Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church |
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"Fahrvergnuegen" and "Selbstwirksamkeit" Mark 4:1-20 (cf. Matthew 13:1-23) by Sheri Blackmon 11-21-99 A young man desired to go to India as a missionary with the London Mission Society. Mr. Wilks was appointed to consider the young man’s fitness for such a post. He wrote to the young man, and told him to call on him at six o’clock the next morning. Although the applicant lived many miles off, he was at the house punctually at six o’clock and was ushered into the drawing room. He waited—and waited—and waited wonderingly, but patiently. Finally Mr. Wilks entered the room about mid-morning. Without apology, Mr. Wilks began, "Well, young man, so you want to be a missionary?" "Yes, sir, I do." "Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ?" "Yes, sir, I certainly do." "And have you any education?" "Yes, sir, a little." "Well, now, we’ll try you; can you spell ‘cat’?" The young man looked confused, and hardly knew how to answer so preposterous a question. His mind evidently halted between indignation and submission, but in a moment he replied steadily, "C, a, t, cat." "Very good," said Mr. Wilks. "Now can you spell ‘dog’?" The youthful Job was stunned but replied, "D, o, g." "Well, that is right; I see you will do in your spelling, and now for your arithmetic; how much is two times two?" The patient youth gave the right reply and was dismissed. Mr. Wilks gave his report at the committee meeting. He said, "I cordially recommend that young man; his testimony and character I have duly examined. I tried his self-denial, he was up in the morning early; I tried his patience by keeping him waiting; I tried his humility and temper by insulting his intelligence. He will do just fine." (Swindoll’s Oxcart 428-29) Like Mr. Wilks’ testing of his applicant, God’s testing of us often looks very different than we expect. We often look to produce spectacular signs of effectiveness and learning, because we think God is impressed with these. When we fail to see these we may conclude we are not very effective followers of Jesus Christ and get discouraged, wondering what difference God is really making. But God may be concerned about something else altogether. Oswald Chambers has said: "The tendency is to look for the marvelous in our experience; we mistake the sense of the heroic for being heroes. The test of the life of a saint is not success, but faithfulness in human life as it really is. It is one thing to go through a crisis grandly, but another thing to go through every day glorifying God when there is no witness, no limelight, no one paying the remotest attention to us." (Nov.16 in My Utmost…) It is easy for us to buy into the success and prosperity model of Christian living. The church is sometimes too much like the world: we go to seminars led by the Bill Gates of the Christian world. They have the "successful" churches and the mega ministries and some people flock to them for answers and keys to success. Some of this is certainly positive and helpful, but it can be harmful if we judge that bigger is better and thus smaller is worse. A few weeks ago our church staff attended a church ministry conference. Most of the conference speakers and workshop leaders were informative and inspirational. There was one speaker, however, who was preoccupied with impressing the crowd with his effectiveness and success. The structure of his talk was a list of ways in which God had used one person’s life (his) to make a difference. He cast himself in the best possible light. He talked about the way God had used him time and again to lead key people to Christ, who in turn did impressive ministries. He listed the thousands of children who attended his church through his bus ministry, the thousands of adults who were active in his church, his wonderful children who were highly competent, athletic, spiritually sensitive and visionary. One of them was now starting a visionary ministry of his own, just like his dad. Then he concluded with the point that you never know who you might be ministering to and asked: "What if the next Mother Teresa were sitting in my congregation?" Dave told me later that he thought if she were sitting in his congregation and buying in she would not become another Mother Teresa. Dave and I then shared a moment of pastoral cynicism. I’m not sure what’s worse: egotism or cynicism, but none of us is immune to letting the world rub off on us. Jesus’ disciples were also guilty of letting the world rub off on them. Like the crowds surrounding them at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, they were impressed by the signs and wonders of Jesus’ ministry and the success he was experiencing. The crowds had shut their minds and ears to Jesus’ words and were only intent on the deeds he performed. That is why Jesus began to speak in parables: to awaken their curiosity so they might learn what the kingdom of God was really about. So he began with a lesson about how the kingdom of God comes into our lives and makes progress in the world. The parable I read this morning is the first parable of three in Mark that give a revelation of the invisible reign of God in human affairs. It has a two-fold purpose: to highlight the inherent power of God’s Word (the German has a word for this: Selbstwirksamkeit … literally meaning "the self-workingness or inherent power of a thing. For an explanation of the other German word you have to wait until the end of the message) and to teach us to be careful to have the right heart condition or soil. This parable weaves together His story with our story. From the perspective of His story we could call this the parable of the sower; from our perspective we could call it the parable of the soils. Let’s start with the parable of the sower. Jesus first off focuses our attention on a key characteristic of the sower: his extravagance. Any farmer would be quick to point out that this sower’s techniques were inferior. No prudent farmer would throw seed on a busy path or on shallow soil. That would be a waste of seed! Unless, of course, the farmer were extravagant. God’s main activity is sowing the Word and God is not only extravagant in this, but goes out of his way to sow seed. He doesn’t just sow where there will be a rich harvest, but where the odds are slim. That’s because he wishes that none should perish but that all should come to eternal life through Jesus Christ. Secondly, the focus is on the power of the seed, which is the Word of God. The fourth soil produces a bountiful harvest not because of anything it has done but because of the power inherent in the seed (Selbstwirksamkeit). Notice there is no mention of the positive conditions of the soil like good irrigation, fertilizer, weed control. All these are missing to focus our full attention on the power of the seed. This can be offensive to us. We want to take credit for the results by pointing to our work in cultivating the soil. O. Chambers says:
The parable of the sower offers us encouragement to trust in God’s grace and ability to pursue and reach people. The life of Francis Thompson was a downward spiral that landed him on the streets of nineteenth-century London—a useless vagabond, an opium addict, a starving derelict. There, God caught him. Finally. The son of a doctor, Thompson started out with great potential. His father sent him to study for the priesthood, and then to another school to become a doctor. But he failed at both professions and became a drifter instead, running from responsibility, family, and God. Eventually, this prodigal hit bottom. Wandering the back alleys of London, he was hungry, friendless, and addicted to drugs. With tattered clothes and broken shoes, he barely survived selling matches and newspapers. Still, God did not relent in His dogged chase to capture the young man’s soul. A ray of hope came when Thompson began to write poetry. An editor saw his potential. He published his works, encouraged him to enter a hospital, and personally nursed him through his convalescence. This marked a spiritual turnaround in Thompson’s life. His poem The Hound of Heaven is one of the finest odes in English literature. It speaks of his flight from God and God’s pursuit of him. I fled Him, down the nights and down the days; I fled Him, down the arches of the years; I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways Of my own mind; and in the midst of tears I hid from Him, and under running laughter. Up vistaed hopes I sped . . . From those strong Feet that followed, followed after. But with unhurrying chase, And unperturbed pace, Deliberate speed, majestic instancy, They beat—and a Voice beat More instant than the Feet— All things betray thee, who betrayest Me." (later) "Naught shelters thee, who wilt not shelter Me.". . . "Rise, clasp my hand, and come. I am He Whom thou seekest!" God sows his seed and Francis Thompson receives and shelters it. I wonder if anyone here today is being pursued by the hound of heaven and feels "those strong feet that follow, follow after." You will never find rest until you find your rest in God who revealed himself in Jesus Christ. We are called to receive and give shelter to God’s Word as it enters our lives. But why doesn’t everyone do this or why do some do it but there is no fruit while others bear great fruit? These questions lead us to the parable seen from our perspective as the parable of the soils. The four soils are not a description of four types of persons but conditions of the heart at any given moment. See which soil you identify with. Be honest with yourself. Be willing to really hear what Jesus says in this parable. The first is the seed that fell along the footpath and the birds snatched it up. This seed had no chance to take root. Luke adds that it is trampled on. This is the person who hears God’s Word but does not understand it. This heart does not see the value of the Word; it is ignored underfoot. This person is so caught up with the mundane affairs of the world that he is delivered from the "danger" of thinking too deeply about spiritual matters. This may be caused by a callused heart that has been beaten down so many times it has become cynical, hard-hearted and bitter. God says this life is for the birds. The second is the seed that fell on the rocky soil. Some soil in Palestine was thinly laid across limestone immediately beneath. A rain-like dew, characteristic in the area, made this topsoil damp and therefore nutritious. Seed falling in it would immediately come to life. But when the sun rose and cooked the dampness away, the seed and its life were just as immediately scorched. The second soil receives the seed with joy. This is the impulsive heart: it responds to food fads, new books, charismatic personalities, political leaders, whatever is popular the way it does to the Word-- with great enthusiasm, until the heat gets turned up. These are people who rejoice in their Christian faith and the benefits of being a Christian, but when things don’t go their way, when difficulty and suffering come, their faith withers because it lacked strong roots. One of the most destructive forces at work in the church today is our insistent demand for instant results. We need to allow time for the Word to take root and grow and come to harvest in our hearts and the hearts of our new brothers and sisters in Christ. We need patience The third soil is thorny soil. The soil seems to be good; this is a listening heart which receives the seed, but thorns growing in the same soil choke out faith. Jesus details three things which can be thorns that choke the life-giving Word: first cares and worries. A woman worried for forty years that she would die of cancer. She finally died of pneumonia at age seventy. She wasted forty years worrying about the wrong things. Corrie ten Boom said that "worry does not empty tomorrow of sorrows; it empties today of strength." Second, there are those who delight in riches, who are caught up in the pursuit of wealth, in the Playboy philosophy, constantly planning for their amusement and pleasure. Then there is the "desire for other things" or what we might call "restlessness." They always want something else or more or someone new and different. All these people are choked by the stuff of life. The third soil describes the over-involved heart, a great description of many individuals today: successful and involved in many areas, competent and distracted. These are people who hear and respond, but don’t mature. Worldly concerns, worries, wealth, and desire overwhelm them. The fourth soil is the good soil. This is the receptive heart: it hears and understands, retains and perseveres. Note the simplicity of the soil. It is the most briefly described soil of all. No ten steps to successful soil cultivation, no techniques for creating conditions for the seed to grow. It’s a matter of receiving or gripping one object—the Word—all the rest is the work of the sovereign Lord. The soil’s task is to give the Word hospitality. The simple reception of the Word makes one fruitful. The implications of this parable for us are these. First is our responsibility to hear, receive and understand the Word of God: a reference to Jesus Himself and His Word recorded as Scripture. Everything depends on hearing the Word. Matthew uses the word "hear" 11 times. The implication is clear: a person hears on many different levels. Where the Word is heard and understood, everything has been done that a human being can do. The fruit-bearing is then an affair of the Word itself based on its inherent power. The second implication is our mission to be sowers ourselves by bringing this Word with a patient urgency to the church and the world. You should not be discouraged when three out of four of your hearers seem unfruitful; one out of four will be so fruitful that your work will be worthwhile. This task can be a difficult one, because you often don’t see the results of your labor. I sometimes envy people who construct buildings: they can see what their labor has brought. It’s easy to get discouraged in the business of sowing the Word. Every time I get discouraged and wonder about my effectiveness as a follower of Jesus or a minister in his name, God will give me a gift. It might take the form of a spiritual insight coming from my children, a response from someone in the congregation, a spontaneous testimony from someone of how Jesus has turned his whole family around, etc. And then I see once again the power of God’s Word to bring change and renewal if properly received into a life. Don’t underestimate this power. Thirdly, we have the privilege of waiting expectantly and joyfully for the promised final victory of the Word. God promises that his Word will not return void but will do the job. So we must have confidence in God’s ability and power and not look to our own efforts so much. God requires of us an attitude of listening. This is liberating news in an age of frantic efforts and busyness. God’s Word to us today is not to "follow five steps to success" or "compare yourself to others," but to abide in Christ. This means you must slow yourself down, let God soften your callused heart, allow your roots to grow deep, weed out the thorns and trust in Jesus to work as you sow his Word in people’s lives. We rest secure in the fact that God is at work, and will faithfully perform his work. Remember the VW commercial that promised "Fahrvergnuegen?" That means "driving pleasure" or "enjoyment of the ride." When we trust in the Selbstwirksamkeit of the Word, we will experience true driving pleasure (Fahrvergnuegen). So enjoy the ride and leave the results up to God. |
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