St. Paul Lutheran Church, ABQ NM – The Rev. P. L. Holman
Ezekiel 17:22-24; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17; Mark 4:26-34
“Don’t Discount the Small Stuff!”
It’s the small things that make a difference. Oh I know – don’t sweat the small stuff. That seems to be a mantra that guides our living in this day and time. But I am asking you this day to set that aside – and pay attention to the little things. Jesus is asking you this day, to set aside your worries about the stock market and national policy, to set aside your concerns about all the stuff you can’t control anyway, and listen: The reign of God – the force of love and forgiveness and hope – is like a mustard seed…
It was 1985, Moslem quarter, Jerusalem. Our tour guide was introducing the group from Wartburg Seminary, students and “friends” on this three-week tour, to the area and it’s history. “Here is a mustard seed.” I couldn’t believe my eyes – this was no light yellow bead-sized seed like the one in the glass ball I wore around my neck in Junior High. It looked much more like the moss rose seeds I cultivated – that cultivated me in my first garden at our first home in Waverly, Iowa. Small, black, the smallest of seeds... Jesus says, the reign of God is like that – a seed, so small you could sneeze it away. When planted in the hearts of folks who are looking for something more than the technological, therapeutic, military consumer narrative can deliver (thank you, Walter Brueggemann) – who know that the idea we can know it all and control it all is a lie and are searching or desperate or open in any way, when planted in the fertile soil of such hearts anywhere in the world, grows into God-pleasing community that offers life-giving shelter and hope. It’s all about the seed and the hope and the possibility of branches that extend that hope in ways we can’t begin to imagine. It is all about the world under the promise of a good outcome as gift from God, and the amazing grace that avails when people live as though they trust that promise.
Robert Capon in his reflection about this parable suggests we not forget the context – Jesus offers this story right after his parables about weeds and wheat, right after the stories that led some of Jesus’ followers to continue to argue about who is in and who is out, to argue about the meaning of the final judgment and how they themselves could define the path to a favorable outcome at the final judgment. Let it go, says Jesus, for the reign of God – God’s love and mercy, God’s forgiveness and promise – the reign of God is like a seed sown and growing, you have no idea how, bearing fruit to sate the hunger of folks you’d never identify yourself with, branching out to embrace you with hope and room to share it, because that is who God is.
The reign of God is like Andrew Liam, six week old son of Jennifer and Stephen, prayed for, longed for, hoped for offspring – celebrated grandchild – whose life is an open book and whose future is already bound, securely bound, in the infinite embrace of an all-inclusive God. This act, this little seed his father and mother sow by bringing him to the font, by the grace of God is no small thing. For these parents to say in the face of a culture of control that they know this child is not theirs to own but simply on loan to them for a time; that this is not us acting but God acting on Andrew’s behalf through us, not us choosing God but rather us together with his family celebrating the truth that God has already chosen Andrew – this is life-changing trust! Believe me, I know -- it will make a huge difference for all the grown-ups involved when Andrew is in middle school, prickly with behaviors and attitudes quite beyond the comprehension of his very intelligent lawyer parents and educated grandparents. It will make a huge difference to be able to say with deepest confidence, “Oh Lord, thou knowest, this child is yours. We trust YOU know because we sure don’t!” It will make a huge difference when our hearts are broken as well.
The reign of God is like a community that publishes a welcome statement every week in its bulletin, a statement that says whoever you are you are welcome here, a statement we could not begin to uphold and live by if it were simply up to us. But it isn’t up to us: God in the power of the Spirit has led us to publish it, has led us to live by it, has led us to continue to be challenged by it to be the people God has called us to be in this time and this place. Does it make you uncomfortable? Yeah, it makes me uncomfortable too, and most likely for different reasons. And yet it is those very differences that provide fertile soil for that kingdom seed to germinate, to break forth into amazing growth and life for the church in this time and this place.
I could go on but you get my drift – and God’s. The winds of the Spirit are wafting among us, leading us into new places and new opportunities we can only begin to glimpse the import of, to which we can only say, “It isn’t much Lord, but it is who we are. Use us. Use this. Work among us in your amazing ways to show the world your power and your life.” Amen