Nancy Ferree-Clark - "When You Don't Understand" (June 15, 1997)

Download
- Rights
- Limited Re-Use
  Unknown Rights-Holder
  More Rights Info
- Files (1)
- MP3
- Please be patient with media downloads. They are often large files.
Share

Embed Code
<iframe src='//idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4f18sw33?embed=true' height='125px' width='100%' frameborder='0' marginwidth='0' marginheight='0' scrolling='no' allowfullscreen></iframe>
Permalink

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4f18sw33
Skip to Item Info

Loading the media player...

Files for this Item

Transcript

Transcripts may contain inaccuracies.

Narrator	A reading from the gospel	0:11
	according to Saint Mark.	0:12
	Jesus also said, "The Kingdom of God is	0:16
	"as if someone would scatter seed on the ground,	0:21
	"and would sleep and rise, night and day,	0:24
	"and the seed would sprout and grow."	0:28
	He does not know how.	0:31
	The Earth produces of itself.	0:34
	First the stalk, then the head,	0:36
	then the full grain in the head.	0:40
	But when the grain is ripe, and once he goes in	0:43
	with his sickle, because the harvest has come.	0:46
	He also said, "With what can we compare	0:51
	"the Kingdom of God or what parable will we use for it?"	0:55
	It is like a mustard seed which	1:00
	when sewn upon the ground is the smallest	1:04
	of all the seeds on the Earth.	1:06
	Yet when it is sewn, it grows up,	1:10
	and becomes the greatest of all shrubs,	1:13
	and puts forth large branches so that the birds	1:16
	of the air can make nests in its shade.	1:19
	With many such parables, he spoke the word to them	1:25
	as they were able to hear it.	1:28
	He did not speak to them except in parables.	1:31
	But he explained everything in private to his disciples.	1:36
	This is the word of the Lord.	1:42
	In the spring of this year, the Ormond Center	1:51
	at Duke Divinity School conducted a survey	1:53
	of religious beliefs, attitudes, and expectations	1:56
	of the congregation at Duke chapel.	1:59
	I am greatly indebted to Dr. William Lawrence	2:02
	and his staff for their very able assistance	2:04
	in this important matter.	2:06
	And I would like to share with you,	2:08
	the responses to one of the questions on the survey.	2:10
	The question asked, "Which one of the following	2:15
	"best expresses your view of the Bible?"	2:18
	Now 5% answered the Bible is a valuable book	2:23
	because it was written by wise and good people,	2:26
	but I do not believe it is really God's word.	2:29
	Another 5% answered the Bible is the actual	2:33
	word of God and is to be taken literally.	2:37
	30% answered the Bible is the record	2:42
	of many different people's response to God	2:45
	and because of this, people and churches today are forced	2:47
	to interpret for themselves the Bible's	2:51
	basic moral and religious teachings.	2:53
	59%, highest of all the responses,	2:56
	answered the Bible is	3:00
	the inspired word of God, and its basic moral	3:03
	and religious teachings are clear and true	3:07
	even if it does contain some human error.	3:10
	Of those 59%, it's hard to know if they would agree	3:15
	on exactly what these clear and true teachings are,	3:18
	especially as we are an interdenominational congregation.	3:23
	But indeed they seem confident that these	3:26
	clear teachings can be determined.	3:28
	After reflecting on today's gospel from Mark	3:33
	for the last few days, I'm wondering	3:35
	if the Ormond Center shouldn't have added at least	3:38
	one more choice to the possible responses to this question.	3:40
	And that is, "The Bible is the inspired word of God,	3:44
	"and its teachings rather than always being clear are	3:49
	"sometimes a mystery to me and I do not	3:52
	"always understand them."	3:55
	Now perhaps no one would have chosen this response	3:58
	because most of us are reluctant to admit	4:00
	we do not understand, certainly not publicly,	4:03
	and maybe not even privately.	4:06
	While by the time we've been in school	4:08
	even for a short time, I guess we've all learned	4:10
	at least a little about bluffing our way along	4:12
	when we didn't do our homework.	4:15
	Those who design such survey instruments	4:18
	certainly know better than I how to ferret out	4:20
	truthful responses, and I will happily leave	4:23
	their work to them.	4:26
	But as we see especially in Jesus' use of disciples	4:28
	such as those in today's gospel,	4:31
	there are times when the mystery of what	4:34
	Jesus is proclaiming is more than	4:36
	we can wrap our minds around, more than what	4:39
	we can comprehend through intellect alone.	4:41
	In fact to say we have reached total clarity	4:45
	or gotten a handle on the parables may be kidding	4:49
	ourselves just a little.	4:53
	Perhaps it would be better to say	4:55
	we have received glimpses of insight	4:58
	and snatches of wisdom from these parables	5:01
	than to say we have ever achieved total mastery of them,	5:04
	even at a place like Duke.	5:08
	Religious leaders from many traditions have	5:12
	often used parables to point the way to larger truths.	5:14
	For Jesus, they were his favorite way of teaching	5:19
	as Mark tells it.	5:21
	And he was a master at it.	5:23
	Through unexpected comparisons and colorful,	5:26
	original stories, Jesus makes vivid impressions	5:28
	on his hearers by referring to commonplace things or events.	5:32
	Yeast, seeds, pearls, buried treasures,	5:37
	family squabbles, employee concerns,	5:41
	a man beside the road.	5:44
	They are not however simple little stories,	5:47
	obvious in their meaning to anyone who heard them.	5:50
	On the contrary, parables like poetry demand	5:53
	a great deal from the listener.	5:57
	They have a revealing but also concealing quality	6:00
	about them.	6:04
	Although Jesus offered his parables to anyone	6:06
	who had ears to hear, certainly it seemed	6:08
	that not everyone was able to.	6:12
	The fourth chapter of Mark from which	6:16
	our lesson is taken today is devoted	6:18
	entirely to parables, to an interpretation of one of them	6:20
	and to Mark's understanding of their role	6:24
	in Jesus' ministry.	6:26
	The parables presented here are just a sampling	6:28
	among the many that he taught.	6:31
	It begins with the familiar parable of the sewer.	6:33
	You remember, the sewer goes out to sew	6:37
	and some seed fell onto the path,	6:39
	some on rocky ground, some among the thorns,	6:41
	and some into the good soil which brought	6:44
	forth grain 100-fold.	6:46
	Now this story is so familiar to us,	6:49
	we feel perfectly at home with it.	6:51
	We not only take it for granted,	6:54
	we begin to assume we know exactly what it's about.	6:55
	But Jesus' listeners had a different response	6:59
	at the time it was told.	7:02
	At the conclusion of Mark's account of this parable,	7:04
	those who were closest to Jesus, along with the 12,	7:07
	asked him about this.	7:11
	And his reply was, "To you has been given	7:14
	"the secret of the Kingdom of God,	7:17
	"but for those outside, everything comes in parables	7:20
	"in order that they may indeed look but not perceive	7:25
	"and may indeed listen but not understand."	7:29
	A puzzling response to say the least.	7:35
	Why this insider outsider distinction among Jesus' hearers?	7:38
	It appears from his words that the ability	7:45
	to hear is linked to one's relation to Jesus.	7:47
	Jesus explained himself in private to his disciples	7:52
	on numerous occasions and sought to give them	7:55
	the very mystery itself through his presence with them.	7:58
	But apparently they weren't always up to the task	8:03
	of understanding either.	8:05
	Mark's special characterization of the disciples is	8:07
	that time after time they fail to understand Jesus,	8:10
	even on the three different occasions	8:14
	when he predicted his passion,	8:17
	they did not comprehend him.	8:19
	Then why Jesus' strong preference	8:23
	for using parables you say?	8:25
	What kind of teacher would deliberately set forth	8:27
	examples before his hearers where they would look	8:29
	and not perceive and listen but not understand?	8:32
	I'm indebted to Robert Capon, an episcopal priest,	8:38
	author and theologian, for an illustration	8:41
	which is helpful to me, and it puts Jesus'	8:44
	teaching style in a little different perspective.	8:46
	For the sake of comparison, consider the professor	8:49
	who is trying to give his students	8:53
	some idea of what goes on inside the atom.	8:55
	Because neither he nor they can actually see	8:59
	what he is talking about, the professor uses	9:02
	a comparison familiar to most of us.	9:05
	The electrons, he tells them, are whirling	9:08
	around in the nucleus in the same way	9:10
	that the planets whirl around the sun	9:13
	in our solar system.	9:16
	Aha, the students see the light	9:18
	and the professor receives a standing ovation	9:21
	as an expression of their genuine appreciation!	9:23
	In contrast, Jesus did not use parables	9:27
	to explain things to people's satisfaction.	9:31
	Rather he called attention to the unsatisfactoriness,	9:35
	the incompleteness of their previous understandings	9:39
	and explanations.	9:43
	If this had been Jesus' lecture on the atom for instance,	9:45
	he might well have pushed the comparison	9:49
	to its mind boggling though truthful conclusion,	9:51
	namely that as the solar system is mostly	9:55
	great tracks of empty space, so to is matter,	9:58
	and that what they had previously thought	10:02
	of as solid material, consist almost entirely of holes.	10:04
	He would in other words have done more	10:08
	to upset his students' understanding than to assist it.	10:10
	Picture the reaction of the lawyer	10:14
	who asked, "And who is my neighbor?"	10:17
	What did he get in response?	10:20
	The parable of the Good Samaritan.	10:22
	What about the religious people who heard	10:24
	the stories of bad people being rewarded	10:26
	and good people being scolded?	10:28
	Don't you still feel a twinge of annoyance,	10:31
	even distaste, when you hear the parable	10:34
	of the vineyard when the workers received	10:37
	equal pay for unequal work?	10:39
	Jesus' parables essentially knocked	10:43
	the props out from under all his hearers	10:45
	as a reminder that any understanding of the Kingdom	10:48
	they would come up with would be a misunderstanding.	10:50
	Mention Messiah to them.	10:55
	They would picture a king on horseback,	10:57
	not a carpenter on a cross.	11:00
	Mention forgiveness and they would start setting	11:02
	up rules about when it was gonna be overdrawn at the bank.	11:04
	It was going to take a quantum leap of faith	11:08
	for them to let go of the assumption	11:11
	that Jesus was there to affirm their own	11:13
	ideas about religion.	11:15
	Many of them deeply held convictions.	11:16
	Rather before he could assist their understanding,	11:20
	he had to upset their understanding first.	11:24
	Now today we like to think of ourselves as being	11:29
	beyond the need for such basis construction.	11:31
	As sophisticated hearers of the Word,	11:34
	we feel sure that we get it.	11:37
	Just like a listener can get a good joke.	11:39
	Yet a parable is open to multiple interpretations,	11:43
	it often spurs our imagination and evokes varying	11:47
	responses depending on what a particular reader brings	11:51
	to the text.	11:54
	What we don't hear the first time,	11:56
	we may be lucky enough to hear the second or the 10th	11:58
	or the 100th time as we grow in our own journey of faith.	12:01
	Jesus doesn't give up on trying to open us up,	12:07
	not just to a new way of thinking,	12:11
	but to a new way of being and believing.	12:13
	So what impressions did these parables	12:18
	of the growing seed and the mustard seed leave upon you	12:20
	as you heard them read today?	12:23
	As any child knows, who has ever planted a seed	12:26
	in a Dixie cup, the growth of a seed is	12:29
	a wondrous thing to behold, an everyday miracle.	12:32
	According to Mark, the kingdom of God is	12:36
	as if someone would scatter the seed	12:38
	on the ground and then simply go about	12:40
	his or her daily business.	12:43
	Sleeping, waking, working, watching the news,	12:45
	walking the dog.	12:50
	All the while the seed sprouts and grows mysteriously	12:52
	or as the text reads, "The earth produces of itself	12:55
	"without the sewer ever quite knowing how."	13:00
	This story provides a challenging word	13:04
	to any of us that have been intent on bringing	13:06
	in the kingdom ourselves.	13:08
	Or who are determine to rationalize the faith.	13:10
	It is also a reassuring word to any	13:15
	who have wondered about the future of God's reign,	13:17
	that coming of the kingdom is not dependent	13:20
	on our own best efforts, but on God alone.	13:22
	In the parable of the mustard seed,	13:27
	we find a remarkable contrast between	13:29
	the smallest seeds of all the seeds on the earth	13:31
	and the greatest of all the shrubs.	13:34
	Have you ever planted the seed of an herb	13:37
	such as savory or thyme, and had the sensation	13:40
	of almost losing sight of the seed	13:43
	after it had been dropped into the furrow?	13:46
	From all appearances, you might as well have sewn nothing.	13:48
	Yet from inconspicuous beginnings can come vast conclusions.	13:52
	As the shrub grows large enough	13:57
	that the birds can make nests in its shade,	14:00
	we hear echoes of Daniel and Ezekiel describing	14:04
	the home God will make for us and all of creation	14:08
	in the last days.	14:11
	Such images must have been a source of encouragement	14:13
	to Jesus' earliest followers as they are to us today.	14:16
	Let those distressed by small beginnings take heart.	14:20
	I had an experience some years ago	14:25
	which comes to mind when I reflect upon	14:28
	these parables of growth in the kingdom	14:30
	and the surprises which they provide.	14:32
	This goes back to my interview with the first church	14:36
	I ever served, a United Methodist parish	14:38
	in downtown Asheville, North Carolina.	14:41
	As a recent graduate of Yale Divinity School,	14:45
	I came back to western North Carolina,	14:47
	my home conference, with great hopes of serving a church.	14:50
	But amidst reports that the clergywomen	14:54
	in my conference were causing quite a stir.	14:56
	You see even though this group was small in number,	14:59
	their presence in even a few pulpits,	15:03
	that is approximately eight or 10	15:06
	out of 1,000 congregations, set off tremendous anxiety	15:09
	among some congregations.	15:13
	Anxiety that they might get one.	15:14
	Even the bishop serving my conference at that time was	15:19
	less than enthusiastic about the ordination of women	15:21
	and that was no secret.	15:24
	This was only 16 years ago by the way	15:26
	in case you're wondering how far back this story dates.	15:28
	And so when it came time for me to drive	15:33
	to Asheville for the interview	15:35
	for the associate minister's position,	15:36
	I had more than a few butterflies in my stomach.	15:38
	Somehow I had already picked up the idea	15:42
	that at least some members of the interview	15:45
	committee were dead set against a woman.	15:47
	I parked in front of the church,	15:51
	locked up my yellow Volkswagen bug,	15:53
	and ventured into the church for a pretty	15:55
	tough interview as I recall.	15:57
	We covered everything from scriptural injunctions	16:00
	for women to remain silent in church	16:02
	to how I intended to dress for worship on Sunday mornings.	16:05
	No kidding.	16:09
	After two hours with the committee,	16:11
	I was sent out of the room while the members prayed.	16:13
	As it was later reported to me,	16:17
	the committee was surprised to discover	16:19
	how readily they reached consensus	16:21
	that it was time for a clergywoman to be appointed	16:23
	to serve their church.	16:26
	One of the members most vocal in his initial	16:29
	opposition confessed that he really didn't understand	16:32
	just what had happened to him or the committee	16:35
	in two hours time, but he knew it was the right thing.	16:38
	I was elated by the news of course	16:42
	and I went bounding out of the church	16:44
	with another committee member in whose home	16:46
	I was to spend the night.	16:48
	As we walked out on the sidewalk,	16:50
	she noticed a strange look on my face	16:52
	and asked if I were okay.	16:54
	You see the parking place where I had parked	16:57
	and locked up my Volkswagen just two hours	16:59
	earlier was now empty.	17:01
	Well let's walk around the block she said	17:04
	just in case it really was the other side	17:06
	of the church you parked.	17:08
	Perhaps in all the excitement, you've gotten	17:10
	a little confused.	17:12
	We did walk around the block, but to no avail.	17:14
	My car had simply disappeared.	17:18
	Not only that, since I was serving that year	17:21
	as organist choir master in a small church	17:23
	at the same time I was completing hospital	17:26
	chapel training, I had been using my car as an office,	17:28
	so to speak.	17:32
	Always a bad idea, though I still do it.	17:33
	And all the Easter anthems plus most	17:36
	of my organ music were gone, all carefully marked	17:38
	with fingerings and registration.	17:41
	Needless to say I was in great distress	17:43
	though the church took wonderful care of me.	17:47
	Neither the car nor anything in it were ever recovered.	17:50
	Was it stolen?	17:54
	Did it ascend into Heaven?	17:56
	There was no way to know for sure.	17:59
	But as one of the committee members later observed,	18:02
	when he tried to tease out the hidden meaning	18:06
	of this whole mysterious thing, he said,	18:08
	"Once the Lord got you here, you obviously needed to stay."	18:11
	(congregation laughs)	18:15
	I spent three wonderful years in that congregation	18:18
	and heard several acknowledge that	18:20
	they could have never accepted a clergywoman	18:22
	if they hadn't gotten to know one.	18:25
	As for the current status of clergywomen in my conference,	18:28
	there has been a remarkable turn around	18:31
	in recent years.	18:33
	Churches that were praying they wouldn't get one are	18:34
	now praying in at least some cases	18:37
	that they will.	18:40
	And in a very historic and for many of us	18:42
	a moving event, just a week and a half ago	18:45
	at Lake Junaluska, Bishop Charlene Cammerer,	18:47
	our own former associate minister here at the chapel,	18:50
	presided at our annual conference session	18:53
	as the first woman in the Southeastern	18:56
	United States ever to serve as a United Methodist bishop.	18:58
	As one of our divinity interns Rob King said	19:03
	to me afterward, "It was like attending a revival,	19:05
	"so spirit-filled was the conference under her leadership."	19:09
	Who would have believed only a few short years ago	19:13
	that God would make a significant place for women	19:17
	in the leadership of at least some churches	19:20
	after centuries of closed doors?	19:22
	And that women and men together could become	19:26
	partners in ministry, able to freely share	19:27
	their gifts to the glory of God.	19:31
	Inconspicuous beginnings can truly have	19:34
	vast results in the kingdom of Heaven in their own time.	19:37
	The gospel tells us Jesus spoke many parables	19:43
	to his listeners as they were able to hear it.	19:45
	But he didn't stop there.	19:49
	He went on to give his very life for us as a parable.	19:51
	Jesus the word sewn in the field of the world died,	19:56
	rose, and ascended into Heaven.	20:01
	His entire work proceeds as does the work of a seed	20:04
	as a mystery in a way that can never be fully comprehended,	20:07
	only believed in the context of a relationship with him.	20:12
	Let anyone with ears to hear listen.	20:17
	God's reign though shrouded in mystery has already begun	20:22
	in our very midst and has many surprises	20:26
	in store for us.	20:29
	Thanks be to the one who is not finished with us yet.	20:31
	Amen.	20:36

Item Info

Title:

Nancy Ferree-Clark - "When You Don't Understand" (June 15, 1997)

Description:

Sermon start time: (Part 1) 01:51. Sermon end time: (Part 1) 20:38.
Jesus's words are told in the context of their time. As modern listeners, we should be honest about our own lack of understanding and search for meaning in our contexts. (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “Perhaps it would be better to say we have received glimpses of insight and snatches of wisdom from these parables than to say we have ever achieved total mastery of them, even at a place like Duke.”

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r4f18sw33

Date:

June 15, 1997

Speaker:

Ferree-Clark, Nancy

Liturgical Calendar:

Ordinary Time

Biblical Book:

Mark

Chapter and Verse:

Mark 4:26-33

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-0859
ref9868_j2g
uachapelsermaud
duke:320887
dcrau001504
ark:/87924/r4f18sw33
d12ac3bc-24a1-46a2-a6f9-8493c2f27665

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings, 1954-2005

Language:

English

Location:

United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

Format:

Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

Rights:

Limited Re-Use

Unknown Rights-Holder

Rights Note:

This material is made available for research, scholarship, and private study. Copyright in this material has not been transferred to Duke University. For reuses of this material beyond those permitted by fair use or otherwise allowed under the Copyright Act, please see our page on copyright and citations: https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

Sponsor:

Sponsor this Digital Collection

Nancy Ferree-Clark - "When You Don't Understand" (June 15, 1997)

Transcript

Item Info

Duke University Archives

More Info & Options