This week's sermon seemed to be particularly difficult to put together. What do the three seed parables mean when read together? What is the proper interpretation of that strange Isaiah quote where Jesus essentially says he speaks in parables so outsiders will not understand and thus be unable to repent? How does the statement about the lamp and the bowl fit into the three seed parables? What is to be made of the repetition of the words "hear" and "listen"?
As I worked on the sermon it just didn't seem to be coming together until it finally hit me that since the germ of life is in the seed, and sense the seed is the message, then the seed needs to be envisioned as Jesus himself. He IS the message. Life is found ONLY in him. With that revelation, the message of the sermon took shape.
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As far as determining the best way to communicate with the audience, I thought the Sunday delivery was great. As Ben was reading the entire passage, from beginning to end, I kept thinking, that seems to be saying that Jesus is deliberately withholding valuable information...that can't be right...that lamp passage seems to stick out from the middle of nowhere and doesn't seem like it fits with the text before and after...what's the deal? My open-ended questions were soon responded to over the next few minutes.
I think its pretty hard to understand certain verses as being sarcastic, or at least meaning something other than what they are literally saying. Isiah taken this way though, with good evidence and argument, sits much better with me since it fits into the themes of love, mercy, forgiveness, and inclusiveness.
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