The Tuesday Devotion Read Mark 4:1-20 There is so much that we could say about this parable. We could examine ideas around how we are to sow the message, or look at the different sorts of environments we sow into. We could look at things that steal the message from the lives of young people or discuss the patience and perseverance required to produce a crop. We could also spend time investigating the essence of the secret of the Kingdom of God or why Jesus seems to make it hard for those outside the Kingdom to understand. But perhaps Jesus wants to remind us today that what we do traverses this narrow line between success and failure, joy and heartbreak, of people getting it and people getting close but then walking away. Part of our struggle as youth leaders is that we invest so much of ourselves as we look to inspire faith in young people. Our relational approach is costly. We don’t have to have been in youth ministry very long before the life giving message we are so desperate to plant seems to be eaten by birds, withered by the sun, or choked by weeds. And when we find ourselves witnessing these moments in the lives of our young people it can feel like we’ve failed. This can lead us to this introspection where we start looking for the little things that we could have said or done differently. The whole thing becomes a weight or burden that we carry - and we carry it because we care. If we don’t deal with this weight it can lead us to a place of disillusionment and disappointment, where we want to withdraw or even give up and walk away. But, as Luke mentions in his account of the parable, we’re called to be like the seed that makes it. We’re called to this patience and perseverance as we reveal life to young people. And so part of the reason Jesus tells this parable to his disciples is to give them a theology of disappointment because they are watching as people reject the teaching of Jesus, they are seeing people who look like they are going to grow walk away - and it’s tough - heartbreaking. And so Jesus is helping them understand that sometimes the message of life is rejected - even by those who seem to get it and even when he speaks it. Just knowing this, being realistic about people’s responses, and the likelihood that some will just not stay for the long-haul, is so helpful. It takes the pressure off of us trying to be responsible for things that we can’t be responsible for. It stops us trying to manufacture results and prevents us from doing ministry in our own strength. Paul writes that he plants the seed, Apollos waters it, but it is God that makes it grow. There is a whole area of ministry that is out of our hands, that is just between the individual and the Spirit. This doesn’t mean we don’t care and don’t invest in the lives of young people, it doesn’t even stop us hurting or chasing after when people walk away, but it helps us to keep going. It reminds us that we’re called to scatter and plant, to water and look after. Perhaps failure isn’t about whether the seed we scatter makes it, but whether or not we scatter in the first place... As you pray lift before God those who are struggling to grow, or those you know who appear to have wandered. Pray too, for the courage to keep scattering seed. Be honest with God about any disappointment you have about those who may have walked away...
Posted on: Tue, 08 Oct 2013 15:04:36 +0000
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