"It’s Not about You" - Sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost

It’s Not about You

Pentecost 6A

July 12, 2020

Grace, Waseca, MN

Matthew 13.1-9, 18-23

A good song tells a good story, and the best songs not only tell a great story also stretches our imaginations. In 1972, Carly Simon released “You’re So Vain,” a great song telling a great story that stretches our imagination. “You’re So Vain” is supposedly about a self-absorbed famous person who is not identified. The first verse goes like this:

You walked into the party

Like you were walking on to a yacht

Your hat strategically dipped below one eye

Your scarf, it was apricot

You had one eye in the mirror

As you watched yourself Gavotte

And all the girls dreamed that they'd be your partner

They'd be your partner, and…

Simon stretches our imagination in the song in two ways. First, she refuses to reveal who the song describes and has steadfastly done for almost 50 years. As you can imagine, there has been a great deal of speculation. Second, she does a totally unexpected move in the refrain,

You're so vain

You probably think this song is about you

You're so vain (you're so vain)

I'll bet you think this song is about you

Don't you?

Don't you?

Throughout the song, relentlessly, Simon insists that this song is not about the apparent subject but about something else.

I see something similar in our gospel reading from Matthew. Instead of a song, Jesus tells a parable. It is the third of five large blocks of teaching in Matthew and this one contains almost all parables. The parable seems straightforward: a sower (God), sews seed (Jesus as the Word) onto different kinds of ground (the hearts of people) and only the “good soil” produces abundant, lasting fruit. But as he tells this parable to the crowds and explains it to his followers, I can almost hear him saying, “You’re so vain, you probably think this parable is about you, don’t you, you’re so vain.”

It’s understandable that we think this parable is about us. Our first reaction in hearing it is to wonder about the condition of our own hearts. Maybe we have our rocky, thorny times, but aren’t our hearts good soil most of the time? Then our next reaction is to wonder how we can make our hearts better soil so that God’s Word is more fruitful in our lives. In our weaker moments, we might look around and compare our “soil” with that of other people. Surely my heart is better than those others, we might think. Yet, I hear Jesus saying, “You’re so vain, you probably think this parable is about you, don’t you?”

It’s important to remember that when Jesus tells a parable it’s almost always a “kingdom parable,” what the kingdom of God is like. He often uses the words, “The kingdom of heaven is like…,” but not always. By kingdom of God, Jesus wants us to know that it’s not about some heavenly realm where we are going in the future, but God’s reign breaking in here and now. It’s helpful to remember that parables are not puzzles to be solved but mysteries to be entered. Parables are not to be opened as much as they are about Jesus opening us up to a new way of thinking and doing. The way that God does things, what God values, can be hard to grasp and run contrary to what this world values, so Jesus uses parables to help us be open kingdom living.

Now, it’s true that one reason Jesus (and Matthew) tell this parable is to explain to his followers why it is that not everyone receives the good news of Jesus’ presence in the world. It’s is to look around and see that the good news has not taken root everywhere. But even that’s not all; a clue to the parable’s invitation to us lies in the reckless abandon in which the sower (God) sows seed. Today’s farmers wouldn’t dream of doing this, but that’s the point: God is going to sow the word of mercy, grace and love anywhere and everywhere no matter what your or I think. And, as our Old Testament lesson from Isaiah reminds us, God’s word will accomplish what God purposes not matter the obstacles.

Having proclaimed this good kingdom news about God’s abundant word, we haven’t solved the parable. We’ve only entered the mystery and are left with some questions to further open us up. For example, what are the “soils” (hearts) that we have prejudged as not being worthy of attention? Are there ways we’ve been stingy with God’s word of grace? Have we succumbed to a scarcity mentality that says we don’t have enough? In a different vein, can we see places where God’s word has taken root that defy logic, just as we’ve seen plants growing in the most unlikely spots? Who hasn’t seen a plant growing out of a crack in concrete, a bush on the rocky side of a mountain, or a tree in a ditch with no other trees around it?

Okay, so maybe this parable is a bit about us and we’re not so vain as the person in Carly Simon’s song, but it’s about God first and foremost. God’s word, Jesus, has been scattered abroad in our hearts and God invites us to join in that work, with joyful and reckless abandon. Amen.

To watch a video version of this sermon click here.