We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. For since the message spoken through angels was binding, and every violation and disobedience received its just punishment, how shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.
It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking. But there is a place where someone has testified:
“What is mankind that you are mindful of them,
a son of man that you care for him?
You made them a little lower than the angels;
you crowned them with glory and honor and put everything under their feet.”
In putting everything under them, God left nothing that is not subject to them. Yet at present we do not see everything subject to them. But we do see Jesus, who was made lower than the angels for a little while, now crowned with glory and honor because he suffered death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. (NIV)
My wife and three daughters all have attention deficit disorder (A.D.D.). Although many people believe this to be a disadvantage, I have noticed that since their brain chemistry doesn’t have a good filter for filtering all the stimuli they hear each day, each of them are much more intentional about picking out the voice they want to hear and engaging with it. Whereas you and I might take this for granted, the women in my life know the value of creating the skills to pay attention.
The ability to pay attention and listen is necessary for a sustainable Christian life. The consequence of not developing such competency is that we will drift away – our minds will wander and allow other competing voices to overwhelm the singular voice of Jesus. Taking salvation for granted may be setting us up for spiritual failure. That is, we think we already know about Christ’s person and work, so we neglect to really pay attention. Bad idea.
Assuming we are paying attention is not the same thing as actually doing it. Assumptions lead to drifting away from truth. We are meant to have continual reminders of Christ’s redemptive events. We are to avoid the precarious position of being lost in a sea of competing voices. We need an intentional plan for paying attention without assuming we will be focused. Along with paying attention to our physical health and being vigilant about keeping the coronavirus at bay, here are a few ways of daily being mindful of our spiritual health:
Read the Scripture each day with a combination of standing and sitting, reading silently and out loud.
Hold a cross or other Christian reminder in your hand and feel free to fidget with it.
Journal your thoughts in a notebook.
Set a consistent time and place for bible reading and prayer.
Use different translations and versions of the Bible to read.
Go outside occasionally and pray while walking.
Focus on your breathing, and consider using breath prayers, i.e. Breathe out: “Speak Lord.” Breathe in: “I am listening.”
Drink some coffee, tea, or something soothing, and picture the comfort of Christ coming into your life.
Be aware of distractions and acknowledge them without judging yourself.
Observe the Christian Year and the Daily Lectionary.
While some might argue that observing Lectionaries, the Church Calendar, Christian seasons, and worship liturgies are vain repetition, I insist otherwise: We are in grave danger of not paying attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. Like a beach goer on the lake drifting on her flotation device far out from shore, we can be unaware of how far we have strayed from our spiritual moorings. If the passion and death of Jesus can only get a shoulder shrug and a “meh” out of us, there is a real problem.
Forming habits of worship, fellowship, service, and piety are essential to deliberately maintaining attention to Jesus. Perhaps if we all had spiritual A.D.D. we would be more intentional about grafting reminders and practices into our lives.
Ignorance does not come from a lack of education; it comes from a failure to pay attention to the most important things in life.
God pays attention to us in a special way, different from all other creation. As the only creatures for whom the image and likeness of God resides, we have an innate sense of connection with the divine. Paying attention to things, especially to what Christ has secured for us through the cross, reflects the God who is continually observing humanity.
May your contemplation of Christ and his redemptive events of incarnation, holy life, teaching, death, resurrection, and ascension be always fresh and continually meaningful.
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” (Matthew 13:3-9, NIV)
Introducing the Parable
I have been preaching sermons for over thirty-five years, so I have seen my share of people falling asleep in church. The most common ways of drifting off during a sermon are, what I call, the “Snapback” in which the head dramatically snaps back from its gradual descent backward; the “Pious Nod” where it might appear the person is praying until the head either hits the pew in front of it or snaps up, as in the snapback; and, the “Cozy-Sweet” where the head goes to the side and eventually lands on its neighbor’s shoulder for a bit of a nap.
I tend to believe if you need to sleep, you need to sleep – and I find the nodding-off antics of parishioners as bringing some light-hearted levity to my life. That said, for the Christian, it is important to listen to the Word of God. We need, first and foremost, to take a posture of listening, really hearing what Jesus has to say so that we can do the will of God.
The Parable
“Whoever has ears, let them hear,” said Jesus. Truly hearing Jesus’ words and listening with focused attention is the key to life. Our ears are the soil of our lives. Ears that are attentive and devoted to listening to Jesus are good soil; ears that are distracted and inattentive and stopped up with ear wax are the bad soil. Receptive listening to the Word of God brings a fruitful harvest of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. The Parable of the Sower (or Soils) lets us know that sowing (planting) the Word is important. It is sown on four different soils….
The seed on the path. A path is for walking, which is why the seed never takes root. Here there is no listening. When we act without listening, our actions will be misguided.
The seed on rocky soil. Here there is no deep listening. A lack of attentive hearing results in a shallow person who perhaps relies more on Christian clichés or on his/her personality or abilities instead of the sown Word.
The seed on the thorny soil. Here there is significant listening. However, there is too much listening to a cacophony of voices and not enough singular listening to the sown Word. Listening to the wrong voices will cause an unfruitful life, so we must be careful to the kind of preaching and type of preachers we hear!
The seed on good soil. A devoted listening to the Word without distraction leads to a productive, fruitful believer.
The Nature of Parables
A parable is a genre of biblical literature. Parables are as much about concealing truth as they are conveying truth. A person needs to give focused attention to the story to learn from it, much like a good novel conveys truth about the human condition without being preachy or outright saying the truth; or, much like a good movie that relies on character development and the power of story for its message instead of being a straightforward documentary.
Jesus neither strong-arms people into the kingdom nor puts a person in a full nelson to force them to do God’s will. We will miss the kingdom if we are looking for a big dramatic hoo-ha of an event, because it comes as an awareness within people and works its way out. For the person who has no intention of changing, they will find Christ’s words confusing. They might “hear” Jesus yet fail to really listen since they have their own ideas about how the kingdom ought to operate.
Yet, grace is present. The very fact that Jesus addressed the crowd of people demonstrates he cared enough to communicate. He could have said, “Hey, you guys, get lost, I’m just going to interact with people who really listen to me.” Jesus, however, is full of mercy. Instead of coming at the crowd and bursting through the front door, he came at them through the side door so that they would be able to receive the message well.
When I was a young Christian, I had a habit of puking the good news of Jesus all over people without really listening to them. Being blunt without being attentive is not the best approach; neither is being worried about saying something offensive, so nothing is said at all. Others cannot listen if we are either obnoxious or silent. A better approach is to ask permission to tell your story of what Jesus means to you, or what you have learned from God’s Word.
“The Sower” by Vincent Van Gogh, 1888
The Parable Interpreted
“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Matthew 13:18-23, NIV)
The focus of the interpretation Jesus gave is the experience of the seed in a variety of soils. The outside powers that act on the Word – devouring birds, rocks, the burning sun, choking thorn-bushes – demonstrate that the Word is central and needs to be received well:
The soil on the path is the person who hears the message yet is unable to hear God’s Word because their heart is hard. The devil snatches it before any real understanding can take place. We see that the devil is real and has ability to influence people who have listening issues.
The rocky soil is the person who hears just enough to respond with joy but drops out when hard circumstances come around. “I didn’t sign up for this!” is their cry. They needed to count the cost of discipleship before responding to the message. This is merely a professing Christian, nothing more. Rather than listening and internalizing the Word, there is only positive affirmation without any action or practice. So, tomorrow the message is gone and forgotten. When difficulty comes, there are no supporting words to draw from, so the person fades away, unable to navigate life successfully.
The thorny soil also hears and responds to the message. This person is also a professing Christian, nothing more. The issue with such a person is that he/she also listens to the voices of worry and wealth. Like some sort of spiritual attention-deficit-disorder, there is no ability to filter all the voices calling out, and so there is no growth. The Word of God must reign supreme; there cannot be two thrones of Wealth and Word and two Masters of God and Money.
The good soil is listening with the intention of understanding and putting into practice the message heard is what brings about fruit. Receiving the Word through careful listening brings about spiritual growth. God brings the growth when we focus on the Word. So, priority must be to listening well to the Word of God. When a whole group does this, then it creates a greenhouse effect in which people cannot help but grow in the Lord!
Conclusion on the Parable
The simple reception of God’s Word makes a person fruitful. The first soil did not receive the Word at all, though it listened to it; the second received it with joy but under pressure let it go; the third received it with only one hand because the other hand was busy; only the fourth soil received the seed of the Word with both hands.
Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers. (Psalm 1:1-3, NIV)
George Whitefield (1714-1770) preaching outdoors by English artist John Collet (c.1720-1780)
George Whitefield, arguably the greatest of all revivalists, addressed the topic of listening in a mid-eighteenth- century sermon based on the words of Jesus in Luke 8:18, “Take care how you hear:”
Come to church out of a sincere desire to know what God has to say to you. Sermons are not for entertainment. They are to reform our hearts and teach us our duty towards God and men.
Give focused attention to the things that are spoken. Listen as you would to the voice of someone you respect; the King of Kings demands even more respect! The stuff of sermons concerns eternal matters and not just the things of this world.
Guard you heart against prejudice to the minister. Even when ministers urge us in the ways they themselves have trouble with, don’t refuse the urging on that account. If what they urge is biblical, receive as though Jesus were the one who spoke.
Guard your heart at thinking more highly of a minister than you ought.It was the Corinthian evil that they began to prefer one preacher to another openly with terrible consequences for the body of Christ. Though one may minister to you more than another, respect both for what God does through them to the body of Christ and remember they are people just like you.
Make application to your own heart of everything that is said. Beware of that roving eye that says in a sermon, “That was meant for him” or “I sure hope she heard that!”
Pray to the Lord, before, during, and after the sermon. Pray that the minister might be endued with power and boldness to declare the whole counsel of God and not be intimidated by anyone. Pray that God would apply the words to your own heart.
Whitefield concludes: “If only all who hear me this day would seriously apply their hearts to practice what has now been told them! How ministers would see Satan, like lightning, fall from heaven, and people find the Word preached sharper than a two-edged sword and mighty, through God, to the pulling down of the devil’s strongholds!”
Everyone who has faith in me also has faith in the one who sent me. And everyone who has seen me has seen the one who sent me. I am the light that has come into the world. No one who has faith in me will stay in the dark.
I am not the one who will judge those who refuse to obey my teachings. I came to save the people of this world, not to be their judge. But everyone who rejects me, and my teachings will be judged on the last day by what I have said. I do not speak on my own. I say only what the Father who sent me has told me to say. I know that his commands will bring eternal life. That is why I tell you exactly what the Father has told me. (CEV)
Everybody has a philosophy of ministry of how to proceed with the actual doing of Christian works and service to others. We might think of philosophy as a theory about how to gain knowledge and what we are supposed to do with the knowledge we possess. We all have philosophies, even if they are not written down for others to see.
Ponder the thought that Jesus had a philosophy of ministry… which he did. If Christ’s words carry a lot of weight for us, then perhaps he articulated what he believes about the nature of knowledge; what to do with that knowledge; and, how to handle humanity. Contained within today’s Gospel lesson is the heart of Christ’s philosophical (and thus practical) approach.
Here are several observations about Christ’s philosophy of ministry:
True faith is Trinitarian faith.
Jesus came to dispel darkness by deposing its ruler.
Jesus did not come to nit-pick, harangue, or reject people.
Jesus came to save the world.
Jesus has the authority to save the world.
Belief in Jesus brings deliverance from sin, death, and hell.
Yes, there is a Day of Judgment coming – but that day is not today. Today is the day of salvation, of availing oneself of the opportunity to discover the life, teaching, claims, death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ. Jesus has declared (in a loud voice so we can hear him) that he is the light of the world, the path to God, the Savior of humanity. Those are some very audacious assertions! So, before tomorrow comes, we need to consider the claims of Christ today.
Those whose philosophies include generous portions of people-pleasing and posturing for people-praise will not be judged or rejected by Jesus today (and, so, ought not to be rejected by us, as well!) but will be judged by the words and message of Jesus on the Last Day. According to this philosophy of ministry, there is neither a precedent nor a need to step in and (attempt) to do the Spirit’s work. Rather, we place our faith in Jesus and allow that belief to shape our conversations and interactions with others. A Christian philosophy of ministry does not need to be complex; it just needs to be Christ-centered.
Great God of deliverance, thank you that you sent your Son, Jesus, to save people from their sins. I believe in you and what you did and what you stand for. Each time I open my mouth, may you form my words so that they are not judgmental, but helpful in bringing others to realize life-giving faith through the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.
My brothers and sisters, I know without a doubt that you are full of goodness and have all the knowledge you need. So, you are certainly able to counsel each other. But I have written to you very openly about some things that I wanted you to remember. I did this because God gave me this special gift:to be a servant of Christ Jesus for those who are not Jews. I serve like a priest whose duty it is to tell God’s Good News. He gave me this work so that you non-Jewish people could be an offering that he will accept—an offering made holy by the Holy Spirit.
That is why I feel so good about what I have done for God in my service to Christ Jesus. I will not talk about anything I did myself. I will talk only about what Christ has done with me in leading the non-Jewish people to obey God. They have obeyed him because of what I have said and done. And they obeyed him because of the power of the miraculous signs and wonders that happened—all because of the power of God’s Spirit. I have told people the Good News about Christ in every place from Jerusalem to Illyricum. And so, I have finished that part of my work. I always want to tell the Good News in places where people have never heard of Christ. I do this because I don’t want to build on the work that someone else has already started. But as the Scriptures say,
“Those who were not told about him will see,
and those who have not heard about him will understand.” (ERV)
Paul was an Apostle – a person commissioned by God for a specific purpose. His task was to go to the Gentiles – non-Jewish people. Although a Jew himself, Paul was sent as the missionary to places where Gentiles were the dominate culture. Through the Apostle Peter, and then Paul, the good news of Jesus spread to persons that were beforehand considered unreachable. Paul viewed himself as having no limits as to who could hear and respond to the gospel of new life in Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul understood himself as standing between heaven and hell, interceding, and pleading on behalf of people in need.
It is quite likely there are persons in our sphere of influence for whom we think would never respond to the message of Christ’s redemption. In these dog days of summer’s ordinary time in which we may be just trying to beat the heat; and, we might see family that we typically don’t throughout the rest of the year; it could be easy to lose sight that attending a virtual meeting, family gathering, and/or interaction with a person outdoors, there are those who need the kind of life which Jesus invites us to – and we will never know if God is wooing them to himself unless we share life with them.
Perhaps we need to see ourselves as Paul did – standing in the gap and always trying to find ways to speak good news to people who need deliverance from empty ways of life. The cousin or uncle, co-worker or friend, neighbor, or new acquaintance, can be forgotten by us as to their very real need to discover faith and the spirituality which resides within. We, my friends, are the conduit that God has ordained to bring the life-giving message to people all around us – people for whom we might have already written off as unreachable.
Sometimes the Apostle Paul gets a bad rap as moving beyond the bounds of his apostolic authority in dedicating his life to reaching the non-Jewish person, as if Gentiles were not really on the radar of Jesus. Yet, Paul took pains to demonstrate biblically that his mission was really God’s mission. Indeed, Paul did not fabricate including Jew and Gentile together as one people of God. Romans 15 is filled with Old Testament quotes pertaining to God’s agenda that all peoples of the earth would come and worship together.
It has always been God’s vision to restore humanity, Jewish and Gentile alike, to a life-giving place of beauty and joy in the Garden.
So, Paul had a healthy pride in his work as an Apostle sent from God to the task of reaching the vast numbers of non-Jewish people. I sit here today, two millennia later, the spiritual progeny of the Apostle’s great effort. Because Paul kept pioneering new churches, pushing ever farther into places which knew little to none about Jesus, and being concerned for people very different from himself, Christians today enjoy a rich legacy of faith and works to draw upon in our own lives.
Yes, as an historian I am quite aware of the complicated history between the Jewish people and their Gentile neighbors. I perhaps know more than the average bear about how the Church has far too often brought harm and not help to the world. Yet, this in no way mitigates the incredible new life which has occurred for so many people and cultures throughout the past two-thousand years of Christian history. In fact, in the light of today’s New Testament lesson, it behooves us Christians to establish gracious and loving connections with our Jewish brothers and sisters, as well as all of humanity. Their pain of persecution and difficulty through the centuries is our pain, as well.
May the power of God’s Spirit come upon us all. May we all become a community of priests and prophets proclaiming peace, love, and joy – the life we are all meant to experience and share together.
We praise you, O God, for the ministry and success of your servant, the Apostle Paul, through whom we who are Gentiles owe our own faith and calling. Grant us a vision like his, the conviction and commitment to pursue it, and the grace which confirms and prospers it. Amen.
Rev. Tim Ehrhardt 