THE SOWER The Harvest

Transcription

1 May 12, 2013 Luke 8:4-18 THE SOWER The Harvest I experience endless blessings from the efforts of others. Even though their motives are mixed which I assume they are, because my own motives are still, I have great appreciation for the endless blessings that others bring to my life. Nothing is perfect here, and even though all these blessings put together will not save me or this world, yet they are still blessings. If anything, I should be even more aware and more grateful. It is, after all, harder to bring blessings into a broken world than it would be to bring them into a perfect world. Please, I do not mean I ought to be more grateful, as if it were some duty. It is not because my Mother told me I should be thankful for my blessings. I really do wish I was more aware. People work hard, take big risks, endure many things in order to contribute what they do. They are not always doing it with me in mind. Some of them are trying to take care of their families and loved ones. Some of them are hoping to gain wealth or position or renown in their own lives. But they bless me in the process. Something in me wishes they got more appreciation, more gratitude for their caring and their efforts. When I stop to think about it, I am still grateful for lightbulbs. I am grateful for computers. When they work right, they are marvelous. I spent years writing sermons on typewriters. And I remember feeling so pleased when my third church finally bought a new electric typewriter (an IBM Selectric) for me to use. Boy was that sweet! But if you wanted to do any editing, the whole thing still had to be typed all over again. I get annoyed and impatient with computers like most everybody else. But how foolish is that? They save me not hours, but days of work. Without a computer I simply could not accomplish in several days what it is now possible to achieve in a few hours. Should I not be grateful, and rejoice? Yet I seldom stop to remember that it has cost many people constant and conscientious effort to make such computers and programs available to me. It is true that lots of people do not contribute very much to the general well-being of our country. Yet millions still do. Is there any connection between the Sower sowing the seed and this harvest of various blessings and benefits that are available to most of us? I feel certain that there are many connections, seen and unseen. I am still convinced that the Protestant work ethic has its roots BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 1 OF 11

2 in Puritan faith and gratitude to God. On the other hand, I do not think that this parable we have been studying is concerned about or talking about the general standard of living in this or any other country. The Apostle Paul never drove on I-5 or I-90. He never knew how much he needed a headlamp or good tires, or even a BMW. Jesus managed to impact the lives of millions of people, and still does to this day. But He never had a typewriter, never mind a computer. He never wrote a book or used Facebook or Twitter. I am not suggesting that Christians should refrain from using anything that Jesus did not use. While I cannot imagine Jesus walking a dusty road between Galilee and Samaria with headphones on, listening to the latest music that is a disconnect between our age and His it has nothing to do with my notions of sound theology or following biblical principles. Most of us long to make a difference in the outer world. We seem to be built that way. This is not because of some teaching from Jesus; it is not coming from our notions about religious duty. We want to make a difference, and people who promise us that we can make a difference are able to talk us into a wide array of silly efforts toward unlikely goals. We usually forgive them, on the theory that something is better than nothing. A very dubious precept at best. In any case, Jesus tells us a parable that He Himself knows few people will hear or understand. In this parable, as we have seen for several weeks now, Jesus tells us that many things in this life will prevent or even work against our producing any harvest for God. God will keep sowing the seed: God will keep handing to us the possibilities and the potential for a good harvest. We are the soil, and God will keep on sending us the seed. Clearly the point and purpose of the parable is the harvest. Some of the seed fell into good soil, and grew, and yielded a hundredfold. Everything in the parable wants to head for this fifteenth verse. I doubt very much that any of us would be happy to be told that our lives have accomplished nothing. To be sure, this parable is a bit tougher than that even higher than that. Behind this parable Jesus is asking if we care about accomplishing anything for God. The truth is, we really don t want our lives to get stuck on any of the verses prior to verse fifteen. (Verse eight is okay too, if you want to quibble.) BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 2 OF 11

3 So we can deal with it now, or save it for the rousing climax of this sermon series. But what is the harvest? I suspect it will make for greater clarity if we deal with it now. What is the harvest? At this point, in my experience, most study groups get very hazy. They cloud the issue by talking about what we think the harvest is or ought to be. This is what I think; what do you think? That may be okay, but first we need to ask: What does Jesus mean by the harvest? We cannot understand a parable if we do not have some awareness of the person who is telling it. People who do not realize this end up turning the parables mostly into mush. Having been in numerous study groups that were wrestling with this passage, I am aware that we may not agree about the harvest. Even asking the right question What does Jesus mean by the harvest? it is probable that we will not all agree. Beyond that, I think there are good reasons for wanting to keep things vague, or at least open-ended. I have heard long and earnest arguments for the proposition that the harvest means deeds of kindness, or even deeds of love. Some would claim that any gift or ability that is being used by any of us qualifies as part of this harvest. If a person plays an instrument well, or is a good auto mechanic, or becomes an effective teacher, doctor, physicist, or whatever, then that is the legitimate produce of this harvest. Actually I agreed with that perspective for quite a long time. I liked it, and it agreed with some of my own opinions and prejudices about life, and especially about vocatio. I still hold such opinions; I just don t think this parable is talking about that. I don t think this is the kind of harvest Jesus has in mind when He tells this parable. The harvest is people coming into God s Kingdom. The harvest is gathering more people who believe and trust and live for the God of love that Jesus reveals. Jesus has started a serious new movement: a very controversial mission to bring people into a New Life a New WAY of seeing and trusting and obeying God. This New WAY is so radically different from normal Judaism so different from anything human beings believed in or trusted in anywhere, before Jesus came that it will get Jesus killed. This New WAY will get a good many of His followers killed as well. It helps us understand better if we keep reminding ourselves that Jesus is on a serious mission, with incredibly serious consequences. Whatever humor we notice, whatever friendly or caring moments we discern, whatever likeable character traits we think we are seeing Jesus is very focused and enormously serious about what He is doing and how much it matters. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 3 OF 11

4 There is no honest way to pretend that Jesus is inviting us into a mission for worldly success. Since most of us are really impressed with earthly success jealous or respectful of those who have it we are constantly in danger of translating our own perspectives back onto the Christian Way. Perhaps I remind you of such things too often, but mostly Christians do not remind each other of such things often enough. Christianity is not a synonym for the American Way or for what most Americans really want. We might suppose that the Cross would prevent any such forgetfulness. Yet the Cross is now such a familiar emblem, and so frequently used as a talisman for the exact opposite purposes from those it stands for, that it often works against Jesus. We do get constant reminders, if we pay attention. There is a worthy verse in the fourteenth chapter of Acts. I wonder if you have ever noticed it. Paul and Barnabas are returning from their first missionary journey. Paul has been stoned and left for dead in Lystra. Having escaped to Derbe to recover, the two are now on their way back home (to Syrian Antioch) and are visiting the new churches along the way. This time they go more quickly and quietly through the towns where they had preached and stirred up so much anger and persecution before. It reads: They returned to Lystra, then to Iconium, and then to Pisidian Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to be true to the faith. They warned them that to enter the kingdom of God we must undergo many hardships. (Acts 14:21-22) Has anybody ever warned you about that? If I could start my ministry over again, I would quote this verse every time we were welcoming new members into the church. They warned them that to enter the kingdom of God we must undergo many hardships. In any case, when Jesus tells this parable about God sowing seed in us and how some of the seed falls on good soil which will produce a hundredfold harvest, I end up concluding that what Jesus is talking about is us bringing more people into His church, into His Kingdom, into this New Life of being reconciled with God, of trusting God s love for us, and of following Jesus WAY of LIFE. You probably get tired of my constant need to translate all our important words, like: church, sin, meek, humble, faith, salvation, kingdom, love, forgiveness, etc. Why do I keep explaining the obvious? If I don t, I get continually misunderstood. Just so: Jesus WAY is a Way of prayer and obedience letting the Holy Spirit guide, comfort, inspire, and direct us in everything we do. If that is the American Way, well and good. If it is not, it is still our WAY. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 4 OF 11

5 I am not trying to stop all the arguments or possible disagreements. I am just trying to be clear. If the seed falls on good soil and if you are good soil, then by the end of your life there will be one hundred people who are followers of Jesus and believers in the God Jesus revealed because of your influence. This may not be my reality or your reality or the actual result of what we have tried to accomplish with our lives, but this is what the parable is talking about. This is what the parable means by the harvest. A quick aside: This does not match what a great many people mean by evangelism. Standing on a street corner and handing out pamphlets is not going to provide the nurture, reveal the love, or build the relationships that will bring in this harvest. At least I do not think so. Especially not when the pamphlets are filled with attitudes, assumptions, and information that are not compatible with the seed the Sower is sowing. Filling people s minds with images of fear or opinions that lead toward hatred do not qualify for the trust or love of Jesus followers toward the God Jesus revealed. Jesus, after all, is the seed God is sowing. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. God sows Jesus; Jesus sows disciples who have come to believe in Him. You may think this is a stretch for this parable, but if so, it is not a very big stretch. Is this not in line with what we have come to believe about the mission and purpose of Jesus? So we ask again, who is telling this parable? Okay. The harvest is not some vague imagery or esoteric symbolism too hard for us to follow, even though we often wish it were. The harvest is more and more members of the body of Christ more and more people in the New Kingdom Jesus came to reveal and invite us into. If the seed falls on us and we are good soil, we will produce a harvest of more followers. The harvest will not come without intention on our part; it will not come easily or automatically. But by holding the seed fast by continual hearing (if you noticed), by perseverance we will yield a harvest. Because of us, others will become followers of Jesus, will learn to trust God more and more, will pattern their lives according to the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And they in turn will bring others into this New Life. That, by the way, is the real story of Christianity in our world. Christianity is not about theories we believe in. Christianity is about whether or not we are part of Jesus purpose and mission. We have dared to name what the harvest is. Not everyone will agree, but we have named it. Now back to the parable. Can we at least agree on what a harvest of a hundredfold means? The field (the soil) ends up BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 5 OF 11

6 yielding one hundred seeds for every seed that is sown. God sows the seed and wants a harvest of children of light wants children who know, trust, love, and obey him. Every good farmer has his eye on the harvest. In Jesus time, no harvest meant you would starve. A harvest is one of the necessities of life. In our time, the precept is sometimes clouded, or even obscured on purpose. Perhaps more to the point, the consequences can sometimes be delayed. We get warnings or recessions before starvation. That gives us a chance to pass laws against starvation. Some of us aren t sure passing laws will work against starvation, but it sounds more humane than facing the realities of being productive. Anyway, if there is no harvest, you die sooner or later. A business that cannot find customers will close. Someone may subsidize it for a while, but it will find a way to be productive or it will die. Mainline churches have stopped caring about evangelism. That is, they do not introduce anybody to Jesus they do not bring in new members. They no longer bring in any harvest. So they are dying-out across the land. This is a great mystery to some people in these very churches. Most of their members have not brought one single new member into the church in the past fifty years. And now they are mystified by the fact that their church cannot pay its bills and must close its doors. They think it s because they couldn t hire a really good preacher. I wonder how they imagine that the churches at Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe survived after Paul and Barnabas left, having spent only a few days with them in the first place. Of course, these people never asked such a question, having never read far enough in their Bibles to know anything about Lystra, or even very much about Paul. Some of them know they don t like Paul, but that doesn t mean they know anything about him. In any case, every good farmer has his eye on the harvest. Top priority, very top: you must put aside a portion of the harvest so you will have something to plant come spring. If you get hungry during the winter and eat it all up, then there will be nothing to plant the following season no harvest and you will starve. Probably few of you will want to find an application for this, but a good farmer will always save out the best seeds he can find for the next year s planting. If he saves the best and strongest seeds, then each year his crop will improve. (If you are completely mystified, Jesus did choose out twelve of His followers to be disciples-in-training to become apostles.) BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 6 OF 11

7 It should be obvious to all of us that evangelism is not just a nice thought for enthusiasts or zealots. By whatever name you call it, it is a principle of Life. We produce a harvest or we die. Any organization that does not attract new members will not survive for long. We don t have to get wild ideas about taking over the whole world; that could only happen if we did not live in a broken world. But some people forget the cycle of life that is always going on here. People get born, and people die. Every church requires a certain number of new members to join each year just to break even. In the churches I have served, this number was usually somewhere between six and ten. I never said anything about it, but I always considered that to be my assignment: to keep the church at least breaking even. If the members wanted to grow, they would have to care. Very few of them ever did. It is the traditional and widespread conviction of the liberal Christian establishment, at least when it comes to spiritual awareness to the spiritual life that I ve got mine; everybody else can go screw themselves. If somebody needs money or medicine or a job, some liberal Christians care. But when it comes to Jesus, liberal Christians are totally stingy. While many of them still claim to know and love Jesus, they do not care about anybody else coming to know Jesus. It is clear to me that this must not be the attitude of the members of The New Church. Already we are caring more and more about each other. And it has been important to let the seed put down solid roots before we even think about spreading. But our second anniversary is coming up this week. Sometime during our third year, if the roots are true and genuine, the Message will begin to creep beyond our present borders. So we are not tangled up in sophistry or fancy allegories. The harvest means bringing in more followers of Jesus. And a hundredfold is no mystery either. If you plant an apple seed and get an apple tree, it is not hard to imagine getting a hundred apples from that one seed. Of course, it will take a few years. The same principle applies to corn or wheat to sowing seed and getting a harvest. We shop in grocery stores and this obscures some of the principles of farming, but we can still keep some awareness of the realities of agriculture and of Christianity. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 7 OF 11

8 What about the realities behind the person telling this parable? Did Jesus produce a harvest for God? It is still going on, isn t it? In His lifetime, Jesus seemed content to focus on a twelvefold harvest, rather than a hundredfold. But that was His awareness of how seed best grows and spreads. A lot depends on the roots. By the end of His three-year ministry, the harvest seems to have been in the neighborhood of five thousand. The crucifixion required a new jump-start. That is, many of those who had started to follow Jesus needed to be picked up again: encouraged, restored, reenlisted. But we celebrate Pentecost next Sunday. We went over that pretty fast, and I promised to slow down. How many followers did Jesus have by the time of Palm Sunday? It is only a guess; we have no historical records that mention statistics. But quite a few good biblical scholars would support a guess of around five thousand followers by Palm Sunday. The crowds were enthusiastic enough and numerous enough to prevent Jesus arrest. Yet they were not clear or committed enough to pull off the insurrection that would establish Jesus as the new King. Nor were they clear enough or committed enough to prevent the crucifixion five days later. At this point, none of the followers were committed/believing Christians as we might think of it. These were the friends and relatives of a wide array of people who had been impressed in some way by the teaching, healing, and impact of Jesus activities since His baptism. This crowd of followers ran the gamut from disciples to friends of friends. Not even the twelve were yet what we would call committed/believing Christians. None of them understood with depth or clarity who Jesus was, what it all meant, or what the real purpose of His ministry was. Some of you are probably challenging such comments in your mind because of Peter s confession at Caesarea Philippi. Peter had said, and the others had agreed: You are the Christ, the son of the living God. Yet I have said that none of them were what we would call committed, believing Christians. Could I please clarify? Of course. It really is important to know. At Caesarea Philippi, Peter believes that Jesus is the Messiah (Christos, in Greek). He is not kidding at all. But Peter still has the wrong definition of Messiah in his head. Peter has no idea what manner of Messiah Jesus really is. Jesus is the Messiah, but He will be almost the reverse of what Peter thinks Messiah is supposed to be. Further evidence of Peter s level of understanding at this point is the fact that this confession is barely out of his mouth before Jesus rebukes him with BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 8 OF 11

9 Get thee behind me Satan, you are a hindrance to me. So I repeat: none of them understood with depth or clarity who Jesus was, what any of it really meant, or what the real purpose of His ministry was. Never mind the fat lady singing; Peter hasn t even heard the rooster s cry yet! Peter and the others are still hoping to ride Jesus coattails into success and glory here on earth. That is what Messiah means to them. None of the twelve have any real inkling of Jesus true Kingship, or of the Kingdom not of this world. This is still prior to the crucifixion and the resurrection and prior to Pentecost. Not paying attention can easily land us on the wrong side of what being followers of Jesus is really about. It is not about walking with Him in Galilee. It is about walking with His Holy Spirit in whatever land and circumstances we find ourselves. A lot of Christendom is not making this turn it is not following where He really leads. Anyway, the disciples do not understand yet. This would appear to be an incontrovertible fact because of the denial and desertion on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Easter and Pentecost have not happened yet. After Easter and Pentecost, eleven of the twelve will not deny or desert Him ever again. Tried it once didn t like it! Ten of the eleven will each die a martyr s death in His service. Eleven of the twelve if you count Paul among the twelve, as I certainly do. By the way, because John did not die a martyr s death does not mean or imply that he was less committed or less a believer than the others. It is another incontrovertible fact that somewhere within a few months after the crucifixion, all life, all reality, all conviction and purpose changed for a swiftly growing number of followers. It did not just sort of change things. It did not just persuade people to be a little kinder or more thoughtful or more conscientious than they had been before. It swept their lives into an entirely different ethos. Many of them also died in the persecutions that followed. Yet despite this deterrent, new followers kept joining the movement. They were filled with a new joy, a new peace, a new purpose. Soon all of them were anathema to Judaism and were outlaws in the Roman Empire. The Star Wars trilogy tried to mimic their story, only with most of the plot and the spiritual reality cut back to kindergarten levels. Christianity overturned the Roman Empire, at least until earthly success overturned Christianity. Thistles again. Many still try to ignore this history, or try to pretend that what happened between 30 A.D. and BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 9 OF 11

10 230 A.D. was only history s imagination. Some people do not want to understand it or get involved with it. But it did happen. For many people in many generations ever since, it goes on happening. Clearly Jesus and His Holy Spirit have been bringing in a harvest. The parable goes on being enacted in real life. But it is important to remember that the followers in real life are part of this parable too. And there are more of them than we can possibly name or honor. And so, friends, it is our desire to bear fruit. In love and gratitude to Jesus, it is our sincere desire to be faithful, patient, persevering soil that brings in a harvest for our Lord. The principles of survival are clear to everyone who cares. If God sows the seed in us and we do not nurture it in such a way that it spreads to others, then Jesus ministry and purpose on earth will dwindle and die, at least as far as we are concerned. Or more accurately, as far as we are unconcerned. Unlike Peter or Paul, we do not get to go where the Gospel seems fresh, brand new. We never get to go where resistance has not already been raised against Jesus and His church, and even against the language we use to talk about it. We cannot go where other servants have not already proclaimed the Message in ways that seem odious to us ways which have already driven many people away and built shields of defense so thick that even the Holy Spirit has a hard time getting a hearing. You must be wise as serpents, innocent as doves, our Lord told us. So be prayerful about who you try to reach. Call on the Spirit s timing and love, for when and how you will reach out to another. Never be discouraged or surprised at rejection. Never pretend you care about someone unless it is really true. If we gain new brothers and sisters by the dozens, it is probably a sign that we are frauds, using gimmicks instead of the Gospel. Two or three new friends a year is fine, and would be three times more than most Christians ever manage. For us the harvest is not a hundredfold unless we stay at it for years. Yet every new child of light is precious to our Lord. You have heard such things from me already. But I am so hopeful that we will not become false or lukewarm followers in The New Church, as is so commonly true in the normal churches of our time. We must be evangelists! We have no other choice. If the seed is growing within us, it leaves us no choice. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 10 OF 11

11 There are three principles I hope we will always remember in The New Church. You might suspect at first that they are contradictory, but do not jump to hasty conclusions. 1.) Never focus on the harvest. Focus on the seed within you. God has sowed it. If we are good soil, we must always be nurturing the seed, eager to let the roots grow stronger and deeper within us. 2.) Be eager but willing to let the seed spread to others; it is one of the ways God sows the seed. But do not be in a hurry! Fear and haste are the telltale marks of those who still wonder if the seed is genuine and true. Satan always wants us to do it better, and faster. Satan is always urging us to be more effective, and more successful. Satan s favorite way of stealing the seed is to get us focused on the results to distract us so we start thinking more and more about results and less and less about the source the seed and about letting the seed grow deep within us. 3.) I hope you will remember it too, but this third one is especially for me. I must remember that everyone I meet is already a child of God s. The Spirit is already tracking and calling to them. Some of them are more advanced in the spiritual life than I am, at least in some areas. But I never have to start from scratch with anybody. They are all created by God. Some of them are afraid to listen to the Spirit. Some think they are only imagining things, and that nobody else is feeling such influence or having such thoughts. I only want to awaken them, to introduce them properly, to urge them to give the Spirit a chance. I always know I have been a good and genuine evangelist when I hear the Spirit say, Thanks, I can take it from here. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 11 OF 11