunger, we can let God take the reins and deliver for us. What we get right now is just the beginning of something that God has planned for us.
The garden takes time and effort so that the seed has a chance to bear fruit. Thus, do we give time for God to work our souls and our spirits?
Beloved, do you hear what I hear? Do you feel that Spirit and that blessing of God upon you? What are you going to do with it?
Beloved, No tricks here because you can experience God right now. Yes, God wants that for you and for the community.
That is
Thanks Be to God
