Sunday Service 19th July

Jul 18
8 min read

https://youtu.be/tHJ_QH0Bgk0

If God were to plant an idea in our heart...

19/7/26

Call to worship

Hymn 624: In Christ there is no east or west

Time for all

Hymn 142: A small thing like a hazelnut

Dedication of Offering

Reading: Luke 8: 4-21 Liz

Prayer (The Lord’s Prayer will be on the screen)

Hymn 348: Praise the one

Sermon

Prayer

Hymn 225: Summer suns are glowing

Benediction

Welcome to our meditation for 19^th July.

Jesus spoke a lot in parables.

Instead of just telling us a truth he wanted us to work things out for ourselves, come to our own conclusions.

This is the case in today’s reading, which we will reflect on after the reading itself and a prayer from Liz

Prayer of Dedication of Offering

Heavenly Father,

In an uncertain world, you have given us the opportunity to rest on the rock of faith. Instead of us relying on luck and good fortune, you have offered us a path to follow.

May we respond in trust, and may our offerings be a sign of that trust.

Amen

Sermon

Some things are just predictable.

If you own a car and it breaks down, it never breaks down at a convenient time.

You are always on a rush somewhere, you are always going to an important meeting, you are always trying to fulfil a deadline...and that is when the car breaks down.

If you are working on the computer and it suddenly blinks and goes blank, it never happens at a convenient time.

I have been on the last sentence of a really difficult sermon; struggled for hours trying to get the right words. And right at the last sentence he computer blanks out...and everything is lost.

Or one time I was playing this game, and had battled through so many hard levels, and I was just about to finish the game when there was a black out, all the electricity in the house just went off, and the computer just shut off and the game was lost.

This passage is a bit like that...sermons on it are predictable.

Nearly every sermon I have heard on this passage, nearly every sermon I have given on this passage, has gone down the same route.

Someone reads the parable; there is a brief explanation about what a parable is and why Jesus used them so much.

Maybe there is a funny story about how when we work things out for ourselves rather than just told the truth then it sticks in our minds better.

Like the story in my divinity common room one year when a mum came in and said her daughter had heard the Noah story so many times and never really thought about it, it was just a story, but that morning as she was going to school she suddenly shouted out, ‘That’s why wee was two of each animal, there had to be a mummy animal an a daddy animal.’

And then, after telling the congregation that Jesus was wonderful at planting these seeds into the mind so that people could work things out for themselves, the preacher then explains the parable out to everyone, instead of letting them work it out for themselves.

The real irony with this passage it that we ministers don’t need to explain this parable to anyone, because Jesus explains it out himself anyway.

But that doesn’t stop us doing it, because we have nothing better to do and we need to fill up the sermon time.

The other real irony with this passage is that Jesus has told the parable so that people can work it out, but then the disciples demand that Jesus tells them what it means because they can’t work it out.

That part worried me because it dawned on me that there is an implication that we might have accidentally created in our sermons about this passage. An implication that I am sure Jesus would have rejected.

Let me expand my reasoning a bit.

One of the reasons that this parable is in the Gospels is to answer the huge question of the time...if Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, then why have so many Jews rejected his message?

And that is a valid question.

So the writers of the Gospels come across this parable of Jesus and it explains that the problem isn’t on the message side, Jesus gave the right message...the problem is on the listening side. And there would be many reasons why people would listen to the right message, but then reject it.

The problem comes when we get to the reasoning, ‘The secrets of the Kingdom are given to you, but to the rest it comes by means of parables, so that they may look and not see, and listen but not understand.’

There is a subtle implication that instead of giving a reason why some folk don’t accept the message, it is really saying that Jesus is muddling up the message so that some people would never get the message.

The people could have heard the message and followed,

but the devil took the message away,

when the time of testing came they were never going to be strong enough,

they were always going to be distracted by riches and things that don’t matter.

Those people were destined never to accept the message.

Though the good folk, the right people,

they were always going to hear the message

and they were never going to be tempted by the Devil,

never going to fail the testing,

never be distracted by other things.

I don’t know about you, but i find that kind of scary.

Because I know there are many times in my life that I have been tempted,

I have struggled with life and what its hit me with,

I have been distracted, in fact I have been so desperate to avoid responsibility I have deliberately distracted myself.

So does that mean the word of God was never going to grow in me?

Does that mean I am a lousy disciple, a lousy follower of Christ?

Actually it probably does, but I don’t think it’s that serious.

You see this all is a problem if what Jesus is offering us is a series of truths that the have to believe.

A series of doctrines that we have to follow.

A series of laws that we have to obey.

But that is not what Jesus is offering. What Jesus is offering is a relationship to trust in.

Here is a kind f radical thought in interpreting this parable.

What if the different soils are not different types of people; what if the different soils are the same person at different times.

Listen to this phrase again;

‘The secrets of the Kingdom are given to you, but to the rest it comes by means of parables, so that they may look and not see, and listen but not understand.’

If we take that statement literally then the good folk will understand the parable and the bad folk won’t...they will look but not see, hear but not understand.

Which is worrying because the disciples are rthe ones saying, ‘We are not seeing what you are getting at; we are not understanding this parable.’

So what does that say about the disciples?

Surely the disciples would automatically understand this parable because they are the good guys.

And if they don’t understand it, why would Jesus explain it to them|?

Surely the whole point of parables is to get them to come to the conclusion themselves.

But if Jesus isn’t offering us a truth that we have to believe, but a relationship which we need to trust.

Then the reality of all relationships is that they are in flux.

And maybe the real point Jesus is trying to get to is explain to us struggling in faith why at times we are struggling...because there are forces at times that push us away from that relationship.

There are times we are tempted by an easier life.

There are times that life is just garbage and we get tired and overburdened.

There are times we think our life would be better if we just didn’t care about others and cared more about ourselves.

And if that is the case, then it is not that God is trying to hide his goodness from us because we are not good enough,

it is that we have chosen at times to be hard, be distracted.

The clue is in the last explanation,

‘The seeds that feel in good soil stand for those who hear the message and retain it in a good and obedient heart, and they persist until they bear fruit.’

So the questions become:

How do we create a good and obedient heart?

How do we persist until we bear fruit?

Because we are going to get tempted.

We are going to get distracted.

We are going to struggle at times.

So if that is all going to happen to us anyway, how do we overcome that to have a good and obedient heart that persists until it bears fruit?

And I think this is the big mistake we make.

We think that Jesus was creating a group of individuals called disciples.

He wasn’t...if Jesus message was about a relationship which we could trust in, then the only way that message will survive is in relationship.

Jesus wasn’t creating a group of individuals called disciples; Jesus was creating a community called disciples.

Let me give you a very practical example.

On the whole I am a lazy person.

I inherited my father’s sweet tooth.

I inherited my mother’s chubby genes.

If l was left to my own devices then I would be huge.

And in the job I am in that would be every easy to become, all I need to do is look at lots of other ministers who do very little exercise and get tea and cakes in every house they visit.

The answer to that is easy, eat less and exercise more.

But I hate exercises.

Purgatory for me would be endless lengths swimming, or hours on a treadmill in the gym.

I could try it, but after a while I would give up, because it is soul destroying.

But put me on a squash court with a friend, and I can play for hours.

And it is not because I am exercising; it is because I am with a friend.

It is the community that makes the hard thing possible.

That is how we stay faithful when we are tempted, or struggling or wanting to be distracted...we create community.

Those in Alcoholics Anonymous know this; they create buddy system, sponsors.

And if you feel tempted then you phone your sponsor, any time of day or night.

That sponsor is committed to helping you out and becomes a safety net.

I know from visiting people that sometimes just a timely visit helps those that are struggling with life.

I don’t know how many times I have just happened to be visiting someone who is grieving, or struggling with a spouse that has dementia, or has heard bad news about a family member...and just being there, letting them talk, letting them know that they are heard and understood, that alone helps them get through the day.

Find a mentor, create a friend, do Christian life together, in twos, threes, fours...that was what Jesus was modelling in his community of disciples.

That is how we stay obedient and good, that is how we persist until we bear fruit.

Let us pray

Heavenly Father,

Loving God,

We know that to you it doesn’t matter whether a large crowd is gathered or a small crowd comes to worship,

it doesn’t matter whether we are in an ancient place where people have gathered for centuries to worship, or in an outdoor forest.

You just care that we come as a community.

And we are grateful for the opportunity to worship in community.

We give thanks for days that surprise us, especially days when we receive your word with joy.

We give thanks when we find it easy to hear Your word and be obedient to its message.

We realise there are plenty of times we have heard the Your word and tried to shape it to suit us.