The right stuff

Mark 4:1-20

          Bill Maher apparently went on a rant yesterday about religions.  How could we believe in a punishing unloving God, a vengeful God? How could it be that God would punish thousands simply  to punish a few? Bill railed against some of the inane made up rules that religions create out of thin air and that stifle us and restrict us. In some peculiar way we think we are holy or holier and loved if we obey all these prescriptions and tenets. This shows that people want to believe in God and want to be one with Him but in all the wrong ways. Jesus came to show us the way, that is why he is called "The Way". Jesus is, the way, the truth and the life.

          So what to believe? Jesus used parables even though his fundamental message was love of God, self and others. Let's look at this passage.

          What of the seeds on the path?  A path is a highly trampled, walked upon area. Hardly the atmosphere or conditions for soaking in anything or growth of any kind. Perhaps like trying to meditate in a rock concert. Conditions have to be right and a well travelled dusty path doesn't seem like the right idea for seeds of any kind. That is, actual seeds or seeds of faith.

           What is the rocky ground?  I would suggest one possibility are all the prescriptions, rules and rubrics that religions create out of thin air.  Many of these minuscule rules are really personal acts of piety - at least in the Roman church.  They aren't bad unto themselves. In fact, many actions can enrich your faith. Dipping your fingers in holy water and making the sign of the cross is not something instituted by Christ except that it is a reminder of our Baptism. That's something perhaps we should remind ourselves of. However, when that action becomes a mandate and you are chastised for not doing it or thought of as less holy for not doing it, the practice becomes a big fail. Faith can be enriched by some rules and actions but it cannot be the basis of your faith. Basing your faith in so much man made minutia is very rocky ground indeed. I would add that those who insist on such actions and pay scrupulous attention to such rules and rubrics are really like the thorns in this passage, they will choke the faith out of you.

          What then is the good soil?  A few minutes a day really. Ideally, you would recognize the need to praise God all day in everything but in lieu of that, in the face of a sprouting faith, eager to grow, a few minutes a day. This is quiet time. Set aside time. Uninterrupted time. Time for you and God - alone. Jesus found the desert a good place. Monks have found a hermitage is a good place. For me, even a quiet walk alone at lunch can be quality time with God. What you have to do is be silent, listen and have an atmosphere that allows it. Perhaps an introductory breathing exercise would help. Perhaps a simple thank you and a litany of things you have to be thankful for.

          Thank God for the most wonderful husband in the world. For grandsons and a pussycat. For a job and friends, for sunlight and moonbeams. For family and food. For your love God and for letting me know always how much you love me and all of us. Praise God

            

Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

 When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, ‘To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that
“they may indeed look, but not perceive,
   and may indeed listen, but not understand;
so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.” ’

And he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’