Sermon 06-16-24
Lord God & Father, please keep Your household the Church in Your steadfast faith and love, that through Your grace we may proclaim Your truth with boldness, and minister with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, we pray. Amen.
Children are great for asking questions. They ask one question and, having received an answer, they ask another. As children grow into adolescence, they begin to ask more probing questions about deeper issues of life. In time, they may come to realize that clear answers are not always to be found to life’s more profound questions. As adults we often have to reconcile ourselves to living with many unanswered questions. We discover that all our searching will never exhaust the many mysteries of life. We take great delight in making new discoveries, but we also realize that coming to terms with ‘not knowing’ is an important part of life’s journey.
In this morning’s gospel reading, Jesus speaks a parable which acknowledges the mystery that is at the heart of the most everyday experiences of life. A farmer scatters seed on the good soil of Galilee. Having done the sowing, all he can do is to go about his other business, while the seed takes over and does its own work, producing first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear, until the crop is ready for harvest. In the parable it is said of the farmer that ‘he does not know’ how all this happens. Between his actions of sowing the seed and harvesting the crop, a great deal of activity goes on, which is invisible to him and which he does not fully understand. There is a great deal in our world which we do not fully understand, in spite of the great expertise that has developed over the centuries on all aspects of our universe.
Jesus begins the parable with the statement, ‘This is what the kingdom of God is like’. Jesus seems to be saying that if the farmer does not know the ways of the humble seed, how can any of us fully know the ways of God? If natural growth is mysterious, how much more mysterious must be the growth of God’s kingdom
With this parable of the seed growing secretly Jesus appears to be saying that the kingdom of God can be growing among us in ways that we do not fully understand, just as the seed the farmer sows in the ground grows towards harvest in ways he does not understand. There is a reassuring, hopeful message here for all of us who may be tempted to discouragement by the slow progress that the ways of God appear to be making in the world. The spreading of God’s reign is ultimately God’s work and that work is always under way, even when we do not see it or understand it. We have a part to play in the coming of God’s way of doing things among us, just as the farmer has a role to play in the coming of the final harvest. However, that first parable in the gospel reading warns us against overestimating our role. St Paul expresses this perspective well in his first letter to the Corinthians, ‘Neither the one who plants, nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth’.
The second of the two parables that Jesus speaks in today’s gospel reading reminds us that God can be at work in situations and in places that seem very unpromising to us. There is a stark contrast between the tiny mustard seed, ‘the smallest of all the seeds on earth’, and the large shrub whose branches become homes for the birds of the air.
Insignificant beginnings can lead to a wonderful result. Jesus says that the kingdom of God is like that; it often finds expression initially in what is small and seemingly insignificant. We can feel at times that our own faith is insignificant, as small as a mustard seed. parable assures us that the Lord is working in and through such faith. Our hope can appear to diminish to the size of a mustard seed. The parable assures us that such hope is enough for the Lord to work with. Our various worthwhile endeavors can appear to bear very insignificant results. The parable assures us that the Lord will see to it that the final harvest from those endeavors will be abundant.
Sometimes we have to learn to be content with the small seeds that we can sow, trusting that they can bear fruit in ways that will surprise us.
The kingdom of God is something very humble and modest in its origins. We need to learn to appreciate little things and small gestures. We may not feel called to be heroes or martyrs every day, but we are called to put a little dignity into each corner of our little world. There are little seeds of the kingdom that all of us can sow, a friendly gesture towards someone in trouble, a welcoming smile for someone who is alone, a sign of closeness for someone who is in despair, a little ray of joy for a heart full of distress. God’s reign comes in power through the seemingly insignificant actions of each one of us. Amen
