Matthew 13:1-9
A sower went out to sow, and as they sowed some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.
Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered away.
Other seeds fell upon thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.
Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundred-fold, some sixty, some thirty.

Everybody loves a great story.
And I think, in our heart of hearts, each of us hopes that our lives will live out as a great story, too.
Some may lean more towards tales of towering adventure; while others may wish for romantic masterpieces. Maybe your dream is to be the voice of authority in your field of study, or perhaps you will be content to be known as a saint in waiting. No matter what journey you hope your life’s story will follow; chances are good you, like I, hope that your time on this earth will be worth telling time and time and time again.

The elements of a great story have been outlined for us; just look to your favorites and chances are good you will notice a similar through line that makes them all so appealing.

From the Odyssey to Othello, Star Wars to the Wizard of Oz; all the best stories have followed something called, “the Heroic Journey.” The narrative arc goes something like this; an ordinary person living in an ordinary time in an ordinary way is offered an invitation to an other-worldly adventure. There will be trials and tribulations, difficulties the likes of which one has never seen before; yet the rewards will be life-changing. The ordinary person considers, and passes on the invitation…for a while. Until something happens and somehow or other, the ordinary person decides (or is forced) to enter into the other world.
This is the red pill/blue pill moment for Neo in the Matrix; running out into the storm to rescue Toto for Dorothy, the arrival of the dwarves at Bilbo Baggins house in The Hobbit, the introduction of Obi-Wan Kenobi to Luke Skywalker on Tantoine; the moment when Katniss Everdeen raises her hand and offers herself as Tribute in the place of her sister in The Hunger Games. The adventure begins.
But the road of adventure is never easy. There will be lessons learned through triumph and tragedy. Travelling companions will come and go, and the hero will be faced with difficulties time and time again; each time having to sacrifice some part of themselves in the service of the mission or of others to overcome whatever obstacles might stand in their way. Luke learns that his nemesis is his father; Dorothy finds the Wonderful Wizard is no wizard at all. Difficulties more challenging than could even be imagined arise; and the heroes must make impossible choices, which they never would have even had to consider if they had just stayed home in the first place.

The need to push forward drives them on; this is life or death, the end of the world or it’s salvation– all preconceived notions of how this adventure might have played out are scorched.

Through their trials by fire, the heroes are changed; and through that change, are given new life, new understandings, a new teaching, a completely new way of seeing the world. And then they return; changed, yet bringing with them new life; bringing with them extraordinary elements that have altered their lives in some way.

This is the time of the year when the heroic journey has poignant meaning for our spiritual lives.
We have just witnessed to it as we have journeyed with Jesus these last 40 days through his greatest challenges and most sweet redemption on Easter Sunday. Just yesterday was the final day of Passover, when we remember the sadness and sacrifice that Moses and the Israelites had to undergo to attain their freedom from slavery to the Egyptians; Where, after 10 terrible plagues culminating in the death of all the firstborn children in the houses of Egypt, they were finally set free; to reinvent themselves as God’s people though the 40 year pilgrimage to Israel.

And we remember with particular poignancy this week the 50 year anniversary of the death of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr; who at 26 years old was thrust into his own great adventure, and into the national and world wide spotlight; where he struggled and achieved the most significant civil rights actions for social and racial justice in our nation’s history, who, for the next 13 years of his life was the most beloved and most feared and despised voice against racial and social injustice in our country. He was crucified in his own right by an oppressive society and a mad man with a gun; yet even that was not enough to stop his heroic journey from ending. His spirit and his story still lives on today.

There is something inside each of us that longs for this heroic journey to be made manifest in our lives; it’s why we’re so drawn to the epic adventure tales of our times. Although in this moment we may not feel capable of accomplishing the heroic feats of someone like Martin King, that shouldn’t stop us from believing that we too are called to an extraordinary existence or that the elements of a great story aren’t alive in our tales as well.

The importance of our own struggles and accomplishments might be known only to us—but that doesn’t make them any less heroic. The only thing holding us back from living a deeply fulfilling life is our own imaginations.

So we must be open to new beginnings in every instance. As Rabbi Heschel said, “The act of bringing the world into existence is a continuous process.”

Of course, that is exceedingly difficult for us to do. Fascinating, isn’t it? How it appears that as technology advances, our capacity for self-reflection and spiritual maturation recedes. Not only has the world been inundated with abstract versions of reality, rabbit holes for us to tumble through at every turn, but it is difficult because once we begin down the path of maturity we learn how limited and how valuable our time is or can be.

In adolescence we fret for the future and gasp from the pressure of trying to decide what we should do with our precious time on this planet; and in adulthood we fret over the past, regretting the dreams we smothered and the opportunities lost. If we approach life too cautiously, we will protect ourselves and the lives of those closest to us at every turn; ostensibly closing ourselves off from the depths of our human experience.

“I look out at everything growing so wild and faithfully beneath the sky and wonder why we are the only terrible part of creation privileged to refuse our flowering,” wrote David Whyte.
David Whyte believes there are three illusions, three deeply ingrained structures of belief that restrain us from living into our fullest potential. Those three illusions that we subscribe to are 1. That we can somehow construct a life where we’re not vulnerable, 2. That we can somehow construct a life where our hearts won’t be broken or that 3. We can somehow plan enough so that we can see the straight path of the future from here to there, and it will not alter.

How many of us have waged war with these very concepts ourselves? How many of us know people who refuse to accept these God given realities into their hearts, and therefore refuse to mature in any real or genuine sense?

To believe we can avoid vulnerability is a fool’s errand; and the more entrenched the belief the more devastating the heartbreak to come.

Vulnerability is, (arguably), the key to unlocking the heroic journey. It is the first time that we say, “yes” to an experience where the consequences are not known and the responsibility of the consequences is all ours. It is the risk we willingly take where we pit our concepts of self against the world. It is important to remember that vulnerability is not a weakness; David Whyte says it is the underlying, ever present and abiding undercurrent of our own natural state. Being present to our vulnerability allows us to be free from our overwhelming, sometimes obsessive need to have absolute control over all things; which, as we all know, is impossible! Better to embrace vulnerability in ourselves AND one another, thus freeing us from the mantles of false and impossible expectations.

The sooner we can discover what a blessing it is to lean on and learn from one another, to lean on and to learn from God, the more receptive we will be to the next great blessing of our lives…heartbreak.
Heartbreak is an inescapable fact of human existence. We live with the knowledge that one day we will die, we know that there no possible way that we or loved ones will ever escape death; yet it is baffling to me how hard we try to hide and avoid that reality. But it is one of the beautiful truths of life. Experiencing heartbreak gives us the capacity to experience greater joy; and has the potential to enhance every single moment of the journey. Why not weep at the sunset? It’s the funeral service for today! A day that will never happen again. Why not freely tell someone you love them? This moment will not come again. Hearts that are open to vulnerability and to heartbreak are hearts that have a deeper understanding of the blessings of life. Heartbreak and vulnerability show us what we love and have loved, and can even instruct us in how to make peace with our final good byes. I’d bet that the greatest episodes of our lives; the best stories we know start from these two places. And those stories are the ones that we turn to time and time and time again, as we try to make sense of our heroic journey.

Amy Jill Levine said that, “Jesus told parables because they serve as keys that can unlock the mysteries we face by helping us ask the right questions: how to live in community; how to determine what ultimately matters; how to live the life God wants us to live.” The stories we tell are our ways of answering those questions.

In the parable of the sower, the seeds of God are like the experiences of life that have shaped who we have become, leading up to this very moment at this very time. There are events that will be soon forgotten; pecked away by the birds of the air. There will be times, too, when we will invest heavily in hopes for fruitful outcomes in jobs, relationships, experiences, only to have them scorched before our eyes because the roots don’t run deep enough. Those are hard times to travel through; but we must not give up.

There will be times when we’ll run with the weeds; believing we are surrounded by helpful journeyers only to discover that as we hope to grow the thorns of others get stuck in our sides thwarting our growth and hurting us in the process. Hearts broken by thorns of our own making.
All of these elemental experiences lead us to know where the good soil may be. All these elements are equally important parts of our journeys that make us into who we hope to be. We are parables of our own making; hero’s living our own journeys. It is up to us to shape and define HOW the stories we know and tell will lead us to greener pastures and more bountiful harvests.

God speed on your heroic journey’s ahead.

Andy Bachmann
April 8, 2018