Proper 7; Pentecost 6
Preaching
Preaching Mark's Gospel
A Narrative Approach
In the overall structure of Mark's Gospel we now move into material that follows the Parable of the Sower, which is the plot synopsis of the first ten chapters of Mark. This story of the disciples in the boat, along with the whole of Mark 5, is about different kinds of soil. The Sower sows the word and people hear and receive that word in different ways. The rocky-ground disciples are afraid. Fear is one of the fundamental responses to the Sower in Mark's story. Mark's Gospel, in fact, ends with a note of fear! (Mark 16:8: "ƒ and they [the women] said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid.") In this story the disciples and Jesus get into a boat for a trip to the other side of the lake. Wind and sea rose up in fury. The disciples were afraid they would perish in this storm. Jesus, on the other hand, was not afraid. He was asleep! One wonders if this is a kind of flash-forward to Gethsemane, when it was the disciples who could not keep watch. They fell asleep three times (Mark 14:32-42).
After the disciples awoke Jesus, he spoke a personal word to his friends, the wind and sea, and the storm subsided. There are Old Testament parallels to this power of God over the forces of nature. See for example Job 38:1-11; Psalm 74:13-14; 107:23-29. The Creator has the final word over the creation! In relationship to the forces of nature Jesus acts as God acts. Truly this man is the Son of God!
We will focus our remarks on this text upon the disciples and their response to Jesus. "Why are you afraid?" Jesus asked them. "Have you still no faith?" This contrast between faith and fear as alternative responses to the work and word of the Sower is woven throughout Mark's Gospel. In the stories of Mark 5, for example, we hear this refrain over and over again. The townspeople were afraid (5:15) in light of Jesus' healing of the Gerasene demoniac. When Jesus goes to the home of Jairus to heal his daughter he tells the people gathered round: "Do not fear, only believe" (5:36). Jesus commends the woman with the flow of blood who was healed as she desperately reached out and touched the hem of his garment. Jesus said to her: "Daughter, your faith has made you well ƒ" (5:34). The stories told in Mark 5 are clearly stories of people who are "good soil" in whom the harvest is thirtyfold, sixtyfold and hundredfold. They are people of faith, not of fear.
We will come upon other instances of this faith/fear polarity in the course of Mark's Gospel. Mark seems to pose these realities as the basic alternatives of hearing in response to the work/word of the Sower. The kingdom of God draws near when the word falls on good (receptive) soil. Mary Ann Tolbert says that,
Mark 4:1-34 supplies the audience with the fundamental typology of hearing-response that organizes the entire plot of the Gospel ƒ While Mark 4:1-34 reflects this theological vision in the symbolic or parabolic categories of nature, such as sown seed and productive or unproductive earth, the purpose of the Gospel narrative as a whole is to portray it in human form. 1
This story of the disciples and Jesus in the boat is the first of three boat stories in Mark's Gospel. Each boat story paints the disciples in terms of their fear and unbelief. These stories appear in Mark 6:45-52 and 8:14-21. Neither story is a part of this year's lectionary cycle. In the homiletical section below, therefore, we will propose the telling of the three disciple/boat stories as the structure of this week's sermon.
These boat stories do not flatter the disciples. If anything, they buttress the suggestion that the disciples are the rocky-ground hearers. They fear. They do not believe. Their hearts are hardened. In the story in Mark 6 the disciples are on the sea, distressed in their rowing. So Jesus walks out to them! The disciples see him and are filled with fear. Jesus seeks to comfort them in their fear. He says to them: "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid" (6:50). Surely by now the disciples will catch on. Maybe the next verse will tell us that they finally put their fears behind them and came to faith. No such luck! "And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened" (6:51-52). They still don't get it. Their hearts are impervious. Their hearts are hardened; they are the rocky soil!
The third boat scene (Mark 8:14-21) is even more astonishing. It is a story set up by Jesus' second feeding of the multitudes. After the second such feeding of the crowd, the disciples get into the boat with Jesus again. We prepare for the worst! The worst is what we get. Incredibly, the disciples seem worried over the fact that they have only one loaf of bread. It was only in hearing Mark's Gospel story told orally from start to finish that the irony of this story jumped out at this author. Studying these stories in isolation from each other often prevents us from seeing the big picture. The big picture here is that Jesus fed the multitudes twice. (See chapter 6:30-44 and 8:1-10.) Each time there are a lot of leftovers. Twelve baskets of leftovers in chapter 6, seven baskets of leftovers in chapter 8. And then we hear the disciples being afraid for their hunger because they only have one loaf! When the stories of the feedings and the disciples' fear that they have only one loaf are told together, they strike us with comic effect!
Jesus' words to the disciples in this boat story are mind-boggling. To his disciples he says, "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? (Rocky ground!) Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear?" (Mark 8:17-18). What is astonishing about this speech of Jesus is that it is the reversal of what he had said in explaining the Parable of the Sower to the disciples. There he had said that the disciples were the insiders who get to know the secret, the kingdom of God. The outsiders, on the other hand, would see, but not perceive. The outsiders would hear, but not understand (Mark 4:11-12). In this story, however, it is the insiders, the disciples themselves, who are as outsiders. They have eyes, but they do not see. They have ears, but they do not understand.
Homiletical Directions
The proposal for preaching this week is to tell the three boat stories that we have looked at above. These stories need to be told in context with each other, and this is the only chance to do so because the boat stories in Mark 6 and 8 do not appear in Lectionary Cycle B.
Two suggestions for the telling of these stories: In the telling let the disciples appear as Mark paints them. These insiders appear as outsiders. Those who should have faith are filled with fear. The disciples are rocky ground; their hearts are hardened. After telling the three stories we can raise some questions with our congregation. What kind of hearers are we? Are we insiders who can become outsiders? Do we have faith or fear in our hearts? Are we rocky ground after all? These questions, of course, can be fleshed out in more detail.
Close the sermon with prayer. Pray for the Holy Spirit to touch the lives of all assembled. Pray for the Holy Spirit to work with the seed that has been sown on these human hearts. Pray for the Holy Spirit to turn our hearts from fear to faith. Pray for the Holy Spirit to open our eyes that we might truly see; to open our ears that we might truly understand. A hymn that sings of the assurance that the Sower, Jesus Christ, watches carefully over the seed that has been sown might be sung in conclusion.
A second approach would be like the first in that the three boat stories would be told. Instead of ending with a prayer, however, we would end with the final story in Mark's Gospel. Things look pretty grim for these "boat people," these disciples. And it gets worse. Three times they will respond to Jesus' revelation that he must suffer and be crucified with their own preference to live in present glory. Three times they respond to his call to "watch" by falling asleep. There is this interesting pattern of "threes" in Mark's Gospel as he paints the disciples in bleak tones.
The implication of the telling of these stories, of course, is that there are many among us today who might feel like the disciples. Our hearts are hard. Our soil is rocky. Our eyes don't always see the things of faith. Our ears don't always hear properly. We often live in fear, not trusting faith. Is there any hope for us?
YES! The disciples are not left to fade into disgrace with their threefold patterns of hardened hearts, denial and betrayal. At the end of the story the young man at the tomb speaks Jesus' good-news word for the disciples: "ƒ go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you" (Mark 16:7). The final word to hard-hearted, "rocky ground" disciples is a word of hope and promise. Jesus has spoken this word for hard-hearted disciples in every age.
We can put these words in Jesus' mouth as the climax of our sermon. Jesus' word is a word for fearful, hard-hearted disciples in our time. It is a word for those who hear us sow the word of these stories. Jesus says to all of us today:
"I am going before you to Galilee. I have more seeds to sow upon your 'rocky ground' hearts. I have more seeds to sow that your ears might hear and your eyes might see. I have more seeds to sow to turn your fear to faith. I refuse to leave you in your hard-hearted condition. Come on along to Galilee. I have more seeds to sow. Amen."
____________
1. Mary Ann Tolbert, Sowing The Gospel (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989), pp. 163-164.
After the disciples awoke Jesus, he spoke a personal word to his friends, the wind and sea, and the storm subsided. There are Old Testament parallels to this power of God over the forces of nature. See for example Job 38:1-11; Psalm 74:13-14; 107:23-29. The Creator has the final word over the creation! In relationship to the forces of nature Jesus acts as God acts. Truly this man is the Son of God!
We will focus our remarks on this text upon the disciples and their response to Jesus. "Why are you afraid?" Jesus asked them. "Have you still no faith?" This contrast between faith and fear as alternative responses to the work and word of the Sower is woven throughout Mark's Gospel. In the stories of Mark 5, for example, we hear this refrain over and over again. The townspeople were afraid (5:15) in light of Jesus' healing of the Gerasene demoniac. When Jesus goes to the home of Jairus to heal his daughter he tells the people gathered round: "Do not fear, only believe" (5:36). Jesus commends the woman with the flow of blood who was healed as she desperately reached out and touched the hem of his garment. Jesus said to her: "Daughter, your faith has made you well ƒ" (5:34). The stories told in Mark 5 are clearly stories of people who are "good soil" in whom the harvest is thirtyfold, sixtyfold and hundredfold. They are people of faith, not of fear.
We will come upon other instances of this faith/fear polarity in the course of Mark's Gospel. Mark seems to pose these realities as the basic alternatives of hearing in response to the work/word of the Sower. The kingdom of God draws near when the word falls on good (receptive) soil. Mary Ann Tolbert says that,
Mark 4:1-34 supplies the audience with the fundamental typology of hearing-response that organizes the entire plot of the Gospel ƒ While Mark 4:1-34 reflects this theological vision in the symbolic or parabolic categories of nature, such as sown seed and productive or unproductive earth, the purpose of the Gospel narrative as a whole is to portray it in human form. 1
This story of the disciples and Jesus in the boat is the first of three boat stories in Mark's Gospel. Each boat story paints the disciples in terms of their fear and unbelief. These stories appear in Mark 6:45-52 and 8:14-21. Neither story is a part of this year's lectionary cycle. In the homiletical section below, therefore, we will propose the telling of the three disciple/boat stories as the structure of this week's sermon.
These boat stories do not flatter the disciples. If anything, they buttress the suggestion that the disciples are the rocky-ground hearers. They fear. They do not believe. Their hearts are hardened. In the story in Mark 6 the disciples are on the sea, distressed in their rowing. So Jesus walks out to them! The disciples see him and are filled with fear. Jesus seeks to comfort them in their fear. He says to them: "Take heart, it is I; do not be afraid" (6:50). Surely by now the disciples will catch on. Maybe the next verse will tell us that they finally put their fears behind them and came to faith. No such luck! "And they were utterly astounded, for they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened" (6:51-52). They still don't get it. Their hearts are impervious. Their hearts are hardened; they are the rocky soil!
The third boat scene (Mark 8:14-21) is even more astonishing. It is a story set up by Jesus' second feeding of the multitudes. After the second such feeding of the crowd, the disciples get into the boat with Jesus again. We prepare for the worst! The worst is what we get. Incredibly, the disciples seem worried over the fact that they have only one loaf of bread. It was only in hearing Mark's Gospel story told orally from start to finish that the irony of this story jumped out at this author. Studying these stories in isolation from each other often prevents us from seeing the big picture. The big picture here is that Jesus fed the multitudes twice. (See chapter 6:30-44 and 8:1-10.) Each time there are a lot of leftovers. Twelve baskets of leftovers in chapter 6, seven baskets of leftovers in chapter 8. And then we hear the disciples being afraid for their hunger because they only have one loaf! When the stories of the feedings and the disciples' fear that they have only one loaf are told together, they strike us with comic effect!
Jesus' words to the disciples in this boat story are mind-boggling. To his disciples he says, "Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? (Rocky ground!) Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear?" (Mark 8:17-18). What is astonishing about this speech of Jesus is that it is the reversal of what he had said in explaining the Parable of the Sower to the disciples. There he had said that the disciples were the insiders who get to know the secret, the kingdom of God. The outsiders, on the other hand, would see, but not perceive. The outsiders would hear, but not understand (Mark 4:11-12). In this story, however, it is the insiders, the disciples themselves, who are as outsiders. They have eyes, but they do not see. They have ears, but they do not understand.
Homiletical Directions
The proposal for preaching this week is to tell the three boat stories that we have looked at above. These stories need to be told in context with each other, and this is the only chance to do so because the boat stories in Mark 6 and 8 do not appear in Lectionary Cycle B.
Two suggestions for the telling of these stories: In the telling let the disciples appear as Mark paints them. These insiders appear as outsiders. Those who should have faith are filled with fear. The disciples are rocky ground; their hearts are hardened. After telling the three stories we can raise some questions with our congregation. What kind of hearers are we? Are we insiders who can become outsiders? Do we have faith or fear in our hearts? Are we rocky ground after all? These questions, of course, can be fleshed out in more detail.
Close the sermon with prayer. Pray for the Holy Spirit to touch the lives of all assembled. Pray for the Holy Spirit to work with the seed that has been sown on these human hearts. Pray for the Holy Spirit to turn our hearts from fear to faith. Pray for the Holy Spirit to open our eyes that we might truly see; to open our ears that we might truly understand. A hymn that sings of the assurance that the Sower, Jesus Christ, watches carefully over the seed that has been sown might be sung in conclusion.
A second approach would be like the first in that the three boat stories would be told. Instead of ending with a prayer, however, we would end with the final story in Mark's Gospel. Things look pretty grim for these "boat people," these disciples. And it gets worse. Three times they will respond to Jesus' revelation that he must suffer and be crucified with their own preference to live in present glory. Three times they respond to his call to "watch" by falling asleep. There is this interesting pattern of "threes" in Mark's Gospel as he paints the disciples in bleak tones.
The implication of the telling of these stories, of course, is that there are many among us today who might feel like the disciples. Our hearts are hard. Our soil is rocky. Our eyes don't always see the things of faith. Our ears don't always hear properly. We often live in fear, not trusting faith. Is there any hope for us?
YES! The disciples are not left to fade into disgrace with their threefold patterns of hardened hearts, denial and betrayal. At the end of the story the young man at the tomb speaks Jesus' good-news word for the disciples: "ƒ go, tell his disciples and Peter that he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him, just as he told you" (Mark 16:7). The final word to hard-hearted, "rocky ground" disciples is a word of hope and promise. Jesus has spoken this word for hard-hearted disciples in every age.
We can put these words in Jesus' mouth as the climax of our sermon. Jesus' word is a word for fearful, hard-hearted disciples in our time. It is a word for those who hear us sow the word of these stories. Jesus says to all of us today:
"I am going before you to Galilee. I have more seeds to sow upon your 'rocky ground' hearts. I have more seeds to sow that your ears might hear and your eyes might see. I have more seeds to sow to turn your fear to faith. I refuse to leave you in your hard-hearted condition. Come on along to Galilee. I have more seeds to sow. Amen."
____________
1. Mary Ann Tolbert, Sowing The Gospel (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989), pp. 163-164.
