The seed
fell on the edge of the path, or on the rock, or among thorns, or in fertile
soil. The economy of the images is shocking. We have grown to think these words
spiritual. The shock is they apply to every meeting of people. Your message to
me may fall on the edge of my consciousness, or crash land on my contrary
opinion, or get swallowed up in my busy preoccupations. And then again, I might
– I just might – give you my attention and listen!
We can go
global and think of the Syrians, the Israelis, the Americans and others. Do
they listen? We can think of the courageous Chinese who has just died after
many years of advocacy for a listening society in his own country. His
government doesn’t even allow news of his death to appear in the media. But the
issue of listening cannot be pushed out there away from us into the world. We
know it is about us; about me.
I wish I
could remember clearly some of the inspiring things I have heard or read. I
wish I could integrate them into who I am so that I wouldn’t have to remember
them. We do it in a way. But we would make so much progress if it became part
of our daily encounters with others. Martin Buber describes two ways of
relating. One he calls I-It, the other I-Thou. I-It is not really a relationship
because the I, that is you, are engaging with another person simply as an
object, as one would with a tool – an axe or a car.
I-Thou is
where you turn towards a person fully and freely; you are totally present to
them. You engage as equal persons who do not know what will happen next. Each
is concerned for the “honour” of the other – not just their usefulness, not
just their categorisation as a client, or a patient or a prisoner or a disabled
person. If we engage in this way the word falls not on the path, not on the
rock or in the bush. When we engage with another, without wishing to “use” them
or “prejudge them”, or pass on quickly “on the other side”, then we are on fertile
soil.
And this is
the only way we can approach God, the “Eternal Thou”. God can never become an “It”;
God can never be “used.” And if we try to approach others as “Thou” we will
soon find we are in a relationship with God. And when we pay attention to God
things happen. Talking to Australian visitors today I heard how their
universities are superb environments for learning but thorny and rocky places
for belonging. Students search for community because that is where we “commune”,
that is, pay attention to one another.
People,
young people especially, soon know when they are being “used”, when they are
“Its.” Too often they are a number in the computer. The message of the parable
of the Sower is shockingly simple; either we receive the word, the Word,
blossom and bear fruit; or we allow the word to glance off us, bounce off us,
get entangle in us, and shrivel and die.
16 July 2017 Sunday
15 A
Isaiah 55:10-11 Romans 8:18-23 Matthew
13:1-23
