“How Is Your Hearing?” (Luke 8:1-15), February 1, 2009

At this moment, I am less about fighting battles in the church, in the denomination, or even in the culture than I have been.  Please don’t misunderstand me.  There are still battles to be fought, and I don’t want to shirk any calling God has given me.  But the older I get, the more I realize that battles won are often short-lived and hollow, and battles lost teach me some of life’s most valuable lessons.

Big day for TV

A television executive set out to broadcast the world’s most-watched sporting event, the Super Bowl.  The game was filmed and transmitted with a high definition digital signal that displayed more than 2,000,000 color dots on every screen – 1920 vertical lines and 1080 horizontal lines.

Some viewers switched channels as soon as the game began and never appreciated the advanced technology.

Other viewers watched with old analog sets and distorted images.  When their team fell behind, they turned off the set.

Still other viewers bought HDTVs only to watch the commercials, and went to the bathroom during the game.

But some viewers enjoyed every play of the competition on their 42” plasma 1080p screens, fulfilling the broadcaster’s highest ambition.

I have been asking myself all week how Jesus might tell the “parable of the sower” in our culture which is quite unfamiliar with farming.  Would that be it?  I don’t know.  But he would have found some metaphor that connects to daily experience.  For most (not all) people my age and younger, sowing and planting wouldn’t do it.

It was not so with the “great generation” who know what a “victory garden” is and who identify with Jesus’ original parable much better than my feeble attempt at a modern parallel.

The story teller strikes again

The writer of the gospel of Luke loves a good story.  We started this series of sermons on his gospel with his own story.  Today we see how he was intrigued with the stories Jesus told.  But for Luke, Jesus himself is the Story, and he tells the story differently than Matthew, Mark, or John.

For one thing, he fills in some details that they leave out.  He is also the most concerned about the sequence of how the story unfolds.  And he is clearly the most interested in the role of women in the story.

Without Luke’s account, we would see Joseph as the leading figure in the birth narratives of Jesus.  Mark and John don’t even tell us about Jesus’ early years, and Matthew records only visions that Joseph had.  Luke, on the other hand, had interviewed Mary and told us about Jesus’ early life from her vantage point.

Luke often will pair a woman and a man, or a group of women and a group of men.  In addition to Joseph and Mary, there’s Zechariah and Elizabeth (ch. 1), Simeon and Anna (ch. 2), a widow healed by Elijah and a man healed by Elisha (ch. 4), a Roman centurion whose slave was ill and a woman whose son had died (ch. 7), a shepherd who lost one sheep and a woman who lost one coin (ch. 15).

Here in chapter eight, Luke wants to counter the perception that Jesus and his twelve disciples were a bunch of self-sufficient men traveling around taking care of themselves.  So he introduces into the story a group of women disciples who may have been as many as the men.  They were the auxiliary for the traveling group.  They probably helped with daily chores like cooking and cleaning.  But in a beautiful irony, Luke also tells us that these women bankrolled the costs.  So here you have an ex-carpenter, some ex-fishermen, an ex-tax collector, and others who had left their jobs.  But it was the women who accompanied them who paid the bills!  I love that!

Begin with the end in mind

I have preached on this particular parable more than any other Scripture passage.  I love this passage.  Until now my approach has always been to take in sequence the four different soils – the hard heart, the shallow heart, the distracted heart, and the good heart.

That makes a good sermon, but I thought I needed a new approach – if not for you, at least for me.  If I preach the same message the same way it doesn’t change me.  Any sermon that doesn’t change me is likely to be a waste of your time as well.

Let me tell you where I am spiritually right now.  I just want a good heart.

It’s been thirty years since Linda and I finished Bible college and got married.  I was ordained more than twenty years ago, and have served this church almost sixteen.  I am 52 years old and realize that in all likelihood I have fewer years of life ahead of me than behind, fewer years of vocational ministry ahead than behind, and fewer years of pastoring this church ahead than behind.

At this moment, I am less about fighting battles in the church, in the denomination, or even in the culture than I have been.  Please don’t misunderstand me.  There are still battles to be fought, and I don’t want to shirk any calling God has given me.  But the older I get, the more I realize that battles won are often short-lived and hollow, and battles lost teach me some of life’s most valuable lessons.

In my heart right now there is a greater desire, a nobler vision, a higher calling.  It is to finish my course with a good heart – one that is receptive to the word of God, tender toward the Holy Spirit, loving toward you, the people over whom God has entrusted me with spiritual oversight, serving the world in the spirit of Jesus who came not to be served but to serve.

Listen to how Jesus describes that kind of heart as he explains his parable to the inner circle of his followers.  “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop” (Luke 8:15).

When I die, I can think of no greater honor than to have those words as an epitaph.  “Bob had a great heart.  He heard God’s word and followed it.  He stayed the course.  He made a difference.”

Maybe you think I’m too young to be talking about my epitaph.  Nobody’s too young.  If I wait until I’m old, it may be too late to change those habits and patterns and priorities that define you.  I want to die with a good heart.  Don’t you?  I want the image of Jesus Christ in me on the day I die to be a high definition likeness.

Don’t you?  Let’s take another look at this parable and ask ourselves what might get in the way for me – and for you.  What are the possible obstacles to finishing with a good heart?

Obstacles

The first obstacle is the devil.  We don’t talk about him much.  He has lost his popularity in a culture that prides itself in a “natural” explanation for everything that happens.

I wouldn’t bring up the devil if Jesus hadn’t done so.  Jesus mentions he devil in connection with the seed that fell along the path.  In the parable, some of the farmer’s seed either carelessly or unavoidably landed on the footpaths through the fields.  It was never plowed under.  Birds ate it before it could germinate.

The devil is like those birds, Jesus says.  He wants to snatch God’s word from our hearts.  He is real and he is active.

On the other hand, we need not fear him.  He can’t do his work just anywhere.  He can only do it in a heart that is hard.

That’s where my part comes in.  Having a heart closed to what God is saying makes it easy for the devil to snatch the word away.

Here’s how I most often see a hard heart manifested.  It’s the person who thinks, “I have nothing to learn.  I have life figured out.  I don’t need any new input.  I don’t need to go to church – or if I do, I go to have my theories about life reaffirmed, not challenged.”

By contrast, Jesus seeks the heart that is constantly saying, “Lord, what else do I need to learn?”  It’s the heart that spends time alone asking that question, that reads the Bible with that question, that exposes itself in humility to great books and fresh voices with that question, that even listens to critics with that question.  “Lord, what are you trying to teach me?”

Another obstacle is adversity.  In Jesus’ story this is represented by the rocky soil.  He was probably referring to seed that fell on a thin layer of top soil that covered a layer of limestone.  The seed would germinate quickly, then wither for lack of a root system.

Jesus says some hearers of God’s word are similarly shallow.  They believe because they but into the message that Jesus makes life better.  And he does, right?  Sometimes in his grace he even smoothes things out in the short term to help that new Christian gain traction in the life of faith.

I’ll never forget the Confirmands at my former church, two twin girls, who came to me so excited that their kitten who had disappeared from their home showed up on the front steps of the church an hour way.  It was an example of answered prayer.

But what if the lost kittens of your experience don’t show up?  What if the loved one you prayed for dies?  What if the job you are counting on for support is downsized?  What if the house you need to sell just sits there?  What if you pray and pray and pray and nothing happens?  What if every appointment on your calendar is “trouble”?

That’s what Jesus means by those who in the time of testing fall away.  They were joyful at first, and in fact believed their prosperity was affirmation from God.  But they believed not because of who God is but because of what God seemed to be doing for them.

Romans 8 tells us that no adversity will separate us from the love God has for us.  Jesus is telling us that we must determine no adversity will alter our love for God.

There is a third possible obstacle – prosperity.  If our nation and world are currently facing adversity in ways not seen for decades, the years preceding this one have shown the dangers of prosperity.  We bought into the delusion that we can have it all.

Here’s the root problem with prosperity.  It is never enough.  When bottom lines soar into positive territory, when stock portfolios grow at a record pace, when new markets open for greater expansion, greed takes over.  If we can double our profit, why not triple?  If we can have more, why can’t we have it all?

Jesus describes seed that was sown in an area where invisible weeds dormant in winter germinated along with the farmer’s seed.  The thorny plants grew and choked the intended crop.

What do these thorny weeds look like in our lives?  Jesus calls them “worries, riches and pleasures.”  “Worries” are “distractions” – anything that takes our eyes off the goal.  “Riches” simply mean having an abundance.  “Pleasures” comes from the Greek word from which we get “hedonism” – it’s just pleasure for pleasure’s sake.

The problem with worries, riches, and pleasures is that they are like a Super Bowl in the midst of economic turmoil.  They feel like a good way to take our mind off real life.  But the truth is that the Super Bowl will be over tonight and we won’t even remember it for long.  Who can quickly name the two teams who played last year?  I can’t.

The devil.  Adversity.  Prosperity.  They are all obstacles in my quest to live and die with a good heart.

A hearing test

The title of this morning’s sermon is “How Is Your Hearing?”  The reason for that title is that the word “hear” (in its various forms) is the most common word in this passage.  This is a parable about how we hear God’s word.

In what ways do you listen expectantly for God’s voice?

When the message or the messenger is not what you expected, do you still rejoice that God is speaking to you?

Give an example of a time in the past month when you changed your plans or your life because God was speaking to you.

Who holds you accountable for listening well and following through?

(© 2009 by Robert M. Thompson.  Unless otherwise indicated, Scriptures quoted are from The Holy Bible,
New International Version, Copyright 1978 by New York International Bible Society.)