Sermon 19th July 2015

Today, our Vicar, Cameron Barker, concludes our study of Mark's Gospel. 

The reading is from Mark 5: verses 21-43.

Today’s straw poll is quick, and not at all demanding! So: who heard last week’s sermon here? … Thanks for helping me to know how much detail is needed, as we begin this process of summing up our series from Mark’s Gospel.

Well, today is the 10^th, and final, instalment of it; and we’ve not even covered one third of the book! Of course we knew that this was always going to happen; and ‘just’ having this reminder, that there is so much wonderfully rich resource for exploring in Bible is a good one in itself. But living in and with the detail of that, specifically in Mark, really has been quite an experience. So I do need to ‘borrow’ Simon’s key analogy from last week – which was all about boxing, for those of you who missed it!

Don’t worry; I won’t be repeating Simon, or his helpers’, live demonstration of the sport: that will remain one of those “you had to be here moments”. But there really is, I think, no better illustration of what these past 4 months have been like. This week I tried, as I usually do at the end of series, to read all of the sermons in it in a single sitting. That’s always a demanding exercise anyway; but this time it’s almost impossible. By all means try doing it yourself, if you can: the texts are available on our website. (So are all the audio files; but that would be an even bigger challenge – almost 4 hours of listening!) In whatever form you attempt the task, I’m sure that it won’t be long before you too are feeling the effects of the jab-jab-jab-punch-jab-jab-thump (etc!) that Simon and co laid out so memorably for us last week: Mark truly is relentless!

There was another, related, feature that also struck me in my attempted read-through. As good a job as each of the preachers did in their sermons – and this has been another consistently high-quality series – none of us got anywhere near full coverage. Each story about Jesus – be it him healing someone (jab); telling a parable (jab); performing a miracle (jab); in conflict (punch), with whoever (jab); teaching his disciples (jab); confronting evil (thump); etc! (jab-jab-jab-punch) – each story has content and depth that demands we dig deeper; find out more; and be radically changed in the process of doing so. Which is, of course, exactly what Mark aimed for when he wrote his account of Jesus’ life and death. What Mark wanted above all was for all people to be transformed by knowing the truth about the arrival of God’s Kingdom in the person of Jesus.

That’s amongst the many features of Mark which I said when this series began we would find. I don’t plan to list the detail of how we have, because again that would be impossible. In one sense each passage that we’ve had has stood alone; with unique lessons and challenges for all of us. No matter where we personally are in relation to Jesus (and the range here is very broad, we know), there has been something for everyone; every week. The parable of the sower (or of the soils, perhaps more accurately) that we’ve had in this series has reminded us that it’s how we receive, and process, Jesus’ message that determines the outcome for us. So it’s extra good that one of the other features in Mark is how Jesus brings about change in people: in their hearts as much as in their circumstances.

There is no better illustration of that wonderful reality than today’s double-story, with which the series ends; but we’re not ready to get there quite yet. First I need to say again that Mark did always have the bigger picture, a wider message in mind. Even if the stories might each seem to stand alone, he chose to record these ones in particular because together they added up to what Mark wanted his readers to know. That’s why I began this series by challenging us to learn memory verse – which regulars really should have absorbed by now. So: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). And that is the one, stand-out thing to be remembered from this series, I’d say.

Now that’s probably about as much summary as is possible – though it doesn’t have to be the end of our learning from this early part of Mark. As I say, the sermons are available for revisiting at any time; as are the stories themselves, of course. In his “For Everyone” commentary on today’s passage, Tom Wright invites us to hear, or see, the action from the perspectives of the different participants. Much of the material in this series lends itself to that method of Bible study; and very revealing it can be too. There’s not time to do too much of that in the rest of this sermon; but you might like to ask yourself what it would have been like if you had been: the sick woman; one of the disciples; a casual on-looker; that frantic Dad, Jairus; one of mourners at his house; a dying 12-year-old; or even a newly-resurrected one, perhaps!

Whether or not you choose to take up that invitation – now, or at any other time – what we will still need to do is to see Mark’s bigger picture. Yes, he told real stories; about real people; whose real lives were impacted, and forever changed, by the real Jesus. But those stories are always telling, or pointing to, the bigger story; of why the Son of Man came: to give his life as a ransom for many. We need to remember that all 4 of the Gospels exist primarily to tell the story of Easter. Everything that happens before Passion Week is, in some way or other, building up to that story of all stories; because that is the story that has changed all things for all people for all time. And if you don’t know how Jesus’ death and resurrection has done so, listen very carefully to the words of the Communion prayer later in this service. As the response we’ll use then puts it: “Listen, and you will hear”.

Both of today’s stories point forward, to That story. One of them does so rather more obviously than the other, perhaps; but actually both are stories about the transformation from utter despair to joyous hope that Mark knows Jesus alone make possible. The 2 stories are deliberately told together – probably not least because this is how these events actually happened! Even so, the one story feeds and enhances the other; each of the parallels between them is inviting us to see more of what’s actually going on here. And what is going on here is that there will be another time when people expect only to find a dead body, but will instead discover something so much more gloriously wonderful; when their utter despair was transformed into the joyous hope that is still being celebrated more than 2 000 years later.

Despair, and desperation, is where this double-story begins, though. First-Century Palestinians lived in an age where less than 50% of people survived childhood (i.e. made it into their teens). Average life expectancy would then have been only 29: and how many of us here would still be alive if that were so? The loss of children, and early death would have been very common then – but no less painful for loved ones. We get a taste of that from the outset of this story. Verse 21 says that Jesus was back in Capernaum: as a synagogue ruler there, Jairus would have known full well what Jesus had been up to; and what the reaction from religious Jews had been to him. But when his own daughter was dying, Jairus rushed to fall, pleading, at Jesus feet; begging for, believing in, literally a miracle as his only hope. And Jesus went with him, Mark wrote; without saying a word; and just maybe these facts speak very loudly to some of us who are here today.

As we ponder that thought (or don’t), do spot the gathering crowd. This has been another common feature of Mark throughout this series: wherever Jesus went; whatever he did; or said; people gathered; usually wanting something from him. At times they didn’t say what it was they wanted (or not to Jesus anyway) – but then people often don’t; for good reasons as much as for bad ones. The reasons that this woman didn’t say anything were good, or bad, depending on your perspective. What is for sure is that she ‘shouldn’t’ even have been there. The fact is that in that society her bleeding made her unclean, ritually speaking. And that was a huge deal for her because it had been, and had shaped, her whole life for 12 long years; and nothing that she had tried, or done, had made any difference.

Jesus made a difference, though: transforming her utter despair to joyous hope in an instant; without even doing anything, it seems. She sneaked up and touched him; with a mixture of faith, and shame and fear that many will doubtless be very familiar with. If only he had then let it, and her, be, she clearly thought. But Jesus’ purpose here was far bigger than her own; and that too is a fact which is worth taking away to ponder over this summer. We usually know what we want from Jesus; but what is it that he wants for and from us? That is the far more important bigger-picture question that all too often we fail to ask after encountering Jesus. But it’s here, by asking this that true transformation happens, I’d suggest. Mark doesn’t spell out here what the life-long consequences were for this woman; but what are they for you after your meeting with Jesus?

Now it’s not difficult to picture Jairus hopping while all of this lot went on! His daughter’s dying, remember; but actually she was already dead, we find out when Jesus finishes speaking with the woman. Not even that fact stopped Jesus, though: and note how his invitation to faith went to Jairus in his deepest despair; when there was no hope. If there was anything funny in those desperate circumstances then it would, it must have been a joke; as those mourners said aloud to Jesus when he reached the house. But it was; it is; no joke; instead it’s again this glorious transformation: from utter despair to joyous hope that Mark knows Jesus alone makes possible. And part of what shows that it is as real as the nose on your face is this record of the Aramaic words that Jesus spoke when he raised that girl from death to life.

I do realise that such a skimming of these stories does them both serious injustice. But even the most profound public digging would – or should – leave us wanting more. We would need at least a month of Sundays to get close to unpacking each part of them; and even then I’m sure that God would have more to say to us through them that hadn’t been covered. As ever, that’s the challenge to each of us, though. At the outset of this series I said that Mark tells an action-packed story; in an action-packed way; that is designed to get us to take action. The key action, upon which all else hinges, is for us to believe in who Jesus is, and in what he came to do. Keep thinking memory verse: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many”. From there, as we have seen, time and time and time again, all kinds of transformation becomes gloriously possible; for us and the whole world. Jesus can and does transform utter despair to joyous hope; in real ways, in the lives of real people, like you and me. As this series ends, then, the question must be what God wants for you; and from you as we live in and for the Kingdom that Jesus brought in? And so let’s pray …

Sermon 12th July 2015

Today, one of our Lay Readers, Simon Brindley, continues our study of Mark’s Gospel. 
The reading is from Mark 4: 21-41.

Like being in a boxing match

I am going to start, just for a minute or two, by talking to you about the sport of boxing and I hope it will become clear shortly why!

Can you put your hand up please if you have ever watched on TV any of a boxing match?

(…..Of course at one time boxing was just a men’s sport but as the wonderful Nicola Adams proved at London 2012, it is now firmly a women’s sport too. So I am talking about any boxing match on TV, men’s or women’s).

Thankyou…..that’s about [        ] of you. OK hands down….

And now put your hands up please only if you have ever actually paid to go to see a live boxing match? Not sure that is of any real relevance to what I want to say this morning, I was just interested to know...! So that is [        ] of you. OK hands down…

And now can you put your hand up again if you have ever, at any time in your life, actually put on a pair of those big red gloves and been in any kind of boxing match at all, whether a proper one or even just for a few seconds at a youth club or wherever. I am not talking here about just hitting a punchbag in a gym. I am talking about having someone actually try to punch you! OK that’s about [   ] of you….and hands down.

As far as I can remember I put on boxing gloves only once at a youth club about 45 years ago and all I remember was thinking I should be quite good at it but in fact I just kept getting hurt because the other lad kept hitting me!

OK, well I am really no expert but, from I have seen, it seems to me there are at least three kinds of punch in any boxing match.  Are there any boxers in the congregation here today who might like to help us illustrate this?

First, there is what is known as a jab where you just keep on punching out, hard but not too hard, but just banging away at your opponent, making sure they know you are there and unsettling them because it does actually hurt if the jab gets past your own guard, past your gloves.

And then there is the kind of punch that is pretty hard. It often follows the jab – or a number of jabs - and is intended to hurt and to score points. It is usually a punch to the head but it may be to the body, what is known as a body blow.  Let’s call one of these the thump. So jab, jab, jab and thump!

And then there is what you could call the knockout punch, the really big one, the one intended to put your opponent on the floor and you may be lucky to get up from it until after the referee has counted to 10. You might even be knocked unconscious.

So, for our boxing lesson this morning at least, we have the jab, the thump and the knockout blow.

[Thankyou at this point our boxer can go back to her/his seat]

Now, just for a few seconds, whether or not your have ever actually been in or seen any kind of boxing match before, I want you to imagine you are actually in a boxing ring please.  To do this first you have to put your hands up like this, to attempt to defend yourself. It is called putting up your guard, so please can everyone do that. Now close your eyes and just imagine you are trying to defend yourself against a pretty aggressive boxer, first they are jabbing at you trying to get behind your guard and hit your head or body. And when they do you can certainly feel it. At the very least it is very annoying and you want to get out of the way.

And then I want you to imagine that after a few jabs, maybe 5 or 6, most of which get through your guard, the other person lands a big punch, a real thump, you are still on your feet but boy does this one hurt, bang right on the side of your head. The edge of the glove catches your ear in a sharp pain, your face is scrunched up and at this point you think maybe golf or tiddlywinks or a nice swim might be a better sport for you as you shake your head and see if you can still see properly out of both eyes.

I won’t ask you to imagine being hit by a knockout blow you’ll be pleased to hear. I don’t want people falling over semi conscious!  But one or two of you might just be beginning to imagine being hit in that way….

Ok, please now open your eyes and relax…

So, why on earth have I asked you to think about being in a boxing match? Well, the reason is that it seems to me that it is a pretty good illustration of the rhythm and effect of Mark’s gospel.  Whether or not this idea might apply to other books of the Bible, for me it is as if the writer of this gospel really is trying to hit the reader:

Jab jab jab jab….parable, parable, parable, parable; then thump, the calming of the storm, then healing, parable, healing, healing, jab jab jab jab and thump, as Jesus feeds 5 thousand people and walks on the water; healing, healing, healing parable, jab jab jab jab then thump, the Transfiguration when Jesus meets Moses and Elijah on the mountain, then healing, parable, jab, jab etc etc, and so on all the way through to the knockout blow of the resurrection.

Can you just begin to feel these blows?

And all the time the writer is banging away this question. Who is this then? Who is he? Listen if you have any ears on your head…I am hitting your ears hard enough! Who do you think he is??

So let’s look now at today’s section of this gospel, the passages from Mark chapter 4 that we have just heard:

You may remember if you were here last week that Jesus has just confronted and challenged his hearers with the parable of the sower and the explanation about the different kinds of ground the seed falls into. 

And now he starts with this:

If you light a lamp in a room you don’t hide it under a pot, or stick it under the bed, you put it somewhere the light can be seen! Quick jab to the head it seems to me. Look, Jesus is talking about the Kingdom of God, the kind of world God wants and the kind of people God wants us to be, not some obscure, boring, dry theological arguments. Justice, hope, forgiveness, faithfulness, healing…This is important stuff. Wake up! You are in a bit of a fight…At the very least what Jesus is doing and saying deserves to be clearly presented and available to shine a light on all of us and help us to see. And that applies to us just as much today.  In today’s world it can be tempting to hide. Don’t fall for it Jesus seems to be saying. And this is the challenge for our churches today…Keep the light shining out and shining freely, whatever happens next…..Jab! Did that one get past your guard at all?

And then a harder jab, I think, because Jesus then takes the idea of things being hidden and things being out in the open and broadens it out completely. He says that whatever is hidden away will be bought out into the open, whatever is covered up will be uncovered. Goodness me! What, everything? Everything that has ever been said or thought or done? Everything I have ever said or thought or done? Yes, we are God’s created children and will have to answer to him one day.

Thank God for forgiveness then but you had better start living in the light now because the light will shine on absolutely everything one day………  This is just one extreme example which of course does not apply to the great majority of Christians, but if only those in the churches who have been involved in abuse of children over the years had listened to these words.  Everything will be revealed…..

But for all of us there will be some things in our lives we need to address. This is pretty serious stuff. It is like a Jab to the head. Wake up, wake up! Listen ! You have got ears on the side of your head, haven’t you!

Did that one get past your guard at all?

And then he says that the standards you use to judge others by will be used by God to judge you, only more severely. When you spend all that time and energy having a go at other people, whoever they are, be very careful. Look in the mirror first! Or ask yourself how you might behave when you are under really serious pressure before leaping to attack your neighbour, your colleague at work, your partner or whoever it is. “The measure you give will be the measure you receive” is one old fashioned expression of this thought. “Measure for measure” is the way Shakespeare put it.  It’s like a jab to the head and to the body…

Did that one get through at all?

If not, how about this? Those who have things will be given more but if you have nothing, even the little you have will be taken away from you. What does that mean? I don’t know about you but it has puzzled me from time to time over the years. It can’t be right that Jesus is saying that the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? Can it? Well not perhaps unless Jesus wants to confront us with a statement about the way of the world. It just maybe that he is saying to us that if you just let things happen according to the way of the world, those who have do tend to get more and those who don’t have very much do tend to get poorer…..[Pause..]…..So what are you going to do about that then? Jab to the head! Did that one get through?

Or is Jesus talking here about more spiritual matters? Be very careful. If your faith is really superficial it may not survive many challenges. It may just wither and die. But if your faith goes deeper, if you are genuinely seeking God’s way for your life, however imperfectly, your seeking does not have to be perfect, it just has to be genuine, whatever your starting point, then more will be given to you.  

As a church, a body of Christians, do we take on board the depth and the beauty and the urgency and the relevance of the gospel? Maybe we need to nurture the sense of these things in our churches or the danger is that what we have may over the years begin to drift away.

Did any of that that one get past your defences, maybe as a jab around your heart?

Can you begin to feel the rhythm and effect of this gospel? Jab, jab, jab, jab….

Now two more short parables, both about growing seeds. In the way that Jesus tells them, his Jewish hearers would have felt the force of the jabs perhaps a little more powerfully than we might today so a short Old Testament explanation is needed for both.

The first describes a man who sows his seed in his field, goes about his business, the seed grows quietly into full grown corn, he does not really know how it happens but when it is fully ripe he goes in with his sickle and gets the lot because the harvest time has come. Harvest is urgent, because delay could lose the crop.

Here, cutting the corn at harvest time is a direct reference to the OT book of Joel chapter 3,  verse 13 which describes God’s judgment on the nations and Jesus’ Jewish hearers would almost certainly have known that he was indicating that that day was almost upon them.

For us looking back from where we are, maybe the jab is this, that what we see and hear about Jesus is urgent for us too. Don’t delay. Don’t let your own response to him drift away..

Jab…

And then the second seed parable. We are getting there. For a moment I was going to say I hope you are not feeling too many bruises but then I thought that as I am suggesting that the whole purpose of this gospel is to hit us quite hard, maybe I should be hoping you are beginning to feel a bit battered and bruised. I know that’s how I can feel when I ask myself some of these questions.

So, just one jab to go. And in a way this is a good one, if in fact you can have a good sort of punch at all. Maybe in boxing there is a sort of punch that encourages the person being hit to kick on in the match themselves and spurs them on to better things. So here it is, you may just be familiar with it already. It’s known as the parable of the mustard seed, the smallest seed in the world but when planted it becomes the largest of plants and the birds come and nest in the shade of its branches.

“What shall we say the Kingdom of God is like?” asks Jesus. “It is like the mustard seed”, he goes on to explain. But in that question , “What shall we say the Kingdom of God is like?” Jesus is echoing a very well known OT passage in Isaiah chapter 40 where the prophet asks what God is like; to what can we compare Him? And in doing so there will have been very little doubt indeed that Jesus was jabbing at his Jewish hearers a message that the OT vision of the Kingdom of God was beginning to be realized.

There really is the most amazing potential in the tiniest of seeds. I have brought along two this morning.  Not mustard seeds, as far as I know, but they may help us think about Jesus’ words. Hand them on down the rows on each side of the church, take a quick look as you have them in your hand and if they succeed in getting all the way to the back (in fact please can you make sure they do as I need tem for St Paul’s late this morning!) could the last person please bring them back up. They are seeds from a Hovis loaf, “Hovis Seed Sensations Wholemeal” to be precise! And I was eating my toast this week when a seed identical to these seemed to jump off my plate, run all the way under the edge of the plate then jump up into the margarine lid.  And I was reminded just how much energy is bound up in a tiny seed.

And the jab here I think, for all of us,  is that you should never be discouraged. From the tiniest of beginnings great things can grow. I read this week about a Catholic charity called Mary’s Meals. They provide food in schools to some of the world’s poorest children. It was started by two brothers in Scotland ten or fifteen years ago and now feeds a million children in various countries every day! Give the children a meal in school and they will go to school. Go to school and they will be educated and if the children are educated a country can develop. From a tiny seed that charity grew and now a million children every day sit in its branches, at school in some of the world’s poorest countries with a fully belly that helps them to learn and stay alive and come back to be educated the next day and the next.

And I heard a talk this week from a senior manager at a successful London credit union who described a credit union started just by two women from a church in Bermondsey in their front room, determined to provide better access to loans than the businesses who too easily fall into the trap of taking advantage of the vulnerable. And now that organization forms part of one of London’s most successful responsible social lenders.

Can you feel the jab that just might push you on, whatever it is you might be reminded of by this story this morning? From the smallest of beginnings great things can grow. Do not be discouraged!

And Mark says that Jesus used many parables like these to teach the people. Jab jab jab jab jab….

And now finally I think we come to the one really big thump in this small section of Mark that we are looking at this morning. It’s the very familiar story of the boat on the lake and a storm gets up. Jesus is asleep in the back even as the waves threaten the boat and the disciples wake him as they think they are about to die. But Jesus commands the wind and the waves to be quiet and be still and they die down and he berates the disciples for their lack of faith.

“Who is this man?”, the disciples ask,  “that even the wind and the waves obey him?”

For me what has gone up till now is like being jabbed at in a boxing match. It is like being confronted with the truth. It is very difficult to ignore. Uncomfortable  or maybe inspiring wisdom and troubling truth after troubling truth. But here comes the great thump. These are no mere words of the wisest of men. Mark is not going to allow us to fall back on that. These are the words of the God of creation, the one whom the winds and the waves obey. And to be honest that is so great a claim it really does feel like a thump to the head. If it makes your head spin, maybe, it was meant to and maybe just maybe the author of this gospel might have smiled if he could see us reeling a bit this morning.

Jab jab jab jab, and then thump…..

Are you reeling at all this morning? Did any of those blows get through your defences at all? If they did, I do think they were meant to. But don’t worry, you can carry on reading this gospel. The big knockout blow is not to the end.

And just as in any boxing match, please give yourself a break after every round before you climb back in the ring and during the break think about what has just happened, about anything you have just heard. Use the quieter times in this service or maybe the prayer time in the room at the back afterwards just to ask God to show you what he might be wanting to say to us today. We all have ears and he still challenges us to use them…..

Amen

Sermon 5th July 2015

Today, Gill Tayleur, our Assistant Honorary Minister, preaches. 
The reading is from Mark 4: 1-20

One day an old man was walking along a country lane with his dog and his donkey. Suddenly a speeding truck charged round a corner, and knocked the man, his donkey, and his dog into a ditch. The old man decided to sue the driver of the truck, wanting the cost of the damages.

While the old man was on the stand, the counsel for the defence cross-examined the man saying: "I want you to answer 'yes' or 'no' to the following question: Did you or did you not say at the time of the accident that you were 'perfectly fine'"?

And the man said, "Well, me and my dog and my donkey were walking along the road …" And the counsel for defence said, " Stop, stop, I asked you, tell me 'yes' or 'no', did you say you were 'perfectly fine' at the time of the accident?"

"Well, me and my dog and my donkey were walking along the road and … " The defence lawyer appealed to the judge. "Your honour," he said, "the man is not answering the question. Would you please insist that he answer the question?"

The judge said, "Well, he obviously wants to tell us something. Let him speak."

So the man said, "Well, me and my dog and my donkey were walking along the road and this truck came around the corner far too fast, and knocked us into a ditch. The driver stopped, got out of his truck, saw my dog was badly injured,

went back to his truck, got his rifle, and he shot & killed the dog. Then he saw that my donkey had broken his leg so he shot it dead too. Then he turned to me and asked, 'How are you?' And I said, 'I'm perfectly fine!'"

In order to understand someone, sometimes we need to listen very carefully to what they have to say.

We’ve just heard the words of Jesus (verse 9): “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

So before we go any further, let’s pray for God’s help in hearing: Lord help us to listen carefully to Jesus’ words this morning – and to be open to them and how to respond. Amen.

The Parable of the Sower. We’ve probably all heard this parable before but I hope we can hear it afresh this morning, as I think it has a message for ALL of us, wherever we’re “at” in relation to the Christian faith and to Jesus himself. Whether you’re here as a committed Christian, an interested enquirer, a reluctant sceptic, or not quite sure where you stand. Whatever position we’re in this morning, the words of Jesus we just heard have something to say to all of us! So, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

The passage we’ve just read has 3 parts to it: the parable of the sower, the explanation of the parable, and the funny bit in the middle that some versions of the Bible call/s The Purpose of the Parables. And it’s that middle bit I’d like to start with, about why Jesus spoke in parables. If we understand why, we’ll have the best chance of getting the message!

Those middle verses, 10 to 12, are tricky, to say the least. At first sight Jesus seems to be saying that parables are deliberately obscure and difficult, so that people

won’t understand them! ???!!

He says, “The secret of the Kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside, everything is said in parables so that ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”

What does this mean? Doesn’t Jesus want people to understand what he’s saying and turn to God?

Some Bible commentators think it must have been said in sarcasm, because Jesus made clear on so many other occasions that he did want people to respond positively to him and his message, to turn from their sin and receive God’s love & forgiveness.

Other commentators say that in the Hebrew language, the acceptance of a foreseen result of something is expressed as the working out of an intention. It’s a linguistic thing, and saying it like this describes what happens, not why it happens. In other words, Jesus wasn’t saying he didn’t want people to turn to him and be forgiven – he was just describing what was happening, that when people don’t listen, they don’t respond.

The passage Jesus quotes is a condensed form of Isaiah chapter 6 verses 9 & 10. In that chapter, Isaiah is called by God as a prophet to challenge the people who have turned away from God. Whilst some of them responded

to Isaiah’s preaching by coming back to God, most didn’t, and Isaiah’s message simply exposed their hard hearted resistance to God.

Similarly, everything Jesus did & said created a division,

as people either responded positively, or they reacted negatively & against Jesus. His parables both explain this,

and they themselves are a part of that process, as people responded one way or the other.

This is the first time in Mark’s gospel that Jesus tells a parable. Already there are people against Jesus, out to get him, as we saw in last week’s reading from chapter 3,

where some people thought Jesus was mad, and some thought he was evil. So it seems that

if Jesus carried on speaking plainly, people like the Pharisees would keep picking a fight with him and use his words against him. Instead Jesus started to speak in parables, short stories that use familiar scenes to explain spiritual truth, stories that need the listener to really listen and think about what’s being said and what it means.

And because you have to think about a parable, only those with open hearts and minds really ‘get’ its message.

The truth in a parable is there for those who really want it,

but it’s obscure to closed minded and prejudiced people.

Sometimes people don’t get it because they don’t really want to get it.

And the same goes for us. Will we respond positively to the truth we see in Jesus and hear in his words about turning to God and receiving his love & forgiveness? Are we willing to let it impact and even change us? Or do we refuse to listen,

refuse to grapple and engage with him, do we quickly move away? Do we blank out what we hear in church, with a closed heart and mind, dismissing it as naïve or myth,

without even really listening first?! Or do we listen and think about it and take it seriously and ask questions with openness to what might actually be true?

 “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Let’s look at the parable itself then, the parable of the sower. It’s a simple story, of a farmer who goes out and sows his crop, scattering seeds in his field. No machinery to help in those days, the famer scatters by hand. And the seeds fall in different places, on different types of soil, with differing results.

Jesus’ explanation of the parable is that God is the sower,

his message about turning to God  is the seed and people are the different types of soil.

This parable of the sower is often explained and applied to 4 different sorts of people, relating to the 4 soils. Let’s think of that and which person we might be as we think about each of them.

But it might equally apply to different phases or times in a person’s life; one sort of soil at one time, another at a different time.

Or it could be applied to different areas of our one life. For example, we might be open to God about our working life, but closed about how we spend our money. Open in how we respond to God in worship, but less open to people in need.

So as we look at each sort of soil in turn, let’s think – and listen – about any area of our own life to which it may apply…

First then the path. Some seeds fall along the path, where birds come along and eat it up.  In those days,

there would have been narrow footpaths running beside and through the fields. The soil on them would have been

so compacted from people walking on it over many years,

it would be rock hard. No seed could penetrate such a hard path, and it would lie there out in the open – but it wouldn’t be long before a bird came and gobbled it up.

Jesus says this is like people who hear the message, and Jesus’ invitation to turn to God for his love and forgiveness, but it doesn’t impact them.

It’s dismissed out of hand, not given any real consideration at all. We refuse to believe. Maybe we’ve hardened our hearts against the truth about Jesus for years and we’re closed to it.

In the parable, birds come and eat the seed, and in his explanation, Jesus says that Satan or the Evil One

takes away the word. What does that mean?!

In his sermon last Sunday Cameron spoke about the reality of evil, and as I’ve said before, I too believe in a personal evil,

Satan or the Devil if you like. And I believe that just as God

wants us to listen and understand, so too there is a personal opposing force that wants to blind us, and block our hearts and minds to Jesus’ truth. He wants us to think it’s nonsense,

this stuff about Jesus, to disregard it, or say it’s fairy tales, or wishful thinking, or isn’t important, not now…

So are we like the path, hard hearted to Jesus and his message about our need to turn and receive God’s love and forgiveness? Some of us probably are.

Others might not be closed or cold toward Jesus as our general attitude,

but maybe we are in a specific part of our life. The question then is,

is there an area of my life in which I don’t – maybe I daren’t – listen and grapple with Jesus’ teaching? I choose to ignore it!

It might be our money – nope, not letting Jesus control that!

Or our sexual relationships – no, not letting Jesus have a say in that!

Or our working life, and how we go about succeeding at work,

sometimes at the expense of others or not really being honest.

Or maybe it’s a relationship that we know needs forgiveness and restoration – no, far easier to let it be!

In what area/s of our life are we hard hearted toward Jesus

and his teaching?

Some seed fell on the path. Secondly, some seed fell on rocky ground. Such rocky places are common in Palestine; I understand they’re often an outcropping of limestone rock covered by a thin layer of topsoil. The soil looks OK, but because it’s so shallow, no decent roots can grow and when the hot sun beats down, the little plants wither and die.

Jesus says this is about those “who hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.”

Some of us respond to the Christian message of God’s love & forgiveness, and to Jesus himself, eagerly wanting him in our lives - for his help?! But when the Christian life doesn’t turn out like we expect or want, when it’s hard, faith quickly fades away. “What use is Christianity if I can’t have an easy life?!” we might think. Really we want a bless-er, rather than a saviour, a sugar daddy rather than a king? We want help and relief, and Jesus as our friend, not really willing to hand over control to Jesus our lord and master? Perhaps we expect Jesus to provide instant relief when troubles come along, expect him to meet our every need. And when we don’t get it, we either drift, or stomp, away. We’re rocky ground.

The memory verse Cameron has set us for this sermon series

 is Mark chapter 10 verse 45: Join with me if you know it:

“The son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Jesus’ life was all about service and sacrifice, and as his followers, we can expect much of the same! The Christian life is about giving our lives for God and for others, as well as about receiving his wonderful love! How we respond to challenges and difficulties show our faith for what it is – something that withers away or something strong that continues to grow and bear fruit or do good.

So where in our lives do we hold ‘rocky ground’ attitudes,  that we need to turn from? Where do we need to ‘dig deeper’ in our faith?

The third place the seed fell was among the thorns. Seeds growing among the thorns take root and start to grow, but after a while they’re choked by thorns  and die.

Jesus said these are people who hear “the word, but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things come in and choke the word,

making it unfruitful.”

We all know all about the cares of the world, don’t we?!

The worries of life. Jesus says they can deafen us to God’s message, they try to pull us away from him,

as does the lure of wealth, materialistic pursuits, a false sense of security brought by prosperity, or the drive for status or popularity. These things mean we’re not single hearted in turning to God, we’re half hearted, and they hold us back. Maybe we don’t see God’s power at work in our lives, don’t see ourselves changing, becoming more like Jesus, because our lives are full of thorns.

So what are the things in our life that pull us away from

living single heartedly for God? What worry, or desire,

lures us away? And what can we do about that?

Finally, the good soil that produces plants of much fruit. This is when we hear the truth about God and his son Jesus, turn to him for his love and forgiveness, and live in the light of it. And good stuff results! We become more like Jesus,

showing the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, humility and self control. We live a life of service to others. (“The son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”)

God invites us to live and be fruitful for him and others

in a way that’s unique to each of us. How has he made you and me to bear fruit, with our particular gifts and experiences? Where in our lives would we like to be more fruitful, be a really good influence or impact? At home? At work? With our friends? Somewhere else?

 “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

Let’s finish with a moment of quiet, in which to think, what kind of soil am I?

The Path - In what ways do I keep God out?

Rocky ground – Where am I shallow in my commitment to God when things are difficult?
Thorns – How am I distracted, burdened and defeated by the worries of this life, the desire for wealth and other things?

Good soil - Am I bearing the fruit I might?

[moment of quiet]                

So let’s pray:

Lord we want to be good soil, want to produce much fruit, to be a blessing to others, to serve you and others as Jesus did. Help us to do whatever we need to today, to do that better. In your name, amen.