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"Beyond The Evidence"
Pentecost II June 14, 2009 Mark 4:26-34 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Now you’re going to have to stay with me this morning because we’re going cover a lot ground, a lot of time, maybe even leave this time, this place for a while. I want to ask you some questions. You don’t have to raise your hands to answer the question, but answer anyway. How many of you were raised in the church? It might have been the Lutheran church, Roman Catholic church, Baptist church, Methodist church, Presbyterian church or yet another church. How many of you weren’t raised in the church but were active in a church anyway, even if your parents weren’t? Maybe a friend invited you to go with him or her. Maybe you came in through what might be called the back door – you participated in a youth group like Luther League or one of the other equivalents from other denominations. How many of you came to the church, Lutheran, Catholic, Methodist, whatever church, later in life? How many of you came to the church because you married someone who attended a particular church and it was important to you to be with your spouse in this new adventure? How many of you came to the church because you were invited by a neighbor, a co-worker? How many of you came to the church because you heard or overheard something that intrigued you and you wanted to find out more about it? How many of you came to the church because you wanted to see what it was that got people so committed that their lives actually changed? Now let’s take a quick trip to the Holy Land – oh, I don’t mean Minnesota but the “other” Holy Land. In fact, let’s go back a couple thousand years as we do it. You’re standing on the banks of the Jordan River watching a guy who is standing in the river. You’re a Pharisee, a teacher of the Law, a Sadducee. Maybe you’re a soldier, tax collector, a carpenter or a mom. This guy you’re watching is baptizing people with what he calls a baptism of repentance, he’s telling others on the banks of the river to “repent, for the Kingdom of God is near.” He’s mentioned one who is coming, who will baptize with fire and the Holy Spirit instead of water, whose winnowing fork is in his hand and ready to cast the chaff into the fire. What’s going through your mind – anger at being told you need to repent? Wonder at the coming vision of the Kingdom of God? Are you looking on in an apocalyptic sense, even though you wouldn’t have used those words. Or maybe you’re just wondering what the Kingdom of God actually is. Let’s move ahead a bit. Now you’re standing in Solomon’s Portico in the temple – like standing on a huge porch with majestic pillars. You’ve been listening to another guy – you’ve been told his name is Jesus and that he is the one referred to by the guy who was standing in the river. You’re still a Sadducee, a Pharisee, a farmer, a soldier, a tax collector. And Jesus tells you to “repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” What’s going through your mind right now? Are you thinking that this Jesus might be the Messiah, that he’s the one who is going to restore Israel to its previous glory, and even beyond? Are you thinking, “we’ll throw out the Romans and all the others, the Kingdom of God will again be right here, centered in the temple in Jerusalem"? And suddenly you’re baffled! You have heard Jesus before and you know he tells stories, parables, sharing his message, his meaning, in imagery that you would have never expected. You know Jesus’ parables always seem to have a surprise ending – something like a Samaritan being a good neighbor who loved as God would have you love, or a man who has everything, so much in fact that he plans to build more barns and take it easy for the rest of his life, but God requires his soul of him, that very night. Or the story of Lazarus, the beggar who had nothing except scraps to share with the dogs, who were his only comfort as they licked his sores, who ended up with Father Abraham while the rich man, at whose gate Lazarus sat, ended up in flames. You are baffled because Jesus says that the “kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow…” And now you’re sitting here this morning thinking, “well, this doesn’t make a whole lot of sense…” And maybe you’re referring to the parable in the context of other things you’ve heard, or maybe you’re thinking of my sermon, or maybe both. Let me suggest a different way of looking at this parable of Jesus. Let’s start with the “kingdom of God,” or more specifically with the Greek word basileia, which I’ve transliterated from Greek into English. It can have a meaning in the physical, territorial sense of the word, but biblically it also means “royal reign” or “royal rule.” So let us paraphrase what Jesus said like this: “The royal reign of God is as if someone--moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas, teachers and pastors, friends, total strangers--would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, they do not know how.” Scattering seed, speaking the Word of God, the seed of the Holy Spirit being planted as stories about Jesus are shared, words of comfort spoken, children are taught how to pray. I remember well my grandma reading stories to me, my mom teaching me how to pray. She set the stage by first teaching me the “here’s the church, here’s the steeple…” rhyme. I was so young that I couldn’t manipulate my hands for church, doors, people without taking my hands apart and putting them in the right sequence. Then she taught me my first prayer, “Now I lay me down to sleep…” telling me what it meant in words that I could understand, following that by teaching me the Lord’s Prayer. I don’t know how old I was, but I know that as she taught me she sat on my bed and I stood in front of her and I was higher, taller, than her knee, but not by much. I remember how years later when my dad died and I came back from bereavement leave and none of my coworkers said anything except for one man who was of a different faith than mine who asked me if I had a faith to fall back upon. I remember thanking my God, who is different from his God, that someone had expressed sorrow and asked about my faith even though he was of a different faith. I was one of those raised in the church, but I had a good friend who came back to the church because a seed had been planted in him that neither of us knew was there, and while we worked and slept and rose again, that seed grew until he and his wife joined the church as fully grown adults. And another friend, some of you met him when he was visiting with Cindy and me a month ago. He was invited by a man he worked with to come and sing in a men’s chorus. He wasn’t churched, but he came knowing just what to expect, was welcomed and kept coming back, and a seed was planted that took root, and eventually Cindy and I were witnesses at his baptism into the Christian faith. I know several people here who had unpleasant experiences while growing up in the church and left for whatever reason. But a seed was there, it had been sowed long before and then came to life when someone comforted with the comfort that is received from God, loved with the love that is itself from God, and that seed took root and a stalk was produced, then the head, then the full grain. For the Holy Spirit produces of itself and seeds continue to be sown. Seeds sown through feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, homing the homeless, healing the sick, visiting prisoners, welcoming strangers. Seeds sown when care and love are offered to those who have little in their lives. Seeds sown when others are welcomed into our community, when we open our lives and hearts that their lives and hearts may in turn be opened to the presence of God. Seeds sown when we give the stranger, the visitor, welcome and space, and coffee to feel comfortable. We plant seeds when we care for one another, not in being, staying, or becoming a closed club but looking out for one another. Sowing, planting seeds when we share our own walk of faith. We trust the growth to God, walking by faith, not by sight, not looking for tangible evidence but instead resting on the evidence of spiritual things not seen. We sow seeds because it is part of our faith to do so, because of the grace of God which comes to us in our faith, trusting that we are saved, and acting accordingly. And we pray. And we pray. We cover seeds planting knowingly or unknowingly, with prayer. Let us pray. AMEN. Rev. Bruce Hannem, Associate Pastor
Lutheran Church of the Cross, Nisswa, Minnesota |
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