Mark 4:21-34 He also said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be put under a tub or under the bed? Surely to be put on the lamp–stand? For there is nothing hidden, but it must be disclosed, nothing kept secret except to be brought to light. Anyone who has ears for listening should listen!’ He also said to them,
‘Take notice of what you are hearing. The standard you use will be used for you—and you will receive more besides; anyone who has, will be given more; anyone who has not, will be deprived even of what he has.’
He also said, ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the land. Night and day, while he sleeps, when he is awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know. Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the crop is ready, at once he starts to reap because the harvest has come.’ He also said, ‘What can we say that the kingdom is like? What parable can we find for it? It is like a mustard seed which, at the time of its sowing, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth. Yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.’ Using many parables like these, he spoke the word to them, so far as they were capable of understanding it. He would not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything to his disciples when they were by themselves. -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study Mark 4:24-25 (set off, above) is one of those "hard sayings" that can be puzzle, enigma, defiant riddle, ... or friend.
Jesus has been talking about the Word. He has just said not to keep it secret, don't put the lamp under the bucket, but up on the table so it is useful. Similarly, if you have the Word, and share it, you will be given more because you shared. If you have the word and keep it to yourself, the rest will be kept -- perhaps taken -- from you just as you kept it from others.
The two parables following don't follow the "hidden mysteries" that some scholars want to lay at the feet of all parables. They do, however, follow in the rich tradition of oriental oral history. They are pithy, memorable, and pointed. Each is about the Kingdom of God, a well-known concept to Jews of Jesus' time.
The seed in the first parable represents the Word, which goes ahead of the Kingdom of God and by God's Grace propagates among the faithful. The harvester gathers more seed to scatter and some with which to feed himself.
The seed in the second parable indicates that even from the tiniest shred of Word-genetic-material can grow a huge reward in which God's Creation can take refuge.
Neither parable is nearly as much a stretch of imagination as was the parable of the sower, in the previous selection. There, there were no hints as to the subject. Perhaps bringing up the Kingdom at this point is to provide a link to the sacred for those who were paying attention earlier?
A Reflection We never know where our spreading, where our sowing, where our sharing is going to take root. Matthias yesterday related his sweaty session of first public sharing in a sermon.
As all who have preached realize, "nice sermon" is usually an indication that it did not anger the listener (if she or he was listening), that it wasn't too long, and didn't violate any of that person's closely-held personal values. Those are the seeds that landed on the roadside or the rock, or maybe in the thorns. We [should] know, when we preach, that all that have ears are probably not going to hear, regardless of our earnest delivery and power-packed content.
In fact, the harder we try, it seems the more that fall on the road. When it's Matthias, or Real Live Preacher who's talking, their knowledge and devotion are authoritatively communicated, and people are polite. But when God takes over the content, the delivery and the deliverer are unimportant. And sometimes the mind of God goes into synchrony with the preacher, and you can observe a visibly shaken preacher afterwards: weak legs, look of astonishment, long pause before the next part of the service. Our parish priest had it happen to him a few weeks ago. I looked around the congregation and every eye was riveted on him. He was so into what he was saying that it was clear that it was inspired.
That kind of preaching does not come from idle writing, but from deep immersion in the Word and from prayerful listening to God's voice. Eckhart Tolle says that when we can separate the material world and its influences from our perception, and allow it to be, but to be ignored, we can be open to the power of Now, the power of the One Who speaks when we listen hard. That mountaintop experience during prayer is fantastic; while writing a homily or a sermon, the words flow onto the screen without consciousness. Spooky. Sacred spooky.
Some like present-day Matthias are given great ideas, consummate writing skills, and devotion to God. We are all given the ability to have devotion to God and to be able to listen for the roar of a mighty voice -- though we often hear only the lonely faint whisper, in the darkness, and we can barely discern it from the wind's rustle.
I keep telling myself that it's not that I'm a bad listener, it's just that I can't ball up everything else and push it off to the side as Tolle recommends.
Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy Name; through Christ our Lord.Amen.
Mark 4:1-20 Again he began to teach them by the lakeside, but such a huge crowd gathered round him that he got into a boat on the water and sat there. The whole crowd were at the lakeside on land. He taught them many things in parables, and in the course of his teaching he said to them, ‘Listen! Imagine a sower going out to sow. Now it happened that, as he sowed, some of the seed fell on the edge of the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground where it found little soil and at once sprang up, because there was no depth of earth; and when the sun came up it was scorched and, not having any roots, it withered away. Some seed fell into thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no crop. And some seeds fell into rich soil, grew tall and strong, and produced a good crop; the yield was thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold.’ And he said, ‘Anyone who has ears for listening should listen!’ When he was alone, the Twelve, together with the others who formed his company, asked what the parables meant. He told them, ‘To you is granted the secret of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside everything comes in parables, so that they may look and look, but never perceive; listen and listen, but never understand; to avoid changing their ways and being healed.’ He said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? What the sower is sowing is the word. Those on the edge of the path where the word is sown are people who have no sooner heard it than Satan at once comes and carries away the word that was sown in them. Similarly, those who are sown on patches of rock are people who, when first they hear the word, welcome it at once with joy. But they have no root deep down and do not last; should some trial come, or some persecution on account of the word, at once they fall away. Then there are others who are sown in thorns. These have heard the word, but the worries of the world, the lure of riches and all the other passions come in to choke the word, and so it produces nothing. And there are those who have been sown in rich soil; they hear the word and accept it and yield a harvest, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ -- The New Jerusalem Bible. 1995, c1985. Doubleday: Garden City, N.Y.
A Study Parable: the Greek translation is roughly, "put two things out for comparison." We can see the one thing, the story about sowing the seeds. We must make for ourselves the other half of the two things, and then compare them. Some students talk about an "earthly story with a heavenly meaning." Here, the earthly part is stated clearly. It is up to the student both to create and understand the heavenly part. And there's the rub.
An aside here, for clarity; stay with me: when Moses was trying to negotiate his way out of Egypt, he would win a concession from Pharaoh, and then God would "harden Pharaoh's heart" so that when Pharaoh finally took the fall, he would take a much harder fall. Call that 1300-1500 BC. In around 740 BC, one of David's successors, Ahaz (and his people) so infuriated God, according to Isaiah, that God told Isaiah to say to his people: "... 'Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.’ Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9b-10, NRSV)
Jesus instructs his disciples that this curse remains upon those who refuse the word: "to you is granted the secret ... but to those who are outside everything comes in parables." The words following are directly from Isaiah, who got them directly from God. We don't know how, but some of these people supposedly under the curse are no longer "outside." By grace? We are not told.
Think of the situation. This country preacher who works miracles tells a story about sowing seeds, then stops talking about that story and goes on to another, and finally goes off with his close followers. To what conclusion would you have come about the sower? Be honest with yourself. We have always heard the account in its full context, with knowledge that Jesus had come to sow the word. Suppose you were one of the ignorant poor who had to come to the seaside because their kind weren't allowed into the good seats in the Capernaum synagogue, or into it at all. Would you have come to an "aha moment" all by yourself?
A Reflection As a young fool, and then as an older one, I scoffed at the evangelists' call to "immerse yourself in the Word." Thanks be to God, I don't scoff at that thought any more. I had been "taught" the Bible in my Episcopalian boarding school, thank you very much, and understood all that I needed to know to be a respectable Episcopalian. What an absolute crock!
Every time I read scripture, it yields up another nugget. Some of the nuggest are very valuable on their face. Others are enigmas. Sometimes they are "hard sayings." Sometimes they are the endless "begats" (which I still think the Priestly writers stuck in there to make their genealogies come out right -- but I am still not sure!). Sometimes they are things that used to be hard sayings that are now friends. Take entering by the narrow door, for example. If you don't know that the narrow door made completely defenseless everyone who entered the inner gate of the city, it sounds as if Jesus is saying "It's darned hard to get into heaven." And that's what he meant for those trying to enter on the kind of understanding that I had, puffing myself up as a powerful, knowledgeable intellectual. Only with sword and shield lowered to a completely non-threatening posture could a person enter the narrow gate. Humble, defenseless, relying on grace.
And only by God's grace that gives us patience and the desire to understand, can we begin to penetrate the great Parable which is the Bible, with all its warts and translation problems and multiple-editor-redactions. It's the ambiguous textbook given to us by our Father, together with the grace to decipher it.
