Do Tell Stories of Hope Deferred

Today, we begin a series of sermons on the narrative power of telling stories.  Jesus told stories everywhere he went.  He was a great story teller, stories about planting, lost sheep, and coins.  Families and children gathered around Jesus to hear stories.  They brought food and laid down their blankets to hear his teachings.  Often, he would teach them in parables.

Parable defined is to put alongside.  This is what Jesus did as he spun the story of the sower of seeds.  Jesus painted a picture that the gathered crowd could see in their minds, because they saw it every day.  It was no stretch of the imagination to see the birds peck out the seeds or the sun scorch the seeds or the rocky soil.  Each image was lived, something the hearers could relate to and already knew about.  His teaching however, was what our children have learned in school to call metacognition, that is thinking about thinking.

Parables in the classic tradition are given as something to solve.  In  Puccini’s opera, Turandot, the wise Princess whose ancestors who have been taken advantage of, who herself will not, requires her suitors to answers parable riddles before she considers their worthiness for marriage.  The first one is most apropos to our topic today: “What is born each night and dies each dawn?”   “Hope.” (1)

Hope deferred often feels like the wind knocked out of your sails.  Your initial dream feels like it is on hold, while God’s way comes into focus.   As the Jesus tells the parable of the sower, we might ourselves recount all the times our dreams have fallen on the path and not taken root.  All of the time, excitement for a ministry or a child’s future or something we hoped  might come to pass, was nibbled away.   We may think of the times in our lives, when the sun rose, and the seeds of hope were scorched by the heat.  Those times when the energy and excitement burn us or others out.  Also,  we think of the times when thorns choked it out and it gave no yield.  When negativity overwhelms us and the forces around us are too much and overwhelm us, choking out the ability to grown.

Have you ever heard the backstory of Habitat for Humanity?  Founders Millard and Linda were doing well in life.  In fact, as a successful executive, Millard was a self-made millionaire by 29 with innovative ventures like flower delivery, practicing law, and the like.  This was great, except for one thing – their marriage suffered from lack of attention.  With a commitment to each other and ministry of serving others, the Fullers settled first on the biracial farm, Koinonia Farm, near Plains, Georgia.   There they lived with others and built homes for poor black families.  Shortly after, they spent three years in Zaire.  Their time in mission work afforded them space to develop the concept for Habitat for Humanity. (2)

The ‘theology of the hammer’ and economics of Jesus has developed into sustainable practices that have lead in to the home of over 2.5 million in seventy countries.  For people who were living in cardboard shanties with no hope, their hope deferred bloomed into a Habitat for Humanity.  The vision  of the Fullers has been realized.  Today, homeowners put in 500 hours to repay the full price of their home to own it free and clear.  The beginning days in which Milliard was sure that Linda was going to separate and leave him, he could not have imagined the joy that a homeowner experiences when being in their own home for the first time. (3)

In Acts, we hear of the Holy Spirit moving among the churches and the throughout the lives of the people.  Signs and wonders were known among them at Solomon’s Portico.   We often hear people say, miracles and wonders happened only in the times of the Bible, why don’t they happen today?  When you hear a passage like this in Acts, it is easy to feel like perhaps your hope is deferred – you might still be waiting.  But let me ask, have you seen God’s work in your life?  Have you seen God’s wonders?  Have you seen answers to prayer in the lives of your families and friends?  Have you shared testimony and witness – sharing what God has done?

Jesus taught, so that people might find hope in their every day lives.  People, just like us, who wanted to see and know hope.  When it felt like there was nothing to hang onto – to know there was hope, even when hope was deferred.  Hope deferred, for us, can feel like waiting when we want to see and know the miracles and answers of God right now.

In the moments of hopelessness, when it feels like another medical bill after another comes in the mail.  When the garbage disposal gives out on top of the car needing to be fixed, on top of a child needing braces.  When you are you caring for parents and your children and your own health hangs in the balance, we depend on the grace and goodness of God.  We tell one another the stories of hope deferred and remember that each and every  day, the sower goes out and sprinkles seeds.  What kind of seeds, you might ask?   Seeds of hope.  Some of the seeds will fall on rocky ground.  Those seeds will not endure.  Some seeds will fall on the thorns.  Those seeds will choke.  Some seeds will fall by the wayside.  But some seeds will fall on the good ground and their hope will thirty, sixty, and hundred-fold.

As seeds of hope are sown in you, you are given the challenge to tell stories, your stories of hope to others.   Your life becomes the parable, the one you put alongside the lives of others, encouraging that hope deferred is not hope lost.

This is the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, thanks be to God, Amen.

(1) Crossan, John Dominic.  The Power of the Parable: How Fiction by Jesus Became Fiction about Jesus. 2012

(2) Carter, Jimmy. Faith: A Journey for All, 2018.

(3)   Ibid, 65.

New Testament Lesson:  Acts 5:12-16

Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico. None of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high esteem. Yet more than ever believers were added to the Lord, great numbers of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mats, in order that Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he came by. A great number of people would also gather from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.

Gospel Lesson:  Mark 4:1-20

Again Jesus began to teach beside the sea. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” And he said, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”

When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that ‘they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.”  And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.  And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”

Meditations For Your Week

Sunday, June 3 ~ Saturday, June 9

Sunday: “Now many signs and wonders were done among the people through the apostles. And they were all together in Solomon’s Portico.” Acts 5:12. When God’s people gather, God’s presence is known. Where have you seen God’s presence?

Monday: “None of the rest dared to join them, but the people held them in high esteem. Yet more than ever believers were added to the Lord, great numbers of both men and women, so that they even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mats, in order that Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he came by.” Acts 5:13-15. Consider how God is moving in our world today.  Pray for those who need God’s healing most.

Tuesday: “A great number of people would also gather from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those tormented by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.” Acts 5:16. Curing is a moving from sickness and illness towards health. God’s healing brings hope to the lives of God’s people.

Wednesday: “Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land.  He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching, he said to them: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow.” Mark 4:1-3. People gathered around Jesus who taught using everyday circumstances. Where is God teaching you?

Thursday: “And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”  Mark 4:4-8. Our lives are filled with stories in which hope has taken hold and hope has been deferred, or even snatched from us. Pray for those who fell as though their hope has been snatched.

Friday: “And he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables?” Mark 4:13. Pray for understanding how God is teaching you.

Saturday: “And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” Mark 4:20. Jesus told parables about farming, because that was familiar to the community. Listen to what God is teaching you. Be open to where God is leading you in hope.