June 18, 2006
Mark 4. 26-34
In the Name
of God, Father, X Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
This morning
we find Jesus speaking, yet again, in parables.
Most people,
I find, feel a certain level of frustration when they come across these
parables.
After all,
we, as a society, aren’t comfortable with such things.
We want
something straightforward.
We don’t want
to think too deeply about these issues.
We want
something simple and clear.
As some of
you know, I teach theology.
Almost every
time we study the parables in class, I have one student or another who just
sort of throws up his or her hands and says, “Why couldn’t Jesus just tell us
what he was thinking? Why did he have to tell us these stories that don’t have
anything to do with us?”
Of course,
the gist of this is that the student usually misses the point completely by
that very statement.
The fact is,
when we start talking about God and God’s work among us, we are dealing with
issues that are never simple and clear.
To put it
bluntly, there is no simple and clear way to convey the truth of the Gospel.
That is why
Jesus spoke in Parables.
The word
parable comes from the word “parabola,” which can be defined as “comparison” or
“reflection.”
“Relationship”
is probably the better definition of the word.
When we look
at Jesus’ parables with that definition—reflection, comparison, relationship—they
start to make even more sense to us.
These stories
Jesus told then—and which we hear now—are all about comparison.
The
Jesus spoke
in parables simply because the people he was speaking to would not have
understood any type theological explanations.
Jesus used
the images they would have known.
When he
talked that day of a mustard seed and what it grows into, those people
understood that.
They could
actually wrap their minds around the fact that something as massive as a bush
of mustard can come from such a small seed.
Yes, they
could say, even with the smallest amount of faith in our lives, glorious thing
can happen. That is the message they were able to take away from Jesus that
day.
So, this
parable worked for those people who were listening to Jesus, but does it work
for us—here and now?
Does this
comparison of the kingdom of heaven being like a mustard seed make sense to us?
First of all,
we need to establish what is the
Is it that
place that is awaiting us in the next world? Is it heaven? Is it the place we
will go to when we die?
Or is it
something right here, right now.
Certainly,
Jesus believed it was something we could actually experience here and now. Or,
at least, we experience a glimpse of it here and now.
Over and over
again, Jesus tells us that the
We carry
inside us the capability to bring God’s kingdom into being.
We do it
through what we do and what we say. We do it by letting our faith grow from the
tiniest kernel into a vibrant, fragrant bush.
We can bring
the kingdom about when we strive to do good, to act justly, to bring God into
the world in some small way.
Yes, the
mustard seed represents our faith, but it also represents in some way, those
small actions we make to further the Kingdom.
Those little
things you do in your life will make all the difference.
Don’t ever
think they won’t.
Even the
smallest action on your part can bring forth the
But those
small actions—those little seeds that we sow in our lives—can also bring about
not only God’s kingdom but the exact opposite.
Our smallest
bad actions, can destroy the kingdom in our midst and drive us further away
from God.
Clergy deal
with this all the time.
We clergy
have to be careful about those small actions.
I cannot tell
you how many times I hear stories about clergy who said one thing wrong and it
destroyed a person’s faith.
I’m sure
almost everyone here this morning has either experienced a situation like the
first hand or has known someone close who has.
Now, possibly
these remarks by clergy were innocent comments.
There may
have been no bad intention involved.
But one wrong
comment—one wrong action—a cold shoulder or an exhausted roll of the eyes—he
fact that a priest did not visit us when were in the hospital or said something
that we took the wrong way—is all it takes when a person is in need to turn
that person once and for all away from the church and from God.
My mother is
a prime example of one of these people.
My mother was
actrive in the church for years.
But one day,
the pastor made plans to have a package delivered to my mother’s home.
The package
never came—it simply got lost in the mail—and the pastor jokingly made the
comment that my mother probably still had it at home.
Now, I know
for a fact that the pastor never meant to accuse my mother of “stealing” the
package.
But my mother
took his comment to heart as an accusation and, for some reason, she couldn’t
bring herself to go to church for a very long time—at least several years.
That mustard
seed all of a sudden takes on a whole other meaning in a case like this.
What grows
from a small seed like this is a
flowering tree of hurt and despair and anger and bitterness.
So, it is
true. Those seeds we sow do make a huge difference in the world.
We get to
make the choice. We can sow seeds of goodness and graciousness—seeds of the
Gospel. We can sow the seeds of God’s kingdom.
Or we can sow
the seeds of discontent. We can, through our actions, sow the weeds and
thistles that will kill off the harvest.
We forget
about how important the small things in life are—and more importantly we forget
how important the small things in life are to God.
God does take
notice of the small things.
There a
wonderful poem that the poet Daniel Ladinsky translated from the Indian poet
Kabir:
What
kind of God would [God] be
if [God] did not count the blinks
of your
eyes
and is in absolute awe of their
movements?
What a God—what a God we
have.
We have often
heard the term “the devil is in the details.”
But I can’t
help but believe that it is truly God who is in the details.
God works
just as mightily through the small things of life as through the large.
This is what
Jesus is telling us this morning in this parable.
Take notice
of the small things.
It is there
you will find your faith—your God. It from that small place—those tentatively
attempts at growth—that God’s kingdom flourishes in our lives.
So, this
week, be mindful of those smallest seeds you sow in your life.
Remind
yourself that sometimes what they produce can either be a wonderful and
glorious tree or a painful, hurtful weed.
Sow God’s
love from the smallest ounce of faith.
Further the
