4While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, He told this parable: 5“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. 6Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”. (Psalm 8:4-8, NIV)
Last week, we reflected on the Parable of the Sower, or, if you prefer, the Parable of the Soils. We talked about what helps us to be good soil, soil in which God’s word flourishes, leading to an abundant harvest in life. Today let us explore a different direction with this parable because it also has something to say about our understanding of work and God. The parable begins with a description of someone working: “A farmer went out to sow his seed” (v. 5). He worked in the hope of reaping a bountiful harvest. Unlike what we do today, the farmer did not plant carefully preparing the soil and making sure the seed was embedded in the soil. Rather, this worker did what was common in his day, scattering his seed broadly. It fell randomly on a variety of soils: the hard soil of the path, rocky soil, thorn-infested soil, and good soil. Farmers in the first-century would come back later and work the seeds into the soil. Jesus doesn’t tell us if this particular sower did that or not . . . a curious omission. What seems odd is that that the sower didn’t make sure all of his seed went where it would grow well. This suggests something about the generosity of Jesus in scattering the Good News of the Kingdom of God among a wide variety of listeners. Some rejected it. Some embraced it but only for a while. Others took the message of Jesus into their hearts and it changed their lives. So, what does this parable have to say about our work? I’m not suggesting that we should do exactly as the sower did, working in such a way that much of our effort ends up in vain. Of course we should try to work in a way that brings positive results. But in many ways we cannot always guarantee the results of our work. Sometimes, for example, a realtor invests a lot of time working with a client, but no sale happens. Or an author writes a manuscript that isn’t published. Our responsibility is to be faithful in sowing. When we are, a bumper crop is possible. Yet, at some point, we need to step back and trust God with the results of my work. God is the One who will take what we have sown and help it to be fruitful or not. When look at the Parable of the Sower from this perspective, we are encouraged. We need to sow well, to steward well what God has entrusted to us. But we don’t have to obsess about the results. Frankly, we can’t guarantee them. God is the One who will help our work to be fruitful, according to His wisdom and sovereignty. This truth reassures us, helping us to work well without worrying about how everything is going to turn out. Do you tend to worry about the results of your work? Or are you able to trust God without anxiety? Pay attention to the kind of “soil” that you are. The parable also guides us about our work. we are called to sow. We cannot always guarantee the results of our work. We are to be faithful, entrusting the results to God. 4While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, He told this parable: 5“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. 6Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”. (Psalm 8:4-8, NIV)
Jesus uses a parable about farming to encourage us to live fruitful lives. The key, according to Jesus, is to receive His word openly, letting it take root in our hearts. Bearing fruit isn’t easy, though. It requires resilience, as we hold on tight to God’s word, learning it, internalizing it, and living it each day. The Parable of the Sower is one of the more familiar parables of Jesus. It also shows up in Matthew and Mark. It is sometimes called the Parable of the Soils because Jesus actually provides more details about the soils than about the sower. Plus, when the disciples of Jesus asked about the meaning of the parable, He talked mainly about the soils, saying nothing about the sower (Luke 8:11-15). According to Jesus, the seed is the word of God (Luke 8:11). The soils are the people who hear the word and their responses. Some don’t receive it at all. Others receive it with joy but soon it dies out. With still others the word is choked out “by life’s worries, riches and pleasures” (Luke 8:14). But then there are some who are “the good soil.” They “retain” (hold fast to) the word “in a noble and good heart, and by persevering produce a crop.” (Luke 8:15). I expect that, like me, you find yourself wanting to be good soil. You want to be soil in which God’s truth takes root and grows, producing a bountiful harvest. So how can you be that kind of soil? According to Jesus, we are good soil if we “hold fast” to the word of God. We embrace it, seeking to know it, internalize it, and practice it. When tempted to give up on God’s truth, we grab on tight, even if it’s unpopular to do so. A good-soil person holds the word with “an honest and good heart.” The heart, in the language of Jesus, isn’t just the place of feelings. It’s the whole inner life, our capacity for thinking, choosing, and feeling. One of the key qualities of an honest and good heart is openness. Unlike the hard soil in the parable, we need to let the word of God penetrate our hearts. We need to let it challenge us, instruct us, admonish us, encourage us, guide us, and comfort us. Finally, Jesus says that the good-soil people will “bear fruit with patient endurance” (Luke 8:15). We know that an abundant harvest was produced from relatively few seeds (Luke 8:8). Yet, Jesus suggests, this outcome doesn’t come easily. Those who bear fruit must do so with “patient endurance.” We will bear fruit if we hang in there when things are hard, if we keep on seeking and trusting God, if we persist in hearing and doing the word of God. Are you able to hold fast to the word of God? Do you receive it with an honest and good heart? Are you resilient in fruit-bearing even in the face of tough challenges? Ask the Lord to help you be good soil for His word. Lord, by your grace, may I be resilient in learning, embracing, and doing Your word. May my life bear abundant fruit for You. 3Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young – a place near Your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God. 4Blessed are those who dwell in Your house; they are ever praising you. (Psalm 84:3-4, NIV)
Last week, we looked at vv. 5-7 of Psalm 84 and considered what 2021 would look like as we pilgrimage with God. But the preceding verses, we are encouraged to dwell in God, to make our home in God. The psalmist reminds us that if we are to journey with God this year and make God’s mission of redemption and restoration our North Star, we must first begin by finding our dwelling place in God as the sparrow and swallow make their home and nest for their young. As the pandemic wears on, many people walking their neighborhood begin to notice that many people were making modifications to their homes. From smaller projects like mending fences to larger ones like new roofs and driveways, it seems that nearly everyone is renovating their space. With all the extra time spent at home, forced people to settle in, hang out, and get comfortable in their homes, people began to notice ways they wanted to make their spaces more livable. When we have more time at home, we start to notice things that we’d like to change: paint that’s chipping or a door that squeaks. But we might also notice what we do like. Perhaps it’s how the light looks on your window in the morning or the smells from your neighbor’s house at dinner time. Consider how last year helped you (or forced you) to notice things you hadn’t paid much attention to before: not only about your physical space, but also about your relationships, yourself, and your work. As with our houses, we probably noticed some things we liked and other things that we wanted to see transformed. I also wonder if this season of forced dwelling has primed us in some way for 2021? The new year is always a time to think about the road ahead, a time of transition and new beginnings. A time to consider how to leverage all the experiences pain, and growth of the previous year for the next one. What if we spent 2021 truly dwelling in the house of the Lord? What if like the swallow we find a place in God where you can settle in and stay awhile? The Psalm teaches us to sing, “Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.” This psalm makes me think of a line from the old hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” The third verse of the hymn says: “Let thy goodness, like a fetter bind my wandering heart to Thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. Here’s my heart, O take and seal it; seal it for Thy courts above.” Dwelling is not easy. We’re prone to wander. Prone to leave. Prone to fill our lives with busyness and stuff. We hope at some point this year, we will be able to go back to “normal-ish” type life. The question is will we be so glad for 2020 to be over that we discard even the things that were good? So, at the start of this year, consider what it might mean for you to deepen your sense of dwelling in the house of the Lord this year. What would it look like for you to get so cozy in the house of the Lord that you know the nuances of God’s spiritual home: the good fruit of God’s grace that binds our hearts to the Lord and makes the invitation to dwell with God so sweet? Lord, help me to receive the grace You give so freely that enables me to dwell in your house this year ahead and always. 5Blessed are those whose strength is in You, whose hearts are set on pilgrimage. 6As they pass through the Valley of Baka, they make it a place of springs; the autumn rains also cover it with pools. 7They go from strength to strength, till each appears before God in Zion. (Psalm 84:5-7, NIV)
Verses 3-4 of Psalm 84 encourages us to dwell in the house of Lord. Blessed are those who get comfy and make nests and settle in with the Lord. The next 3 verses talk about what, at first, might appear like a really different charge: pilgrimage. The psalm teaches us: “Blessed are those whose hearts are set on a pilgrimage!” A pilgrimage is spiritual journey, like a quest for meaning. The Bible is full of pilgrim stories and pilgrimage themes. Consider Abraham leaving his home to search for the land God tells him about or the Israelites wandering in the desert in search of the promised land. In both cases, pilgrimage holds themes of hardships and care, search for promise and an assurance to trust because God is present. There’s even a whole set of Psalms (120-124) thought to be sung as pilgrims made their way up to Jerusalem. The fact that these verses about pilgrimage come right after “Blessed are those who dwell in Your house” makes me wonder about the connection between our dwelling with God and our capacity to take meaningful journeys. And it makes me wonder about the connection between dwelling, pilgrimage, and home. What if we are most ready for the quests that matter most to us when we have settled in and gotten comfortable in the house of the Lord? And, what if because we were forced to spend so much time learning to dwell last year, we’re more ready than we’ve ever been for a pilgrimage in 2021? Who knows what major events will happen over the course 2021? This could be the year you start a new job or launch your own business. Or it could be the year God invites you to mature as a follower of Christ by undergoing a pruning process. It could be the year you meet new people that will know for the rest of your life. We really don’t know what this year will hold in our life or our work. So, why not, consider the unknown as an opportunity to follow God on a pilgrimage. To wrestle and wonder, build trust in God, and hope for all the good grace that might be? Any pilgrimage we embark on, we are invited to make God’s mission of redemption and restoration in the world our North Star. For a pilgrimage is both about us, and what God is doing in and through us. Consider what or who God might be asking you to attune to at the start of 2021, this inevitably new journey. What are your hopes for 2021? Offer them to God aloud and then make space to listen to God. Sit in silence or go on a walk, and ask God to speak to your hopes for this year. Thank the Lord for a new year and the new life that comes through Jesus. Ask God to help you to hope for the things He hopes for. Let God orient you as your North Star as you endeavor to follow Him more deeply this year. May 2021 be indeed a holy journey, one in which you grow to listen and love God and all those He places in your life.
“The student is not above the teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like their teacher.” (Luke 6:40) The Pastoral staff decided to continue the theme of “Discipleship: Be like Jesus” for 2021. We would want to focus ourselves on learning, imitating, and following our Lord closely. Disciples literally means learners or students. Oftentimes, we are so proud of ourselves thinking that we are above the teacher who teaches us. Jesus warned his disciples with this parable, “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a pit? On the other hand, when we are humble enough, we may after a period of being trained, become like our teacher; a true follower who thinks like Jesus, feels like Jesus and acts like Jesus. The night before Jesus chose and called his disciples, he went up to the mountain to pray, spending the night praying to God. Then when morning came, He chose twelve apostles from among the many disciples: Simon, Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor. Jesus did not pick the cream of the crop like Nicodemus the scholar, or Joseph of Arimathea, the wealthy patron. He recruited a strange mixture of people, Simon the zealot belongs to the party violently opposing Rome, while Matthew the tax collector has recently been employed by Rome’s puppet ruler. In your mind, you may wonder whether Jesus could have done better. Why did Jesus choose these disciples? Their most obvious trait seems to be their bone headedness. Jesus asks, “Are you so dull?” “Are you still so dull?” Much of the time, a fog of incomprehension separates them from Jesus. When Jesus was teaching them servant leadership, they were fighting and arguing about who deserves the premium position. After Jesus performed miracle after miracle, they fret anxiously about the next; Jesus restores the demon-possessed, raises the dead, heals the sick, feeds the 5,000, they asks how about 4,000? Why does Jesus invest so much in these apparent losers? Mark mentions Jesus’ motives were “that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach.” (Mk 3:14) Jesus wants to train them to become more like Him and to carry on His mission after He had left. Because Jesus did not choose His disciples on the basis of talent, perfectibility or potential for greatness but rather on their ordinariness, it gives us tremendous hope. Praise God, all but one would become prominent leaders of their time. From such a ragtag team, Jesus founded a living church. Are you willing to follow their footsteps, and be trained? |
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