Sermon – The Rev. Eleanor Greene, as read by The Rev. Leah D. Schade

Reformation Lutheran Church, Media, PA

Nov. 12, 2006

Text:  Mark 4:26-34.

  26   He also said, "This is what the Reign of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground.  27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.   28 All by itself the soil produces grain first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.   29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."   30   Again he said, "What shall we say the Reign of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?   31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground.   32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."   33   With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand.   34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable.  But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

In the name of God, our Creator, our Redeemer, and our friend along the way. Amen.

Good  morning.  I am so happy and excited  Pastor Schade asked me to preach at this service. The passage I'm preaching on is my favorite parable in the New Testament.  The reason why I am so fond of it is because the Biblical scholars whom I most respect believe this is the authentic voice of Jesus.

Sometimes I go through days and days when I feel like an utter hypocrite.

God feels non-existent, and I wonder if I’m in the right vocation,

or if I am just kidding myself, and really living a lie.

I was going through these feelings once again when I approached this text seriously for the first time.

I spent many weeks trying to make sense of these two parables about the scattered seed and the mustard seed,

and like the disciples in Mark, I felt extremely perplexed. 

Then I experienced a wonderful epiphany,

and everything seemed to come together and make sense. 

My faith and confidence in Jesus was restored,

and I knew I was going to feel good working on this sermon.

This is because I remembered the time when these words of Jesus were remembered by his followers and written down. 

It was about 70 years after Jesus' death, and life was very hard and grim for his followers. 

The church was in crisis, and the future looked bleak. Nothing seemed to make sense to them.

But then I believe they discovered that hidden in these parables, and in the tiny mustard seed, was a real message of hope.

So, according to Jesus, this is what the Reign, or Power of God is like. 

Someone scatters seed on the ground, and day and night.
Whether she or he is awake or asleep, the seed sprouts and grows.
This person does not know how the seed grows. It just does.  

All by itself the soil produces grain until it becomes fully mature and can be harvested.

Or it is like the teeny weeny mustard seed that eventually grows so big,

it can shelter the birds beneath it.

To me, what Jesus seems to be saying in these parables is:

like life itself, God's Reign works mysteriously,

and no matter how hard we try, chances are that none of us will fully understand it.

Jesus does not tell us why God does what She or He does in this parable,
but he does make a couple of points about the Reign of God here.

First, God is there helping the farmer with the planting,

and what Jesus could be saying is that God is with us, too, 

when we are struggling  to make things work, or when we are in crisis,

or when we do our everyday chores and activities.

Second, I think Jesus could have been telling his disciples not to worry so much.

The church would survive this persecution.

We do not know why the grain and the mustard seed grow in the way they do,

but there is something mysterious and magical about it.  

Modern science has come pretty close to figuring out how life works,

but we will never know the why of life.
God is, and God acts.

This is part of the meaning behind these parables.

Third, the church and the Spirit of God, like that mysterious grain,

are growing all the time, in ways that are invisible to us,

and in ways we can not always see and feel.

Day and night, night and day, they are constantly with us.

They are at work when we help out a friend or a stranger in trouble. 

They are at work when we make love.

They are at work when we are sharing a meal, or laughing with our friends.

Jesus doesn't speak of God's Reign as if it was in another dimension.

He speaks of it as being with us right here in our ordinary lives,

and in everything we do. It is surrounding us even when we are asleep.

Last, these parables tell us that the Reign of God is a reality we can trust.
This is part of the hope contained in the Gospel message.

One of my mentors gave me another interpretation of the mustard seed parable which I like even better, because it gives a good picture of Jesus the man, who was pushing his disciples to
broaden their view of God.

Jesus was aware that the Great Prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah, as well as Daniel,

described their vision of the Reign in magnificent terms.

Not only was it like a tree, but the trees they used to describe it were

the Cedars of Lebanon, which are huge, and comparable to the California Redwoods.

What Jesus did was to turn this idea completely on its head,

and compare God’s Reign, not just too a little seed,

but to the teeny weeny mustard seed.

Have you ever seen one?  [pass out mustard seeds]

This didn't just surprise his disciples.

It also gives us, too, a wonderful and fresh way to think about God's Reign.

Its grandeur and magnificence is not just visible

in the glory of phenomena like the Cedars of Lebanon.

It is also hidden in the seemingly insignificant tiny grain of mustard,

which makes incredible things possible.

In my other life, I could read, write, and speak the language of Mandarin Chinese.

As many of you probably know, there are about 500 different dialects in spoken Chinese.

But the written language is the same for everyone.

Therefore, as long as a person can write, this person can be understood anywhere in the country.

So, in ancient times,

the Chinese people communicated with each other by drawing little pictures.

These pictures are called radicals or characters,

and each character represents a single word or idea.

For example, the word “mouth" was first depicted as a small circle,

and the word "sun” was depicted as an oval with a dot in the middle.

As time passed,  the character for mouth got changed into a small square, and the character for sun became a rectangle with a line through the middle.

The way language works really fascinates me,

and I find myself drawn to an example from Mandarin Chinese to illustrate this parable.

All of us are graced to be under God’s care and protection, sort of like a divine umbrella. 

In Chinese, the character depicting the word “umbrella” is really a combination of two radicals,

one on top of the other [show a visual example here]

The character on top is God or Christ, and the character underneath is a person. 

Umbrellas protect us from the harshness of the sun on the beach in summer,

and from getting drenched by rain in stormy weather.

We place ourselves beneath them when we use them, in order to feel safe.

In a similar way,

God protects us from being shattered by the storms and vicissitudes of life,

like an umbrella,  if we will place our lives trustfully under Her care.

As we have noted,

the church was undergoing tremendous persecution when this Gospel was written.

In Chinese, the word “crisis” is depicted by a combination of two radicals side by side:

peril and opportunity.  [show a picture]

Once again, this ancient wisdom can be applied to the Gospel message.

When Mark's disciples were in crisis and terrible danger,

thinking of that tiny mustard seed gave them the courage to persevere,

and confidence in future opportunities for growth.

I have been trying to think of a modern parable

which describes God’s presence, power and work in the world in a similar way,

but which someone living today might be able to relate to.

Several years ago, in the spring, millions of people on earth observed a comet.

Its ultimate origin was a mystery. 

Many people helped their neighbors and friends to observe it.

            I was able to see it as well, and when I saw it,

I realized, this is what the Reign of God is like...

First, God is there in the incredible beauty of the stars.

Second, we don't know where the comet came from,

but there was something mysterious and magical about it.

Third, millions of us became involved in looking at it,

and this in turn created wonderful fellowship among us. 

Fourth, we know the comet is a surprising reality, like God,

which can be trusted.

Come, let us pray:
              Holy and loving God, We thank you for our families, our friends here at  Church,  and all over the world, and We thank you for the earth, our island home. We thank you for giving us this passage this morning,  and for  your glorious creation. We thank you for the surprises and mysteries in life. We thank you for the privilege we have to come together; to be able to learn about you, and worship you in such a safe, and beautiful  place. Be with us when the future looks grim, and when nothing makes sense.   Be with us when we are in crisis, or when circumstances bewilder and confuse us. Be with us when we laugh, and experience joy with our friends.  Show
us how to reach out to each other in genuine friendship, and make the whole world into your community. Fill us with joy and laughter, and keep our hope alive constantly, even when it seems to be as tiny as a mustard seed.               In your name we pray. Amen.