Seeds, Soil, and Sailing

Reflection

Mark 4 really begins Jesus' teaching ministry.  He teaches in parables, illustrative stories set in a familiar context that point to another reality.  Jesus uses the language of seed and soil to teach about the kingdom of God.  From the indiscriminate scattering of seeds to the way seeds take root, emerge, and grow Jesus invites us to see God's activity in the world as a natural reality within and around us.  He also teaches that there is a kind of hidden aspect to God's activity.  It is not always overt, obvious, and clear that God is the active agent behind the good life.  Jesus' teachings are meant to shine light, to reveal what God is doing in the world.  Some will be given the ability to see, others will not.  We might wonder why some have faith and some don't.  We might wonder why God is obtuse or hidden from us. 
In the parable of the sower, Jesus suggests that the seed is scattered indiscriminately.  Only a quarter of the soil is good soil that receives the seed and produces.  Most of the soil is not good soil.  It's rocky or weedy.  Some of the soil isn't even tilled land, it's a path!  The point is that God, the sower, is not a good farmer. He scatters seed, even where it is not received or accepted.  There is no judgment on the "bad soil" and we ought not to think literally about the application of this story.  We are tempted to think of the different soils as categories of the human heart or mind.  And then we judge who is "good soil" and who is "bad soil".  Not Jesus' point.  Even in Jesus' interpretation of the parable that he gives to the disciples, he is not passing a judgment on those who do not receive the Word.  God sows lavishly, excessively, and foolishly in the world.  We are recipients.  Sometimes we're ready. Sometimes we're not.   What do you think God is sowing in the world?  I think God sows peace and mercy.
The two parables of the seed scatterer and the mustard seed show us that God's activity does not depend on our intervention or work.  There is mystery about some of the things tht God does.  God's activity is often subtle, missed, small, seemingly insignificant.  But what God starts, grows and becomes something large and significant.  Church started with a small group of students, following a 1st century Jewish Rabbi.  Now there are over two billion Christians in the world.  How did a movement so vulnerable and insignificant become something so important to so many people? 
Finally, the parable of the boat on the sea. Is this a literal event?  Or a teaching moment? Or both?  Jesus teaches his disciple that faith is the absence of fear.  It is peace in the middle of chaos, rest in the middle of life's storms.  Jesus is in the boat with us.  He signifies God's peaceful presence with us in the midst of life's turmoil and dangers.  To have faith is to trust that God cares that we are all perishing, enough to show up and take action! 
So, how do we begin to see with the eyes of faith, to trust that God is in the boat with us, and to receive what God is sowing into our lives, into the world?  How do we recognize the activity of God around and within us?  How do we become aware of the presence, protection, provision, and peace of God in daily life?  This is the art of discipleship.  To become aware.  To wonder about the soil of my own life.  What obstacles, barriers, trouble is preventing God's word of life from penetrating my life? 

Prayer.
Lord, let my heart be good soil, open to the seed of your word.  When I am afraid, drive my fear away.  When I am in need, provide for me and protect me.  When I am uncertain of your presence and activity in my life, awaken my inner senses to know you are near me.  Amen.     

 

Mark 4

Mark 4

The Parable of the Sower

4Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. ²He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ³‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. ⁴And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. ⁶And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. ⁷Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. ⁸Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ ⁹And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

The Purpose of the Parables

10 When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. ¹¹And he said to them, ‘To you has been given the secret^* of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; ¹²in 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.” ’
13 And he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴The sower sows the word. ¹⁵These 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. ¹⁶And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. ¹⁷But 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.^{* 18}And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, ¹⁹but 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. ²⁰And 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.’

A Lamp under a Bushel Basket

21 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? ²²For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. ²³Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’ ²⁴And 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. ²⁵For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.’

The Parable of the Growing Seed

26 He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, ²⁷and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. ²⁸The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. ²⁹But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’

The Parable of the Mustard Seed

30 He also said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? ³¹It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; ³²yet 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.’

The Use of Parables

33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; ³⁴he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

Jesus Stills a Storm

35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ ³⁶And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. ³⁷A great gale arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. ³⁸But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ ³⁹He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. ⁴⁰He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?’ ⁴¹And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’

Questions for reflection:

What do you think Jesus meant by "the kingdom of God"?
Why does Jesus teach with parables? 
What do the disciples learn from Jesus on the sea? 

Opposition and Family. Mark 3

Reflection.

As Jesus' public ministry builds momentum, we see two things happen.  We see opponents resisting Jesus' teachings and we see a core group of twelve students coalesce around him.  These 12 disciples are also apostles.  They are both gathered around him as learners and sent from him as practitioners.  The learning model is an apprenticeship, action/reflection model.  He expects more from them than belief or faith.  He expects them to act---to do what he does, not just know what he knows.  His teachings are often examples.  When he heals a man with a withered hand on the Sabbath day, he defies the letter of the law that prohibits work of any kind.  But, he redefines the spirit of Sabbath by asking, "Is it lawful to do good or harm on the Sabbath, to save life or destroy it?"  Who would suggest that  God's law permits one to destroy or do harm?  Jesus suggests that to do nothing is tantamount to doing harm or destruction.  So, he acts.  He sees that we create barriers that prevent people from getting access to health care.  By healing the man he calls these barriers unjust.  Whenever a leader publicly challenges systems of injustice, those who benefit from that system (and someone always does) become angry.  We haven't even gotten through the 3rd chapter and already people are plotting against him! 

We see a variety of opponents.  Jewish leaders.  Demons.  Jesus' family members.  His teaching practice is confrontational and controversial.  He is upsetting the status quo by healing people!  We can say that following Jesus will create opposition or resistance.  Why?  People hate change.  And people are invested in maintaining their own comfort, sometimes at the expense of others.  Jesus threatens the delicate imbalance that exists between the people at the top and the people at the bottom.  Jesus crosses boundaries, norms, and rules that define place.  The man with the withered hand was considered cursed by God.  It was assumed that some moral failure caused God to punish him.  So if Jesus healed him, he must be working for God's opponent---Beelzebul.  We see Jesus as a divine healer.  But they saw Jesus using demonic powers to oppose God.  That is why Jesus quotes Abraham Lincoln (a house divided against itself cannot stand).  Jesus sees the withered hand as a work of the devil not of a punishing God.  Jesus has a perspective on the human condition that says evil is at work in the world and it is not God's doing!  He has been sent by God to confront the evil forces at work in the human family by healing those who are suffering.           

Jesus redefines the family, too.  Who is his family?  Those who do the will of the Father.  And what is that?  We look at Jesus to understand the will of God, assuming that he demonstrates it in his actions.  So, we might say the will of God is a reorienting baptism and time of wilderness trial; a public announcement about the coming of the reign or kingdom of God, works of healing and mercy.  Jesus will continue to show us what God's will looks like in action.  He will continue to redefine family.  Beyond blood and ancestry.  God's family is bigger than Israel. This is a major theme and a massive shift that Jesus proposes about God.  God may not look like, sound like, or think like us!  God may not be male or white or English-speaking or American, either.  Wait and see what happens in chapter four...