All That Soil - Bobbi Salkeld

Mark 4
We explore the contrasting approaches of Jesus and the Pharisees, as described in the second narrative package of Mark. In this section of Mark, Jesus begins to confront his religious critics, the Pharisees, who, despite their liberal ideologies, were often at odds with Jesus. We discuss an enlightening debate between Jesus and the Pharisees about prioritizing faith over tradition, a topic that unveils Jesus' remarkable ability to challenge and transform pre-existing notions.

We also see Jesus' unique approach toward his religious critics and his ability to expand our imagination. We reflect upon an instance where Jesus questions the Pharisees on the Sabbath law, reminding them that rules are meant to aid, not control. Unpacking Jesus' teachings and his revolutionary message about the prioritization of life over law.

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Sermons from Commons Church. Intellectually honest. Spiritually passionate. Jesus at the centre. Since 2014.

Jeremy Duncan: 00:06

Welcome to the commons cast. We're glad to have you here. We hope you find something meaningful in our teaching this week. Head to commons.church for more information.

Bobbi Salkeld: 00:21

Okay. We are in a series where we are marching through the gospel of Mark, I'd love this weird little gospel, by the way. It is short. It is confounding, and it's got a curious ending. So far, Scott opened the series with this salient starting material.

Bobbi Salkeld: 00:40

He talked about Mark's relationship with the gospels, Matthew and Luke, they copied Mark and how Mark sets out a new beginning To Genesises in the beginning. And I loved that connection, that in Jesus, we have a new beginning for what it means To be human. And Jeremy carried on with mark 1 and 2 and 4 linked stories of healing. And these profound experiences tell us something about what it meant to encounter Jesus in the world, that healing was always So much more than limbs and fevers. It was about removing the barrier for participation.

Bobbi Salkeld: 01:30

In other words, your healing is about you, sure, but it's about so much more too. Last week, we heard about these confrontations Jesus has with the religious critics in Mark 23. And what really stood out to me was the idea that Jesus borrowed the best of the Pharisees to teach what was more true About the kingdom of God. And, ultimately, Jesus was committed to doing the thing he was here to do, whether it was In line with his cranky critics or not? And today, we are looking at parables in Mark 4.

Bobbi Salkeld: 02:13

It's all about the message of Jesus' preaching. But before we dive in, let us pray. In the presence of the living god, We pause to let our spirit catch up with our bodies a bit. We do that by focusing On the love of god, a sense of gratitude even for the little things, And naming how we're feeling, maybe even right now. And as we breathe in And out.

Bobbi Salkeld: 03:01

We imagine our hearts being open, open to new learning, open to new people, And to the patient work of the spirit to inspire and to heal us. Today, as we how Jesus both illuminated and confused his followers. We acknowledge that we can be both Inspired and puzzled by the things he did and said, and maybe that's the point. So much mystery, So much beauty, so much grace that even just a glimpse is enough. So through our lives And by our prayers, may the kingdom of peace come.

Bobbi Salkeld: 03:47

Amen. Alright. Today, we're in Mark 4. We've got 4 parables, and as we've done with Mark so far, we'll interpret them Through their connectedness. We're gonna talk about seed and for soils.

Bobbi Salkeld: 04:02

Who hears and how? Mystery, And it gets better. So Jesus begins to teach beside the sea, and I imagine A light breeze in the afternoon sun angled across the water. My imagination might skew a little more sunny beach in Mexico at this time of year, But all the same. A large crowd gathers around Jesus, and we're told that he gets into a boat, sits in it, and teaches from this working man's pulpit.

Bobbi Salkeld: 04:35

Listen. A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seeds, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places Where it did not have much soil, it sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.

Bobbi Salkeld: 05:04

Other seed fell among the thorns, which grew up and choked the plants so that they did not bear grain. Still, other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew, and produced a crop, some multiplying 30, some 60, Some a 100 times. Okay. Let's sit down some ground rules for parables in Mark.

Bobbi Salkeld: 05:30

We are often told that parables are messages from heaven wrapped in the garb of earth, and there is truth to that. But Mark's parables don't simplify a spiritual message. It helps to approach Mark's parables knowing That the stories and symbols mean more than they seem. And I actually love this for us. We're so used to parables being predictable.

Bobbi Salkeld: 06:02

Here, we might think, obviously, Jesus is the farmer. The seeds are the gospel, and you better be good soil. Again, there is room for this interpretation, but is it The most careful one. Remember, Mark has a way of availing the truth. Mark is playing with this theme of insiders and outsiders, and there is a tendency to blur the categories Just when you start to think, we are the insiders, Mark rips back another layer, and you begin to wait.

Bobbi Salkeld: 06:41

Oh, wait. Am I an outsider? And so it helps to see these parables in Mark 4 as a part of Jewish wisdom tradition that used parables to confound rather than command. And some scholars even prefer to use the word riddle instead of parable here. So riddle me this.

Bobbi Salkeld: 07:09

Why is it good to be confused about god. Perhaps facing and embracing the truth really isn't as easy As we think, and this confusion is expressed by everyone who isn't Jesus in the text. So let's go back to the boat pulpit to explore who hears and how. Here's where the waters get a little choppy when it comes to how people understand what Jesus taught. The story of seed on Four soils opens and closes with this plea to really listen and really hear.

Bobbi Salkeld: 07:54

So after the seed story, Jesus said, whoever has ears to hear, let them hear. Then we get this weird Wayne's World scene shift, and Jesus is not in a boat anymore. He's just hanging out With the 12 and a bunch of others, and they're asking him about the parables. He told them, the secret of the kingdom of god has been given to you, but to those on the outside, everything is said in parables so that They may be ever seeing, but never perceiving, and ever hearing, but never understanding. Otherwise, they might Turn and be forgiven.

Bobbi Salkeld: 08:39

Then Jesus said to them, don't you understand this parable? How then will you stand understand any parable? Now earlier this week, My husband, Jonathan, and I were sitting around a fire in our backyard talking about this parable. If you aren't sitting around talking about Jesus' parables with your lover, I don't know what is up. Honestly, though, these conversations have always been a fun feature in our relationship because we think differently, And we have different histories with these stories.

Bobbi Salkeld: 09:20

But every time we approach the bible together, Jonathan helps me hear the story in a new way. And what he said this week was this, is it possible that Jesus was being Funny here? Whether you call it irony, the use of words to mean the opposite of their meaning, or You call it hilarity. My interpretation is leaning toward the truth in Jesus's humor. And the NIV hints at this with the use of an exclamation point at the end of verse 12 that they might turn and be Forgiven classic stand up delivery.

Bobbi Salkeld: 10:05

Now the seed parable is laid out using a specific Form. It follows the genre of Midrashim, where the rabbis told a fictional story called the Mishal And added a proof text to explain why the story matters called the nimshal. The nimshal gave Listeners, this climactic experience through scripture. There's even a form within the form here. There are 2 or 3 negative examples and then this hyperbolic positive.

Bobbi Salkeld: 10:40

So this parable, which takes up a lot of Space, as far as parables go, is not as random as it might seem. With Jesus no longer teaching beside the sea but in an undisclosed location, we get a setting for the nimshal. Jesus here quotes Isaiah 6. Isaiah says he will speak for Yahweh as a prophet. And Yahweh says, tell the people to listen Even though they don't comprehend and to look even though they don't understand.

Bobbi Salkeld: 11:17

Now there are 2 ways to read this reference in Mark. They hinge on a tiny conjunction in Greek, the word henna. And henna can mean so that as an expression of purpose, or it can mean in order that As an expression of consequence, to say it another way and hear this, Is Jesus describing what is, or is he prescribing what should be? And for me, this is where the parable falls into place. If Jesus quotes Isaiah To prescribe what should be, it is jarring.

Bobbi Salkeld: 12:04

Why would he use vibrant everyday stories To tell people that they're never supposed to understand him. But if Jesus speaks more apocalyptically here, that is he helps Hearers comprehend the world as it is, then these riddles are meant to be Stewart, it might take work. It will take brave truth telling, and it absolutely requires you to have a change of Heart. But all of that is worth it if Jesus brings us closer to what is True. The truth about our messed up relationship with power, The truth of our oversimplified explanations for conflict, the truth about how prone we are To give our imaginations over to divisive lies, what if Jesus is absolutely interested in the world As it is, not as we might pretend it to be.

Bobbi Salkeld: 13:26

Like, what if Jesus is into our scrappy planet and our evolving consciousness And our attempts after utter failure to get up and try again. So when he says that to hear the truth hidden in these stories Could result in your turning and being forgiven. I wonder if Jesus, like, giggles a little to himself here. Like, imagine how good that kind of widespread forgiveness Could be. And then Jesus explains what he means by the parable And by the mystery.

Bobbi Salkeld: 14:23

And unlike most parables, we get a total allegorical breakdown of terms. Jesus says the farmer sows the word, and some people are the path where seed falls. And as soon as they hear Satan or the voice of accusation rips away the word. Others are like rocky places. They're pumped about the word, but they can't Grow roots so life's troubles make the seed fall away.

Bobbi Salkeld: 14:51

And still others are like thorny places. They hear the word, but worries and wealth and other desires choke the seed. They are unfruitful. Finally, others are good soil. They hear the word, accept it, and produce bountiful crop, bounty that could Change the future for any farmer.

Bobbi Salkeld: 15:13

And the people Jesus speaks to are acutely aware of what gets in the way of their flourishing. They know the burden of Roman taxes. They Contemplate the weightiness of Jewish tithes. They never seem to be able to outrun the debt that consumes their lives. So this story speaks in the language of the people.

Bobbi Salkeld: 15:42

And even though Jesus breaks The initial parable down, he still leaves room for mystery in the ways god is at work in the world. So here's a parable of my own about that. For several summers now, my niece, Emery, and I have a Sunflower growing contest. We share seeds. We plant them in our raised garden beds, and we take a lot of sunflower progress report Selfies like flower, and send them to each other all summer long.

Bobbi Salkeld: 16:18

And this summer, though, I gotta tell you, things got Crazy in our sunflower patches. 1st, my garden was hit by an early summer hailstorm. Maybe you remember it. It seemed like every little leaf turned into coleslaw. All that was left of my sunflower was just a lone plant, Like a bare stick in the ground, the leaves and the branches were just stripped off and broken.

Bobbi Salkeld: 16:47

But Emery's sunflower patch enjoyed a very different fate. It turns out that way more seeds were planted Then anyone knew about, and we thought, what a mystery. Did squirrels do it? Did a 100 seeds drop to the ground last fall and nobody noticed? Did Emery's little brother go rogue and plant fist Fulls of sunflower seeds all by himself?

Bobbi Salkeld: 17:16

It doesn't really matter because my sister and her family, they just Gave themselves over to the sunflowers. Look at her. What? They just let them grow. It was just so fun to see them take over.

Bobbi Salkeld: 17:34

And I am happy to Pork that my garden did rebound as gardens often do. I got about 20 blossoms on that one remaining stem. Here's a picture. It's not great, but it's it's there. It was, for me, a lesson in resilience.

Bobbi Salkeld: 17:54

What if what if the point of the parable of 4 soils and seed that flourishes or does not Is to remind you that things can change pretty quickly in a season, That the kingdom isn't something that you can contain or control. In the Greek word, mysterion From verse 11 is key to the parable and as Luke Timothy Johnson argues, key to the entire gospel of Mark. We often think about Jesus and the kingdom as these separate entities, but Mark's gospel pushes them closer together. Jesus is the mystery of the kingdom. So when the disciples and other followers asked Jesus How they are supposed to understand his riddles.

Bobbi Salkeld: 18:49

He says to them, the key is right in front of you. Or to use the metaphors of 1st century Palestinian farming, the seed is sown everywhere, And still, they struggle to comprehend everything Jesus says all the way to the end, and I think that's Okay. Because there is an obvious hiddenness to the divine. Mystery is tucked into the mundane. And the work of Christ is so often done in Secret like a seed dropped into the dark soil left to grow or fade away.

Bobbi Salkeld: 19:42

But let's take a step back for a moment. It doesn't make sense to me that Jesus is the sower In this parable, I'm on team. Jesus is the seed. The seed, after all, is identified as the word, Logos, divine expression in human form. And you and me, we are the soil.

Bobbi Salkeld: 20:09

Everything about your life, your history, relationships, the trauma you carry will contribute to you being open or Closed, thorny, packed down, or ready to take root and grow. We are the ground. In winter, spring, summer, and fall, we are the ground always hoping to thrive even while Some years are better than others. There's something so stirring to me about the fact that Jesus just gets that. Life can make you open or life can make you closed.

Bobbi Salkeld: 20:51

Jesus gets that. So I offer a fresh perspective on the sower. I think the sower is anything Anything that scatters truth in your life. It's the truth Of the Euclid telescope's majestic images of galaxies bringing us new understanding of the universe. It's the truth of how brief and precious life can be after a friend passes away.

Bobbi Salkeld: 21:29

It's the truth of a podcast you hadn't even planned to listen to, reminding you that you can heal from pain. Truth is scattered into our lives through a great film, A hard conversation with a friend, a character in a novel that makes you feel less alone, a doctor's appointment, a walk in the park, a stranger in line at the store. God scatters truth in boundless ways. And wherever you are right now is the place where you can hear it. So finally, finally, we hit 3 rapid fire parables like Speed bumps before we bring it home today.

Bobbi Salkeld: 22:23

As if Jesus looks around the room And sees confusion on the faces of his friends, he ramps up the riddles. With each new Parable. Jesus is telling them how much better life and the kingdom is meant to be. He says nobody lights a lamp and puts it under a bowl. The light is meant to shine.

Bobbi Salkeld: 22:47

That's the kingdom. Think of a field, he says, after person scatters seeds. But get this, the person goes to bed, gets up, does very little in the field, and Still, soil makes a stock grow up, the stem into a full kernel at the head of the plant. That's the kingdom. Finally, Jesus says, I got one more for you.

Bobbi Salkeld: 23:09

Mustard seeds, itty bitty things. What happens? They grow so large That birds take shelter and shade in the branches. That's the kingdom. And as if that weren't enough, we read with many similar parables.

Bobbi Salkeld: 23:29

Jesus spoke the word To them as much as they could understand, he did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his disciples, he explained everything. I love the momentum of these last Three parables, nearly breathless. They remind us that the kingdom is full of surprises. God's way in the world seen in the life of Christ.

Bobbi Salkeld: 24:01

It is generous, and it is gregarious. It involves you, and you know what? It doesn't totally need you. It's unruly, and yet it fits in the palm of your hand. I dig an ecological reading of these texts.

Bobbi Salkeld: 24:20

Maybe that most unites us With the ancient world that Jesus lived in, the fact that the sun always rises and sets And seed falls into the ground and sprouts up with new life, and we find ways To survive. Amy J. Levine urges us to see the kingdom and the gifts of nature. You got this, Calgary. Elements everywhere available, plants powerfully usable, And our participation as skittish and beautiful is that of the birds.

Bobbi Salkeld: 25:06

If you want a way to apply these parables this week, I suggest That you give yourself over to the way of things. Give thanks for life And grieve death. See time as a cycle and seasons that regenerate the earth. Contemplate divine mystery. Let your breathing and your resting in this darker season be your prayer.

Bobbi Salkeld: 25:42

Parables bring the hope that Jesus means for life to get better And brighter and more bountiful. So may it be so in the soil of our hearts. Let us pray. Loving god, we thank you for the legacy With little stories, parables that pack a powerful and loving punch With mystery and promise and profound truth. To Christ, of every compelling narrative Of our beginnings, middles, and endings, may we find in you the invitation to be open to what is true even when it's Hard, especially when it requires our humility, and may we meet the truth with the desire To change and to expand and to grow in love.

Bobbi Salkeld: 26:58

The spirit of the living God present with us now. Enter the places of our isolation, our failed imagination, and anywhere we're feeling hopeless, and heal us Of all that harms us, amen.

Jeremy Duncan: 27:17

Hey. Jeremy here, and thanks for listening to our podcast. If commons Subscribe to our YouTube channel where we are posting content regularly for the community. You can also join our Discord server. Head to commons.church/discord for the invite, and there you will find the community having all kinds of conversations about How we can encourage each other to follow the way of Jesus, we would love to hear from you.

Jeremy Duncan: 27:50

Anyway, thanks for tuning in. Have a great week. We'll talk to you soon.