“The Kingdom Will Prevail” A Slow Church-related Sermon on Mark 4:24-34

This is the sermon that Mike Bowling preached last Sunday (26 Feb 2012) here at Englewood Christian Church. It is one of the most hopeful and energizing sermons I have heard in a long time.  It is also a superb reading of Mark 4:24-34 that is in line with what we are calling Slow Church.

I’ve never quite known what to make of v. 24-25:

²⁴And he said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. ²⁵For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.’

It never occurred me that Jesus is contrasting this popular wisdom (“what you hear”) — which basically amounts to “the rich stay rich and the poor stay poor” — with the parables in the verses that follow.  The popular wisdom will not remain true; God is at work transforming creation, but the transformation is a slow one that starts with the tiniest of seeds and grows outward from there, from the grassroots, as it were…

Hope you find this as full of hope as I did!

[audio:http://wp.patheos.com.s3.amazonaws.com/blogs/slowchurch/files/2012/03/MikeSermon-Mark4.mp3|titles=Mike Bowling – Englewood Christian Church – Mark 4:24-34]

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