Mark 4: 26-34 (Common English Bible)
Mark’s gospel was written around 70 AD, shortly after the Romans destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem. That was an incredible loss to the Jewish people and also the original Christians who were also from the Jewish faith. Many thought it was the end of their world or maybe a sign of the coming of God’s kingdom.
Mark uses Jesus’ parable of the growing seed to reassure those guiding the Jesus faith communities to retain their hope and beliefs. Many of the church leaders felt vulnerable and helpless with the fear the Romans would exterminate all hope for a continuous Jesus Movement.
To address their fears, Jesus used an allegory or parable among his followers so they could understand how the kingdom of God grows. Jesus chose a mustard seed to explain the kingdom of God. A better or more accurate term would be the realm of God.
The farmer plants the seed and waters it, but that in itself does not make it grow. The seed has the secret of life, which is something humans cannot grasp. No human has ever created any type of living life on planet earth. We cannot create the realm of God unless God is with us. Behind all things is God and the power and will of God. If we see a plant everyday we cannot see its growth taking place. It’s only when we see it after an interval of time we can see its growth.
It is the same with the realm of God. We can see the growth of the Kingdom by the ways things have become more humane over the centuries. In the early 19th century in England, children as young as nine-years old could be hanged for just pick-pocketing. That cruelty is long gone. And slavery and segregation no longer exists in America. But more needs to be done. There are demonic forces in America and elsewhere who want to reverse positive and progressive changes and go back to a darker era.
In Palestine a grain of the mustard seed stood for the smallest possible thing. For example, “faith as a grain of the mustard seed,” means, “the smallest conceivable amount of faith.” But still the mustard seed grows into a very large shrub or bush. The universal church is like that. It began with one person, Jesus, and it’s meant to last until the end of this world. Now, I don’t believe the Church will look as it does now, 500 years in the future, but it will exist in some form.
Like the mustard seed, the Jesus Movement was small and vulnerable at its beginning. Even at the beginning of the 3rd century AD, only seven percent of the 60 million living in the Roman Empire identified themselves as Christians. But the movement stood out for its disruptive nature to challenge the status-quo and provide refuge for the unwanted. Ultimately, the success of all the transformative movements for justice can be measured by how well the Church met the needs of the oppressed in Roman society.
Sometimes it’s difficult to understand how the kingdom of God works for us. But as the world is transformed by the Holy Spirit, everyone will experience it, no matter what religion they belong to. The Kingdom continues to grow, not necessarily because of people, but because of the miracles God works at God’s wise timing in and among God’s creation on earth. The Kingdom is not something we can fully understand or control, but it is a spiritual force we can participate and be a part of.
Jesus also uses the parable of the lamp (Mark 4: 21-23) to explain that which was hidden in the darkness, needed to be brought into the light. The Kingdom of God has to be taken by our limited ability to understand it through a serious study of the gospels.
We, like the disciples, are expected to bear fruit by spreading the seeds of the Good News. The Salem Presbyterian Church has done that very well during the past months. The warming station and the Monday evening dinners are good examples. Those projects are seeds of the Kingdom being spread. Next, we have to let God become the gardener. God will eventually reap the harvest and bring wholeness to those with open-hearts.
What barren ground today is waiting to be seeded. Maybe it’s the barren ground of racism, militarism, poverty and gun violence? Maybe it’s the barren ground which migrant families walk to seek a better life? Maybe it’s the barren ground of grief, pain or heartbreak? How might we scatter seeds in all those places and thousands of others like them?
The mustard seed planted by Jesus blesses the world in ways that we can hardly imagine. It is the greatest plant among all others. Even though it grows into a large bush, you might compare it to the majestic red wood trees, some still standing that were around when Jesus walked the earth. Jesus chose the perfect metaphor because the mustard bush is large enough to offer shade and rest for all. Let us make the kingdom of God visible not only by our words but by our action, so the world can stand in awe of the majestic and mysterious Kingdom of God.
Meister Eckhard was a 14th century Christian mystic who had a prayer about the seeds mentioned in this reading. Let us pray:
“The seed of God is within us. Given an intelligent and hard-working farmer, it will thrive and grow up to God, whose seed it is, and accordingly its fruit will be God-Nature. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and a God seed into God.”
AMEN
