“Sowing Hope”

Mark 4:1-29

A Sermon Preached by The Rev. Douglas M. Donley

October 6, 2002

University Baptist Church

Minneapolis, MN

 

            Last Saturday, I joined about 100 Shaped Note enthusiasts at the Annual Minnesota Sacred Harp Singing convention at Murphy’s Landing in Shokapee.  We sang old hymns all day in a 19^th century meeting house with no heat while a frigid rain fell outside.  The singers didn’t complain too much, and the young people didn’t complain at all.  One of the moms told us during a break in our singing that parents should all remember that dirt is good for you.  As we exited the building, we saw the youth caked in mud from the banks of the Minnesota River.  If I was their age, I’m sure I would have looked a bit like them.  A part of me envied their abandon, their exuberance, their joy.  I was also relieved to see that Rebecca had steered clear of the mud (at least for this year).

            I’m glad the kids could enjoy playing in the mud.  It takes a bit of getting dirty to be a proper disciple of Jesus.

            Today’s Scripture lesson is not only about getting dirty.  It’s about being dirty.  In fact, Jesus calls us dirty people.  What a great metaphor.

            Jesus talks about four types of ground, four types of soil, four types of dirt into which the word can get sown. 

            Those who have ears to hear, listen up.  Try to discern which kind of soil you are.

            Do you remember the four types of dirt? 

            The first is hard and so impenetrable that the seeds don’t even have a chance to take root.  Birds come and devour the seeds on this kind of soil.

            The second is the soil filled with rocks.  There is little depth to this soil and the seed can’t take root.

            The third kind of soil is the thistle-strewn soil where young saplings are choked as the thorns block its light and take its nutrients.

            The fourth and final type of soil is the good soil which will actually bring forth grain. 

            The gospel then goes on to show us these people.  As we read and reread the gospel of Mark, see if we can identify these different dirty people.  If you can see them in the gospel pages, then maybe you can see them in the world.  Maybe we can see which kind of soil we are.

            The sower, says Jesus sows the word.  In other words, the word or message of God is scattered like seeds on the ground.  The sower, the planter of the seeds stays the same.  God remains constant.  What changes in this story, in this parable is the ground, the soil, the dirt, us.  Since we are all part of the ground, we all receive the message.  But hope only grows in good soil.   

Jesus explains the story this way: the first group of people, those who are so hard and rigid that nothing penetrates their shell, not even a good seed, never hear the gospel.  The birds snatch up the good seed.

           

These are people blinded by their hard-heartedness.  These are people who have lost all hope.  These are people who have all of the answers.  They feel they need no new seed.  They are like a lot of us. 

            But there is another aspect to this.  The scripture says that these first seeds were strewn “along the way”.  Jesus meets many people “along the way”.  These are the crowds who love him on Palm Sunday and want to crucify him on Good Friday.  Many people lined up on the shore might be people Jesus met “along the way.” 

            Today, more than ever, we need to be especially aware of the danger of following the crowd. An opinion poll will not tell you how to do right.  Taking that brave step outside the crowd and following God is the best way to start on the path to becoming good soil.  That’s the way to sow hope.

            The second type of ground is called rocky ground: ground which is solid but has little depth.  Surprisingly, the disciples fall into this category.  When Simon became a disciple, Jesus changed his name to rock.  Petros, Peter.  He, like the other disciples receive the word with joy immediately.  Without question, they leave their nets and follow Jesus.  But as the story progresses, we find the disciples to be pathetically unable to get beyond their own need for power and their need for comfort.  They have little depth.  Chapter 10 shows James and John asking Jesus to grant them privilege to sit at the right and left hand of Jesus.  They wanted to rule like everyone else rules—lording it over others.  But Jesus’ way of leading does not look like the largely corrupt present-day authority systems.  He said, whoever would be great among you must be like a servant.

            The disciples, Jesus’ supposedly closest allies have their faith tested later on in chapter 4 and accuse Jesus of not caring if they die in the fierce seas, but Jesus calms the seas and rebukes the disciples for their shallowness.  When tribulation comes on the count of the word, the rocky ground people deny Jesus, betray Jesus, fall asleep on Jesus and at the time of the crucifixion, they all run away from Jesus in fear.

            Rocky-ground people are in love with Jesus when things are going their way, but cannot bear the burden of the costs of a servant-based discipleship, where we are bound to face persecution and tribulation.  For hope to grow, it needs soil with more depth.

            The third type of people are referred to as the thistle-choked.  This is ground strewn with thorns.  These are people who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth and the desire for things come in and choke the word and it yields nothing.

            This can be seen in the rich young ruler who asks Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus answers, “you lack one thing: go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come follow me.”  When he heard this he was shocked and went away grieving for he had many possessions.  Those of us with lots of stuff get caught in this same trap.  We love and admire Jesus, but we would rather spiritualize his strong words than put them in practice.

            Another person who would fall into this category would be Pilate.  Pilate originally chose to listen to Jesus and gave him the benefit of the doubt.  He found no guilt in him.  But when push came to shove and the crowds started threatening Pilate’s power and control, he was quick to opt to maintain his position rather than risk on behalf of the Word.

            I wonder about so-called Christian rulers of today’s world who opt for power over human need.  I fear for governments that prefer military might over taking care of the poor.  When our desire for things and the lure of wealth blinds us to human need, then we are choked by thistles.  Hope cannot be sown in this type of soil.

            Finally, there is the good soil.  “They hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty and a hundredfold.”  A normal peasant farmer in a good year would bear fruit about 6-fold.  Bearing fruit 30 to 100 fold is very good news to the poor peasants to whom the gospel is written.  This is a harvest that will set them up for years to come.  This is the language of jubilee.

            Interestingly, these good soil people in the gospel are mostly unnamed.  All of them are outsiders and none of them are part of Jesus’ inner-circle.  They are not part of anyone’s inner-circle.  They have no religious or political power.  And they are the good soil!  Jesus said, the first shall be last and the last shall be first.  Whoever has ears to hear, listen up.  This is what it’s all about.  And let me tell you, friends, this is scary because I’m not sure I’m part of the good soil.  My own wealth, my own privilege, my own biology, orientation, education and class are thistles and rocks which hamper the seed’s growth.  But I want to be good soil.  So, with you, I listen for the stories of the good soil.

            The Good Samaritan in Luke’s Gospel, is certainly one of the unnamed blessed dirty.

            Another is the unnamed woman with the flow of blood in chapter 5.  No physicians could help her and she was on the streets begging and bleeding for 12 years.  None of the religious folk would come near her because the book of Leviticus says that anyone touching a woman in her menstrual cycle is ritually unclean.  Yet she reached out and touched just the hem of Jesus’ garment.  Jesus didn’t rebuke her like all of the other religious leaders, he simply asked who touched him. When the woman admitted in fear and trembling, Jesus said, “your faith has made you well.”  This is good soil.

            Or then there was the blind beggar Bartimeus in chapter 10 who obnoxiously kept yelling, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.”  Bartimeus called Jesus the Messiah in ways that others simply hadn’t.  This one without eyes had seen the most clearly.  Jesus said, “Go, your faith has made you well.”  This is good soil.

            Then there is the woman who anointed Jesus for burial, to the rebuke and consternation of the disciples.  This is good soil.

            In Mark, the good soil are those outside the accepted parameters of what we usually call power.  That’s why we need to be suspicious when people use the Bible to persecute others.  It is the opposite of what Jesus did.  The only ones Jesus criticized were the ones in positions of domination and control.

            And to the early readers, many of whom were persecuted and running for fear of their lives, it was incredibly good news.  Jesus said, the good soil is not in Rome, it’s not in the temple in Jerusalem, it’s not even in the leadership of the institutions of religion and politics.  The good soil are the people who see the world as it is and have the guts to proclaim not only that it’s messed up, but that there is a better way to live.  That way is a way of discipleship.  It’s a way of holding on to the power of God instead of the power of institutions.  It is by embracing justice and thereby sowing hope in a world bent on destroying itself.  To those physically poor, the political and religious outcasts, it was very good news.  To the rest of us, this parable is a wake-up call.

If hope is sown in good soil, what kind of soil are we? 

            Are we so hard that we cannot hear any new truth?

            Are we full or rocks just beneath the surface, willing, but rather shallow?

            Are we choked by the thistles of power and domination?

            Or are we good soil which yield grain, growing up increasing and yielding thirty-fold and sixty-fold and a hundred-fold? 

            May God grant us the courage and the wisdom to get ourselves a bit dirty so that hope can grow in our good soil. 

            Remember, as the children taught me last week, getting a little dirty for Jesus and the reign of God, in good soil is good for the soul.  Who knows, we might just find a way to sow hope to a world and people in need.

May we have ears and may we listen.      May we get a bit dirty on behalf of the reign of God and through it all sow some hope in a perplexed world in need.  Amen.