Introduction & ice breaker
Caleb, regarding the tragic loss of life we have witness over the last few weeks, in his intro to the sermon on sunday says:
“Pay attention to what you find in your heart, GRIEF, ANGER, Possibly a mixture, EXASPERATION, NUMBNESS, APATHY, DISTRACTION, RATIONALIZATIONS, Something else?”
What has been your heart's response to these events?
Themes to Consider
Parable is a way of teaching that invites discovery
There is hard ground
There is shallow soil
There is crowded soil
There is good soil - and the crop there is astonishing
Jesus seems to be inviting those listening to him to see their own hearts. But not in a hopeless way, in a way that invites change.
4 levels of understanding
P'shat - surface level - lot of good here - devotional understanding - if you dont know Torah this is all you can have
Remez - hidden treasures and connection to other texts - THERE AT LEAST ONE IN THIS PARABLE
Drash - deeper narrative connections and Rabbi's purpose (Remez and Drash always up for debate and not a solo activity - takes place in community - Havurah)
Sod - divine wisdom, a gift - THE SECRETS OF THE KINGDOM - the Remah word of God
THE EVERYWHERE NATURE OF THE KINGDOM
1st Soil: HARD - our hearts have become hard
They have been trampled on
Our hearts are not open or receptive
There is a snatching away of the Word
2nd Soil: SHALLOW
There is promising initial response
But only to outward appearance
There is no rootedness
They scorched by troubles
3rd Soil: CROWDED
Also a promising initial response
But there are other concerns that loom as large
Worries of this life
Deceitfulness of Wealth
Chokes out the word
4th Soil: GOOD
Allows the miracle of growth
The least amount of interference
The Seed and the Soil - PRODUCE SOMETHING
An Astonishing Crop - 100, 60, 30
Discussion Questions
Of the four kinds of soil - find honestly where you are and where you want to be?
JESUS IS THE SEED - HE IS THE WORD OF GOD How is your heart toward Jesus? Hardened? Shallow? Crowded?
Guided Prayer
Heavenly Father, we bring heavy and broken hearts before you again today. We are grieving the death of Daunte Wright and Adam Toledo. How long oh Lord till there is change? What must we do for things to be different? Show us the way and help us to walk in it. Please bring your Kingdom on earth as it is in Heaven.
Father, you have said your Peace is beyond human understanding but that it can guard our hearts and minds. We pray for the families of these two boys. We pray that you would be near to them in your felt presence. We pray you would give them peace that is beyond explanation. Because we don’t understand and we don’t have the words. We pray you would comfort them in the unimaginable pain. Your Word says you are near to the broken hearted and crushed in spirit. Please let them know your are near.
We pray for these officers who fired their weapons and took human life. Come under with them the grief and pain they too must feel. Would you work in this experience to draw their hearts to you. Father, we know there is immense challenges in the roles that police play in our communities. But the way things are is not working. It is rooted in an unjust and targeted system that needs to change. We have an obsessive reliance on violence and we keep paying the price. We are still tangled with the racist roots of our nation and we are not free. Have mercy oh Lord.
Please give your comfort to our black and brown brothers and sisters who are carrying a disproportionate weight of pain and frustration. The exhaustion, the heaviness is too much. Bear the weight and show us how to love one another well.
God you have called us to something glorious and we are falling short. You have given us all the shining gift of the IMAGO DEI in our souls but we are trapped in a system that keeps insisting some are less than that. God have mercy.
Forgive us and help us live the true way of Jesus. Heal our nation. heal our land. in Jesus name. Amen.
Supplemental Content
“We asked people to join in the fight against racism and injustice. Instead some started a 5 year fight against their definitions and perceptions of marxism, socialism, et. al. and tried to force us to “prove” our beliefs came from Jesus before they would help. Nah, I’m good.” —Dr. Esau McCaulley
“A prophets task is to reveal the fault lines hidden beneath the comfortable surface of the worlds we invent for ourselves, the national myths as well as the little lies and delusions of control and security that get us through the day.” —Kathleen Norris
THE EVERYWHERE NATURE OF THE KINGDOM (Catholicity) - “Many of the parables insist that the Kingdom of God is at work everywhere, always, and for all, rather than in some places, at some time, and for some people. This is actually an integral part of Jesus teaching from start to finish.” —Robert Capon
“The fruits of the Spirit, however-those results that are not manufactured by our plausible and deliberate efforts but simply allowed to grow unimpeded under the guidance of the Spirit who takes what is the Word's and shows it to us-are, every one of them, truly human traits: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. They are not results of, or rewards for, our frantic efforts to make ourselves right; rather, they are the very rightness for which our nature was made, bestowed upon us as a free gift.” —Robert Farrar Capon
