06162021 – Mark 4. 26-34
Our world is changing…constantly in- flux, as you well know. The values of yesterday ARE NOT the values of today.
And the values of today will in all likely-hood, NOT be the values of tomorrow.
We shake our heads at the generations coming up…And TO BE FAIR, the generations coming up shake their heads AT US, as well.
To many the world seems harsh, cruel, non-caring and very divided. Where is there mercy? Our world seems very uncompromising, very unkind, heartless, and completely ruthless. This is the world that we are handing over to the younger generations…
Was it always THIS WAY? Or is this just a modern perception?
WE ARE THE FUDDY-DUDDIES, old, out of step, out of place, the dinosaurs of the past…soon to become extinct.
We are the ones … who DO NOT know the meaning of the word “COOL.”
WE are the ones … hanging on to the past…while the rest of the world says,
“good riddance.” Let’s move ahead. Let’s move beyond. Let’s just go…and GET ON with it…
So, our Gospel text for this evening talks about the Kingdom of God…Which to a lot of people is “foreign talk…it might as well be a foreign language?”
People do not understand talk about the Kingdom of God. There is no kingdom. I do not see a kingdom. Show me the kingdom. Where is it? Let’s see it!
They care about people. Individuals. The person standing directly in front of you.
This Kingdom talk is archaic and outdated…and left over from a previous day and time. Younger people cannot relate.
We say God’s Kingdom grows in mysterious, miraculous ways.
And they say, what is so mysterious or miraculous about sticking a stupid seed in the ground, of course, it is going to grow. That’s what seeds do! What else is it going to do?
Ancient people knew nothing about the power that transformed a seed into a plant, a shoot into a stalk, much less into one – with a full ear of grain.
They had no time-lapse photography, but we do. We can actually watch and observe the entire process. You can see it for yourself on YOUTUBE!
Our counterparts in the ancient world would have had an awe and respect in the face of what they considered to be “the natural world.”
They saw “the miraculous” in things…WE now take for granted. The farmer would SOW the grain and then would WAIT.
Today, you DO NOT WAIT for anything. You go online. You play games, you surf the net. You hang out. You DO NOT WAIT around for the gestation of a seed. I mean, why would you do that?
The rains come, or they do not come, and the farmer would get up night and day and WATCH the growth or lack thereof and then when the harvest came would REAP what had been sown—as a gift.
A GIFT? Yes, the farmer sowed the grain and would reap it, but would also GIVE THANKS to God who gave “the growth.” The growth was a gift from up above.
Whereas, today, you would pat yourself on the back for all of your arduous work and labor…and be done with it.
And it was this image that Jesus used to speak about the growth of his people, the Kingdom.
God Kingdom comes as a tiny seed, as small as the mustard seed, but when planted and tended … would grow into the greatest of plants and produce grain fit to be harvested. Not true, today. Today it is much more challenging.
Similarly, we say, God’s Word when planted and tended would grow into SAVING FAITH. Saving WHAT? What the heck is that?
People would come to know and love God NOT SO MUCH by techniques and programs, not by gimmicks, BUT BY authentic witness and sharing and caring of human relationships. Caring for all people. All individuals. ALL.
The word caring comes from the root word Kara, the Greek word meaning to “CRY OUT.”
To care means to “cry out” with those who are ill, confused, lonely, isolated, forgotten, with the Millennial’s who are suspicious of all organized religion, and Generation Xers who they say fear commitment and the Baby-Boomers caught up in impending retirement and older people who feel redundant and left out and left behind, forgotten, and lost.
We have our work to do. God has his work to do. There are generations that need to hear the word. Generations that we cannot afford to lose.
But first, we must become “those caring communities” that Kingdom was originally meant to be made up of…