Reflections on "Four Seeds" Mark 1-9; 13-20

When I first glanced at this parable and came up with the sermon title for the LINK, I thought I would be thinking about each individual seed and what happened to it.  But, as I did my work on the text, that theme did not survive.  

it's a fascinating passage to study, in part, because it not only has the parable, but the interpretation of it attributed to Jesus.  it became a little more challenging, however, when I really thought about the implications of the interpretation part being an add-on from the early church to put in the gospel what they thought Jesus would have said in addressing the issue of their time -- why some hear the gospel and respond and others do not.  Suddenly, I am trying to evaluate how much stock I should put in the section section of the text, at least as it pertains to interpreting the parable.

I looked back at how some others have treated this text and discovered a sermon by Martin Luther that focused solely on the how we intrerpret and claim the Word, which build off the second section of the reading.  Geroge Buttrcik, a well-known 20th century preacher and preaching professor, had a study on this parable, and he focused on the soil, not the sower.  How do we prepare fertile soil for the Word to be heard, in other words.  Interestingly, I already had that as one of my options from my initial brainstorming. I think there's  a good sermon in that thought.

But, when I read Scott's study on the parable, I was struck by the simplicity of what he did.  Sometimes I make so much of the study tools, that I forget what it's like to just hear someone talk, like those first listeners did on the beach when Jesus first told the parable.  I suspect they were not dissecting his every word or analyzing how what he said fit into the farming models of their time.  Scott argues that what they heard was  a normal story of planting seed, and that the "a-ha" moment was when they realized that God was at work in the midst of their everyday world.  Over the years, I have found Scott's commentary on the parables (see footnote at bottom of sermon) to be the best resource for preaching on the parables.

It turned into a sermon I enjoyed preaching.

“Four Seeds” June 10, 2012; FPC, Troy; Mark 4: 13-20;

Introduction: Over the first part of the summer we will be reflecting on six different parables, that is, stories, that Jesus told.

If you happen to go to a camp this summer at Kirkmont Camp and Conference center, you will encounter these same parables in the Christian education each day.

Bottom line – I am teaching the Christian education component at Sports camp at the end of July, so I am test-driving my thoughts on ya'll before I go to teach it at Kirkmont!

Move 1: Jesus told these stories, these parables, these riddles because they caught the listener's attention with both their simplicity and their complexity.

a. As the listener first hears the parables, they seem simple and inviting because they present scenarios that we can relate to in our daily living.

1. How many of you have ever lost something and then look for it? Then you know something of what the woman who looks for the lost coin is doing and feeling.
2. How many of you have been at work and wondered about whether your pay is adequate? Or been at work and heard what the person working next to you is making and decided that you were not making enough and that was not fair, or that you were making more money, so you better keep your mouth shut.
   Every high schooler I talk to right now who is beginning a summer job cannot only describe the job, but how much money they are making (if they don't mention, ask their parents who definitely know!).
   When can connect with the workers in the vineyard who wonder about how much everyone is getting paid that day.
   3. Most of us may not be farmers, but we have experiences that help us relate to the scattering of seed. Right now, in fact, everyday I wander among the bare spots in my lawn to see if the seeds I threw out (yes, I literally sowed seeds earlier this month) have germinated, or need more water, or have disappeared from sight leaving me to wonder why the seeding process did not work in that particular area. So we know something of the situation Jesus describes about the sowing of seeds.
   4. Important reminder – what Jesus tells us, what we read in the biblical texts is about the real world and our very lives.
   b. But the parables also bring a complexity to them as the listener interprets them.
   1. The beauty of the story is that each of us can incorporate the story into our own context in different ways.
   2. When Jesus tells a story, he is not offering up a set of mathematical facts that are black and white; no, he's offering a story that speaks to our particular lives, which means each of us can hear the parable a little bit differently.
   3. The good news with the parable we read this morning is that the text also gives us an interpretation from Jesus.
   4. The not so good news is that many scholars believe that the early church probably added on the interpretation attributed to Jesus when the Gospel of Mark was put together. In other words, the interpretation we find in the text reflects both the concerns of the early church, and also how they believe Jesus would have spoken to their concerns.
   5. the early church was concerned greatly about why some people believed in Christ and others did not.
   6. They narrowed the focus of Jesus' story to why some people hear the Word and follow Christ and others do not.
   7. An important issue, no doubt, for them and for us.
   8. Certainly, we can learn from about this issue from this parable.
   Move 2: But, for a moment, I want to broaden the focus of our interpretation of the parable back out and hear it as if we were listening with those people gathered on the beach as Jesus told this parable for the first time (sit back and imagine you are on the crowded beach listening as Jesus tells this parable from the boat).

a. If we do so, I think we hear Jesus tell a remarkable truth in an unremarkable story.

1. the story of the person scattering seed is an everyday story with fairly ordinary results.
2. In a time long before precision plowing and planting and big machines that could make sure the lines were straight and the seed planted to ensure its growth (or at least as best can be done), there was a randomness and vulnerability to planting seed.
3. The seed was scattered, and some seed grew and others did not. I'm sure there were secrets to making seeds grow in Jesus' time, but it w as less scientific and more dependent on the environment and the weather patterns.
4. Some biblical scholars tear apart the planting practice described to determine if it were a spring planting or second planting in the fall; or if the process used involved plowing first or planting first and plowing second, but I don't think the listeners were heard Jesus' story and thought about the detailed specifics about how the seed was scattered. They merely heard about someone throwing out seed like those who planted did.
5. They also recognize that some seed will grow and other seed will not.
6. They may not have always broken the seed down into categories, but Jesus pretty well summarizes the possibilities that could happen to the scattered seed: some land in places where the birds will snag them; others land in places where they might experience rapid growth, but will burn out before they fully grow into maturity; others will get snarled in weeds as they grow, and never make it to harvest either. But some will grow, and their will be a good harvest.
7. The thirty, sixty, hundedfold harvest represents a very good yield when compared to what farmers might expect at that time. Not an unbelievable yield, but a good crop. A crop that would please the farmer. A crop size that would not astound the listener, but would a size that the listener would hear about and think, “that was a good harvest.”
8. An unremarkable story about farming, really.
   b. But, in the midst of that story, do you hear the truth that Jesus tells them and tells us?
   1. IN our everyday living, we can expect to see God at work.
   2. some of us may know what it it like to the seed that lands on the path and never even gets started before our hopes and dreams and ended.
   3. Or others of us may know what it is like to get excited and filled with energy about something and then we burn out. Sort f like the seed that falls on rocky ground.
   4. Or others of us may know what it is like to one minute seem to be doing fine, headed in the right direction, but then the worldly pressures, or our bad decisions, or some other distraction entangles us and keeps us from becoming what we want to be. Sort of like the seed that is choked by the thorns
   5. Or, I suspect, we know from personal experience all of those concerns or issues at different times in life.
   6. Our daily lives have lots of challenges and thorny situations.
   7. it is hard to follow Christ, to live into the image of God, to become that new creation God has in mind for us.
   b. Hear the good news! In the very challenges of our lives, God works to bring about an abundant harvest.
   1. what is remarkable about this story Jesus tells is that some seed grow into an abundant harvest.
   2. the challenges make take their toll, but God cannot be thwarted.
   2. three out of the four scenarios Christ describes for the seed end in failure, but God continues to bring about the harvest.
   3. what is remarkable about this story is that some seed grow into the bountiful harvest.
   Conclusion: and with those first listeners we realize that the God who sent Christ is seeking us out in our daily living;
   that the God who sent Christ will not be stopped by rocky ground, or thorns or birds that quickly eat up the seed.
   No, the God who sent Christ will not stop until each of us become part of God's bountiful yield.

Listen, Jesus has a story to tell.

This sermon is indebted to Bernard Brandon Scott's book, Hear The the Parable: A commentary on the Parables of Jesus. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1990. (343-363)