Sermon Tone Analysis
Overall tone of the sermon
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When I was young - about 13 yrs old - I was at a place called Oxenford - about 10 mins north of the GC - at the house of a friend of the family
It’s a place now that is full of shops/markets & the like - almost inner city
But back then it was pretty well, country
We went out to the front of the house that was beside a road but about 30 mtrs from it
The father of this family brought out a shotgun & they were going to shoot ducks in the ponds behind their home
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But before he did this, he asked me if I’d like to have a go at the gun
I thought I’d have a crack, so he walked up the road & put an empty shoebox, tacking it onto a tree
He came back, passed the shotgun to me & said to aim for the box on the tree, but beware, it has a good kick so make sure you have it firmly pressed back into your shoulder
I kind of aimed the best I could - cause the gun was rather heavy for a 13 yr old & bang - just about took my shoulder off
Believe it or not, I actually hit the box
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However, it was a bit of false indicator, since it was a shotgun & not a rifle
Shotguns shoot pellets that spread out - so you could have been off target but still hit it with the pellets
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This is an illustration of what it’s like when the sower sows the seed of the word - it scatters & spreads out broadly & what they land on is going to determine what response you’ll get if & when the plant springs up
Jesus is now giving explanation for all the different responses people have had of Him as His word of the kingdom goes out
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There has been the enthusiasm & commitment of the original followers when He called them to become fishers of men
There has been the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit from the Scribes who have come from Jerusalem & who attribute Jesus’ work to the devil & sorcery
There has been the response of His family who thinks He has gone stark, raving mad
There have been those who are pressing & flocking around Him desperately trying to touch him, like people who are scampering in a last minute sale at a department store
They are hoping to find relief from physical or spiritual suffering
Then, there are those utterly fascinated & curious by His incredible authority to drive out demons
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Q.
If His preaching of the kingdom of God is good news, why do we have so many differing responses to Him with plenty of rejections?
Q.
If the demons acknowledge Jesus as the Son of God, why will the religious leaders, His family & the crowds not acknowledge Him as such?
1. Parable to Divide the Insiders from the Outsiders
Jesus’ call right from the getgo was a welcome invitation to everyone who would consent to repent & believe in the Gospel
But Jesus had many mixed reactions to this call to repent & believe
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He had people coming to Him for a fix - no interest in wanting to repent or believe
So long as He would heal me physically or spiritually, then I’ll hang with Jesus
But the call of the kingdom was always to repent & believe
Just as Jesus said when He was called by His family - “whoever does the will of God, he is My brother & sister & mother”
The will of God, of course, is to repent & believe in the Gospel
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This parable today will explain what puts people in the Insider camp or the outsider camp
The ones who do not repent & believe in the Gospel & those that do
This parable today is about the kingdom of God & the people who either align themselves with it or keep distant from it
1a.
An Enigma, a Riddle, a Cartoon
A parable is a bit like a riddle & put in images similar to that of cartoons
Jesus’ parables are meant to divide and are meant to be obscure
Here in the New American Bible, a Catholic edition, you get a clear picture of the force of this passage
On the surface, this sounds disturbing
That the parable has the intention of hiding the reality of the Kingdom of God from people
Q.
Is this so?
Is this how we are to conceive it?
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I don’t think it’s this simple
This is not a statement of God’s intentions, but a radical way to make a division between those who are God’s & those who are not
These parables still fall back on the choices of a person
The problem being, however, is that many people have closed up their heart to God
The parables make it clear who has closed their heart to God & who hasn’t
2. Having Ears to Hear
When Amy was younger - well even before she became a Younger - Amy would come into my study & start talking to me about something
However, if I had something pressing on my mind, I would outwardly be saying “oh yes, oh right”, but I’m not really listening
All of a sudden, she would stop mid way & say “Dad, you’re not listening to me”
I’d go, “Oh sorry, darl, I’ll do better - keep going”
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That illustration is a rather superficial one since what Jesus says about listening is much more than just listening with the ears
It has more to do with accepting & acceptance of what you hear
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Q.
Does the person have the ears of the heart to hear?
Having ears to hear is the main theme of this passage
There are those who really & truly hear with the heart in what Jesus says - these are the insiders
Those who fail to hear are the outsiders - they are those who have ground that is unsuitable to the growth of the seed (actually the word of the kingdom) that lands on them
In their hearing, they do not pick up on the heart of what Jesus & the kingdom is all about
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So the division between insiders and outsiders is connected with how each group ‘hears the word’
Who takes the truth to heart
This is why Jesus explains the parables to those who are open to His word
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We can think of this like a radio that needs to be tuned into the Jesus station
Those who want to hear will tune the radio to the point where they can clearly understand & accept what is being said about the kingdom of God
Those who don’t want to welcome the words of Jesus, will tune out, so that all that get it crackle
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They have other concerns that overshadow the message of the kingdom - I’ll talk about some of those a little later
There is, likewise, the general aversion to the radical call of commitment of one’s life in Christ, which many think is too demanding
This call means hearing & accepting a message that says to deny yourself, take up your cross & follow Jesus even through suffering – even to the suffering of a cross
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A parable is like a snowplough that has the pointy “V” shaped blade that as it ploughs through the snow, it separates the snow from one side of the road or the other
The parable separates the sheep from the goats those who have ears to hear, eyes to see & those who are spiritually stone deaf & blind
Jesus wants the spiritually blind to see
But many who claim to see are wilfully blind to the kingdom of God
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There is the question too, as to why some are open & respond with interest to the message of the kingdom, yet there are those who remain indifferent to it
What we need to realise here is that human decision seems to be secondary to God’s doing
This is hard to understand
How the different kind of soil came to be different in the first place
Why do some hear with ears to hear while others can’t hear!
“...the message of the kingdom of God is something so paradoxical, so totally opposed to natural human insight, that it takes nothing less than divine revelation to enable people to grasp it.”
— R. T. France
As Jesus says to His disciples: “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything bin parables”
Here again - to those who are outside get everything in parables
Those on the inside are able to get privileged information about the parable
3. The Intention of the Sower
I mentioned recently that my underlying thoughts coming out of Bible College was that if the word of God was heard by everyone, then the world would come to Christ & people would do what the word said
Perhaps, it was a naive understanding of human nature on my part
In a way, I perhaps knew it could not be the case, but I was so convinced by the power of God’s word, that my thinking was naive
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I was, to be honest, disappointed that I saw so many deaf ears & so many indifferent to what God was saying that it broke my heart
I haven’t changed my assessment of the immense power of the word, but I’m now more realistic about human nature
This parable, in a way, is dealing with my struggle about why the word wasn’t taking root in people’s lives
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The intention of the sower is to produce a crop - for it to be fruitful
We see in this parable, however, that some produced a crop whereas others either fizzled away or didn’t even have a start
The intention of the sower hasn’t changed, but the condition of the ground is so different that they produce different results
To me, the ground represents the heart of a person
Different ground are the different responses to the message of the kingdom
This is why “how you hear” is the main point of this passage
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There are six seeds here: 3 which are unfruitful & 3 which are fruitful
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