Sermon for Sunday, June 10, 2007HE ONLY SPOKE TO THEM IN PARABLES 1st in a series on Tell Me A Story: The Subversive Parable of Jesus by Rev. Dr. Harvey C. Martz |
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Scripture: Mark 4:33-34
WARNING: READING AND APPLYING THESE PARABLES TO YOUR LIFE WILL BE DANGEROUS FOR YOUR CONVENTIONAL THINKING. THEY WILL SUBVERT PEOPLE’S ORDINARY AND CONVENTIONAL WISDOM ABOUT LIFE. THEY MAY UNSETTLE AND SURPRISE AND EVEN SHOCK. BE FOREWARNED AND BE PREPARED!! The parables of Jesus had that effect when they were heard at first and they can still have that effect. They turn upside down the values that we live by. We heard a couple of examples of that in the past few weeks. We looked briefly in the spring at two of the most famous stories of Jesus already. In fact, if we had only these two stories, the Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan stories, we would know all that we need to know about how God relates to us and how God wants us to relate to each other. But they are surprising-even shocking. A wasteful sleazebag of a son is welcomed back to the family after he has ruined his life and squandered part of the family’s wealth. He is welcomed with a party while the responsible and faithful older son who has stayed with the father and been the loyal older brother seems to be ignored. What kind of value system is that? And when a man is robbed and beaten and left for dead, the two religious leaders who see him and who we would think would stop and put their religion into practice, walk right by, when the least likely person in the world, the ethnic enemy of the wounded man, is the one who stops and tends his wounds and pays for him to stay at the hostel until he recovers. Do we begin to get the feeling of being a little unsettled? If not, let’s preview the one for next week. A wealthy land owner wants to hire day laborers to harvest the grapes from his vineyard. He hires some men at 6 in the morning to begin work. They agree on the wages for the day. He goes back and hires others at 9 AM, then at noon, then even at three PM. And at the end of the day, what does he do? He pays them all at the same rate. There are great outcries that this is unfair and he tells the early workers they are getting exactly what they agreed to and asks them, “Do you begrudge my generosity? Are you jealous because I am generous with what I have?” It leaves us uneasy doesn’t it? Or, how about this? Two people go to the temple to pray. One is an upright, respected spiritual leader who does all the right things: he fasts regularly, he prays regularly, he gives God ten per cent of his resources, he reads his Bible daily. And he reminds God about all of this and reminds God how lucky God is to know him. The other man who goes to pray is an outcast, a tax collector who has become a shill for Rome and cheats his fellow Jews by overcharging them. And when he prays, his prayer is this: “God be merciful to me for I am a sinful man.” Jesus says only one of these persons goes away from the temple reconciled to God. Do you remember which one it is? It is not the self righteous one! How about this? A wealthy man had a manager who he was about to fire because of his bad management. The manager went to all of the people who owed money to his boss and told them to alter the amount they owed—gave them a discount—so he could have friends after he was fired. And Jesus praises the man for his shrewdness! Huh? Does that sound like Jesus?? Well, you get the idea. Some of these stories are a little unsettling. Dr. Reed reminded us of that last Sunday when he told about the man who gave the luxurious dinner and all his friends had excuses why they could not come, so the street people, the outcasts, the nobodies got invited—the poor, the blind, the lame—and Jesus says, this is what the feast of the kingdom of God looks like—the people that you don’t think should belong there are there. Hmmmm. One of the things we find as we read the Bible for ourselves is that we might not know Jesus and his messages as well as we thought and certainly that his message may disturb and surprise us before it comforts and heals us. Over the next few weeks we will look at all of those stories and see how they can form us and inform us, and we will see again the message that the prophet Isaiah gives us in the latter half of his book: speaking for God Isaiah says to you and me, “My thoughts are not like your thoughts and my ways are not like your ways. My ways are higher than yours.” Two other reminders: Jesus was not the first person in the Bible to use parables/stories to make a point. Do you remember anyone in the Old Testament, a prophet who used a parable to teach? It was the prophet who addressed King David after David had broken four commandments: he had lusted after Bathsheba, committed adultery with her, stolen her from her husband who was away fighting David’s war, and then had her husband killed. And the upright prophet came to King David and told him a story about a shepherd who had one sheep, and that sheep was taken from him by someone who had many sheep and the man was left with nothing. David said the thief should be punished severely and his courageous prophet said, “You are that man.” What was the prophet’s name? Nathan. Lastly, parables are used today to teach and guide. The parable in your bulletin about the life saving station is about what happens when a passionate, motivated movement becomes too self centered and ingrown and forgets why they started. They lose their sense of mission. It can happen to a congregation. It can happen to a church. It can happen to a business. Join us these next few Sundays as we are taught and formed and informed by the still vital and contemporary parables of this subversive, revolutionary teacher called Jesus of Nazareth!! |
