Sermon 16 June 2024: the Kingdom
A nice crowd at both services this morning. For what it's worth, my homiletic endeavor is below, I tried to relax and so did a lot of ad-libbing in both sermons at both services, so any resemblance between lip and print is intentional.
Reminded that our homiletics (preaching) professor at theological seminary told us two key things. (1) never print your sermons after you preach them; and if you cannot avoid printing them, make sure that what you print is what you intended to say and should have said, rather than what you actually did say (however, the electronic age has completely overrun that escape mechanism); and (2) never brag to your congregation that you had to fight with the text all week long, because they will always see that you struggled with the text and lost. I did fight with this text all week, and my purpose was not to win, but to get Jesus out of a corner that Mark had painted Him into, it's your call how well or bad I did, eh?
My supervising rector for my training Time after I was ordained, always printed his sermons, and required that I always print mine. He was proud that parishioners always took copies of his sermons - - and because he and I did not get along well together, I always kept his sermon pile filled up so it looked like nobody was taking his reprints, and always taking copies of mine instead of his. I am not diabolical, but I knew about clandestine special ops and managed to stay ahead in that fray until I worked up a call to Trinity, Apalachicola.
At any event, today's homiletic nonsense?
Mark 4:26-34
Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”
He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet 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.”
With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
+++++++++++++
What makes you uncomfortable? Last Sunday morning, Mary Alice Mathison started her sermon asking “What makes you uncomfortable?” - - and today two things make me uncomfortable!
ONE, I’m uncomfortable being back here before I promised. Ashley Freeman phoned me to ask if I would be Supply Priest here today. He said the bishop had approved it, and the senior warden had okayed it, so would I do it? Of course I will, I’m still in love with you - - but
you and I said our goodbyes a month ago, and I promised not to return to pulpit and altar, but with Linda in her pew - - yet here I am, uneasy, embarrassed - - uncomfortable. I'm quite serious.
The other thing, that makes me even more uncomfortable, is something Mark says at the end of today’s gospel, and I'll come back to that.
First though, in today’s gospel, Jesus is teaching crowds at the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Some of you, on trips with Father Steve, have been to the exact places where Jesus was: it must have been exhilarating, emotionally overwhelming!
Jesus is telling kingdom parables, that the kingdom of God sprouts from the tiniest things you can see or imagine, and you may not even realize you are doing it. Years ago there was a bumper sticker, maybe you remember, "COMMIT RANDOM ACTS OF KINDNESS" and indeed, that's how the kingdom comes, the kingdom of God comes in agape, small acts of lovingkindness. Seeding and spreading the kingdom of God is as simple as keeping your baptismal covenant:
Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?”
That’s how the kingdom is planted and grows. The kingdom of God COMES - - IN you, AS you, AND, for other people, BECAUSE of YOU.
You’ve heard these kingdom parables many Times. In more than forty years as a priest, I've preached them many Times myself, probably including here. I’ll not do that again this morning, but I will dig into Mark chapter 4, because there’s a difficult and disturbing verse that makes me, and the church itself, very uncomfortable:
Ending today’s gospel, Mark concludes,
“Jesus did not speak to the crowds except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.”
Why did Jesus speak to the crowds only in parables? Unfortunately, we do not get to speculate about that, because it’s explained at Mark chapter 4, verses 11 & 12, where Mark says Jesus told his disciples,
“To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables, in order that ‘they may indeed look but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’”
Did you hear that? It's appalling, outrageous, and both Matthew (13:11-15) and Luke (8:10) pick it up from Mark (Matthew even intensifies it).
??What’s going on?? Jesus telling parables to obscure and confound rather than to enlighten is not the Jesus we know and love. ??To confuse people so they cannot repent and be saved??, that's not Jesus talking.
And - - ??only insiders are to know the secrets to the kingdom of God??, that’s Gnostic, Gnosticism, which the church condemns as heresy.
Why does Jesus tell Kingdom Parables? Because, as Jesus says in the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas, “the kingdom of the Father is spread upon the Earth, and people do not see it” (Th113). The parables are to be a conduit* out of ignorant oblivion, into the love of God, which IS the kingdom, which is what Jesus came to proclaim to all.
But Mark (or someone who later edited Mark) - - Mark lifts a half-verse from the Call of Isaiah in the Septuagint, the Greek language Jewish Bible that was in use at the Time, where, at Isaiah 6: 8-10, Isaiah says,
"I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall we send, and who will go for us?’ And I said, Here am I, send me." 9 And the Lord said, "Go, and say to this people, 'Ye shall hear indeed, but ye shall not understand; and ye shall see indeed, but ye shall not perceive. 10 For the heart of this people has become gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and repent, and I should heal them.”
Do not overlook that there’s irony, even sarcasm, in what God says to Isaiah. God is brokenhearted that the people have turned away from Him; but Mark, who was not a Jew, misses that subtlety. Mark, or a later editor, has lifted out of context the very last phrase of what God said to Isaiah, and placed on Jesus’ lips something that Jesus would never have said.
Now, serious Bible students know that it was common and acceptable for the gospel writers, in that age of messianic expectation, to cherry-pick verses out-of-context from the Jewish Bible to prooftext a point - - (Matthew does it all the Time, it's part of his agenda and technique). Usually it works, but it does not work well here. At Isaiah 6, the Lord sadly and angrily calls Isaiah to prophesy to a stiff-necked people who have turned away from the Lord, and the Lord is calling Isaiah to prophesy their doom, because the Lord wants them to repent, so he can forgive them.
But Mark 4, vss 11&12, or Mark's editor, misses that, missing the irony of God's wistfulness, uses only the second half of Isaiah 6, verse 10. For us it's uncomfortable, upside down and inside out. Maybe it was okay to readers of the Time, maybe Mark (or a later editor) is facing problems of the day: in the late first century/early second century, Christians were being persecuted, facing cruel enemies who did not understand the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus taught. Maybe Mark's troubling verse was in context of isolating enemies of the gospel.
But in our day, to hear Mark quote Jesus telling the disciples that he tells parables to outsiders “so that they see but not perceive, hear but not understand - - so they may not repent and be saved,” is not the Jesus we know. In fact, the lectionary framers hid these hard sayings away so we never read them in Sunday worship. These passages from Mark, Matthew and Luke are totally excluded from the lectionary altogether. A Bible student is appalled, and has to dig into them, and is still left uneasy and uncomfortable.
Fortunately, in today’s case, there’s a comfortable reworking. Father Steve used to read to us from Eugene Peterson’s Bible "The Message," which does a magnificent job of paraphrasing instead of literal translation. Eugene Peterson does it again this morning:
At Mark 4:11&12, “The Message” quotes Jesus telling his disciples,
“You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom—you know how it works. But to those who cannot see it yet, everything comes in stories, creating readiness, nudging them toward a welcome awakening. These are people Whose eyes are open but don’t see a thing, Whose ears are open but don’t understand a word, Who avoid making an about-face and being forgiven.”
+++++++
Jesus came to proclaim the kingdom of God, where everyone is Invited, Welcome, Loved and Accepted, just as you are, the way you are. That's the gospel of the Lord. That’s the kingdom of God.
And as Father Steve always said, God love you! Amen!
+++++++++
SOME OF YOU KNOW THAT, FOR MANY REASONS, I PREFER THE BAPTISMAL COVENANT WITH ITS PROMISES AND COMMITMENT, TO THE NICENE CREED, WHICH HISTORICALLY IS A 4TH CENTURY THEOLOGICAL STATEMENT RENOUNCING 4TH CENTURY HERESIES. BEING IN CHARGE ONE MORE TIME TODAY, AND BECAUSE THE KINGDOM COMES IN THE LITTLE THINGS THAT YOU DO TO KEEP YOUR BAPTISMAL COVENANT, I’LL EXERCISE THAT PREFERENCE AGAIN THIS ONE LAST TIME:
IN THE RED BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER IN YOUR PEW RACK, PAGE 304, THE BAPTISMAL COVENANT AND PRAYERS THAT FOLLOW. PAGE 304, REMAIN SEATED, OR STAND IF YOU WISH. PAGE 304
+++++++++++++
Sermon/homiletic endeavor preached by the Rev Tom Weller in Holy Nativity Episcopal Church, Panama City, Florida on the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 6B, June 16, 2024.
* conduit: apt word used in defining the parables in, "Kafka's Not Supposed to Make Sense, 'The incomprehensible,' he explained, 'is incomprehensible,'" by Judith Shulevitz, The Atlantic, July-August 2024, pages 98f
Notes about the above art, by Sara Sherwood. London: there is a seed dropped by the eagle under St Paul's Cathedral. Another seed is below the Shard (the Shard is home to some of the best offices, restaurants and hotel rooms in London - along with breathtaking views). There are birds in the bottom left of the art. The storm and boats are in the clouds on the top left.
About the art below. “God is in the details” Mies Van der Rohe. "God is in the details" is a quote by American Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969). It means that when attention is paid to the small things it can have the biggest rewards and that the details matter (as the following painting shows):
