The Very Rev. Dennis J.J. Schmidt
14 July 2002
Proper 10 Year A, 8th Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 55:1-5, 10-13
Psalm 65:9-14
Romans: 8:9-17
Matthew 13:1-9,
18-23
“...This is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields...”
Hearing is one thing, understanding is quite another. One of my favorite illustrations of this was a story told by my father in law. He and his wife went to Vienna to visit a friend that was made in a prisoner of war camp during WWII. On the evening of their first night Dr. Schöne asked them if there was anything they were used to before going to bed. My father in law mad the mistake that many do, he assumed that English and German are so much alike that many words are common to both. So he told Dr. Schöne that most evenings they had “a schnecke before going to bed.” The next evening Dr. Schöne told them that he had a surprise for them. He brought in a tray of snails. Schnecke in German means snails. Hearing and understanding are the keys to a fruitful life. Hearing is one thing, understanding is quite another. It is the simple point that Jesus illustrates in his parable of the sower. Jesus is the sower, his words and teaching are the seeds, and we are the ground. The simple teaching is that hearing without understanding is a fruitless endeavor.
All of Jesus’ parables are constructed with a simple clear metaphor. Still, no mater how simple the metaphor, Jesus uses them with such art that the metaphor expresses an undertone which gives the parable depth. One such undertone in the parable of the Sower is the Greek word used for understanding. It means to bring together, or to come together, to meet. So understanding is a matter of a relationship. The example of learning a foreign language is extremely helpful. You may learn a dictionary meaning for a word, but the dictionary meaning is quite different than the meaning that is hidden in its common spoken use by native speakers. An example of such a word is the German word Sehnsucht. It is a word that means “longing.” But what kind of longing does it describe? The dictionary will tell you that it is a longing or yearning; but is it a longing for something lost, or a longing for something you have heard of but never seen? Is it sexual longing, or intellectual longing? Actually, sehnsucht means a poetic longing for something unknown. It is a driving for that hidden thing that you have not discovered. It is that life long search for something ethereal. Sehnsucht sounds so philosophical that it could only be German. You can see the point; a dictionary meaning does not reveal the real meaning. If you took dictionary at face value you might have used sehnsucht for an American hamburger, and some how McDonalds does not equate with ethereal longing. Understanding is a matter of a living relationship, of words coming together in practice in our lives; you meet the meaning in your living.
Words make sense because we live them. And such a living understanding requires stability. Stability is not very popular in a culture that values excitement and newness as much as we do. In order to understand and appreciate Jesus’ words we need to practice a different approach to life. It means accepting the monotonous and making it work for us and not against us. It is learning that words of Jesus are to be repeated over and over, lived and relived, until the meaning becomes vibrant and deep. In other words the word takes deep roots in our being. Only where there are deep roots is it possible to bear much fruit.
The saying, “...one who hears the word and understands it..” describes one who hears Jesus’ teaching, and lives it in his life. Such a person understands what it means to be a disciple; for a disciple is nothing more than a student of a particular understanding of how to live. It is not just that we bring Jesus’ words into our daily lives; nor is it just that by living them we understand them; but it is that by bringing them into our lives with understanding that we meet Jesus. Remember that the Greek word for understanding can also mean meeting. It is meeting Jesus alive in the Word that we live where we bear much fruit.