Mark 4:26-41 26 He also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come." 30 He also said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade." 33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34 he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples. 35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side." 36 And leaving the crowd behind, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. 37 A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that the boat was already being swamped. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" 39 He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. 40 He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?" 41 And they were filled with great awe and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"
More than anything else in all of scripture, Jesus talks about the kingdom of God. Some of our best known parables are illustrations meant to teach us about the kingdom of God. We are told to seek first this kingdom and its righteousness (mat 6.33) We see the kingdom in the casting out of demons (mat 12.28). It is the subject of the parable of the two sons, and the parable of the wicked tenants. And we are warned that it will be easier for a camel to get through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. (mat 19.24) And we find all of this in the Gospel of Matthew alone!
Today’s Gospel reading gives us two more of Jesus’ parables about the kingdom of God. And they might just even help us answer the question, “What exactly IS the kingdom of God?” Jesus says, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.” It starts out small and then grows and grows and becomes a great bush. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been a little bit underwhelmed at the idea of God’s kingdom being a bush. I mean, here we are talking about the creator of all that is, seen and unseen, the unmoved mover, the author of time, and his kingdom is like a bush? Wouldn’t it have been better to talk about the kingdom as being the mighty oak tree, or the California redwoods, or at least the cedars of Lebanon. But no, the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed which grows into a bush.
But there is more to this parable than just a discussion of size. Let me start with a parable of my own. I spent the last week working with a group of high school students who are a part of a program at the seminary which gives them a chance to experience many different aspects of ministry. Each morning this last week we all piled into a big white van and drove to First English Lutheran Church on the near East side of downtown Columbus. It is an area that is rather well known for criminal activity and the area has more than its fair share of absentee landlords, drug dealers, prostitutes and panhandlers. The church itself is rather old and the congregation does not have the money to maintain the building. This is not what one would initially consider to be good spiritual soil. There, in the midst of all of that, I met some amazing children. I met Joey, who, although he was entering the 7th grade could not read fast enough to sing along with the songs and had difficulty recognizing numbers when we asked him to turn to a certain page in the hymnal. I also meet Elaisha. She was very quiet and only after several days did she finally tell one of the counselors what was bothering her. She had recently lost two uncles and a brother to street violence, and she had actually witnessed one of the uncles being shot. I tell you about these two children, not because of what they have been through, but because of what God did through them. Each of them were so moved by what happened at Vacation Bible School this week that they brought their friends with them on subsequent days. And on Friday as they left the church building I could hear them humming one of the songs which they had learned this last week, “My God is so great, so strong and so mighty, there is nothing my God cannot do.”
These are small steps into a faith which we are told will grow and grow until it can be a service to others. One of the most important characteristics of the mustard seed is that it is a very hearty seed. It does not require particularly rich soil or a very abundant rainfall in order to grow. In fact, at the time of Jesus, mustard bushes would have been rather common because they were so hearty. They were the kind of plant which was able to grow all over the Judean countryside. So instead of an image of a tree which stands straight, strong, and tall, Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a plant with humble beginnings which is tenacious and finds a way to grow even in difficult circumstances. Even though Joey and Elaisha were not planted in the best soil, the hearty mustard seed of the kingdom grew in their lives. We should expect to find this kingdom of God popping up in all sorts of unusual and unexpected places.
Perhaps this is why Jesus was so fond of using parables. They take our expectations and turn them upside down. They challenge the way that we think and make us take a second look at our previous assumptions. It is our tendency to boil Jesus’ parables down to a biblical version of Aesop’s fables. We would like to see them as cute little stories about how the world works and the best ways to get along in it. But the parables are more than that, they challenge our assumptions and help us to see God in a new way.
Who would want to have faith like a mustard seed? Some tiny little seed tossed on soil that isn’t good for growing much of anything. Much like the children were singing on their way home on Friday, our God is great, strong, and mighty and there is nothing that our God cannot do. Brothers and sisters, a seed has been planted in each of our lives. No matter what kind of soil we have been in the past, God has promised us the gift of a hearty seed which will triumph over the environment and grow tall and be a shade to the birds.
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