last week I bought myself The New Oxford American Dictionary. I was thumbing through it & came across the word pasta. 25 different kinds & shapes of pasta are shown – spaghetti linguine fettuccine tortellini ravioli rigatoni ziti & 18 other kinds. I don’t know about you but I’m ready to eat!
2. the same is true of soil. There are different kinds of soil. North Canby is noted for its sandy loam soil where you can grow just about anything. Where we live on the south side of Canby we have to deal with clay – hard as a rock in the summer & mucky muck when it gets wet.
3. as a teacher Jesus often made up stories where he would use the natural elements of his environment to make a spiritual point. They are called parables. Like the parable of the sower in Mark 4, our text today.
the nature of parables
1. there are a number of elements that are often found in parables:
§ stress 1 point
§ 2 strata’s – natural & supernatural world
§ illustrate what the Kingdom of God is like
§ the hidden eventually becomes visible – time element of waiting
§ surprise
§ disclose & reveal
§ repeated phrase – he who has ears to hear, let him hear
2. parables are an open-ended invitation. They invite us into the story. They help us see things from a different perspective. Parables don’t ‘hit us over the head’ or ‘hit us between the eyes.’ They teach indirectly. They require thinking pondering meditating to penetrate their meaning.
3. Jesus was fond of parables. He told them many things in parables (Matthew 13:3).
the crowd
1. Jesus is teaching again. He’s out by a lake. The crowds coming to him are large. To accommodate them Jesus teaches them from a boat. He sits to teach – the usual position of a Jewish rabbi. People are so anxious to hear him & get close to him that they crowd the water’s edge.
2. what do we see here in the crowds? We see desire longing hunger curiosity. These people wanted to be with Jesus. They craved his teaching. Jesus possessed this magnetic attraction.
3. can you find yourself in this crowd this morning? Are you the kind who would walk out to the lake & sit at the side of the water to hear him teach? Is your relationship with Jesus marked by words like – desire longing hunger curiosity?
4. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (German pastor theologian martyr of WW 2) usual practice was to rise early every morning to pray & read Scripture in solitude & silence. He once wrote that he rose early out of bed to be with Jesus out of love.
5. I hope & pray that your hearts are running over with love for Jesus.
listen with ears ready to hear
1. Jesus begins this parable with the word, listen! There is an emphasis throughout this parable on listening – 3,9,12,14,16,18,20). Verse 9 captures it best, He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
2. an interesting statement. As if to say not everyone who listens really hears. There’s hearing & then there’s hearing. This phrase is almost a parable in & of itself.
3. what could Jesus mean by it? Maybe he’s saying (with thanks to Brian McLaren):
§ don’t just listen with your ears, listen with your heart
§ don’t just hear my words, hear my deeper meaning
§ don’t listen for the literal meaning accessible to your rational mind, seek deeper for a meaning that requires that you make a personal investment of your imagination & life
This is a call to a deep listening, a heart-depth hearing, a life-changing encounter with the truth.
4. parables are clothed in mystery, a mystery that is partially removed through listening carefully so that we may hear.
the parable itself
1. this is a very simple story drawn from the farming culture in which the people lived.
the 1st thing that strikes me is the farmer’s indiscriminate sowing of the seed
1. it’s like he throws it all over the place – onto the path, onto the rocky ground, into the thorns & weeds & finally onto the good ground. This farmer is not very careful. He carpets the ground – 360 degrees – in seed.
2. the sower has always been understood to be God. The seed the Word of God. More specifically, Jesus is the farmer teaching the Word of God to the crowds, the multitudes, his followers & his critics. He throws God’s wood far & wide.
3. and so should we. As his followers a primary part of our identity & function is just this – being people of the Word who spread the Word. Indiscriminately. Far & wide. Who throw it to the wind in hopes that the Holy Spirit will catch it & land it in people’s hearts.
the 2nd thing that strikes me are the 4 different soils
1. the hard-panned path, not conducive for germinating seeds. A picture of how Satan closely follows behind the sower & scoops us the Word before it can take root & begin to transform lives.
2. Satan & his evil spirits keep showing up all over the place in Jesus’ life as reported by Mark. He’s the enemy. He’s the foe. He’s out to destroy Jesus & his people.
3. then & now he’s a very real character in our stories. Don’t attribute Satan to myth or to a fairy-tale element of the gospel story. Don’t count him out. He’s there & he’s here. And he’s hanging around waiting to gobble up the seed of the Word of God as its spread before our lives.
4. the rocky soil. This Word is heard & received with joy. Germination gets off to a good start. But the rocks & pebbles & stones of the human heart keep the roots from going deep.
5. then trouble comes – lose your job, lose your spouse, lose your kids, lose your self-worth, lose your health. Then persecution comes. We know very little about being persecuted for our faith.
6. shallow roots means that trouble & persecution kill the seed of God’s Word. Faith dies. Hope evaporates. Love disappears.
7. thorny soil. This Word is heard but not assimilated or metabolized in our spiritual center. Worry, riches & earthly desires chock the Word into unfruitfulness.
8. worry doubts God & his sovereign goodness. Riches provide a sense of security & well-being & replace God. Desires move into idolatry & nudge God aside.
9. good soil. This is the desired goal. That sandy loam soil of north Canby – a fertile combination of sand, silt & clay that eventually gives a harvest of 30, 60 & 100 times what was sown.
the 3rd thing that strikes me is the secret of the kingdom of God
1. parables both conceal truth from some & reveal it to others. Jesus steps back & forth between public discourse (4:1-9) & private instruction (4:10-20). Some are ready to hear & others aren’t. Some hear superficially & others hear below the surface where the Spirit of God breaks up hardened human hearts.
2. to those with calloused, hardened hearts toward God the secret of the Kingdom is hidden. They see but not perceive. They hear but don’t understand.
3. but for those who have ears to really hear, the parabolic truth is not concealed but revealed. Eyes are enlightened & hears are set afire. They listen carefully so that they may hear. And in their hearing, be transformed by the nearness of the Kingdom of God.
4. these parables are all about the Kingdom of God. That in Jesus God’s reign is breaking into the world, into human lives. God is at work both on the surface & below the surface, in both what is seen & what is unseen. The Kingdom has come in Jesus & is continuing to come, now, in his followers.
the 4th thing that strikes me is the climax of the harvest.
1. the harvest is a given. This is what the parable is moving toward – the harvest of the kingdom of God.
2. the hidden bursts into visibility at the end. The small explodes into something gigantic & massive. What an unbelievable surprise – that a handful of seeds would multiple into truckload of grain.
South Korea
1. 100 years ago Korea was totally pagan, meaning without Christ, closed to Christian missionaries. Today 35% of the people in South Korea are practicing Christ-followers. This surprising-harvest-turnaround can be traced to the efforts of 2 missionaries. The 1st was executed for their faith.
2. seeds were scattered & sown. They fell on a variety of soils & experienced a vast diversity of conditions. But over time God in his Kingdom brought about a harvest – 30fold, 60fold & 100fold.
3. today red neon crosses, marking churches, dot the cityscape of Seoul, South Korea. The largest churches in the world are in South Korea. They are a praying church, a praying country. They have mountains dedicated to prayer retreats. Ordinary, average Christ-following Joes & Jennifers routinely head to the mountains to fast & pray for hours & days for the cause of Christ.
4. a few months ago Gordon MacDonald was asked to speak in South Korea. At one conference where he spoke to several thousand people, he was led to a side-room where there were 250 people – intercessors – who had agreed to pray for him through the day. When he walked through the door, they cheered him. He was deeply humbled & thought that he should be cheering them.
5. harvest time in the Kingdom of God in South Korea.
our CAC harvest time
1. last year right before the fire our elders & Gov Bd members identified 5 areas of ministry that we felt God was drawing as to as a church. What might a ‘kingdom of God harvest’ look like in these areas?
2. prayer:
§ woven into the fabric of our days, a constant, as regular as breathing in & out
§ 1st Friday
§ in CG class, men’s & women’s studies, small groups, youth, children
§ community prayer walks
§ rising from the ashes
3. discipleship:
§ this is both bringing people to Christ & helping them grow in Christ
§ earlier this year we had a number of people say “yes” to Jesus & the majority of them are being discipled/mentored by others – some will be baptized at our church picnic
§ jeff hart’s class
4. healing:
§ teams of men & women to pray
§ support groups
§ counseling
§ love acceptance forgiveness
§ tanis snyder’s class
5. service to our community:
§ food pantry
§ habitat for humanity
§ canby community center
§ what we do as individuals & families
6. equipping:
§ ‘leaders’ working with ‘apprentices’ – elder idea
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