St. Paul Lutheran Church, Minden, Nebraska
Sunday sermon – Second Sunday after Pentecost - June 14, ’09
“Gift of God’s Seed Growing!”
Text: Mark 4:26-28
This is not a trick question; it’s not a strange question, but what you think? Has it ever occurred to you? What do farmers planting corn and preachers preaching Christ have in common?
The answer is: farmers work at planting their corn and preachers work a preaching Christ as if everything depended on them! But both farmers & preachers must pray & look to the heavens as if anything good that comes of their planting and their preaching depends on God. And it does, it surely does depend on God!
Both planting corn & preaching Christ are in Luther’s words, “holy” callings in that both are done for the glory of God & the good of God’s people. And both do well with God’s blessing: good yields, good results.
The old Latin phrase for this is “Ora & Labora” meaning “Pray & work; pray & work; pray & work!” Farmers & preachers, no matter how hard they work at their planting or their preaching, they can only do so much. God does the rest. God gives the growth. God causes the corn to grow unto a good harvest. God causes His Kingdom to come in the hearts of His people both now and for eternity.
Or to hear it from Jesus in the Gospel reading for this Sunday; Jesus says: “The Kingdom of God is like, the Kingdom of God is as if a farmer should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how!”
Adding to this mystery Jesus then says: “First the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear!” And what does the farmer have to do with this? Not a whole lot!
Yes, the farmer plants the seed, works the ground, sprays for weeds, sprays for bugs, runs his pivots, irrigates his corn rows, gets continuous updates on what the soil & how the corn is doing, but in the end, miracle of miracles, the farmer can’t make his corn grow or make it grow even. God gives the growth.
Does God do the same thing with the good seed of His Word when preachers preach and the good seed of God’s Word is planted in the soil of human hearts receptive to that word? What does the preacher have to do with God’s Word taking root and growing? And again, the answer is, not a whole lot! Preachers study the word, pray over the word, absorb the word, and preach the word, but God gives the growth. God gives the growth!!
What makes this good news? Why is this good news? It’s good news because ultimately the word I preach Sunday after Sunday, year after year, is not God’s Word until God takes it and uses it and makes it His Word. God’ Word is a gift that only God can give and what goes on silently, quietly, faithfully, continuously, when I as a preacher preach God’s Word, is truly amazing!
A Lutheran pastor, who took off a few months, traveled around the country and, as a sort of sabbatical study, attended church in dozens of places and listened to scores of sermons. When he returned home, a friend of his who was a professor who teaches preachers to preach, asked him, what he learned about preaching during his sabbatical? His reply was, “I learned that, when it comes to preaching, if anybody hears anything, it’s a miracle.”
You know this. I know this. You sit here on Sunday. You could just as easily be sitting somewhere else. At home reading the Sunday paper, in your car headed for a mall, out on a tractor, down at the lake, watching some sports event on TV or riding around in a golf cart out on a golf course! But you’re here.
Yet even though you’re here, what happens to seed the preacher has to sow? Does it get planted? Does it take root & grow?
Does your mind wander off? Some of you are good at multitasking. You want to listen but you’re also busy thinking, remembering, going over things you’ve got to do or get done this coming week. Some of make lists for yourself on your bulletin or your outline sheet. Depending on where you’re sitting you may quietly watch, smile at the antics of active children sitting near you. Do you look at your watch? Do you wonder how much longer the preacher is going to preach? You may not be in a good mood, spiritually or emotionally speaking.
I know! I’ve been there, done that. I’ve sat in the back of this church when I’m not preaching. I know what a miracle it is, if anybody hears anything in a sermon.
But still it happens! Miracle of miracles, wonder of wonders, surprise, surprise, something in the service, in the sermon will catch your attention, get planted in your heart, and stay with you.
You want examples? Over the years you’ve heard it here, you’ve heard things like: “I need a hug” - “Don’t be a WAM when you can be a WAY” – You’ve heard again and again that G.R.A.C.E spells – God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense!” - You like to sing “Jesus Loves Me This I Know”. . You don’t mind me saying it again & again: “Be gentle on yourself. God for Jesus’ sake loves you more than you love yourself!” – (and most importantly) “The Lord be with you.”
Or as Jesus puts it, The Kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.
That’s what I’m saying. When you come here, whatever else is going on around you or in you, the seed of God’s word is scattered again & again. You hear a word that has your name written on it. Your spirit is lifted, you’re glad for what the preacher is saying, you nod your head “yes!”
You expect the preacher to be dry, boring and he is. But once in a while it rains, living water comes washing over you.
You may be feeling dark, gloomy, grumpy but suddenly a ray of light brightens your soul.
You start to nod off, but something the preacher says wakes you up; you listen, you’re humbled, you think the sermon was written just for you. You have a personal, quiet, silent, surprising encounter with the living God. It’s not your imagination; it’s not that you’re concentrating harder. It’s like seed growing night and day, in the dark, in the sunshine. It’s amazing, it’s a miracle!
It’s like that with the Kingdom of God, Jesus says. Sometimes the seed of God’s Word takes root in some people’s hearts in less than 48 hours. Most of the time, for others it seems like nothing changes; nothing happens. There are some Sundays when nothing the preacher says reaches people or stays with them.
The good news is that given how hard the soil of human hearts is, given how many variables, how many distractions there are: the word works. No matter how long or how short the sermon, sowing the seed of God’s Word, preaching, proclaiming the good news of God’s kingdom, gets through, yields good results.
Whether you’re here every Sunday or not; whether you get something out of every service or not, the Kingdom of God here & growing. No less an authority on preaching than the evangelist Billy Graham says, “Wherever the Gospel is preached, no matter how poorly or crudely, there are bound to be results.”
Or as a fellow preacher and good friend of a friend of mine likes to point out, “Every sermon is therefore an act of faith.”
By that he means, You listen, and if you hear, if your name is called, if the Word is a good fit for you & your life, that comes as gift. Like “seed sprouting and growing, you know not how.”
In other words, the words from the lips of preachers – whether they be last minute words that come to the preacher late Saturday afternoon after a very busy week or they are carefully crafted words that take a long of time to prepare, God takes the words the preacher preaches, uses them, blesses them, sanctifies them and they become God’s word for you; become light, rain, bread of life, living water, Word incarnate, God with you, God for you – all of it God’s miraculous gift to us for living & growing in Christ. Just as we sang prior to this sermon:
“Blessed Jesus, at Your Word - We are gathered all to hear you. Let our hearts and souls be stirred - Now to seek and love and fear you.
“Blessed Jesus, You alone to God can win us!
“Blessed Jesus, You must work all good within us!
“Blessed Jesus, Bring your word to harvest in us!
(from “Blessed Jesus, at Your Word, LSB, no. 904, CPH, c. 2006)
