Sermon from July 23, 2000
Ever since I was a boy, manufacturers have marketed certain products by telling people they would save time, if they bought the very latest version. Such gadgets include gas stoves, electric stoves, self-cleaning ovens, mircowave ovens, electric mixers, Cuisinart appliances, dishwashers, washing machines, clothes dryers, vacuum cleaners, telephones, then push button phones, phones with speed dials, answering machines, cell phones, pagers, fax machines, typewriters, electric typewriters, electric typewriters with self-correcting ribbon, computers, computers with windows, the internet, email, photocopier, faster photocopier, trains above ground, trains underground, trains on boats, car, faster car, bigger car, two cars, three cars, planes with propellers, jets, SSTs, shuttles.

The list goes on and on. And do you know what? They all did it. They all saved time. Madison Avenue may have lied about a thousand claims, but advertisers got it right, when they said these gadgets would save us time. I do not say they told the truth. Truth always includes accuracy, but it is always bigger than accuracy.

For example, when advertisers told overburdened housewives of the 1950s, "Buy this dishwasher, and you will save time," they did not mislead them. What might take half an hour or more to do by hand could now be done in less than ten minutes. Transportation saved time even more dramatically. The thirty-mile trip from farm to market might require the better part of a day by horse and buggy. Going by car or (even better) by truck might have you back in two or three hours with all your work done. Time saved accrued in spectacular fashion.

Truth, as I said, is always bigger than accuracy. There was a question no one seemed to ask about all this time saved, namely, "What shall I do now with all my free time?" It may be honorably debated whether abundant free time or lack of free time poses the greater challenge to human nature. What is not up for debate is how most human beings have used all the time their gadgets have saved them. They have used it to do more work, and the gadgets themselves generate more work, so that we need to work more hours in order to do the necessary work; and we wonder why we are tired.

I have a friend in Portland, OR, who worked as a stockbroker on Wall Street in the 1960s. He told me it was a good day when they traded 20,000 shares. The Street routinely trades more than a billion shares a day now. Another Portland investor friend at times rises early in order to be in his Portland office at 6:00 a.m. in order to be ready for the opening bell in New York. What's he going to do when the stock exchange opens overnight? Gadges that save time have lost some of their luster among people who are working 60 hours a week, and whose lives are increasingly cluttered with gadgets.

I have used this theme to merge our lives with the scripture today, because our scripture today presents this theme and, therefore, our lives in their spiritual dimensions. It does so in Mark 4:18-20. Other matters also await us in these verses, and in any case we need to read them in the context of the first 17 verses of chapter 4.

Anyone hearing the parable in verses 1-8 for the first time would understand every word Jesus said and have no idea what He meant. The lack of understanding afflicted Jesus' closest followers as well as His severest detractors. Verse 10 says, When he was alone, the Twelve (His appointed Apostles) and the others around him asked him about the parables.

Verses 14-20 give Jesus' explanation of the parable, but first He explained why He had chosen to speak in parables in the first place. Verses 11-12 give His explanation. 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!'"

Isaiah 6:9-10, which Jesus quoted in verse 11, warned of judgment to come on the nation Israel. Likewise, Mark 4 will make sense if we understand that Jesus used parables as a symbolic warning of judgment to come on a national scale. His warning seems to come out of the blue, unless we remember what preceded it in chapter three.

Powerful men from Jerusalem had come bearing an official verdict about Jesus. Mark 3:22 says, And the teachers of the law who came down from Jerusalem said, "He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons." I have been careful never to leave you with the impression that Jesus' miracles gave indisputable proof of His authority to forgive or of His divine nature. I have said that a very different interpretation of His miracles could be put forward. That very different interpretation falls from the official lips of the Jerusalem delegation.

"Of course, we do not deny His miracles. How could we? They are there for all to see. But where do you think He gets the power to do them? There is a power in this world other than God. In light of how Jesus undermines our Jewish distinctives, we suggest to you that His power comes from the devil."

Jesus was a man with a message that had national implications, and to reject Him, as some official Jewish leadership had done, would have national consequences. In response to this official rejection, Jesus began to teach in unintelligible parables to symbolize the divine judgment that was coming on people, who no longer had the power to discern what God was doing in Israel and were in fact attributing God's work to the devil.

Jesus' explanation of His parable begins in verse 14. "The farmer sows the word." The word is Jesus' message: "The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near." Block by block Mark has built up in His story of Jesus a picture of what Jesus did and said to demonstrate the presence of the kingdom in the daily affairs of Israel. Jesus' parable is all about the different ways people respond to His message. We looked at two ways last Sunday, and we look at the other two now.

Verses 18-19 bring us to a third frustrated reception of the word of God. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Worries of life, deceit of wealth, and desire for stuff choke the word. Jesus here presents the spiritual dimensions and spiritual dangers of capitalist culture. Take a look.

First, the worries of this life. There is an accidental play on words in our English translation. Have you ever heard someone say that a dog is worrying a bone? It means he was chewing it. But suppose you are a rancher, and it is a coyote worrying your sheep. It means the coyote is chewing on your sheep's throat; he is choking him. The Old English word means strangle or choke. When Jesus used it of our emotions, it meant  that circumstances of our life were causing us to be agitated and anxious in our minds. They were "chewing" on us. They were choking us. Jesus said they would choke the word of God in our souls into barrenness.

What does that to you: money, status, health, children, parents, marriage, your boss, your car, your leaky basement, your promotion or lack of promotion at work, schoolwork, bad performance review? How long do you want this list to go on? Jesus said worries like this will kill you spiritually. Here is something to think about.

Whatever is chewing on you and getting the better of you also threatens to chew on another Christian with a personality just like yours, but it is not getting the better of that person. It does not, because that person has developed spiritual habits that prevent the worries of this life from choking his spirituality.

God has given guidance for developing such spiritual habits. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving (there is gratitude again), present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6-7). This does not mean we never experience worry or anxiety. It means we do not allow it to govern our soul. We refuse its governance by prayer, by trusting God to see us through the circumstances, and by consistent thankfulness to God for His blessings. Do you consistently practice these spiritual habits?

Second, we have to talk about the deceitfulness of wealth. How does wealth deceive people? Here is a list. First, a person may respond, "What is deceitful about wealth?" Gotcha! Maybe the first lie of wealth is that money is an unmixed blessing. Why are you so sure you would not lose your soul if you won the Powerball Lottery?

Second, we might believe that economic superiority equals moral superiority. Third, we might come to believe that more money will solve our problems. Fourth, we might think that having more money is better than what we have now and then we will really be happy. Fifth, we might come to think, "This money is mine; I earned it." But see Deuteronomy 8:17-18.

Finally, money might steal your heart away from God. Jesus gave us guidance for this dimension of spiritual life. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. In other words, tell me what you love and tell me how much you love it, and I can tell you where your heart is. Overflowing garages, basements and attics bear silent witness to our true love. Cluttered houses signal cluttered hearts where it is hard for Christ to find a place to sit.

We all have a heart full of yelping, yapping, barking, baying enticements that compete for the affection of our hearts. But where is your treasure? What love dominates your heart? What love do you encourage to dominate your heart? Do you love Christ more than anything else? Or do you love anything else more than Christ?

Finally, Jesus says the desires for other things will choke out the word. On the consumer side of life TV advertising, telemarketing, giant malls, credit cards, credit lines, good salaries, lower interest rates, and greed awaken in us a burning desire to have other things. One politie expression of this burning desire to have other things is called "impulse buying."

Suppose on the Great Judgment Day Christ says to us, "Convince me that you with your investment portfolio, credit lines, gadgets and political liberty put me first." What would we say to Him? What sacrificial evidence could we offer Him that the first priority of our life was to extend His love and authority over all existence? Such priorities of heart belong to the secret of fending off the insistent desires for other things.

That brings us to the soil in which the word of God has free rein. Verse 20: Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop – thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown." In light of our need for a powerful root system in our souls and in light of the spiritual dimensions of our capitalist culture, what would life look like for people who fall into the classification called good soil? Let's look at some actions that characterize people who have received and accepted the word and who are producing a spiritual crop.

First of all, it would look simpler materially. There is a simplicity that excludes from our lives what is not necessary to our well being (Willard, 170). Materially, that means the piles in our garage, the interminable racks of clothing in our closets, and our basement and attic will start to thin out. We will buy less and incur less debt. Also, we will give away more money.

Many of you have made no commitment at all to our student building program or even to our operating budget. Failure to do that is in almost every case a sign of bad spiritual health. If we are going to be kingdom people, we are going to have to make some material sacrificies for the kingdom. Don't be aloof with your money from what God is doing in this place. Give. Give generously. Give cheerfully. Give today.

Second, such a life will focus more on other people and their needs than on things or on ourselves. When we love God more than anything else, we will love what God loves more than anything else; and God loves people more than anything else. You might find practical outlets for this focus on people right here at BVBC. Help in our children's program. Lead or host a small group. Be part of a musical group. Everywhere you go everyday, you are around people. You will become more sensitive to their needs and what you might say or do to encourage them.

Third, such a life will engage in self-examination. We sometimes give the impression that Christianity is nothing but activity. Silence and solitude have a long and illustrious history within the Church. An easy way to do this is to set aside an uninterrupted time of half an hour every so often and ask yourself, "Do I put the kingdom of God first in my life? Is the priority of my life to extend Christ's love and authority over all existence? What evidence do I have that it is?"

Fourth, such a life will make time routinely, perhaps every day, for spiritual exercise. Last week, I said that being strengthened in the faith, being established in love, and overflowing with thankfulness will build into our souls a spiritual root system that is prepared to handle trouble or persecution that comes because of the word. It will also prepare us well to handle the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things.

Do you remember the story in the Bible called the story of the Rich Young Ruler? He is the one to whom Jesus said, "Sell all you have and give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; and come follow me." William Boice of Phoenix, AZ, was quoted some time ago in Leadership Magazine. He had reread the biblical story, and it set him thinking. This is what he wrote.

"No matter how much wealth he had, he could not – ride in a car, have any surgery, turn on a light, buy penicillin, hear a pipe organ, watch TV, wash dishes in running water, type a letter, mow a lawn, fly in an airplane, sleep on an innerspring mattress, or talk on the phone. If he was rich, what am I?"

The Bible never says money is evil. It does say in 1 Timothy 6:10 that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. Our breath-taking wealth comes as a gift to be used to the glory of God. To whom much is given much is required is the biblical wisdom. Let's use it well!