{"id":3128,"date":"2009-06-14T14:23:00","date_gmt":"2009-06-14T18:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/?p=3128"},"modified":"2020-12-21T14:23:59","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T19:23:59","slug":"mysterious-miracles-sermon-talkback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/mysterious-miracles-sermon-talkback\/","title":{"rendered":"Mysterious Miracles Sermon Talkback"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sermon Talkback<\/strong>\u2014June 14, 2009<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mysterious Miracles<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mark 4:26-34<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mystery of God\u2019s Kingdom<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout Mark, the disciples do not grasp the mystery of God\u2019s Kingdom (e.g. 4:41; 6:49-54; 8:17-21). Mark 4 frequently appealed the disciples to hear (vv. 9, 13, 23, 24, 25, 34). The seed parables (vv.26-32), doubtlessly reflecting the seeming failure in the proclamation of both Jesus and the early church, express the hope that eventually the seed will bear fruit.  Both parables stress the contrast between the initial seed sown and the marvelous results. Both parables provide a perspective on the final triumph of the Kingdom of God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first parable reported alone among the Synoptic Gospels emphasizes the work of God and de-emphasizes the work of humans. The one who sows does not control the growth, he\/she only \u201cscatters seed on the ground\u201d (v. 26). The mystery is underscored by the note that the man planting the seed \u201cdoes not know how\u201d the seed grows (v. 27).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From William Willimon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            A Baptist campus minister from Mississippi brought a group of students through town and asked me to meet with them. They were college students on their way to do some good Baptist work in Appalachia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            During our conversation a kid with a baseball cap turned the wrong way on his head asked, \u201cWhat do you do, as a Christian, when people really get mad at you and want to hurt you because you\u2019re a Christian?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            I said that I wasn\u2019t exactly sure to what he was alluding. \u201cBeing a Methodist, we managed to rework the gospel in such a way that nobody could ever draw ire or get hurt being a Christian! I\u2019m always so nice about Jesus that nobody has ever tried to crucify me; what exactly do you mean?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            He said, \u201cWell, for instance, the other night we were talking about the war with Iraq after our fraternity meeting. Most everybody thought the President knew what he was doing, that the war was a good thing, that a preemptive strike was justified. All I said was that I thought the war was a very bad idea. I\u2019m a Christian. That\u2019s not how we think the world is set up. That\u2019s not how we handle evil. Besides, I\u2019m a Baptist and we tend to always be suspicious of the government, no matter who\u2019s in charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            \u201cThat was when they started yelling at me. Told me if I didn\u2019t like living in America I ought to go someplace else. Called me names, even.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Now there\u2019s a kid who\u2019s got a strange notion of who\u2019s in charge, who sits on the throne. Where did he get the notion that the President may not have the last word on the world? There is no way, I submit, that he could have gotten this news about the new world except through the preaching of sermons in his little Baptist church in Mississippi. Somehow God took those sermons and miraculously managed to get them to take root in that young man\u2019s life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Question to Ponder<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How has God\u2019s word taken root in your life and where do you see evidence of this?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sermon Talkback\u2014June 14, 2009 Mysterious Miracles Mark 4:26-34 Mystery of God\u2019s Kingdom Throughout Mark, the disciples do not grasp the mystery of God\u2019s Kingdom (e.g. 4:41; 6:49-54; 8:17-21). Mark 4Continue readingMysterious Miracles Sermon Talkback<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[115],"tags":[22],"class_list":["post-3128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-donald-ng-sermon-talkbacks","tag-mark"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3128"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3129,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3128\/revisions\/3129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.followgreg.com\/revdonaldng\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}