church

INI
Third Sunday after Epiphany
January 27, 2013
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

THE WORD OF GOD IS AUTOMATIC
Mark 4:26-29

Grace to you and peace, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, Amen. This morning we consider a brief parable of our Lord as we
find it in the fourth chapter of Mark, beginning with the 26th verse, as follows:

And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the
ground, 27 and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should
sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. 28 For the earth yields crops
by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. 29
But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the
harvest has come.” These are the words.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, the Light of our Epiphany, who sends us forth to
enlighten others with His Gospel, Dear Fellow Redeemed,

Back in the 1950’s, scientists and engineers predicted that by the dawn of the
21st century, America would be a completely automated society. Maybe you
remember reading the articles in Popular Science. All of the common
drudgework of day-to-day life would be accomplished automatically, without
people ever having to lift a finger. Every unpleasant household chore would be
taken care of, not by people, but by robots. Obviously, that never quite
happened. But if you stop and think about it, a lot of those early predictions of
automation have come true. We now have automatic machines to wash our
dishes, cook our food, clean our clothes and heat our homes. How many useful
functions does the personal computer carry out for us, much of it automatically,
without our ever having to touch a key.

Of course, I’m using the term “automatic” rather loosely. None of those
devices I mentioned are truly automatic. E.g., humans have to program the
computer. Humans have to set the oven, load the dishwasher and adjust the
thermostat on the furnace. To be truly automatic, a thing would have to be
completely self-contained, carrying out its work effectively without any human
input whatsoever. In fact, that’s the exact meaning of the Greek adjective
automate, from which our English word “automatic” is derived. Not
coincidentally, that same Greek word occurs in our text for today. It’s in a
parable Jesus told to illustrate the fact that there is one thing that does work all
by itself, with no help needed from man. That’s the Word of God! That’s why
our theme this morning is:

THE WORD OF GOD IS AUTOMATIC

I. All by itself, it makes faith sprout.
II. All by itself, it makes faith grow.
III. All by itself, it ripens faith for the harvest.

This text occurs among a series of parables Jesus told about the kingdom of
God, or in other words, how a person becomes a believer. Each parable focuses
on a different aspect this miraculous transformation from spiritual death to
spiritual life. Today’s text makes a single point: the life is in the Word. The new
spiritual life that sprouts and grows in a Christian is completely contained
within the Gospel – that Gospel that they hear with their ears and believe with
their hearts. The life is in the Word. It comes from nowhere else. That’s why
you could say that THE WORD OF GOD IS AUTOMATIC. In the first place,
because all by itself, it makes faith sprout.

Jesus said, The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the
ground, 27 and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should
sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. The characters in the parable
are pretty easy to identify. The seed is the Word of God. The earth in which the
seed is sown are the hearts of men. The sower, of course, is Christ, though He
uses the preachers of the Gospel to do His sowing.

A Christian biology professor stood before his college class one day and held
up two objects. “In my left hand,” he said, “is a seed from a bean plant; in my
right a replica I created in the laboratory. They are exactly the same size,
weight, color, and chemical composition. There’s only one difference – when I
put them in the ground, the one God made will sprout, and the one I made will
not.” It's amazing: we don’t know how seeds work. The miracle of how a seed
germinates and sprouts remains nearly as much a mystery now as it was in the
days of Christ. Scientists can’t explain it, and they cannot reproduce it.
Thankfully, God’s creation does not cease to function because we can’t
understand it.

Neither does God’s Word. The Word works, even though we can’t see how.
That’s why the growth of a seed is such a great analogy for how the Word of
God works in a person’s heart to create faith. A seed has the new life
completely encapsulated in itself, and so does the Word. Scripture says, Faith
comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. – Rom 10:17.

Without the Word, nothing can happen. That professor’s fake seed wouldn’t
sprout no matter how fertile the soil, or ow much rain and sunshine it got. But
the true seed will sprout, and the same thing’s true with the Word of God. It
doesn’t matter the condition of the human heart into which the Word is sown
(in fact, before the Word gets there, the condition is always the same – “dead in
trespasses and sins.”) But THE WORD OF GOD IS AUTOMATIC. It carries
within itself the power to create faith, to instill spiritual life in a heart formerly
dead in sin. That’s why it’s often called the “Word of life” in the Bible or,
literally, “the Word which lives.”

And praise God, that’s how life came to be in your heart. Maybe the Word was
first implanted as a child, at your baptism. Or maybe it was when you were
older, when you read the Gospel, or you heard it preached. Maybe it was when
a friend shared his faith with you that the Gospel was first planted in your heart.
Someone said to you, “Hey, I’m a sinner too! But God sent Jesus to save sinners
like us! God gave His only Son into death, so that our sins could be covered
forever, and we could have eternal life!” However it happened in your case, that
seed was implanted, and it started to grow. That’s why Peter could say, “You
have been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the
word of God which lives and abides forever.” – I Pet 1:23.

That’s how faith starts. But where does it go from there? Turns out the
development of faith is just as mysterious as its origin. At least from our
perspective. But the cause is the same: the life is in the Word. And that's the
second reason why we say that THE WORD OF GOD IS AUTOMATIC.
Because all by itself, it makes faith grow.

In the parable, Jesus goes on to speak about how the growing plant matures:
For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the
full grain in the head. Once again He emphasizes by itself (there’s that word
automate, by the way). Once the Word is planted, and a believer is created,
everything that happens to nurture and develop faith in that believer is a result
solely of the Word of God. All growth in God's kingdom comes from the Word!

Unfortunately, this is counter-intuitive to our human way of thinking. Many
people don’t trust the Word. They think that human effort, and human
cleverness, is necessary for the kingdom of God to grow. And if you don’t
believe that, then you’ve never heard of the Church Growth Movement. It’s a
whole new industry in America. Their philosophy is this: in order for growth to
occur in the church, we have to be very clever. We have to use the latest
marketing techniques. We have to target certain demographic groups –
especially young people – and minister not to their real needs, but to their “felt
needs” – what they think they need to hear. We have to make our church music
similar to the music on the radio. We have to tailor our preaching to what they
want to hear: usually a lot less doctrine and a lot more feeling and emotion. And
if you don’t do that (so they say), the church won’t grow.

But is that how growth occurs, in the human heart or in the church? Is that the
way to engender faith? Because let’s remember, faith is the goal here. We're not
shooting for big fancy buildings or multitudes of programs or thousands of
names on the membership list. The thing that keeps people out of hell and
saves them for eternity is faith. Luther once said, “God our Father has made all
things depend on faith so that whoever has faith will have everything, and
whoever does not have faith will have nothing.” And the methods of the
Church Growth Movement have nothing to do with faith. Those things aren’t
the seed. The seed is the Word of God, and THE WORD OF GOD IS
AUTOMATIC. The life – the life that makes faith sprout and the life that
makes faith grow and produce fruits and enlarge the church – is wholly
contained in the Word.

By the way, that’s why we in the Church of the Lutheran Confession focus so
much of our attention on the Word of God. Because only the Word can create
or strengthen faith. And what a relief that is, when you think about it. Because
we don’t have to be clever. We don’t have to be marketing experts. We don't
have to hire motivational speakers or rock bands in order for the church to
grow. All we have to do is sow the Word. Our whole calling is to trust the
powerful, divine Word of God, and sow it steadily and faithfully. James says, Be
patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the
precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and
latter rain.” – James 5:7

That’s what we’ve tried to do with our outreach here at Ascension Lutheran
Church. Just sow the powerful Word of God and let the Word do the work. And
that is what we’ll continue to do. Yes, certainly we make use of every outward
means that’s appropriate to help us spread the powerful Word. But
remembering at all times that the power is in the Word, not the means! THE
WORD OF GOD IS AUTOMATIC. As Paul reminded the Corinthians, I
planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7 So then neither he who
plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. – I Cor
3:6-7.

This is great news for your personal witnessing, too, especially if you're the
kind of person who tends to worry about whether or not the words you speak
are effective. One of the favorite air-to-air missiles utilized by U.S. fighter
aircraft is called the AMRAAM "fire-and-forget" missile. So called because you
can fire it at your target and then go do something else. As soon as you pull the
trigger the missile takes over and homes in on the target all by itself. The fighter
pilot can be two states over by that time, and the AMRAAM will still be
homing in, doing it's job, “fire and forget”. Well, in a sense, the Word of God is
a "fire-and-forget" weapon, too. That is, once you speak the Gospel - once you
articulate the Good News about Jesus to somebody - the living Word will take
over. You don't have to worry about it. You can go to bed at night and get up in
the morning, and even if you never see that person again, the Word you spoke
will be doing its work. The seed is planted, and it will grow! God says, So shall
My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But
it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I
sent it. Is 55:11.

Thirdly, THE WORD OF GOD IS AUTOMATIC also in this sense: all by
itself, it ripens faith for the harvest. Jesus said, The earth yields crops by itself:
first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. 29 But when
the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has
come.

The Word of God causes faith to sprout in a believer's heart. The Word of God
cultivates that believer and makes faith grow. Eventually the believer matures
in his knowledge of the Word. He gains experience in following Christ. From a
heart of faith, he brings forth fruits - good works that adorn the Gospel and
serve the kingdom of Christ. And finally, at the end of life, comes the crown of
a believer's existence, when the Lord of the harvest gathers home His saints.

It's true that for the lost - those who have rejected Christ - the Last Day will
bring a fearsome harvest of condemnation. Then the Lord will say to His angels:
“Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down; For the winepress is
full, The vats overflow – For their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes
in the valley of decision!” – Joel 3:13-14.

But for the believers, for those of us who have been washed clean in the blood
of the Lamb, that Day will bring a blessed harvest of saints unto everlasting life.
Saints like Connie and Amy Windecker, Alexander Horst, Richard Hawley, Bert
Naumann and Denny Mantei, saints from our congregation who have already
been carried home to meet their Lord Jesus in person. Saints…like you! Yes,
just like you - believers who have had that Word of life take root in your hearts
and spring up to everlasting life. Because of Christ, you have nothing to fear
from Judgment Day. That's why our Savior said, Most assuredly, I say to you, he
who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and
shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. -- Jn 5:24.

Finally, there’s another way we use the word “automatic”, too, isn’t there?
When one competitor in an athletic contest is seen as totally outclassing his
rival, we often say that person “is an automatic” to win. In 1999, the St. Louis
Rams thought that, in Trent Green, they had the superstar player who was an
automatic to start at the quarterback position. So much so that few people even
considered the second-string quarterback, an undrafted nobody who a few
weeks previously had been stocking shelves in a Hi-Vee supermarket in Cedar
Falls, Iowa. That is until Green was injured and the backup had to come in. He
didn’t stay a nobody for long – Kurt Warner would eventually become a
Superbowl champion, two-time NFL MVP and a future Hall of Famer.
Obviously, on that team, the “automatic” favorite turned out to be not so
automatic after all!

Can you think of an even better example? How about the giant warrior Goliath,
with all his experience and his massive weaponry? He certainly seemed to be an
automatic choice to defeat a lowly shepherd youth named David. But beside his
staff and sling, David had something else, something that made his victory
automatic – he had faith in God’s Word. David said to the Philistine, “You
come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in
the name of the LORD of hosts , the God of the armies of Israel, whom you
have defied. 46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand.” – I Sam
17:45-46. He had no doubt. He had faith! Demonstrating yet again that THE
WORD OF GOD IS AUTOMATIC. All by itself it makes faith sprout; all by
itself it makes faith grow, and all by itself it ripens faith for the harvest. God
grant that the seed of the Word sown in our hearts may grow up to bear
abundant fruit, and that we in turn may sow the precious seed into the hearts of
those with whom we come in contact in our day-to-day lives. One thing we
know: we shall not sow in vain. The Word will provide abundant fruit – it’s
automatic! AMEN.