The Pastor's Sermon - Third Sunday after Pentecost - 17 June 2012

{This sermon is 'out of order' since I didn't post last week's sermon. I didn't post it because I delivered it without notes, since I had been attending the Luther Hostel continuing education event at the seminary in Waterloo. That took up the entire week! If I can reconstruct it - IF - I'll post it later.}

• He also said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it?'
• Jesus spoke and taught in parables. That always makes his preaching interesting. He used familiar things and situations to speak of the Kingdom of God, the mercy and love of God, and his own identity. For just this reason, parables can be fun to listen to, but they are also frustrating. There are times when it is hard to find the connection and the meaning. As Mark has written: 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.
• [We also know that Jesus' disciples didn't always get it either.]
• Today we have two simple parables about the Kingdom of God. Jesus is speaking to the people using farming examples, something most, if not all, would be familiar with. The sowing of seeds, the growth of plants, and the nesting of birds are familiar, common things. I think we'd all be able to hear what Jesus was saying, even if we didn't get the heart of the message right off. Sometimes what is familiar makes the main message more hidden. You can almost hear Jesus' audience saying “What does sowing seed and all these other farm things have to do with God's Kingdom.
• Parables have to be familiar or they miss the mark. Preachers know this and try to use things people will understand and find comfortable to begin to get their message across. Still, to go no further than the familiar misses the mark as well. Jesus was a carpenter and not a farmer. He was familiar with farming, and he still wasn't giving advice on farming with his talk of seed, sowing, harvesting, and nesting. There's far more to it than that.
• The parable of the scattered seed tells us that the seed grows to the eventual harvest without the farmer's knowledge, consent, or urging. (Really now, how many of you would go down to your fields and lecture or cheer your crops into growing?) The harvest comes, the sickle is applied, and still the farmer is not in charge of the crop.
• The parable of the mustard seed uses the seed of the mustard plant to tell it's story. I think we all know mustard and it's taste, even if only on picnic food and other such recipes. The mustard plant itself is more of a shrub than a tree and could even be called a weed. It's seed is a very tiny grain. Still it grows to become what it becomes and as Jesus says: the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.
• In both parables, Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of God will come without our knowledge and without our work. It will also seem to be the most vulnerable and insignificant of things, like the mustard seed and it's young plant. The message of vulnerability and weakness is not one that would be popular; it's saving message would be best carried in parable since it would go against the prevailing ideas of the day regarding God's Kingdom.
• Even today, it would make more sense to us if Jesus spoke his message plainly, in simple, direct words, without the home-spun parables. There would be less chance of misinterpretation and confusion. Direct talk lends itself better to understanding, and it can also lead to direct confrontation. Since the deck was stacked against Jesus in the face of the entrenched powers of the day, like the Temple administration and the Roman Empire, direct confrontation would lead to direct action against Jesus. That happened eventually even without direct confrontation.
• I think that Jesus used parables both to teach and to invite.
• Jesus taught in parables so he'd be asked questions. If questions were asked, than a conversation and an encounter would come about. The teaching would no longer be an intellectual thing; it would become a personal encounter with Jesus and who he is. If somebody cared enough to ask questions, their mind was open enough to meet Jesus and get to know him.
• This is how parables could be used to invite. Come and see; come and hear; stay and ask questions and see what comes of it. Get to know Jesus and then understand what is behind the parable... and the one who speaks in parables.
• This is how it worked for Jesus and how it can work for the church now. It is the message of Jesus that still attracts people, holds people, and changes people. Church politics, church ornaments, church stuff will not change people's lives or give them hope or meaning. As it has been for the history of God's people, it is the Gospel, the Good News of God's kingdom, God's love and mercy, of God's salvation that will make the difference.
• We, as God's people, still need these parables and for the same reasons – to teach and to invite. We still use them to teach about Jesus and God's kingdom. We still use them to invite and draw in those who, like us, need to hear this Good News to encounter Jesus, as we have, over the days and years, and even today.
• 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.