My dad used to have an SLR camera. It was novel in those days to have a camera where the view finder looked directly down the main camera lens. It also mean that he could switch between lenses. A telescopic lens enabled him to focus in on detail in the distance, a wide angled lens enabled him to get a bigger, panoramic picture, even close up. Preacher sneed those different types of lenses.
We are working our way through Luke’s Gospel in our Sunday teaching and preaching at the moment and it’s fascinating how different approaches give different perspectives A few weeks back I was speaking about Luke ch 6 which includes the Beattitudes. Now, often we would focus in on that passage on it’s own and draw out the detail of what each beatitude is. In fact, some people have gone as far as to preach whole sermon series just on the beatitudes. However, we are looking at bigger sections at a time. I covered pretty much the whole chapter and so rather than looking at what it means to be poor, what it means to be hungry etc, I stood back from the detail and summed up the whole section seeing how it drew out different aspects that described one type of person, rather than lots of different type of people, what it means to be blessed or happy. I would argue that the blessed/happy person, is firs tof all Jesus and then in Christ we are blessed, we are happy.
As I write, I’m currently looking at Luke 8. This includes the parable of the Sower. Again, normally we would look at the different kinds of soil but if I’m going to be picking up on why Luke tells us about the women with Jesus, the calming of the story and casting out of a demon, then I’m not going to have time or space for that. What happens when we stand back and look at the parable of the Sower with that wide angled lens?
Well, I think that it draws or attention to the important bit in the parable and this means two things. First, the kingdom of God is about the Sower and his seed, God and his Word. God keeps planting his word, he doesn’t hold it tightly back. Secondly, as interesting and helpful it is to learn about all the different kinds of soil, our focus is meant to be on one type of soil. The reference to paths, rocks and thorny ground isn’t to ge tuis thinking about different types of person but rather by way of contrast to help us to see what the good soil is like, wha the people of God’s kingdom who receive God’s Word are like. They have deep roots and are fruitful -just as we saw back in Luke 6 too.
I would encourage you as a preacher/teacher both to focus in on small sections of detailed text and to step back and look at the bigger picture and spot what you see with your wide angled lens on.
Faithroots 