April 7, 2013 Luke 8:4-18 THE SOWER Look But See Nothing Three times already people have mentioned in my hearing that Easter is over. I didn t say a word, even though that grates on my ears. For us Easter is never over. For us Easter begins something that never ends. But why be picky? It was a casual comment. They didn t mean any harm. They weren t speaking theologically. Besides, who really cares if what we say on Sunday or in worship services has any significance in real life? So I heard the remark three times. Only once did it come from a person for whom Easter really is over. More accurately, a person for whom Easter has never really dawned never registered. This person is no outward adversary of mine. We don t quarrel a lot. We don t have enough of a relationship to merit a real quarrel. Yet this person lives a life that in many ways is over against what I care about, live for, and believe in. I have tried a number of times to discover some way to open up for this person some of the dimensions of life that I find meaningful, important, and exciting. I get nowhere. Correction: So far I get nowhere. You can tell by the glaze over the eyes. This person s way of dealing with me is to agree. They pretend to know and agree with everything I am trying to say. So there is no reason to argue, but there is also no reason to talk or discuss it any further. People who really agree with me love to talk about it. They are as excited about the Christian Life as I am. But this person s life carries no evidence that they really know or understand any of what I am talking about. I could, of course, be nasty enough to point out this discrepancy to them. But in this case, the chance of wounding without benefit seems too great. So do I wait with patience, or am I just losing the courage to be a Message-bearer for my Lord? This may seem to you a strange way to introduce a sermon about one of Jesus parables. But perhaps as the sermon unfolds, you will realize that there are many connections between this parable and this real-life situation. I suspect that I am not the only one who talks with people who have false but pleasant shields against Jesus. If Jesus is the Messiah, the true and rightful King from here to eternity, then being uninterested in Him wanting no relationship with Him makes no sense. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 1 OF 8
It is my intention to slow way down for a few Sundays. Six sermons on one very clear and obvious parable. That is hardly a way to deal with the hot and significant issues of our time. To have a hot and significant issue, you have to be dealing with something lots of people are very frightened about. It used to be that many people were very concerned about friends or loved ones going to Hell. When that was the case, evangelism carrying the Message was a hot and significant issue. From my perspective, as most of you would know, the Message being carried was false and the issue being identified was buried in baloney. But as usual, there were lots of good intentions mixed in with the fear and the falsehood. Today we have other kinds of hot issues. We can hardly find the time to let one fear paralyze us before another fear is demanding our attention. Will we die from a dread disease, or from an asteroid hitting our planet? Will we die from global warming, or should we merely sell all beachfront property? Will overpopulation ruin all quality of life on earth, or do we merely have to get used to the millions dying of starvation? Will a nuclear holocaust come from Korea, or from the Middle East? Will all Jews and Christians end up at war with all Muslims, or is God really one? Please do not imagine that I am making fun of our fears. There is no need for any false or foolish fears we have plenty of very real and probable fears to choose from. Noah wasn t stupid; the cosmology of the time just didn t tell the story the way we would. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse have always been riding in our very temporal and precarious world. The only people who are really foolish are the people who think they can fix it, stop it, make it safe. Where do you think we are?! Or have I asked you that before? So who has time to think about Jesus or to contemplate things that Jesus tried to tell us? A sower went out to sow his seed. That sounds rather tame pretty mundane. I am going to spend six Sundays talking about a sower and the seed and the soil? Yes, that s my plan. I did not say anything about these being exciting sermons. I did not promise that they would be meaningful or interesting, or that they would change your life. Actually, when Jesus talks or tells stories, I think it is exciting and meaningful, and it usually ends up changing my life. But that s my problem. I suspect that most people don t have time to think very much about Jesus stories anymore. If you pressed me, I might confess that I think this is their biggest problem. In any case, I am going to slow down and ponder this parable more than we usually do more than we usually take time for. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 2 OF 8
A sower went out to sow his seed. And I know that if I had heard the parable like Jesus told it that is, if the disciples had not come to Jesus afterward to ask Him what the parable meant I would not have understood what Jesus was telling them either. And that s my first point. The disciples themselves did not get it; they did not understand it. I think we usually jump so fast to Jesus explanations that we fail to notice that the disciples did not understand the parable either. But noticing that helps me to relax a little to slow down and not worry so much about being stupid or spiritually retarded. None of the twelve were astute enough or advanced enough to comprehend this parable. So whew! That makes it a little easier if I don t get it right away. So we will not be jumping to Jesus explanations of this parable this morning. I certainly intend to ponder His explanations as soon as I can get to them, but first I want to think about Jesus reply when the disciples asked Him what the parable meant. It has been granted to you to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but the others have only parables, so that they may look but see nothing, hear but understand nothing. Am I one of the disciples, or am I one of the others? Has it been granted to me to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God? Are you one of the disciples? Has it been granted to you to know the secrets of the Kingdom of God? Or would you prefer to know about global warming, or the secrets of how to help the poor? Do you think there is any connection between understanding a parable from Jesus and understanding any of the real problems in our world? Do we look but see nothing, listen but understand nothing? We already established that, didn t we? The disciples did not get it; they did not understand the parable. It wasn t just bad guys, creeps, delinquents, or low-life, no-account types. It wasn t people who were too rich, too power-hungry, too selfish, or too uncaring. It wasn t people who were too ignorant, too uneducated, too addicted, or too challenged by earthly survival. These were the handpicked twelve. And most of us identify: we admit that we also would have been mystified by the parable if Jesus had not explained its meaning. So all of us look but see nothing, listen but understand nothing. Do you know anybody who still looks but does not see? Who still listens but does not understand? BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 3 OF 8
So why is Jesus being this way? Why is He weeding people out? Does that not bother us? Why is Jesus okay with leaving so many people out in the cold with leaving so many people blind and deaf to the Kingdom? I think we must have the wrong religion and the wrong Messiah, don t you? On the other hand, after all these years, unlike some of the people I know, I don t want to be hasty about throwing Jesus and Christianity out the window. I am still left with my thoughts and my questions and my spiritual hunger. What hope is there, even for the inner twelve disciples? What could possibly make them different from any of the other blind or deaf who do not see or understand? And in this setting, we mean blind and deaf to what Life is really about to what is really going on here. Only one thing gives the disciples a chance that others do not have: Jesus is going to spend time with them. Jesus is going to be with them. Jesus is going to love them personally guide them, train them, scold them, teach them, badger them, keep pointing their lives in the right direction. Can you think of any other advantage they have that other people do not have? If so, please tell me what it is! Jesus is going to spend time with them, starting with explaining this parable. Apart from Jesus being with them, they have no chance beyond the outsiders. I know the familiar party line of liberal churches: There are not supposed to be any outsiders. Only, what if we try to pay attention to the New Testament Gospels, as most liberal churches do not? Here in this very passage, and in a number others, it says clearly: It has been granted to you to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but the others have only parables. And why? That they may look but see nothing, hear but understand nothing. Parables do not clear things up, contrary to nearly all popular religious assumptions. Parables hide things, obscure things, keep the secrets safe. So what do we learn from Jesus? First, that there are secrets of the Kingdom of God. And second, that most people will not see, hear, or understand them. I know; we are eager to get to the explanations of this parable so we can assume we understand it all and stop pondering it and then get back to important things, like the ball game, helping the poor, or saving the world from various threatening disasters. But I am slowing way down here. No matter how frightened or enthusiastic I am about BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 4 OF 8
anything else, I am not going to be in a hurry for a while. Jesus is telling me some strange things things I would never have come up with on my own. And I want to know what He is telling us, and why. Of course, I think Jesus really is the Messiah. That puts a different light on it. The only hope the disciples have the only thing that makes them different from all the others who look but do not see what they are looking at, who listen but do not understand what they are hearing the only thing that makes the disciples any different is that Jesus is going to spend time with them. It is not because they are Jews; everybody around them is Jewish. It is not because they have higher IQs, are better educated, have better moral character, or keep the Torah more faithfully. None of our usual distinctions do us any good here. That is alarming and disorienting, but we have to go with that. We may not like it, but that is where we find ourselves if we pay attention to this passage. Jesus is going to spend time with them teach and train them. That is their only advantage. Some may wish to add that Jesus chose them. I like that too. But it comes to the same point. Jesus chose them and intends to spend time with them teach, train, inspire, correct, discipline them. Who ever connects disciples with discipline? Okay, we have heard that before too, even if we do tend to forget it. So do any of us have any hope of coming into the same advantages the twelve disciples had? To be clear and specific: Do any of us have any chance of being chosen by Jesus? And do any of us have any chance of having Jesus spend time with us? Two thousand years later, is there any chance that Jesus will guide, direct, train, scold, teach, and discipline us? Last Sunday we celebrated Easter. Some of us acknowledged even claimed that Jesus rose from the dead. He is risen! we shouted. He is risen indeed! Only, unlike most of Christendom, we claimed that Jesus did not go off into Heaven where He is waiting to come again. We said that we believe He began to appear to His disciples. He began to appear to Mary and Peter and Thomas, and to five hundred (probably at Pentecost), and then even to Paul, a former enemy ( as to one untimely born ). Again, unlike most of Christendom, we don t think there are any secondhand believers. Those who really believe have encountered Him. The Holy Spirit is the Risen Christ! BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 5 OF 8
The twelve disciples had an advantage over those who look but do not see, who hear but do not understand because Jesus had chosen them and was willing to spend extra time personally teaching, training, and guiding them. That is my hope too. And it is your hope as well, if you have one. Christianity is all malarkey unless we close the loop that is, unless we listen to and know the full story. Jesus could not reach very many people when He was limited to one physical body. He was not trying to be exclusive or uncaring just realistic. In the world of His time, a very tiny handful could ever hear or believe in Him. So He was choosing and training twelve disciples to help Him carry the Message to those beyond His own circle of influence. Is that not obvious to anyone who has ever thought about His story or the Gospel records? From Jesus to the twelve, then to those whom the twelve would reach, then to those whom the disciples of the twelve would reach, and so on. Each one teach one reaches the world a lot faster and more authentically than a few superheroes trying to do it all. Much of our world is still more impressed with the superheroes: the Famous Preacher/Megachurch approach. I am always sad when our culture shifts from the Hobbits back to the superheroes. Jesus always sided with the Hobbits. He did not try to win Pilate, Herod, the High Priest, or Caesar. Fishermen, tax collectors, troubled women, people who needed healing: Did Jesus choose anybody who was prominent? Maybe the rich, young ruler, but he turned Jesus down. Nevertheless, Jesus way converted the Roman Empire. I know; it sounds ridiculous to me too, at first. But history sides with Jesus. Much of our culture, even much of Christendom, is not siding with Jesus in our time. But we have lots of names of important and successful people. So what will history say? Very little. I can barely remember the names of the superheroes of a few years ago. I remember that they had lots of followers and lots of answers, but I can no longer remember what they accomplished. The other side of the coin is that the spiritual life is really dangerous in this world. It is fraught with many kinds of trials, temptations, unseen adversaries some with considerable power. What happened to Jesus? What happened to the twelve? What happened to Paul, and to Luke? Even the twelve were barely started in their training when Jesus was crucified. Then, starting with James, they too were martyred, and then many of their friends were killed. You have heard of the stoning of BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 6 OF 8
Stephen? He was not one of the twelve. Clearly Stephen had encountered the Risen Lord, but we do not know who introduced him. Maybe one of the twelve, or maybe a disciple of one of the twelve. If the followers do not encounter the Risen Lord if the Holy Spirit cannot pick them up where Jesus left off it will all dead-end very quickly. Can it be possible that we still need to wake up? This is not a fairy tale. This is not fun and games. This is God trying to reach us in a very real, very scary, and very alienated world. Jesus tells parables to protect people. He has no time to reach or train everybody properly. Yet the parables will draw out some people whom He or His disciples may be able to reach and enlist. Jesus is starting a Movement. Jesus is calling for followers. And Jesus has chosen twelve special disciples to help Him lead and spread this Movement, both with Him and after He is gone. So maybe we don t have the wrong religion or the wrong Messiah after all. It is not that Jesus doesn t care; it is that Jesus as a physical human being cannot do it all. The twelve disciples have to help! And they have to teach and train everybody they can each reach to help as well. Do we understand this? The seed without the soil cannot grow, not here in this world. And the soil without the seed is just taking up space it has no true rhyme or reason for being. But nobody gets it on their own. Nobody understands the secrets of the Kingdom by human reason or logic alone. We all need the seed, and we all need a Mentor to help us let it truly grow within us. Yet even as the parable is telling us about the sower and the seed, we are not really getting it because the seed is far more important than we can fathom. Even as I say this, do I not know that most will hear but not understand? Behind Jesus parables, there is always a terrible reality. But behind Jesus parables is also the light of truth and hope to illuminate a Kingdom beyond this world. The disciples need Jesus to open them to the seed. And Jesus knows that many others need the disciples to bring them to Jesus so that they also can embrace the seed. Very quickly it jumps dimensions in the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Holy Spirit takes over the Message and Movement that Jesus starts. So what are we hearing? How does it work? BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 7 OF 8
The seed is being sown all the time. The problem is not the seed, but the soil. The seed is good, but it needs good soil. The soil must be prepared. But some of the soil, maybe through no fault of its own, is not prepared. Some people do not see what they look at or hear what they are hearing. True hope is not clear or obvious in this world. Most of the hope our world tries to run on is neither genuine nor lasting. So what then? So help them. Jesus helps us, starting with the twelve disciples. But even Jesus, as one individual, cannot do it all. The disciples have to help. They have to get into the game. Are you a disciple? Are you in the game? The hard part of this parable is that it was never Jesus who did not care; it was never Jesus wanting to leave people out. The real issue is: Why are we willing to leave so many people out? Yes, there are too many people for us too. And the parable makes it clear that, after all is said and done, some soil will not bear any fruit. Some will not receive, honor, or hold on to the seed well enough or for long enough to let it bear any fruit. But despite all the pitfalls and temptations, some of us once we see, understand, and feel the seed coming to life within us want very much to be soil that will bear fruit. Many dimensions open up in this parable. Many layers are intertwining: God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, us. Paul saw it: we are the body of Christ, still at work in this world. We are grateful beyond words for the seed. We now live that others may come into a real and vibrant relationship with God. Everything else is secondary a mere sideshow. Only a few seem to really know this, even though it is obvious once we have seen it. It is the central theme of Jesus whole life. Yet most still look but see nothing, hear but understand nothing. I guess that brings us back around to where we started: A sower went out to sow his field. BRUCE VAN BLAIR 2013 All rights reserved. PAGE 8 OF 8