Dear Christian friends:

We know from the Bible, Romans 10:17 that there is a direct correlation between hearing God's Word and living the Christian life. Faith comes from hearing. The more we hear God's Word, the stronger our faith becomes and the better our life becomes. Awareness of this truth may prompt many of us to resolve to attend church services with clockwork regularity. Awareness of this truth may even trigger high hopes. We might think "With all this hearing of God's Word, I'll be moving mountains in no time at all." Well, to the dismay of many of us, the mountains are still there. Worse yet, we find ourselves on occasion becoming less attentive and less enthusiastic in our reception of the Word than ever before.

All this hearing and things seem to be getting worse, not better as the Bible promises. What's the cause? Jesus in our text, which is the Gospel Lesson for today, answers that question. He implies that:

How we live during the week will affect how we listen on Sunday.
I. It's true (part of the cause of our poor hearing) is natural or common.

A. Anything frequent can easily become common. Sunday morning services - one can gradually assume a take it or leave it attitude toward them, I suppose even when one attends them regularly.
B. What's more the services are part of a routine. Sandwiched between relaxation of a Saturday and the return of the work day reality of Monday morning, the Sunday morning service becomes part of our schedule, a thing that loses its freshness and charm, a thing about which to be casual, or unattentive.
C. Furthermore, going to church requires a shifting of gears, and sometimes our mental and emotional transmissions aren't up to it. The memories of Saturday night pleasures, the anticipation of Sunday afternoon fun activities, the dread of having to go back to work on Monday morning-thoughts of all this accompany us to church and interfere with our hearing of the Word.
D. And lets face it: sometimes the preacher hasn't done his job, for whatever reason. He might be dull, unprepared, or long-winded, and it requires great effort as well as a heap of charity to tune in on him. It's not always the hearer's fault.

II. To be sure, part of the cause is supernatural.
A. The reference of course, is to the Devil. We don't always give Satan his due. Well, Jesus surely does in this parable. He says, "Then the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart." (v. 19)
B. Many of us, no doubt, have experienced this. We can listen to a dull lecture on painting, or woodworking or gardening, we can tune in on a political speech that carefully bypasses the real issues, but comes a sermon, a message of life and death, and we're not listening. What but Satan can account for such perversity?
C. And have you ever noticed what it is you're thinking about when you're not paying attention to the sermon? How to witness to your unchurched neighbor? O yeah? How to approach the boss for a raise in salary? Perhaps. But what is it? Shapely blondes and shiny cars? There's no question about where those thoughts come from. Perhaps there is no better argument for the existence of a Devil than the utter depravity of things our minds conjure up while we're sitting through a sermon and especially when sitting through a sermon.

III. However, the main cause is the one Jesus emphasizes in this parable: Living Affects Hearing. How we live at home, and at work affects how we hear at church.
A. Please notice, there are two sides to our engagement with the Word of God. Not only does hearing affect living, but the reverse is true also, living affects hearing. This Jesus shows in our text when He speaks of troubles, persecutions, the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth as choking our faith making us become unfruitful. (v. 22)
1. How come our faith and holy living are worse even though we're attending more services than ever before? How come we're hearing God's Word more and enjoying it less? These poor results don't prove that the Bible is lying when it says that the more we feed on God's Word the better we get.
2. These sad results only remind us of another truth Jesus tells us: that if we have too many weeds and thorns in our life, God can't get a Word in edgewise. If our house is filled with unclean spirits, the Holy Spirit can't crowd in; there's no room or time for Him. When you think of all the stupid trash and utter perversions that are piped into our homes by network and cable television and rented videos its a wonder that any of us hears God at all anymore.
B. So the next time you're disturbed at the lack of correlation between your hearing and your living, don't right away blame the preacher or fault the congregation, or put your hope in liturgical reform. Just check your weeds and thorns at home, that's all.

Maybe the affluent life that we live here in the U.S. where we are only 6% of the world's population yet we consume 60% of its resources isn't as harmless as it appears. It is just possible that these material things are choking our faith and fruitful living causing our hearts to crust over and lose their receptivity to God.

C. Bad living makes for poor hearing - which in turn, makes for more bad living. The thing snowballs. One gets caught in a vicious circle, and the mystery of Jesus' words in verse 12 of this chapter suddenly dissolves: "Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him."(v. 12b)
D. But, thank God, there is the other circle, too. Careful hearing makes for good living-which, in turn, again makes for more careful hearing. Then the other mystery statement of Jesus also becomes clear: "Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance."(v. 12a)

Conclusion: Lets give God's Word every chance we can. After all, it is "the power of God unto salvation." It does not return void. It is the Good News of God redeeming us through His Son crucified, dead, risen and coming again. It works wonders in us. Caught up in this good circle (good hearing, good living, good living, good hearing) we discover to our joy and delight that we are bearing fruit, "some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Yes, it is true: Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ."
Amen