Sexagesima February 4, 2018

Sexagesima
Luke 8:4-15
February 4, 2018

“Hold Fast and Be Patient”

“As for that in the good soil, they are those who,
hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart,
and bear fruit with patience.”   Luke 8:15

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

In the past, the kids in our Preschool have taken seeds and planted them in styrofoam coffee cups that have been filled with some potting soil. That’s a favorite spring activity in schools everywhere, I’m sure. Now think about how easy that is. Take a seed and literally just push it into the soil a half inch or so and you’re done. Can it get any easier than that? What did that take, about 1.5 seconds? Then keep coming back to school and eventually you see a sprout coming up and then a small plant. Pretty amazing. Then take it home to impress Mom and Dad. “Look what I did in school, Mom. It took 1.5 seconds.”

But would you now think that those same 3 and 4 year olds are ready to be full time farmers? Is that all it takes? “Hey, they planted a seed. Alright, buy ‘em a farm and send ‘em out to work. They’ll be raising 200-bushel corn in no time, right?” Of course not.

No one would jump from “I pushed a seed into potting soil” to “I’m an experienced farmer”. There are countless other considerations like preparing the soil, fertilizing, buying the right seed from Pfister’s or Beck’s, keeping insects and animals away, praying for rain, spraying for weeds, and whatever else goes into precision farming nowadays. Plus you need a gazillion dollars to buy even one acre of land. So just because you pushed a seed into potting soil doesn’t mean you now know everything about farming.

And what about Jesus? They also do some fun things about Jesus here in our Preschool. We’d like to think that there aren’t any children who leave our Preschool without knowing that Jesus loves them and He died for their sins. We hammer away at that pretty hard. But does that mean those 3 and 4 year olds don’t ever need to go to any more Sunday School or Church for the rest of their lives? Are they now mature Christians?

You know that sounds ridiculous. And yet we often think this way of faith in Jesus. That’s it’s as simple as knowing the song, “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.” Yes, that’s a good little summary. But learning that song in Preschool and thinking you never need Church again is as silly as a Preschooler going into full time farming because she pushed a seed into potting soil. It’s as silly as thinking you don’t need to learn anymore after you’re through Confirmation.

The parable of the Sower gives us a warning to not be overly simplistic or confident regarding the faith. The Christian who says, “I know all that Jesus stuff. I don’t need to go to Church or read the Bible,” is as foolish as they come. Their house is built on sand and it will be washed away.

Don’t underestimate the dangers to faith. Every time God plants the seed of His Word into your heart, the birds (that is, the devil) are there to devour at least half of it. Just think to yourself, “How much of the time here in Church am I actually giving my full attention and taking the Word to heart?” If you say you’re giving full attention more than half of the service, then I’m impressed. Those with little children know that sometimes you’re doing good to get about ten percent of what you hear.

When you come to grips with the fact that the demon birds are devouring a large portion of God’s Word that you read and hear—then you’ll make sure to be getting more of it than the birds can eat away.

And Jesus also mentions the testing and the cares and pleasures of life. When testing comes, you need more than just a bit about Jesus you learned in Preschool. You need an armor. The armor of God that Paul talks about in Ephesians 6. You need belt and breastplate, helmet and shield, and a sword. When testing and trial come, you need to be praying every single day, you need to be here for the sermon and the Sacrament every single Sunday.

Some of you are farmers and many more of you are gardeners. How vulnerable is that little seed when you put it in the ground and when it sprouts up? How weak is it? Does it take a lot of effort to kill a little seedling? A little shoot out of the ground? Do you need a trackhoe to uproot it? Or can you rather easily kill it a hundred different ways? Can you not easily crush it, uproot it, and drown it? Can a little varmint not easily devour it?

So we have a warning in the parable to hold fast. Hold fast to the Word of God. How foolish to think we don’t need to keep on hearing the Word of God. How foolish to think we don’t need the continual aid of prayer and the Sacrament. The birds will devour us, the sun will scorch us, and the thorns will choke us. Hold fast to that seedling—the Word of God. Hold fast to Jesus.

Now all of that warning being said, there’s a whole lot of comfort to remember that in this parable the farmer is God Himself. This is no Preschooler who only knows how to push a seed into potting soil. This is the best farmer the world has ever seen. He planted the Garden of Eden. In fact, He made every garden ever. He made every one of those 80 acre gardens out there our farmers are planting and harvesting. So if you want a farmer taking care of you—you’ve got the right Guy.

But most of all I’d like you to know one thing about this Farmer—He’s patient. Being a Christian isn’t a “snap of the fingers” thing. It’s a lifelong thing. It’s a thing of patience. And farmers must be patient. They wait all winter to get into the fields. They wait for the soil to be prepared. They plant the seeds and wait for the right sun and rain. They wait for the shoots to grow. For the fruits to ripen. They wait for the harvest. (And then they wait around for the price to go up so they can sell.)

God is extremely patient with you. You’re a sinner. God knows that. But He also knows that you can produce good fruit. So He sends His Son Jesus, the Sower, to you over and over and over again. He plants and He plants and He plants. He waters and He waters and He waters. He weeds and He weeds and He weeds. And then He weeds again. He chases away the birds and the varmints. He’s patient.

The key words I’m talking about are the last ones of our reading today, Luke 8:15, “bear fruit with patience”. We are impatient. So God the Master Gardener must work on us. He must cultivate patience in us. We fight against it. Like a little kid we think we know it all. We think this Christian faith is easy child’s play. But God is patient. And He teaches us to be patient.

Be patient, Christians. Rome wasn’t built in a day. 200-bushel corn doesn’t grow in a day. It takes time. It takes prayer. It takes meditation. And it takes a whole lot of Jesus.

Is it not extremely humbling to think how patient God has been with you? I know it’s humbling to think how patient He has been with me. He has pulled a whole lot of weeds from my heart. How many times we’ve thought we knew everything only to find out that we were sorely mistaken. He’s patient. He has forgiven us a whole lot of sins that should have easily devoured us. He’s a patient God.

St. Paul wanted Him to work quicker, though. Paul had a thorn stuck in his flesh. Those thorns. They hurt. I don’t know what you picture when you hear thorn. But in one of our pastures growing up we had trees that were covered in thorns up to five inches long. They were huge. That’s what I picture. If you walk on some of the trails out at Comlara you can find some pretty long thorns as well. Paul had a thorn like that in his side. And he said to God, “Get rid of it!”

But God is patient. “No,” He said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you.” Those are words of a wise Farmer. His grace is sufficient. Patience, brothers.

Someone wore those thorns for you. He wore a whole crown full of those thorns. And those thorns made Him bleed for you. But He patiently endured for you. His grace is sufficient for you. Patience.

You will bear good fruit. How can you not? God is the Master Farmer. And the seed that He plants in you in His own Son Jesus Christ. So patience. The fruit will come. Jesus is working, even now, in your heart. You may be disappointed at how slow the progress is. You may be extremely frustrated with yourself that after all these years you still keep sinning. You may be frustrated like St. Paul with thorns in your flesh. You may often feel like you went to Church or read your Bible and didn’t get that much out of it.

Don’t doubt the Farmer. He knows what He’s doing. I look out here at all of you and I praise and thank the Master Farmer. I see all the good fruit that has been borne from all of you with patience. I see people who love and serve the Lord. People who love and serve each other. People who give generously of money and time. People who have been forgiven much and love much. And I thank Him for the good fruits that He is even now producing in all of you. Patience, brothers and sisters. Patience. God is working. His Word is working. Keep coming to Church. Keep receiving the Sacrament. Keep praying. Keep doing your devotions. Hold fast. Hold fast to Jesus. He is the good seed. And He will work in you. Patience. Amen.