Sermon September 12, 1999 Rally Sunday:Growing Together, Standing Strong based on Mark 4:1-20
Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Today we are gathered together to celebrate Rally Sunday according to the theme "Growing Together, Standing Strong." This theme really describes what we do here in this building and among this group of people we call a congregation. We are growing in our faith together. We are standing together, confessing what we believe and supporting each other in those beliefs. We grow together and stand strong by attending worship services together. I prefer to call them Divine Services, reflecting the idea that God is coming to serve us in these services. Further, we grow together and stand strong in all of our Christian education activities, including: Sunday School, confirmation instruction, and Bible Studies. We grow together through fellowship activities such as Youth Group, Ladies' Aid, Lutheran Laymen's League, and AAL. We Christians also grow through activities in the home, with the family and by ourselves. We grow through Bible study time, devotion and prayers in the home.
Many do not wish to take advantage of these opportunities, which is a shame. Not only is it a shame, but it is dangerous. It is dangerous to the seed that has been planted in us. The seed is God's Word, first planted when we were baptized. God wishes to nurture that seed and keep it growing in us and keep it strong and healthy. Our text, the parable Jesus tells in Mark 4, shows us how easily the seed may be snatched away or choked by other things and kept from producing fruit. Instead, God wants us to rally around Him and His word. Rallying around Jesus will keep us Growing Together and Standing Strong.
The parable is a story that Jesus tells about a farmer going to plant seed. Four different things can happen to the seed he plants. Some seed can fall along the path, where the soil is hard and the seed just sits on the top until birds come and snatch it away. Some seed can fall on rocky ground with only a little soil. This will mean the plants that sprout up quickly will not have long roots. They will lack endurance when the sun gets hot and they will get scorched. Some seed can fall among other plants, thorns, which will compete with the seed and the thorns may choke the plants. They will not produce much fruit. Lastly, seed will hopefully fall on good soil and thereby produce much fruit.
Jesus tells this parable to draw a comparison. He compares the seed the farmer plants with different outcomes of the seed of God's word planted in us. It is an analogy. Just as the farmer's seed can encounter different growing conditions, so also, God's word, planted in us, can encounter different conditions for growth.
First, the word may be immediately snatched from us by our old enemy Satan. This is a very real and present danger. Now, some today chose to doubt the existence of Satan. Others will not assign much risk to his influence over us. That is not the truth that Scripture tells however. Instead, it talks about Satan as a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. He wants to pull us away from God's word. He wants to lead us to stray from God. He wants to snatch that powerful word of God out of our hearts and leave us to bleed to death. So, Satan poses a danger to the word planted in us.
A second outcome is that the word in us may fail to develop roots. Then, without roots, when trouble and persecution come they may cause us to give up our faith. This trouble and persecution can come early, as our young children are taught things contrary to our faith in many schools. For example, they are taught that evolution is a fact. They are taught that the basis of morality is not the Almighty God. They are taught to hunger and thirst after success as this world defines it. The persecution and trouble does not stop at a young age, but we face it all the days of our lives. Perhaps we are not persecuted to death, as Christians are in foreign lands, but we are often ridiculed if we stand strong for what we believe.
The third outcome is that the word might be choked out by the other things that fill our day-to-day lives. The cares of this age and of this world order, the deception of riches, and the other desires of our lives might come into us and choke the word so that it doesn't produce much fruit. It is so easy to be caught up in this, for there are so many demands placed upon us by the world.
Finally, the word could be planted in good soil, where it produces much fruit. This, of course, is the goal. We desire the word of God to grow in us, so that we remain faithful until the end and also along the way we produce the fruits of that faith. This is what God desires for the seed He planted in us. How can we reach for this goal?
The farmer or gardener will work to protect their seed and plant it in good soil. They will nurture the seed and the growing plant, providing water and fertilizer and protecting it from the harsh conditions as best they can. In this same way God wants to nurture His word in us. The word, planted in baptism, is strengthened by God. This strengthening will occur provided we don't refuse it and avoid it. God wants to help us grow in our faith together and he wants to help us stand strong in that same faith. If we reject and turn away from God's help, however, we will find our faith weakening.
So, the Lord calls us to fully participate in the activities of this congregation. We are to attend divine services with our entire family, to bring children to Sunday School and confirmation, and to attend Bible study as adults. We are to grow together, according to the Lord's plan for us. We find instead that many do not participate in these activities. Others may be present, but they sometimes have an attitude which is negative. They attend for the wrong reasons, such as, hoping to earn merit with God, or to keep another person happy. Our attitudes may be that we really have nothing to learn and don't need to grow. We may have an attitude that what is done at church is boring and we may come with apathy rather than interest and excitement.
Since our theme is "Growing Together and Standing Strong," we also need to consider if we really are doing such a good job of growing together. Not only do we consider ourselves, but we are to help others in receiving God's care of their seed of the word. Are we encouraging others to take advantage of the ways in which God wants to nurture their faith? Do we reach out to those who seem to be lost? God wishes for us to encourage and build each other up in the faith. We are each to serve as God's instruments to reach other people. We need to especially look at how we do within our own congregation. God calls us to help each other grow together.
1 Corinthians 12 speaks of how we are all members of one body. It says, "As it is, there are many parts, but one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, 'I don't need you!' And the head cannot say to the feet, 'I don't need you!' On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty..." So we have a special command from God to assist and reach out to the parts which are weaker. Who do you know who isn't here today?
Our failures to nurture the word of God in ourselves and in others deserve God's condemnation. These failures are a violation of God's command for us. Each and every one of our violations deserves God's punishment and wrath.
We are not without hope, however. See, that word planted in us is a word of hope. It may be a tiny word, it may be un-nurtured, it may be a word that we don't give much attention to, but it is a powerful word. The word may be like a tiny seed, as small as a mustard seed, yet it is a still a mighty seed that can grow.
God's word planted in us is powerful because it is a word of grace. It is a word of God's love for us. It is a word of God's gentleness and kindness. This word is the message of God's grace through His actions on our behalf. Even though we fail to act the way we should, God has already acted for us. He did this by taking on human nature, as God and man were joined in Jesus Christ. Then Christ, after living the perfect life, died a death on the cross in our places. He was the substitute for us.
God has already acted to free us from punishment for sins. God has acted to even remove the sins from our records, so we are forgiven and we are free. We are free from guilt. We are free from the marks against us. We are saved from God's punishment and wrath.
This is the message that God sends to us and plants in us with His word. It is the message planted when we are baptized. In our baptism, we are born again. Without the word planted in us through baptism, we remain in our sins and we face the consequence of those sins - the eternal death of punishment in hell. In baptism, we are born again, for we are made alive. Though we were dead in our trespasses and sins, because God's word is powerful, all our sins are removed and we are made alive, in other words, born again. We are born with a powerful word.
Peter wrote in his first Epistle (1:23-25) "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For, 'All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever.' And this is the word that was preached to you." This word that stands and endures forever carries you right through the Judgment Day and into the eternal life of happiness.
We need not fret over whether the word is strong enough. Believe the word and even faith as small as a mustard seed is mighty. The power of the word was testified to by Jesus when He said to His disciples: (Luke 17:6) "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you." So strong is God's word, to work in our hearts and create faith, that quantity does not matter.
The word of grace is a powerful thing for us. It powerfully forgives and saves. It is a seed that God promises to bless. Zechariah 8:11-12 says "'But now I will not deal with the remnant of this people as I did in the past,' declares the LORD Almighty. 'The seed will grow well, the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce its crops, and the heavens will drop their dew. I will give all these things as an inheritance to the remnant of this people.'"
When the books of a certain Scottish doctor were examined after his death, it was found that a number of accounts were crossed through with a note: "Forgiven--too poor to pay." But the physician's wife later decided that these accounts must be paid in full and she proceeded to sue for money. When the case came to court the judge asked but one question. Is this your husband's handwriting? When she replied that it was he responded: "There is no court in the land that can obtain a debt once the word forgiven has been written."
This is similar to the power of the word. Your sins are completely and finally forgiven through Christ. God's promise is enduring. God collected our debt with Christ on the cross. Now that the debt has been collected, there is no more payment needed. This is the wonderful word that God planted in you. It is such a blessing. So we rally around our Savior Jesus and His word. As we rally, let us be Growing Together and Standing Strong in our Lord, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now may the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.