Sermon for January 17, 2016

The reading

 

Mark 4

Again Jesus began to teach beside the sea. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.  He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: “Listen! A sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away.  Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.  Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”  And he said, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”

When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables.  And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret[a] of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables;  in order that

‘they may indeed look, but not perceive,

    and may indeed listen, but not understand;

so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’”

And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?  The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy.  But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing.  And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”

He said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand?  For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”  And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you.  For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”

He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground,  and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.  The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.  But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”

He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;  yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples

The message

 

 Towards the end of Summer in 2009, I had my first visit to St Jacobus and my first meeting with the call committee, the group of church members entrusted with the responsibility to review, interview and recommend a candidate for the job of pastor at their church.   Even though I grew up in Brooklyn and had spent most of my life living in New York, I had only been to Queens twice before, once for a Mets game at Shea Stadium, when it was still called Shea Stadium and once leading a camp field trip to the Hall of Science in Flushing Meadow.  Right before this first meeting, Adrienne and Emma took for a walking tour of the neighborhood. We went down Broadway, past Elmhurst Hospital, across to 37^th Ave for a quick lunch at one of the Columbian Restaurants and then back to church.  For me, this tour was an important part of my decision to accept the call here.  To see if you fit someplace, you have to know where that place is. During this time, I saw some of the local businesses, restaurants, people, churches, schools and problems like graffiti, dumping, drugs and poverty.  I saw the gathering places, parks, transportation centers and great religious and cultural diversity of this neighborhood.  I was introduced to the community around the church and school building because that was the area I would start to call our neighborhood, our mission field and our community, it was the place I would be working as a sower of God’s word in and teaching you to be sowers of God’s word

 

This morning, with the parable of the sower, Jesus is doing exactly what Adrienne and Emma did about 7 years ago, introducing people to their communities, to the place they will work as sowers of God’s word in.  At this point in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus has already started his public ministry; he has taught, healed, calmed the sea and performed other signs of faith and power.  He called a small, deeply committed following and gathered very large crowds of interested and curious people.  My first tour was specific to a 10 or so block radius around St Jacobus but Jesus is more general, trying to teach a diverse group of fisherman and tax collectors in the 1^st century Middle East as well as the billions of Christians that will come in the centuries after.  My first trip around St Jacobus focused on the people and places around us at the time while Jesus parable of the sower focused on the psychological character of people, on the things that do not really change.  Just like seeds still grow the same way and they need good dirt, water, sunlight and care, people still react to the message of God’s love with doubt, rejection, weakening commitment, acceptance but then turning to other things or deep, faithful, and lasting joy. 

Jesus description of our mission field, the place where we are called to be sowers of God’s word still makes sense today. We can pause to ask ourselves if our church is good soil or a thorny patch that’s almost there but yields nothing.  We can get personal and wonder if our homes are good soil or rocky ground that does not produce lasting growth.   The truth is, there are parts of each place in our community and lives, people who react to God’s word like seeds on the stony path, rocky ground, thorny patch or good soil.   

This morning, I would like to look at life in the field, how we can serve, minister to and walk with people in each of these sections of earth, how we can encourage growth and express God’s word with joy.  For any of this to work, we need to know who we are talking to. Believe me, every politician and elected official, advertiser, manufacturer of a product, charity, or sales person does their research.  Customer information is a valuable commodity and sales pitches, commercials, and campaigns are all built around using the research and telling people what they want to hear.  We have it easier than all of them though, we do not need to change our message, we do not need to tweak or down right lie about our product or actions, we tell everyone the same thing, that they are loved by God.          

First, there are those on the stone path, where there is no nourishment and no real chance that God’s word will take hold of their lives.  These are the people who are deeply committed to their atheist faith, who think of church with terrible memories of exclusion and racism, who cannot understand or forgive the awful history of what the church has done in Jesus name.   God does not dismiss anyone, God does not give up on any of us.  In last week’s reading, just days before today’s lesson Jesus said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.’.  Growing up at my grandmother’s house, there was a large yard and my brother and I always tried to maintain a stone path between the house and garage, every year we would put down and adjust plastic, tar paper, rocks and slate to keep the grass from growing on the path and every year weeds found a way to grow.  In this section of the field, on the stony path, we care for the seeds by trying to move them.  Now, we can try to do that by kicking, screaming and pushing but I think it is easier to let God’s word work. To be consist and committed to living out a faith that announces God’s joy and love, to let them see that and walk over. 

Next, we have the people living on the rocky ground.  These are the people who visit a few times, who tell me things like “if I went to church, I’d go to yours”, who fit these new catergories of “spiritual but not religious” or “no religious affilation”, People who believe in God and pray but reject the organized church as they think it exists. These are the people for whom church is truly boring, where it does not answer their questions, address their fears and provide them an encounter with the powerful, living and loving God. In this community, again, it is easier to let God’s work.  Here it is our job to clear some of the rocks away.  Now, clearing rocks away is not fun. When I was in High School, we used to clear the rocks away before every football game. Twenty players would line up and walk the length of the field, tossing the rocks outside of the field of play.  By the time you got through 80 yards or so against the cold ground, you had enough clearing rocks. Somehow every week, there would be more rocks though (which is amazing since rocks do not grow). To clear the rocks means conversation, patience, listening, and invitation. It also means expressing our faith, telling people what we believe and how that makes us feel and live.

Then we have the people living amid the thorns, the people who hear the word but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. That should sound familiar to all of us, since we have all been there.  Whenever I go hiking with people, we always run into a thorny section.  The person in front of the group usually is the first to notice the thorns (since they get stuck by them). They warn all of us, point them out and help stamp them down.  Here, that is our work, to pray for each other, to help one another face burdens, to expose, confront and help remove the things that separate us from truly experiencing God’s love. Finally, we have the people living in the good soil.  Here, it is our work to lift up and celebrate , to share their stories, to inspire others and help keep them there.

This is how we work as sower’s of God’s word, by offering others an understanding, patient and unapologetic presentation of our faith through word and deed.