Saturday, July 11, 2026

Righteous Individuals? Or, A Just Society? Proper 10A

 

Righteous Individuals? Or, A Just Society?

“Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them… As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.” -Matthew 13:1-9,18-23

This Parable of the Sower sowing seeds poses several important questions: What type of soil are we? Do we hear God’s Word? Does our hearing lead to living a kingdom of God kind of life? I say “we” instead of “you” because in English one cannot distinguish between “you” singular and “you” plural. But Matthew’s Koine Greek does. It is therefore important to note that in the Beatitudes [Matthew 5] and in the parable of the Last Judgement [Matthew 25] the “you” is also always plural. And I would suggest that the Beatitudes and the Last Judgement bracket the entire ministry of Jesus. Matthew understands the Good News of Jesus Christ to inaugurate a new age in which we finally learn to love and truly care for one another as God loves “us.” We are especially to love those living at the margins of society.

 

There have been recent disagreements as to what these bookends are talking about. The Last Judgement, of course, finds Jesus self-identifying with those who are hungry, thirsty, sick, in prison, and strangers – and that as we address their needs we are serving him directly. The disagreement is whether these are instructions for individuals, or for society and nations at large. Which should be clear, since the parable opens by saying, “When the Son of Man (Jesus) comes in all his glory he will gather the nations before him [for judgement and sorting].” In some Bibles it is even called The Judgement of Nations. It is not judgement of individuals.

 

There are streams of American Christianity who see it just this way: that we are to become a nation that looks out for one another, and most especially those most vulnerable and in need of assistance. There are, however, other streams of American Christianity who think the nation as a whole ought not be involved in helping those in need; that rejects the idea that helping others is a moral duty, and teaches that rational self-interest is the highest moral purpose. Giving to others is acceptable only if it is voluntary, you can afford it, and the recipient is worthy. This might be called the Gospel of Ayn Rand’s brand of objective individualism which rejects altruism and all notions of living to serve others and self-sacrifice to help those in need.

 

This latter stream of American Christianity represents the “thorns” into which the seeds of God’s Word are choked out by “the cares of the world and the lure of wealth” Jesus speaks of,  yielding nothing more than self-preservation, self-happiness, and self-interest as the highest moral values that ought to concern us. I would further suggest that it is the American pre-occupation with what Hebert Hoover called “the rugged individual,” the idea that anyone, by pulling themselves up by their own bootstraps, can live a rags to riches Horatio Alger sort of self-improvement and success. Yet, even the author Horatio Alger’s young protagonists most often succeeded with the assistance of a wealthy benefactor!

 

Nevertheless, Scot Loyd, PhD, author of "The God I Was Given," and scholar of race, religion, culture, and communication has outlined how the cult of rugged individualism has reinterpreted Biblical religion: “For much of my life, I inherited a version of Christianity that instinctively read almost every passage of Scripture through the lens of the individual. Salvation was personal. Sin was personal. Holiness was personal. Evangelism was personal. Faith was primarily about the condition of my own soul and my own relationship with God. Looking back, I now realize that I was reading an ancient, communal faith through the eyes of a thoroughly modern Western culture. The more I have studied Scripture, the more convinced I have become that the biblical writers simply did not think the way we do. We tend to imagine ourselves as autonomous individuals who occasionally gather into communities. Ancient Israel understood itself first as a people. Identity was shared. Responsibility was shared. Blessings were shared. Even judgment was often shared.” [i]

 

If there was ever a time when America shared a common identity, a shared responsibility, shared blessings, and shared judgement, it is safe to say that that time exists somewhere in a distant past. That does not absolve Christians, however, to forsake the Bible’s vision, and thereby the vision of God in Christ Jesus, of our shared responsibilities to be peacemakers, to be humble, to offer, as we heard last Sunday, even a cup of water to “the least of these,” Jesus’s self-adopted sisters and brothers in need. Nor are we absolved from advocating for we, as a nation, as a society, to find ways to provide for all who are in need of assistance of any kind. For not everyone can be as lucky as those boys in the books of Horatio Alger to find a personal benefactor.

 

A careful reading of the Bible from one end to the other reveals that the dream and purpose of God is, as Jesus summarizes, “to love one another as I love you.” The Gospel of Rugged Individualism always results in the kind of self-interest focused on worldly desires and the lure of wealth, which chokes God’s word, and thus, it yields nothing but self-aggrandizement and greed. It yields a society of a few Righteous, Rugged individuals, rather than a Just Society.

 

This is why Jesus describes the Final Judgement as a Judgement of Nations, not of individuals. He deliberately frames His teaching in communal terms. The question is not merely whether particular people showed compassion. The question is what kind of society those people together have created. Which is the concern of all the prophets of the Bible with whom Jesus also self-identifies. Again, as Scot Loyd observes, ‘When Amos cried out, "Let justice roll down like waters," he was not addressing private devotional lives. He was confronting a nation whose religious worship had become disconnected from justice. Isaiah condemned elaborate worship services while widows and orphans were neglected. Jeremiah repeatedly warned kings who [trusted religious rituals while exploiting the vulnerable. Micah summarized true faith with words that have echoed across the centuries: "Do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God."’ [ii]

 

It seems that the Word of God in Christ Jesus has landed among the thorns of America’s various myths of Rugged Individualism, choking out any and all notions of the communal nature of Jesus’s teaching and the central focus of the whole Bible: to create societies and nations that care for all people, not just some, not just many, but “all.” This Parable of the Sower asks us as a community and as a nation: What kind of soil are we? Do we, plural, hear the Word of God? Do we, plural, allow the Word of God to grow and influence how we address the needs of the greater society in which we live? Can we, plural, hear the Word of God take us beyond our own personal needs to establish the kind of society and nation that reflects the kingdom of God Jesus imagines can be possible here and now? Do we, plural, want a nation of a few righteous individuals? Or, a just society for all people? I am grateful to Scot Loyd who helps us to recognize just how the thorns of individualism have obscured Jesus’s and the Bible’s vision for a society and a nation that truly wants to be one nation, under God, with liberty and justice for all. Amen.

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