May I tell you a story? He lived in a little town, where there was not much to do. He and little brother had little money with which to do anything anyway. So they thought, "There's a pool table in the Methodist church. Let's shoot pool there." The door was locked, so they broke in. They were having fun shooting pool. The big brother scratched on a shot. The cue ball went flying off the table across the floor. He went after it. He found it in the hand of a big man standing there, the preacher of the church. Argghh! What was going to happen? What was he going to say? He said, "What if I got you your own key so you could play pool whenever you wanted, and could bring your friends?" Wow! Can you believe it?
And then the camera turned to the old man being interviewed, because this was a video the United Methodist Church produced. He said, "I was that young boy. I am now a retired United Methodist pastor. I became a pastor largely because of what that pastor and that church did for me. Over the years, I have helped hundreds of persons come to faith in Jesus Christ."
This story is so outrageous, so unexpected, that it has to be of God. Some seed falls on good soil, and it produces 100 fold. It is a story of hope.
I love to tell stories. When I came to be your pastor 7 years ago, in my very first sermon, I asked, May I tell you a story? My dad was a great storyteller. I aspire to be half the storyteller he was. Jesus like to tell stories. He followed in a great line of Old Testament prophets who got their points across by saying, "there was basket of good figs and a basket of rotten figs..." "a potter had a vessel that was spoiled in his hands and he flattened it, and began reshaping the clay..."
There's an old Jewish saying, God loved stories, so he created humankind.
In today's scripture, Jesus tells a story, a parable. If you come to worship over the next few weeks, you will get to hear some more stories of Jesus. Parables give us room to move around and find our place within the story. We don't so much interpret them as they interpret us. I think that at the earliest telling Jesus told a story that had but one point, the parable, like we find in the first 9 verses. I think it is about hope for the harvest. I think the second part of the reading came from the early church. It is an allegory, where each part is assigned a meaning: the sower is Jesus, the soils are the different responses to the good news of Jesus, etc. The allegory came from a time when the early church was under persecution and many were resistant to accepting Christ or were finding it easy to drop their new Christian faith. Even if came later, the story is still true.
The story is one of hope. I want to read each part of the story through the lens of hope. So the seed that fell on the path and was picked up by birds maybe was intended to be planted somewhere else. You know your botany, how plants spread. Birds eat seeds from here and poop them out over there, and the species expands. I am not making this up. Plants travel to new places this way. Maybe the seed didn't find root here but someplace else.
In a book called Overhearing the Gospel, there is a story of a man who had lost his faith. He was taking a shortcut through the early evening through a cemetery. He heard an old man talking to his grandson on the other side of the hedge. He paused. The old man was trying to explain to his grandson about the death of his son, the young one's father. He talked about the resurrection and hope. The man who was taking the shortcut through the cemetery got the good news that was intended somewhere else. Even the seed that falls on the path and is carried away by birds may be a story of hope.
Some seed falls on rocky ground with thin soil. It grows rapidly and then dies quickly. I am going to be in the cool mountains of New Mexico soon, at Angel Fire. I love driving through Cimmaron Canyon. There are sheer granite cliffs hundreds of feet high. Coming out of those cliffs you will see some tall pine trees. How do they grow? There is no soil at all! Seeds grow in the most unlikely of places, even flowers between cracks in city sidewalks.
Our United Methodist church will plant missions where there seems to be little or no soil. We will go to ghettos, depressed inner cities, centers of drug abuse, etc. Some of those seed grow and bear fruit even in these most unlikely places.
Some seeds fell among thorns and weeds which choked out the plants. The story said that it was cares of this world and the lure of wealth that got in the way. Maybe we in Westlake can identify with this part of the story. Anybody here know some anxiety or worry over finances more than faith?
When I first started in ministry, I was pretty cocky, pretty sure. I went to the senior pastor at St. John's here in Austin, where I was the associate pastor. I said, "We should be doing more for the poor, the hungry, the vulnerable. We are too rich, too comfortable around here." Mal Hierholzer said, "Don't the rich and comfortable need the gospel too....maybe more so?" Seeds of hope are planted even among thorns. Maybe even here in our community.
Then there is the good soil, where the seed bear up to 100 fold. In biblical times, a harvest of 7-10 times was considered good. 100 times would be wonderful. There is hope for the harvest.
This parable is not about efficiency and effectiveness. This God throws seeds out everywhere, not just the good soil. This God lavishes his grace upon us.
This church is not efficient or effective either (smile). It is summertime. We print way too many bulletins. Look at all of that paper wasted. We baptize people who don't understand what they are getting into. And we will serve communion to absolutely anyone!
When I was senior pastor at St. John's here in Austin, I remember a time when it was Boy Scout Sunday. A woman from the neighborhood brought her den with her in their uniforms. I knew her. Our kids went to the same elementary school together. It happened that we had the sacrament of communion that Sunday. She came forward with her den to receive. She came to me. I broke off a piece of bread, and said, "The body of Christ for you." She burst into tears. She was shattered right there in front of me. Later that afternoon, I called her on the phone. "What happened there in worship when I served you communion?" She said, "That was the first time in more than 20 years that I had communion. When I was younger, my parents got a divorce. Our church shunned us. I was not going to go back ever again. Today was the first day I felt welcomed back." She became active in our church. There is hope for the harvest.
The story is not so much about us and the 4 soils. It is about God who will throw seeds out absolutely everywhere, because some of them produce up to 100 fold.
Let me sing it for you from Godspell:
All Good Gifts
Guitar Chords and
Lyrics
INTRO: (A _ Em) 2x
A
Em G
D
We plough the fields
and scatter the good seed on the land
A
B/A Dm
A9
But it is fed and
watered by God's almighty hands
A
Em
G
D
He sends the snow in
winter, the warmth to swell the grain
C#m7
DM7
Ebm7
E - Esus - E
The breezes and the
sunshine, the soft refreshing rain
REFRAIN:
A DM7
GM7-CM7
All good gifts around
us,
A
DM7 GM7-CM7
Are sent from heaven
above
F#m7(pause) C#m7-F#m7(pause)
C#m7
G - D
So thank the Lord,
thank the Lord for all His love
A
Em G
D
We thank Thee then, oh
Father, for all things bright and good
A
B/A Dm
A9
The seed time and the
harvest, our life, our health, our food
A
Em
G
D
No gifts we have to
offer, for all Thy love imparts
C#m7
DM7
Ebm7
E - Esus - E
But that which Thou
desirest- our humble, thankful hearts.
(Ref)
Bridge:
D
A
DM7 - GM7 - CM7
I really want to thank You, Lord
A
DM7
GM7 - CM7
I want to thank You Lord, thank You for all Your love
A
DM7
GM7
CM7
Oh thank You Lord, I want to thank You Lord.
Asus - A
Thank You, Lord.Find your place in the story. It is a story of hope. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment