My intention this year was to write about a post a week in this blog, detailing things I've noticed in my own studies, at church, or Bible study. For the past six weeks or so, I have been working with my father on a project that has taken up a lot of my evenings; combined with more work at my day job and other concerns at my night job, I have had a hard time writing much of anything at all, least of all in a blog no one reads and rarely contributes useful information.
Hopefully today will begin the end of the hiatus, though I expect posting will still be spotty. Lord-willing, I will play some catchup before the end of April.
This morning's sermon in Luke centered on the parable of the sower (or rather the explanation thereof). It struck me as we studied it that the parable could be used to describe the ministry of Christ, who indiscriminately scattered the seed (the word of the gospel) but explained it only to his disciples.
The purpose of parables was to hide meaning (Mt 13.11ff) rather than reveal it, and it seems to me that the fruit (which is understanding; Mt 13.23) is produced when Christ explains the meaning of the word he preaches. (I hasten to add that Jesus certainly also spoke to the people without parables; the lengthiest of his recorded sermons, such as Mt 5-7, don't seem to contain parables. I mention this parenthetically to head off objections that I'm Gnostically inclined. The Jewish nation had special revelation from antiquity about Christ.)
The major theme of the parable seems to be "hearing"; the word is used 13 times in Mt 13.9-23 and seven in Lu 8.8-15. It's worth connecting to Ro 10.14,15, I think, and I'm interested in how it would impact my understanding of regeneration (which, in brief, is that the preaching of the word regenerates us). Other relevant passages seem to be 1Co 1.18 and 2.14, both of which may help explain why the preaching of the gospel "in the clear" is not always regenerative.
