A series of sermons on the parables of Jesus

God’s coming and our response Mark 4:3-9, 13-20

Rev. Dr Thorwald Lorenzen

The story

“Listen!” That would mean the presence of the divine for Jesus’ listeners: “Listen, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God …” (Deut. 6:4f.). That is the call to worship in many a Jewish worship service. Somehow with Jesus’ parable the divine is seeking its way into our life: “Listen!”

“A sower went out to sow.” And you don’t need to go to church to expect the divine coming into your life. But you do need to go church for someone to tell you that you can expect the divine to surprise you in your everyday life. God is not otherworldly. Like a flower can break through the concrete and bloom in the asphalt jungle, so God can be discovered in the ordinary things of everyday life. Jesus can, therefore, link the call to listen with the everyday story about a Palestinian sower who went out to sow.

Failure and Despair. And then the story leads us into failure, one after the other. Such is the experience of life – too often for some of us.

In Palestine during Jesus’ days the farmers did not work their fields in the interval between the harvest (about June) and sowing time (about November). Consequently, the soil becomes dry and overgrown with thorns. Ways are trodden through the fields. When sowing time arrives the seed is thrown into the fields – which includes paths and thorns – and then, wherever possible, the seed is ploughed under.

What is the fate of the seeds, Jesus asks. And those who have ears to hear and hearts to listen, know that Jesus is talking about them and about us – wondering how the word of God fares in our life.

Some seeds, those which are thrown on the trodden paths, easily fall prey to the birds.

Other seeds fall on a thin layer of soil that covers Palestine’s rock formations. The rain is stored close to the surface and when the sun heats the soil the seed can spring up quickly. But since the roots are weak and the soil is shallow, the sun which gave rise to life also causes a scorching death.

And when the soil is ploughed, it often happens that the seeds of the thorns grow up more quickly than the seeds of the wheat, and, consequently, the thorns claim all the nourishment of the soil for themselves. The grain, therefore, does not come to fruition.

Disheartening failure – one after the other.

But then the miracle. Many, perhaps most of the seeds fall on good ground and bear fruit. Every Palestinian farmer knows the sight of a promising grain field. The average number of kernels per head of wheat is 35, but exceptional cases of 60 and 100 are also known.

Application

Encouragement. We know the movement of the parable in our own life. How often is our life dominated by negatives, failure, discouragement, paralysis, questions. We don’t see God and we don’t feel God. Where is the kingdom of God in our life and in the world, we ask. Most of the time, the kingdom of God is hidden in the ordinariness and fragility of life. We are often so uninterested, so concerned with ourselves – that the word of God sown softly into our life is overlooked or sidelined or simply ignored.

Studdart Kennedy’s poem: ”Indifference”.

When Jesus came to Golgotha they hanged Him on a tree, They drave great nails through His hands and feet, and made a Calvary; They crowned Him with a crown of thorns, red were His wounds and deep, For those were crude and cruel days, and human flesh was cheap. When Jesus came to Birmingham they simply passed Him by, They never hurt a hair of Him, they only let Him die; For men had grown more tender, and they would not give Him pain, They only just passed down the street, and left Him in the rain Still Jesus cried, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do,” And still it rained the wintry rain that drenched Him through and through; The crowds went home and left the streets without a soul to see, And Jesus crouched against a wall and cried for Calvary.

But the seed is sown and God keeps coming.

And then it happens, it happens ever again. The word falls on good soil and produces wonderful fruit. People experience the joy of God. They are willing to lay their lives with all its gifts and promises on the altar. We are encouraged on the journey.

Our part. And we are drawn into God’s coming. We are part of it. The seed and the soil need to find each other and work together. The soil can’t produce fruit without the seed, and the seed needs the soil to produce its fruit. There are the seeds which bring forth fruit – much fruit! Our story does not repress the failure, but our hope rests not on the sower or the soil, not even the seed, but on the abundance of grain that the harvest produces. This must have been of great encouragement to the hearers of Jesus. You can continue in your life’s struggle. God will have the final word to say. And it will be a miraculous word; a surprising word which one would not expect in light of the present situation.

Certainty. The parable grants certainty! As certain as the harvest will follow when the risk of sowing is taken, in spite of the many ensuring disappointments, so certain is the presence and future of the loving rule of God.

Courage and humility

Generally, Jesus does not apply his own parables. He invites the listener – those who have ears to hear and hearts to respond! – to find their place in God’s economy.

So the church in a great act of humility and courage applies the parable of Jesus to themselves. How does the kingdom of God fare in our midst – they asked? (Mark 4:13-20)

There are those among us, they confessed, who when life becomes difficult they fall away. The joy which is often associated with the coming of faith is no guarantee for obedience and for continuing the journey of faith. Faith can be tested and – as long as we are in the world – faith will be tested. And faith may be overcome by temptation!

And then there are those, they confessed, whose fascination with the world has drowned their longing for God. Oh yes, the word has been heard! It had taken root! But there are many other “roots” which draw on our strength. “Cares of the world” – anxiety about the future and the need for financial security. “Delight in riches, and the desire for other things” – attempting to quench the hunger and thirst for life with all that the world has to offer.

It is easy, in our quest for life and security for the word to lose its dynamic power – because the word needs to be heard continually, and where there are no open ears to hear any longer there the word becomes fruitless.

But then – v. 20 – there are those Christians who hear and accept the word and, consequently, show forth the fruits of the Christian life.

Invitation

And what about us? What kind of reception will the word find in your life? Is there room at all (V.15)? Is there immediate joy and enthusiasm – but when the going gets rough despair and falling away (vv.16f.)? Is there response but no real obedience so that our worldly allegiances and responsibilities force the word into second and third place (vv.18f.)? Or are we obedient hearers of the word so that the word will change us and through us bear fruit (v.20)? How do we fare in the sight of God? What sort of soil are we?

The seed continues to be sown because God is coming. But the God who can do everything. One thing God cannot do; that is to enforce himself into our life. Love cannot rape. So the seed remains dependent on the soil. God has limited himself to our response.

Allow me to illustrate this at a couple of points. If you look at our life, how does the word of God that is sown into our life, become public and visible?

Money. Money is part of our life. Just as the early church was aware that “the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing” (v. 19), so money plays a dominant role in our lives. Most of us would admit – a too dominant role. How many of us really lay out before God what we do with our money? Our church budget runs short 400 dollars a week (we need $ 2.900 a week to fulfil what we have decided to do). Running short should not happen in a church like ours. That can happen and it does happen when the seed falls by the way side or when it sprouts but has no roots. It does not happen where the words finds soil to shape us. Could you take this Jesus story and ask whether one way in which you can show that word has fallen into good soil, by giving a little more sacrificially and a little more consistently to the church?

Lifestyle. And then take the question of lifestyle. What determines us, the way we live and think and act, at the deepest level? Has the word of God sunk in and liberated our conscience from our self-interest and self-love? Do we reflect the values of our culture or do we reflect the values of the kingdom?

Reconciliation. There has been movement in the moral arena of our nation. A way has been found in a proposed preamble to recognise the traditional attitude of the Aboriginal people to the land; and just last week the parliament passed a motion that recognised the injustice and hurt that is associated with forcibly removing children from their parents and express deep and sincere regret for that practice and its consequences. Can we see God in it? Are we prepared with our attitudes, our words, our thought and our prayers to fuel the movement of reconciliation in our country?

Don’t forget that our parable is part of the passion story of Jesus. Jesus staked his life on being good soil for the word.

There is a harvest! Where we may see defeat, failure, discouragement, there faith sees more! Faith knows that out of the silence of the cross there came the proclamation of Christ crucified and risen! True faith goes patiently on loving, praying, working, serving in the underlying certainty that, in spite of what we see, God is fulfilling his purpose, and will bring about the harvest in his time and his fashion.

We can’t produce the seed. God does that and God sows and God comes. It is
our privilege and our responsibility to receive and then bear the fruits of
the kingdom.

Rev. Dr. Thorwald Lorenzen
http://www.canbap.org.au/parables.htm