This week we had the chance
to go and see the film zero dark thirty – centred on the hunt for Osama Bin
Laden – it is quite an action packed film and I think well worth seeing- all
though there has been some controversy surrounding the torture scenes with in
it.
It focuses on the CIA agent
Maya who gets a hint of a connection with Osama Bin Laden and an unknown
courier and her life’s work is to hunt it down until she is able to pull it all
together.
She is focused and
determined – she is like a bear with a bone, gnawing away at it – piece by
piece until she gets the end result.
Why start with this because
I was thinking of this film in contrast to the film forest gump.
One of my favourite films
but in that film – Forest seems to just go from one thing to another – he
drifts from one extreme situation to another not by any planning of his own but
by just going with the flow of life.
So the contrast of the
driven person to the drifter- the focus to the unfocused.
Which is best- which will
get the best results –
Now I am sure we all know
that generally to succeed with something the more focused you are the better.
Generally in life if you are
not focused you don’t tend to get anywhere – unlike the Holywood movie.
Whether it be academically,
in sport, in music in other areas generally one can see that being focused is a
good idea to get the best chance for yourself to succeed.
But what about life away
from the demands of academic success or career, what about the internal life we
all lead the spiritual side of our lives.
Are we focused here or do we
just let things drift?
It’s easy to forget this
side of our lives and the parable from Jesus this morning brings us up sharp to
think about it.
A simple story with a
meaning that helps us to think about our own response to the spiritual sense of
our lives.
Here we see seed growing and
we are told by Jesus if we read on to hear the meaning of this parable that the
seed is God’s word.
The challenge then is what
sort of soil or response do we give this seed.
You see just as through life
we have a choice to let things happen or be in control and to work towards a
goal – so in our spiritual lives we do too.
And the response to the seed
– Jesus says is like our response to his word and he identifies 4 different
responses to his word, 3 drifters and 1 focused.
Now if we were scattering
seed today with this in mind we might be a bit more careful than the farmer
here.
We might avoid the areas
that we know seed would not grow.
But we are told here that
the farmer was not like that – he scattered the seed liberally, he scattered
the seed over all the soil and he waits to see what will happen.
Interesting because in this
way Jesus tells us in this parable –
God’s word is not spread only to the areas where there might be a response –
but God’s word is spread to all just like the seed.
The seed doesn't determine
the outcome. The conditions of the soil and surrounding areas determine the
outcome of what will happen to the seed.
This puts the responsibility
straight away back on us and our response to the seed- God’s word,
So the first lot of seed
falls on the wayside.
The wayside would have been the paths that farmers left
for travelers through their fields. This ground naturally would be hard-packed
by the traffic. So birds would quickly eat the seed which fell there.
The challenge to us then is
our reponse to God’s word a hard path-
do we even give it a chance to break into our
lives or are we just too cynical, too closed to let anything challenge and
change us?
And then what about the seed
that falls on rocky ground Galilee is underlaid with limestone
rock. In some places this rock is covered only by a thin layer of soil. The
seedlings had little chance of rooted properly.
In our spiritual lives do we
allow the word of God to permeate our lives deeply or is it just something
shallow, is it OK for somethings but when it becomes too challenging we choose
to ignore and move on.
And then what about the seed
that fell by the weeds. The seed might have grown but the young plants were
soon strangled by other plants around them and couldn’t grow.
Here we see the analogy of
giving our faith time to grow amidst the pressures and conflicting interests of
our busy lives.
We may be so focused on some
things in our lives that God’s seed never has a chance to grow.
And then of course we have
the last seed scattered on soil where it can grow and flourish and bear more
fruit.
The parable of the Sower is
one of the most well known parables that Jesus ever shared with the people.
The Sower shows us that
there are different responses to the same gift - the giving of the Word of God.
For all of us here this morning the Word of God is being scattered upon all of
our lives, but that should not lead anyone to believe that we will all leave
here the same.
Just because the Word of God
is given doesn't mean the receiver will allow the Word of God to shape and mold
their life.
We started by thinking about
being driven or drifting – we are soon approaching lent a time to think about
our internal spiritual lives – perhaps the challenge to us all this morning is
are we prepared to be focused in this as well as other areas of our lives to
grow inwardly and in our relationship with God.
I end with a final picture
of the film Zero dark thirty – at the end we see the CIA agent on her own – you
can identify the emotion she is feeling – she has succeeded with what she set
out to do, she has achieved her goal but you are left with the unsaid question
– yes that’s great but what on earth am I going to do now, how can I now give
my life meaning.
The experience of countless
Christians down the ages is that feeding and growing your inner life can do
just that
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