Recently I was driving through a downtown area of a nearby city. I passed old buildings, businesses, and a few houses as I searched for a restaurant a friend had told me about. I was on the right street but could not see the restaurant’s sign or the address displayed anywhere. So, I stopped for directions and that is when I noticed a small patch of land between two buildings with a dozen people, a rather diverse group of folks, talking and working the earth together. Once a vacant lot was now a community garden and a patch of heaven. They were tending to the vegetables, herbs, flowers, and various other plants working together as neighbors.
Those mature, fruit-bearing plants, at some point, came from seeds and from the work of generations past. The abundant life that offered food and nourishment now started as tiny dry seeds.
A caring community of neighboring people planted that vegetable garden in the middle of the city. They watered the garden too. However, they did not create the original DNA of the seeds. God did that!
People can plant the seeds, and water the seeds, but it is God who grows the seeds.
The gospel text today points to these two parables about seeds.
*Unique to Mark’s gospel are verses 26-29 that mention the farmer goes to bed, rests, and rises without knowing how the seed grows.
This is Jesus’ way of saying that the Kingdom of God is a mystery to us. Indeed, we can get hung up on thinking we are to be in control of the whole growing process. However, what Jesus asks us to remember is that it is all God’s Kingdom.
This was especially relevant for the early church to remember in Mark’s time. In other words – no matter what types of obstacles they were encountering as a new church God would deliver the harvest in the end. The church was going to spread and grow but how that happens would be a divine mystery. (Jesus’ ref. is partly based on the prophet Joel’s words in 3:13) – The message here is that the kingdom of God is coming!
The second parable is vv. 30-32 (This part is also in Mt. and Lk.), is the more familiar passage about the tiny mustard seed growing into a huge tree. Large enough we are told to protect birds that make the branches their home. Jesus’ work would be sustained, and the church would grow into other areas of the world. Jesus’ ministry from Jerusalem and surrounding rural areas would eventually reach Rome through the missionary efforts of the disciples.
This is an important point for us to remember when we wonder if two or three people praying for and gathering for a ministry might be too small.
Or – When we think of our children and youth groups as these young people learning about the love of Jesus and discovering their part in God’s creation. Our youth are not only the church of tomorrow, but also the church of today.
In 1 Samuel, the youngest son, David, is described as ruddy and handsome. God could work with David through his youthfulness, because he was a clean slate and open to learning God’s ways. He had learned about herding sheep. Now God would anoint him, set apart, to become a leader of many people.
So, first appearances can be deceiving and one’s youthfulness can be dismissed. However, it is an important time of growth. God is always preparing disciples behind the scenes. We look with faith to see how God is present in surprising and unlikely places.
Jesus talked about this through a mustard seed. This phrase “something is as small as a mustard seed” was a common expression used during the time of Jesus. So, Jesus uses the parlance of the day to express how faith can grow the Kingdom of God.
For instance, with King David – Following his call he was shaped to lead for several years. He was growing and maturing. (2 Samuel tells us that David was made King when he was 30 reigning for 40 yrs.)
The disciples whom Jesus called were quite young as well. Some of them are still working on their dad’s fishing boat. Most were in their teens and twenties.
Just as an aside with July 4th coming soon, in this country, the leaders of the American Revolution were not the middle-aged and elderly men with powdered wigs depicted in paintings commemorating their efforts. They were in their 20s and 30s!
Proverbial seeds who grew into mighty trees!
Churches can be seeds too. A small Episcopal congregation in a rural area may be a sanctuary for those who would not ordinarily find a spiritual community they identify with in their town or county. I have met people in parts of our diocese who drive 50-60 miles each way to worship. These rural parishes are like gardens of nourishment to hungry souls.
I learned recently that the part of the seed that first breaks through the dead looking hull is the root. It is referred to as the “radicle”. Think about that word play for a minute.
When you have broken through the coverings, the tough hull around you – to be rooted in radical faith.
The seed of faith is of no use if it is kept on a shelf or tucked away in a tiny bag. It is merely dormant, waiting to be planted.
The seed Jesus is speaking about is the gospel. The garden is our hearts and minds. This is why reaching young people is so vitally important. Not only for their sake, but for ours too!
Today is Father’s Day and so I want to say something to all the dads and father figures out there. Dads and father figures – You do not have to know everything in order to teach the gospel to your kids. You are partnering with God and especially the Holy Spirit who is perfect and can help you teach them according to your context, your arenas of influence, all these little hearts and minds.
You cannot wait until you think you are ready. God will provide you with what you need to teach them along the way. You must take the seed though, the gospel message, and plant it in the dirt before it can begin to grow at all. Then you wait on the Lord and with the Lord until the mystery of God’s love befriends that seed and it takes root in the garden’s soil.
Keep in mind that everything we see in that fully mature tree later is already in that tiny seed. You are the farmer tending that seed through seasons of life until it can stand on its own.
The last thing I want to point out from this parable of the mustard seed is how there are other blessings that arrive once the tree matures. The tree being the mature life of that young person.
We see in Jesus’ parable that the birds of the air find rest and build their nests on the branches. It is easy to imagine them singing as well. So, this mustard tree is now being heard singing songs of praise!
Blessings can be random. Blessings arrive in surprising ways, but only if there is something for them to land on. The gospel message does not need to be dressed up, but it does need to be planted and tended to. Once it branches out, blessings will follow.
All of us are given stewardship of the gospel message of salvation. All of us are charged with growing as disciples of Jesus Christ and serving in our various arenas of agency.
For truly, the most radical thing about God is that God gave us Jesus, who started his time on this earth not as a full-grown adult, but as a tiny baby. Despite ourselves, salvation came and changed us forever.
Our God of the entire universe chose to be known to us in bodily form so that we could relate and better identify with the teachings of Jesus. Plant these gospel truths in your mind. Water them in your heart and the hearts of others. Keep the real seeds of the Kingdom of God in the real dirt of life to make a real difference. When we do that – we are really being radical with the gospel!
Here are some reflection questions for your consideration:
What are the mustard seeds of faith around you?
What is your arena or arenas of influence?
How is God calling you to plant and tend the garden of people’s minds and hearts while you still can?
Thanks be to God. Amen and Amen.