The image on the screen for this morning and the news sheet
is the Brooklyn Garage Rooftop Farm. It is one of the most famous examples of
urban farming in the word: Growing fresh local produce where there is a premium
on land usage... For me it envisions the
reality that Jesus parable, which while it reflects the agricultural world of the hills of
first century Galilee, is as meaningful and relevant for us today in our twenty
first century urban setting.
Viv Coleman spoke last week about finding one word as a
focus and way forward for the year. When I got back in the office this week I
was excited to discover the passage we
were going to start or rather restart our journey through Luke’s gospel with
was the one we had read out to us today... the parable of the Sower, or as its
also known the parable of the soils. I thought yeah... that’s the one word we
really need for this year as a church... Sow . Evangelism Going and scattering
seeds, in the case of Jesus parable the word of God and seeing it become
fruitful. It got even better when I saw that Luke connects it with another well
known of Jesus parables of the light on
the lamp stand giving light to the whole house... I thought shine might be just as good a word.
The focus for the year needed to be getting out there with the word of God and
SOW, SOW in our new urban environment, SOW in our little suburban patch ... and
sow on...
But as I looked deeper into the passage I was surprised
because another word came to mind. I guess we are more used to hearing Jesus
parables from Matthew’s Gospel or reading them separately but as I read the
whole passage another word really became prominent as the central point of this
passage of what Jesus was saying. I believe it was the Holy Spirit speaking.
You see the word that comes through from this passage is the word listen...
All the way through the focus for Jesus is listen. The
context of the passage is Jesus time after time drawing a big crowd who come to
hear him, but do they really listen. When you see a large crowd in Luke’s Gospel
Jesus begins to talk about what it really means to be a follower of his. He
isn’t looking for the crowd numbers, the popularity and the fame rather he is
looking for people who are changed by encountering the word of God made flesh.
And in this passage the answer to what it means to e a follower of Jesus is
that they are the ones who listen properly. He tells the parable of the sower
and he finishes it by crying out in a loud voice ‘he who has ears to hear, let
them hear’... listen.
As he explains this
parable we see that each of the soil types he has talked about have to do with
how people hear the word of God. They hear it but it doesn’t sink in it falls
onto hard ground, They hear it and receive it with joy but it does not take
root. They hear it and it takes root but it is choked out as by competing
concerns. The good soil is those who
hear it and retain it and nurture it and persevere till it produces a crop. Listen
The punch line of
Jesus parable of the lamp on the lamps stand... and you could put it in modern
terms and say... no one puts a hundred what bulb in a closet and then closes
the door and leaves the rest of the house in darkness is a warning about being
careful how we listen.. Listen
Finally that strange encounter with Jesus mother and
brothers, rounds off this section of Luke, with Jesus saying those who are
really his kin rally his family are those who hear his word and put it into
action... Listen.
I began to wonder how those soil types expressed themselves
in our lives and in our times, in my life and my time.
Some falls on the road.
In Jesus time and place and even in gardens today. Around the edge of fields
prepared for growing crops there are well worn paths so people can get to where
they need to go. They are compacted and seeds can’t easily fall into the soil
to germinate. Maybe you’ve seen it on
road verges where on a street corner there is a well word dirt path across the
lawn where people cut the corner and no grass will grow there. It’s interesting that in gospel’s it is the
Pharisees and the religious people who were most reluctant to hear Jesus
teaching. I wonder if it isn’t the same today that for many of us who have been
involved in church for so long we have well word paths that we trod and it is
hard for the word of God to take root in those places if it just doesn’t fit
with the path we trod. Maybe we think
we’ve heard it before, we’ve heard it all. Evangelists say the two hardest
people groups to work with and share the gospel with are those who have never
heard it before, as they have no frame work in which to understand it and the
post Christian... or over-churched... because they have heard it so much that
they are over it now... the thing about listening and following Jesus is that
it takes us through the narrow gate and off the well beaten path...
In the hills of Galilee it is hard to tell what us good soil
and what is not. The ground is rocky and while on top it might look like good
it can just be a shallow cover over hard limestone rock, where seeds are unable
to take root and when the sun comes out they cannot survive. It’s like a great
looking wood veneer over chipboard...When we left Luke’s gospel before
Christmas we finished with the story of Jesus at the house of Simon the
Pharisee and the women who cleaned Jesus feet with her tears. It seemed Simon
was willing to have Jesus to his house as an honored guest, to listen and to
debate with him over a meal, but when Jesus words came to close to his
prejudices we are left with the impression that despite Jesus offering him a
chance to listen and change that that was where the seed stopped growing. It
hit a barrier to bearing fruit. In 1994 one of the worst genocides occurred in
Rwanda, racial tension exploded in an orgy of bloodletting and close to a
million people died. What really shocked
those who say it was that Rwanda was possible he most Christianised country in
all of Africa... 95% would have said they were Christians. But it hadn’t really
sunk deep into the country. Some commentators talked of a veneer of
Christianity a mile wide but only millimeters deep... I wonder if that isn’t
challenging for us as well... Is our faith simply a veneer over the prevailing
worldviews, a veneer over our various cultural identities, over our prejudices,
over western consumerism, over western materialism and the we haven’t let the
word sink deep and put out roots in that.
We’ve just had a concrete right of way put down the side of
our house... On either side of it the plans were to have a strip of dirt
left... Neither strip is designed to be a mowing strip. I guess we are waiting
for our landlord to finish the landscaping off... But it is a constant battle
because I’m amazed how quickly weeds have colonized those strips of good loose
soil...and it’s constant battle to get rid of them... we pull them, we spray
them, we weed-wack them and they come
back. In first century Galilee the seeds that feel on good soil often had to
compete for nutrients and space with weeds that grow up and choke them before
they can produce a crop. In Luke Jesus likens these weeds to life’s concerns,
wealth and prosperity and pleasures which stop the word growing to maturity.
And we live in a time and place where those equally challenge us, we live in a
time when the word of god competes with so many other messages. Where it is
harder and harder to make ends meet and we are encouraged to think in terms of
a higher and higher and unrealistic standard of living. Where there are whole
industries designed to distract us and amuse us. We have the challenge of not
letting that choke out what God wants to say... we need to listen through the
noise.
Then of course there was the good soil where the seed could
take root and it was nurtured and retained and allowed to grow to maturity and
produce the fruit it was designed to do. Often people of this parable in terms
of salvation, to look at questions like can when is someone a Christian? when
they respond at an altar call or make a profession of faith? Here the answer
seems to be when the word of God produces the fruit of obedience. In our
reformed tradition we would say that the sign of true repentance and salvation
was perseverance. In the gospel of course we are constantly surprised by the
people who show themselves to be good soil for the word of God: A roman
centurion, people on the edge and ostracized, tax collectors and those
considered beyond God’s reach... They are the ones who seem to listen
appropriately.
I did wonder how this word listen applied to me. What is the
soil in my life like? How can I allow the seed of God’s word to get in remain
and mature and as I looked at this passage I found some answers.
The first was sow seed, yup we are back to the sow word...
the need to let the sower scatter seed into our lives...We need to read and
hear the word of God.
Secondly, We need to study and understand it. We are let into the meaning of Jesus parable
when the disciples ask Jesus what it means. In fact Jesus says that he speaks
in parables so that people will hear and not understand, because for that seed
to germinate and grow and bear fruit we need to comprehend it. When scripture
talks of the mysteries of God it’s not that what God says is esoteric and hard
o understand but that we need to look to God to clarify it for us. To read and
to understand...Just like with Jesus and his disciples this is a group
activity, we need others on this journey, which is what Paul says that the Holy
Spirit has given gifts of apostles and prophets, evangelists and teachers and
pastors to enable us to grow into maturity lacking nothing. We need brothers
and sisters to explore and reflect on it with us... which is why small groups are
the most effective way for Christians to grow and to listen together. And of
course as Christians we have the greatest asset for that in the presence of the
Holy Spirit within us to lead us into all truth.
Just like the light on the lamps stand we need to let the
light of that word shine in all our lives, we can’t just put it in the religion
basket or the Sunday basket. Daryll Bock says we need to respond to the word of
God consistently to let it light up all our lives. To understand the message
and see how it speaks to our whole life to bring fruit in us that may mean we
let it breaking up some hard ground, do some weeding along the way, and some
winning against conflicting concerns.
Finally, we need to respond to it in a concrete way. To
listen understand and hen apply it how we live. To let it bear fruit. The mark
of being in Jesus family is hearing what Jesus says and putting it into
practise. To listen as Jesus calls us to listen is to hear and obey.
Now those sound very much like the three steps of what is
called inductive bible study... a way f listening appropriately to God’s
word... to exegete or understand... to
interpret... what is the whole for the word saying to the whole of me... and
application... How do I know live in light of the word of God. That is how we
should listen to God’s word’s listen ... I feel is the one word for us this
year... listen... listen to what the word is saying to the church... listen to
the word God has for you...
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