Proper 10, Year A, July 12, 2026

Ramblings and Research on The Parable of the Sower. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:09

Welcome to another episode of There's No Way. This is the podcast where we review the uh current week's scripture readings. I ask questions from a lay person, layperson perspective. Kat explains what it means and how it's relevant in today's world. We also potentially identify some talking points for our sermon, uh, as well as some maybe some different ideas, perspectives, thought lines that might help other clergy with their sermons as well. Uh, one thing we do ask you to keep in mind, as always, while we don't take ourselves seriously, we do take the Bible seriously. So, again, please keep that in mind going forward. Uh, this week we cover the readings for proper 10. As always, my name is Lance and don't worry, I do not do this alone. Um, approximately 280 miles north northeast of me is my best friend and only wife and the whole white world cat. What are you doing?

SPEAKER_01 1:18

I'm pretty good considering a leaky refrigerator and uh rent kitchen floors. You know. Just another day.

SPEAKER_03 1:30

The day in paradise is what it sounds like.

SPEAKER_04 1:34

Alright. Okay, so we had of course we have another fantastic episode for you today. Uh, but first I just want to make sure we go through the quick rundown, make sure everybody understands what they can expect. Uh Kat will do give a little uh recap of what the uh sermon was that she gave compared to kind of what we discussed the pri last week. Then she'll read the scripture after she reads the scripture for the current week. Again, proper ten. Um we will discuss it, we'll go over it, we'll review it, we'll pick it apart. Uh Kat will talk to me like I'm three. Hopefully, she'll use small words and speak slowly, but we'll see. We'll take a quick break, come back, we'll recap our discussion. We'll go over then any kind of relevant commemorations, people, places, whatever it may be for the following week. Then we'll wrap up the episode. All right, now with that, take it away.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Okay, so last week um I know during the podcast we were taking apart some words here and there, and what did it mean to do things you don't want to do and not do things you want to do, and rules and rules.

SPEAKER_03 2:54

Oh, rules kill me.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Yeah, and um I ended up bringing into the conversation for the sermon a book by Diana Butler Bass called Christianity After Religion, and it was talking about how we do love rules, and the Christian church loves rules, uh, probably just as much as other faiths, and from the standpoint of um rather than belonging automatically, hence the you know, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. Um Dinah Butler Bass was saying that most org of faith organizations tend to say that you need to believe exactly what you're supposed to believe, and you need to behave, like we want you to behave. You better not be eating with um sinners and tax collectors, kind of like how it was mentioned in the Old Testament reading. And if and only if we think you are behaving appropriately and believing appropriately, only then can you belong with us. And Jesus never wanted it to be that way, he wanted us to feel like we belong in the kingdom of God, and from that belonging, we will eventually learn to behave, and from those habits and behavior changes, we will eventually learn to believe as Jesus believed. And so it was looking at rules-based versus relationship-based, and just rather than having to follow every single rule, Jesus wants us to have a relationship, focus on the people, if you will. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 4:45

Crazy talk that'll never work.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Oh, right.

SPEAKER_04 4:49

Everybody knows that.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Yeah. And one of the examples I used was um, you know, HOAs. If somebody does something that you don't like, you'll write a letter or you'll have a rule made. Rather than going and talking to the person and working it out through relationship, people would rather create rules than talk to somebody. And so use that example throughout.

SPEAKER_04 5:16

Well, it's easier to create a rule than to talk to somebody because yeah, but if you talk to somebody, then you have to talk to somebody.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

I know. I don't like people. I don't like people. So that was last week's sermon. Um, and it's out um on our podcast page. So if anybody's interested, knock yourself out.

SPEAKER_04 5:37

I was just about to ask, and is there a place where somebody could find the sermon you actually did?

SPEAKER_01 5:42

Why yes, there is. You can um probably the easiest way is to go to my website, which is catfolk.com, and then there's a menu called podcast, and you will see our podcast page there. It's um a buzz sprout page, and then you can also look us up on Apple Podcasts and Spotify Podcasts, and just look for there's no way.

SPEAKER_04 6:06

All right, now you want to read the uh current readings? Well, it's not a little, I don't think it's shorter than last week's.

SPEAKER_01 6:18

No, it's it's definitely not. That's all right. Okay, so here we go. Okay, here is Isaiah. For as the rain and the snow came down from heaven and do not return until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out in joy and be led back in peace. The mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress, instead of the briar shall come up the myrtle, and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off. So that's the first reading. And just doing some quick digging in there, I read the French version, and it is night and day different. Um, just some of the words and some of the phrases. It talks about what I thought was particularly interesting was my word will go out and do what I desire, and it will not come back. Okay, I have this half in French and half in English, um, without having made what I desire, it comes back from the mission that I entrusted it, versus it shall accomplish that which I purpose and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. Just really not the same. And I really like the fact What do you mean? I like the fact that it said it, you know, my word will go out and do what I ask it to do, um, that I entrusted it to do.

SPEAKER_04 8:24

So, what is the French translation based on then?

SPEAKER_01 8:28

It's supposed to be um a much closer version um to the actual Hebrew, and I did look up the Hebrew, okay, and even it was a little wonky. Um, instead of entrusted, it said dispatch. Uh what I did see that was interesting, and this did line up with the French and the Hebrew lined up together was for an everlasting same sign that shall not be cut off. The French said basically, God will never disappear us. And the Hebrew said, God will never exterminate us. So cut off is not even close to what is actually happening.

SPEAKER_04 9:10

So it sounds like it's a it's a very soft version.

SPEAKER_01 9:16

Yeah, the English version is compared to the uh yeah, it's and just even even the the present active participle of just their constants with without having made, without having done, and the English is it shall happen. And it just it just it's very watered down, and and it's just really emphasizing the abundance of God's word and as if it were a plant growing in fertilized well and growing through the thorns and stuff, and it's just so terribly watered down um in the English. So that was a little disappointing. But anyway, that was as far as I I got into the Old Testament reading. Um, the psalm is Psalm 65, verses 1 through 8 and 9 through 13, and it says, Praise is due to you, O God in Zion, and to you that shall vows be performed. O you who answer prayer, to all flesh you shall come. When deeds of iniquity overcome overwhelm us, you forgive our transgressions. Happy are those whom you choose and bring near to live in your courts. We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple. By awesome deeds you answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation. You are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of all the farthest seas. By your strength you establish the mountains, you are girded with might. You silence the roaring of the seas and the roaring of their waves, the tumult of the peoples. Those who live at the earth's farthest bounds are awed by your signs. You make the gateways the morning and the evening shout for joy. You visit the earth and water it. You greatly enrich it. You the river of God is full of water. You provide the people with grain, for so you have prepared it. Your water your water it froze abundantly, settling in its ridges, softening it with showers, and blessing its growth. You crown the year with your bounty, your wagon tracks overflow with richness, and the pastures of the wilderness overflow, the hills gird themselves with joy, the meadows clothe themselves with flocks, the valleys deck themselves with grain, and they shout and sing together for joy. So you see a lot of growth and abundance and burgeoning, um, if you will, uh metaphor in this.

SPEAKER_04 11:56

Yeah, there's a lot of metaphor, certainly in the second half of that. First off, I find it interesting that it's listed as 65, 1 through 8, and then 9 through 13. Why not just say 1 through 13? Exactly. That's just me. But it's one of the more you know, at least the the translation of it, to me, it's much more straightforward. Yes, the back half of it's a lot of metaphor, I get it. But it's easy to understand. And for me at least, the first, you know, the one through eight, it's those are relatively easy to understand, also. You know, it's talking about okay, for me, you know, uh Psalm 65, 5, the first first part of that. By all some deeds, you answer us with deliverance. You know, it doesn't take a lot to understand what that means, to me at least. Uh, which is I'll put it as one of the things that's kind of refreshing, especially after the last two weeks of with all yeah, with all due respect to Paul. Um you know, his letter to the Romans in Corinth was it is, as we'll get into a little bit more later, it's a little twisty. Can be challenging.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

And uh I didn't get into the the Hebrew for this, but once again, the the French just doesn't it hardly lines up. So I want to dig into that a little bit more and and fully understand why. And I mean it's not lining up at all, like verse 65 um verse 3. It says, When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us, you forgive our transgressions. And then looking in the French, uh it says, You who listens to prayer, all the men, it says, or all the people uh want to be with you.

SPEAKER_04 13:56

That's that's not even sounds like a radically different chapter.

SPEAKER_01 14:01

Yeah, so I want to take a thing. I mean, maybe I did. Surely I didn't. No, I didn't. Okay, um, I do have the right one, but um I don't know. I don't know what's going on there, so I want to make sure that I fully understand that and see if there's anything there. But I really like just the the abundance of growth and blossoming in that.

SPEAKER_03 14:27

Very positive, it's very positive, very positive.

SPEAKER_01 14:32

And then there's Romans.

SPEAKER_03 14:34

Oh good.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

Romans chapter 8, verses 1 through 11. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For God has done what the law weakened by flesh could not do. By sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and to deal with sin, he condemns sin in the flesh, so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit set their minds on things of the spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For this reason, the mind is set on the flesh as hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law. Indeed, it cannot. And these and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, you are in the spirit, since the spirit of God dwells in you. And anyone who does not have the spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. If the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will give you your give life to your mortal bodies also through his spirit that dwells in you. This reads like a geometry proof.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

It's just it does.

SPEAKER_04 16:13

That I didn't thought about it, but you're right, it kind of does.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Yeah. If A, then B. If B, then C. If A, then C. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 16:21

I'm looking for the QED somewhere in here. Yeah. At the very end. Okay. Again, it's a challenging read, I think, for the lay person.

SPEAKER_01 16:36

It is. And you know, Paul was educated and he uses fancy words.

SPEAKER_04 16:42

And so I like to think that I'm reasonably educated in spite of everything I've done to destroy that.

SPEAKER_01 16:52

Um, yeah. So I you know, there's probably an element of him like to hearing him hear hear himself talk.

SPEAKER_04 17:01

Um a lot of it, you know, even going back to the first two you know, Roman readings from the prior weeks. It's yeah it's incredibly verbose.

SPEAKER_01 17:14

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 17:16

You know, is this it's you know, it's a let okay, so it's his letter to the Romans in Corinth. Is it a manifesto to the Romans in Corinth? I mean you know, because those things tend to be incredibly verbose because they're generally written by some nut job, but you know, not saying Paul's a nut job.

SPEAKER_01 17:37

Right. Well, this was the way I tend to look at things that Paul wrote was okay, so he he's writing this letter to the Romans. There is a reason why he's saying what he's saying to these people, and it's to these people specifically, and no one else. And perhaps they were confused by mind versus spirit. Who knows? And so maybe he was carefully explaining what each thing meant for their sake, not necessarily for ours.

SPEAKER_04 18:12

So is it that all right, he's approaching it from the perspective of these people know nothing, if you will, for lack of a better phrase, they know nothing, or he's having to elaborate and go into great detail to help them understand.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Yeah, hence the geometry proof, I think.

SPEAKER_04 18:32

You gotta walk them through it, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

And then you also have to think, you know, were there other religions of the time that may have been confusing them? Um, Zoroastrianism, um, Gnosticism, you know, was was something being said at that time and in that place that caused him to write the letter to better explain it, you know, were they being led astray?

SPEAKER_04 18:57

To set them apart, to set it apart. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:00

Yeah. So, you know, we don't know, we weren't there, but there's a reason he's saying what he's saying. There's a reason why he's put it in that letter to the Romans as opposed to the Corinthians or something like that. So you know, better to be in the spirit. We we get it.

SPEAKER_04 19:23

Better to be with him than against him.

SPEAKER_01 19:25

Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_04 19:27

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

I mean, it he does delineate, you know, law versus gospel, you know, law is flesh, gospel is spirit. You kind of hear that. Um, and that brings us to Matthew's chapter, Matthew chapter 13, 1 through 9, and 18 through 23, the good old parable of this of the sower. Um it says, That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got in a boat and sat there while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables. Listen, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on a path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. If you have ears, hear, hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart. This is what is sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet such a person has no root but endures only for a while. And when in trouble or prosecution persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the lure of the well of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as far as what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty. And that's the gospel.

SPEAKER_04 21:40

So why is why is my man JC talking about planting seeds? Everybody plant seeds back then. They had to. They had to live.

SPEAKER_01 21:52

Right.

SPEAKER_04 21:54

And this is this is an interesting the parable of the what parable of the sower, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Yes, it is. And so a lot of people like to harp on, you know, you being the seed, are you going to bear much fruit or are you going to wither away? So there's a lot of law in there of you better do what's right or else, or else, you know, if you don't put yourself in good soil, then you're gonna die. If you're in an environment that's too hot, you're gonna get scorched. You know, if if you don't do the right things, then you will die.

SPEAKER_04 22:35

So do we know who Jesus was was speaking to when he said this? I mean, was it to a bad was it was it a crowd? Was it his apostles? It was a crowd or disciples. Which one is it? Okay, so speaking to a crowd. And the reason I asked that is because I can see where so if he's talking to his disciples, I mean, if I were a disciple, and I'm hearing this, excuse me, you know, this sounds like you know, find those who are willing to listen, and therefore, you know, that will be much more fruitful, if you will. So you know, and so that's why I kind of asked that because it's based on the the audience, it uh it's there's certainly a very different message that could be interpreted out of that. Okay, so he's talking to a crowd, and then he's saying the way I understand it is put your belief in the right one. If you believe you know, you believe, if you put your belief in the right place, you got nothing, you will be well fed. Maybe a hundred thousand, maybe sixty-fold, maybe only thirty, but you'll still be well fed. Is that am I off?

SPEAKER_01 23:49

Well, that is um uh a a popular take, yes.

SPEAKER_04 23:57

So, yes, I'm off.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

No, I'm just saying that's a popular interpretation. Um, but does that sound like something just that?

SPEAKER_04 24:07

Well, let me restate this. We all know that I'm off, but that's something, but that can be separate from this conversation.

SPEAKER_01 24:17

That's that's not for here. That's something well known. But does that sound like something Jesus would say? After we just got back from, you know, come to me who are weary, and I will give you rest.

SPEAKER_04 24:30

Give me your poor, you're tired, you're you know, you're weak.

SPEAKER_01 24:33

And now you're now you're saying if you don't stand on solid ground, you're you're screwed. Is that is that no? I what I think is happening here is um this is a whole relationship between the sower and the seed itself. And what if we looked at this from the standpoint of as he sowed some seeds on a path, some birds came and ate him up. He's just recklessly throwing stuff wherever. The birds are feasting, the birds are feasting, and is that necessarily a bad thing?

SPEAKER_04 25:13

Depends on the perspective. I mean, if you're the farmer, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Okay, and then it says another other seeds fell on rocky ground where they didn't have much soil and they sprang up quickly. What if this is a metaphor for you live an ungrounded life or you you have a very rough life, and you finally are given relationship, say with Jesus, and you immediately soak it in and follow him. And the next one that says, When the sun rose, they were scorched because they had no root and withered away. Could this be burnout in today's world? Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Are these thorns oppression? Are these thorns the Romans? Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. So this is saying that even though they're in good soil, only some gave a hundred percent. Some only gave thirty percent. So what does that mean? And even it says here, for what was sown on rocky ground, that's the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. But that only lasts so long. And it even says in in verse 21, when trouble or persecution arises, that person immediately falls away. I mean, I mean, you hear it all the time. What kind of God would do this? Why did God let my mother die?

SPEAKER_04 26:58

Why did God so mean to me?

SPEAKER_01 27:00

Yeah, yeah. You know, I think this is this could be an interpretation of just life, and faith isn't always easy, and we don't always start off in good soil. And the sower still sows in those places abundantly, recklessly, even because that's what Jesus does. And that's definitely not following a rule, wasting all of your farming seed like that on people that aren't even worth it. And that kind of goes back to the psalm saying, just you know, we commit all these transgressions, but you freely forgive us.

SPEAKER_04 27:54

So something that does tie back.

SPEAKER_01 27:56

Yeah. So I mean, I think there's something there of just reckless, abundantly giving us grace, even when people don't deserve it, even when it just seems completely absurd to do so. I think I think that's the story there.

SPEAKER_04 28:16

You still have to sow the seed. Give me an interesting so 13 years.

SPEAKER_03 28:28

But you never know. What happens if it does take hold?

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Yeah. But that can only happen if it's a seat of recklessly and abundantly throwing scattering his grace.

SPEAKER_04 28:47

It's an odd way to put it, scattering his grace. Well, the the French translation was uh a little more graphic, shall we say. He's thinking of you know, he's out there with a fertilizer spreader just spreading it over, yeah, just going everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

Yeah. But that's that's what Jesus does. And I I really like uh just the metaphor of reckless abundance and grace. So that's likely where I'm gonna go with it. I still want to dig deeper into you know, why did why do these passages not line up in every language? Like, why are they so far off and see if there's something there?

SPEAKER_04 29:41

I blame the Democrats. I mean, this is this has got Obama written all over it, or Marie Calendar. Yeah, one of the two, one of the two for sure. So, yeah. One thing that was interesting in this for me, so Matthew 13, 19, the first half of it, or two-thirds, whatever. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart. The phrase the evil one is very interesting. Because I'm assuming this is before his little sojourn into the desert, correct? Is it when he's being tempted?

SPEAKER_00 30:19

Believe so, yes.

SPEAKER_04 30:22

You know, so does he ever say the word Satan?

SPEAKER_01 30:25

Wait, no, no, this is after. Sorry.

SPEAKER_04 30:29

This is okay. This is after the temptation. He could have been given the whole world. So does he ever say the word Satan?

SPEAKER_01 30:40

Yeah, when he talks to Peter, he says, get thee behind me, Satan.

SPEAKER_04 30:43

Okay. He doesn't say advocate.

SPEAKER_01 30:48

Adversary?

SPEAKER_04 30:50

Oh no. You're the pastor, not me.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Holy Spirit is an advocate.

SPEAKER_04 30:57

Okay. Wait, why are you looking at me like that? Look at me like I got three heads.

SPEAKER_01 31:06

Oh, you know, advocate, adversary. So tomato, tomato.

SPEAKER_04 31:12

The phrase the evil one easily can be interpreted as I'm assuming it should be interpreted as a Satan. That's my guess. That's how I interpret it, I'll put it that way.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 31:26

And so when one when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not end and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart. Walk me through that, please.

SPEAKER_01 31:38

I have not researched that.

SPEAKER_04 31:40

Um, I mean, just not necessarily, you know, not looking for the interpretations, not looking for the you know the details behind what a particular word may or may not mean. But from a theological perspective, what does this mean? So I mean, I I get the okay. So when someone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, I get it. Okay, you hear the word of Jesus, you know, you hear you hear his message, but you don't understand it. What do you mean by don't understand it? I understand the words you're saying. Is it that you don't believe it, you don't accept it in your heart? You know, it's getting back to the Romans of, you know, so if you live in the flesh, or you live in the spirit, you'll die in the spirit. You live in the flesh, you'll die in the flesh type thing. Is that kind of reinforcing that?

SPEAKER_01 32:25

Yes. Um, you know, just just going on what I know and what I would interpret out of it, is they may not understand it because this could be the first time they've heard Jesus speak. And they may understand a little bit, but you know, it's not fully clear. And how often do we, you know, if if we don't understand something, do we just ignore it and forget it? And so that could be viewed as you know, Satan taking it out of your heart. The fact that you're going to forget it, uh, you know, could be said Satan is taking it away from you.

SPEAKER_03 33:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:14

And I would interpret this particular section. Like I said, I haven't researched it, but you know, if they don't understand what Jesus is saying, they're likely to forget it. And that could be because Satan took it away from their heart. Rather than to continue pondering on it, it it faded away.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

Oh, okay. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 33:40

And that does often tend to happen when people have um very spiritual moments. It fades quickly if you don't stay on top of it.

SPEAKER_04 33:55

Kind of like, you know, your teeth. If you don't brush them, then they will go away.

SPEAKER_01 34:00

I guess that's weird.

SPEAKER_04 34:04

Well, you know that's a good analogy. Okay. All right, so let's take a quick break. When we come back, we'll kind of recap, see if we can help out with identifying some talking points and move on from there. Okay, so we've had some interesting things. Just reading through some of my notes here, picking up a few things, just want to make sure that it kind of covered uh everything that I wanted to. Uh Romans 8. Now, in some of the research I did, this guy named Martin Luther.

SPEAKER_02 35:13

Hmm.

SPEAKER_04 35:14

Heard of him, don't know anything about him, don't know who he is, don't know what he did. But he wrote some stuff. It's in this thing about Romans 8. He talks, he says, This is where Paul comforts quote unquote spiritual fighters who are involved in an inner struggle between spirit and flesh. And when I read that, it's like, okay, some things make sense now. Yes, it's to me, it's still ungodly verbose. Um, more verbose than any 18th or 19th century British writer, you know. Uh Charles Dickens type thing. God mighty, were they verbose? But you know, comforting spiritual fighters involved in the struggle between spirit and flesh. So long as we follow the spirit and struggle against sin in order to kill it. That's a very strong phrase, in order to kill it. But it doesn't leave any doubt as to what he's trying to say.

SPEAKER_01 36:30

That's true.

SPEAKER_04 36:31

My understanding that's that was uh Luther was known for some of his directness, directness, yeah. So just found that interesting. Um all right, uh how do these readings connect?

SPEAKER_01 36:48

I think these readings connect by looking at Jesus as the sower and his abundance of grace that he provides us to us. And that can look like you know, blooming gardens and fields and and all sorts of things, but ultimately he recklessly throws grace in our direction. And sometimes it takes, and sometimes we receive it, and sometimes we forget, and sometimes we get distracted, and sometimes we're just too overwhelmed at the moment that God still keeps throwing the seed out there.

SPEAKER_04 37:46

And he ha he won't give up on us, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:50

I mean, I think that's what what I hear.

SPEAKER_04 37:52

Which is we try to make him give up on us, he just won't do it.

SPEAKER_01 37:57

Yes. And that was the thing that I thought was interesting from the the French reading was that God's word will go out and will not return until it has completed the thing that Jesus entrusted it to do. So there's there's just confidence, this this level of confidence that is portrayed in the in the French, that's not in the English, that God's word will take care of the people, not us saying God's word, but God's word will. That was something that I as a pastor noticed. It's you know, just a gentle reminder that it's not up to how well I preach a sermon. God's word is what is going to make the difference.

SPEAKER_04 38:50

You're merely the messenger.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

I am merely the messenger.

SPEAKER_04 38:55

So give me a good message. Okay. So a few weeks ago. You know I'm a political junkie. Reading, especially when it comes to political philosophy. I was reading something by a guy named Paul Tillich. I don't know if you've heard it or not. The writing he did on how capitalism impacts classical liberalism, which is actually kind of fascinating. And one of the points he made in there, you know, one of the questions he asked, you know, it's all rhetorical, it's all this rhetoric crap, was why did Jesus have to die for this sermon to be preached? I thought that, you know, that's a really good question. That's a really good point.

SPEAKER_01 39:43

You're so funny. You're so funny. And I thought hilarious. Anyway, um, so why does it have to, yeah. Um, well, abundance was something only the kings and the ultra-rich had in the Roman Empire. No one else lived in abundance of anything, and Jesus was just almost flippantly talking about having this abundance of grace. So you are preaching something very countercultural and um subversive, so that's gonna make some people angry. And this abundance of grace is the polar opposite of all the rules that we talked about last week. And as much as we like our rules, Jesus was condoning relationship and that he would never give up on relationship with us, hence throwing the seeds. And once again, when the Roman Empire is building its empire on oppression and fear, and you have someone talking about grace and relationship and belonging, that's not gonna fly. And so that is why Jesus had to die for this sermon to be preached, not opposed to last week's.

SPEAKER_04 41:15

Okay. There was a very different reason that he had to die.

SPEAKER_01 41:19

Yeah. I mean, there's I'm I mean, it's uh one thing that just never ceases to amaze me is that it was more than him saying he was king of the Jews and you know, his kingdom come. It was far more than that. And I think people forget or or don't take into consideration the context. And the liturgical churches tend to harp on context, but you really need to sit down and think through how dangerous Jesus's messages were.

SPEAKER_04 41:58

And this is definitely he was seen effectively by the at least by the Roman leadership as a revolutionary, right?

SPEAKER_01 42:08

Even worse, practically, but yeah, I mean, less the reason they crucified him.

SPEAKER_04 42:12

He didn't crucify, you know, the someone who stole a couple of bucks, you know, that was a horrific way to put someone to death.

SPEAKER_01 42:21

So it absolutely was. Um, but it yeah, I mean, he he was undermining everything that they were doing for all the right reasons. He was undermining everything that they were doing, and they didn't like that.

SPEAKER_04 42:40

And people were starting on top, want to stay on top. I mean, that's just the way it is.

SPEAKER_01 42:46

I mean, you could even argue the same thing today, you know. Do the ultra-elite billionaires want us to have abundance too? Who?

SPEAKER_04 43:01

So as the late Louis the Fourteenth once said, it's good to be the king.

SPEAKER_01 43:08

And so now now you're giving them competition and they don't like that.

SPEAKER_03 43:15

No. Who wants comp I don't want competition? Challenge me.

SPEAKER_04 43:24

Okay. All right. So moving on, do we have any relevant commemorations, people, places, events for this week?

SPEAKER_01 43:34

Uh not according to lectionarypage.net.

SPEAKER_04 43:38

Okay. That's our only resource.

SPEAKER_01 43:41

Um, I will look into other resources just to make sure that I'm not missing something, but it does not appear to be any. It's a slow month.

SPEAKER_04 43:50

Slow month, okay. All right. Well, then we will go ahead and wrap it up and close this episode out. Hope you've enjoyed the yeah, hope you've enjoyed this as much as we have. As always, this has been a team folk presentation. If you have any questions or comments, please email us at there's no way at teamfolk.com. That's t-h e r e-s-n-o-w-a-y at teamfolk, t-e-a-m-f-o-l-k dot com. Um, who knows, maybe Kat will deem it worthy and we can read your comments or questions uh on a future episode. I need you to do two things for me. First, remember that Jesus openly will welcome the people that no one else wanted. And I firmly am a firm believer that if he did, we should too. Second, take care of each other and may peace be with you.

SPEAKER_01 44:50

Go in peace. Don't go to pieces.

SPEAKER_04 44:54

See ya.