Messiah Lutheran Church, Fargo, ND
June 13, 2021 (Pentecost 2, Year B)
Mark 4:26-34
Two months ago a photographer captured a
memorable image that in so many ways reflects what life has been like during
the pandemic. It’s a picture of a very
elderly woman, sitting all alone in a church pew, grieving for her late
husband, at his funeral.
This funeral—like so many others during
the pandemic—had just a handful of mourners in attendance, all of them masked
and observing strict social distancing protocols.
This particular widow, though, was unlike
so many other women who lost husbands during 2021. Her full name is Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor
and she is both the longest-lived and longest-reigning
British monarch in history.
When she was born in 1926 Elizabeth’s father,
King George VI, ruled over not just the United Kingdom, but the entire British
Empire—a realm so vast, wealthy and powerful that it was called "the
empire on which the sun never sets.”
Since succeeding her father in 1952, Queen
Elizabeth has overseen the gradual transformation of that old British Empire
into a loose confederation of territories now called the British Commonwealth
of Nations—a shadow of its former self, a kingdom in name only.
Because nowadays real kingdoms are hard to
come by—you and I are especially challenged whenever we hear biblical passages
like this morning’s gospel lesson, in which Jesus asks: “With what can we compare the Kingdom
of God?”
That’s actually a loaded question, because
whenever folks like us hear that word “Kingdom,” it conjures up all sorts of
assumptions and associations.
·
When
we hear “Kingdom” we probably picture a vast territory, more acres or
square miles than we can count.
·
When
we see that word “Kingdom” we envision overflowing wealth and riches
beyond measure.
·
When
we read that word “Kingdom” we immediately assume that tremendous power is
afoot—that control is being exercised by an invincible ruler who has “command authority”
over everything.
All those associations and assumptions are
conjured up whenever we see, hear or read that word “Kingdom.”
My friends, it’s essential that we pay
attention to these preconceptions about what earthly kingdoms are usually
about….because, when we shift gears to consider the Kingdom of God,
all bets are off!
For, you see, God’s reign, God’s kingdom is
totally opposite of what we usually think of as a “kingdom.”
God’s
Kingdom is a topsy, turvy, reality. Some have even called it an “upside down
Kingdom!”
“With
what can we compare the Kingdom of God?” Jesus asks here in St Mark,
chapter 4. And then he answers his own
question by declaring: “It is like a
mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all seeds
upon the earth.”
When,
out of the clear blue, we hear the word “Kingdom,” our natural human tendency
is to “think BIG.”
But
Jesus, instead, invites us to “think SMALL.”
Think “magnifying-glass-small”….think teeny, tiny “microscopically small!”
Because
for God, you see, “small is beautiful!”
I
think that’s because God knows how size and appearance can easily deceive us.
We
see that wonderfully played out, not just in our gospel lesson but also in
today’s Old Testament lesson, in which the prophet Samuel discovered that God
had chosen none of the older, taller sons of Jesse to become the king of Israel…but
that God had singled out the smallest and youngest of eight brothers, the runt
of the litter, little no-account David, chosen by God to be anointed King of
Israel.
For
God, “small is beautiful”…and I think that’s because large realities in this
world almost always start out small.
My
wife Joy and I grew up on farms in southern Minnesota. We mainly raised corn and soybeans which
meant that every summer we prayed for timely rains, fought off the bugs, and
pulled up weeds relentlessly…especially that, if given a chance, could multiply
and over-run a soybean field—almost overnight!
That’s
why, if our fathers spotted a lone thistle, or a single buttonweed or just one
yellow mustard plant our dads would wade through growing crops, sometimes for
up to half a mile, just to uproot that one super-spreader weed before it could
go to seed and take over the whole field.
With
what can we compare the Kingdom of God ? It is like a mustard seed, which when
sown upon the ground is the smallest of seed…yet when it is sown upon the
ground it grows and becomes the greatest of all shrubs…
…and
all of that—that entire process of germination and growth—seems to happen on
its own, automatically, without any
human assistance--God’s creative hand, God’s miraculous green thumb hidden
under what appears to be a purely natural process….
But
this miracle of the mustard seed is so much more than a spectacle
that wows us. This wild, out of
control mustard seed growth serves a larger purpose. It nurtures life and extends God’s wondrous
creation. The teeniest seed—Jesus tells
us--produces a mega-shrub with branches big enough and spread out wide enough
to provide shelter for the birds of the air.
In
saying this we describe not only the surprising miraculous growth and vastness
of God’s Kingdom, but also the wealth and the power of God’s Reign.
For
you see, the wealth of God’s Kingdom has nothing to do with what God creates
and keeps stored up for himself.
Rather,
God’s wealth is what God lovingly chooses to give away, in order to nurture the
world God has created, represented here by birds finding new homes among the
branches of this amazing mustard plant…which is why, in our prayer of the day, earlier
in our worship, we prayed: “O God,
you are the tree of life, offering shelter to all the world….”
Neither
God’s wealth nor God’s power serve any selfish purposes God might have in
mind.
Rather,
God’s wealth is everything that serves the life of the universe which
God has created and handed over to us…and God’s power is to give
himself away for the care and nurture of all that He has made.
We
see that in this parable of the mustard seed that Jesus told….and
we behold it even more vividly in the drama of the mustard seed that Jesus enacted
in his own life, death and resurrection.
Our
Lord Jesus spoke of the mustard seed, but he also lived out this story
when he gave away his life on the Cross for us and when like a tiny seed he was
buried in the earth for us, so that three days later he could “germinate” in
the power of the resurrection for us and our salvation.
This
story of the mustard seed isn’t just a great story Jesus told. It was also the “script” for the life he
lived with us, among us and most of all for
us….
…And
even that isn’t the “end of the story!”
Jesus
told this story, spun out this parable for all who had ears to
hear it….
And
then Jesus lived this story in his own life, death and
resurrection…
And
then Jesus got us into the act, when through the water and
Word of baptism we were joined to, incorporated into Jesus Christ…so that we
might live out this story--small though each of us may seem to be.
Thank
God, God loves small things like mustard seeds, and like the little baby Jesus, and like little old you and little old me!
Thank
God—God fashions a life for us in which our greatest delight is to follow
Jesus, dying to sin in order to rise again with Christ, giving ourselves away
through our faith, hope and love…and
continually sacrificing all that we have and all that we are, to nurture
God’s gift of life that fills the whole creation.
And
here’s what’s best about our “mustard seed” faith, hope and
love: God takes what we offer and God
“super-sizes” it for the sake of our neighbors and the whole creation….so that
nothing we might offer up (in gratitude for all that God has given to
us!)…nothing will ever be too little for God the Holy Spirit to work with and
accomplish wonderful things--all in the surprising, surpassing power of the crucified and risen Lord Jesus Christ.
Let
us pray: "O God, you are the tree of life,
offering shelter to all the world. Graft
us into yourself and nurture our growth, that we may bear your truth and love
to those in need, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen."
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