4th Sunday after Pentecost

 

Mark 4:26-34

    I just love it when the lectionary just works out for me.  I really couldn’t have picked a better Gospel lesson for this particular Sunday.  It’s Father’s Day and it’s New Member Sunday and here we have such a great lesson for both these things, because today is a day about growing things. 

    Now I absolutely love it when this day that so wonderfully celebrates growing things falls on Father’s Day because these texts always make me think of my own Dad.  For he was a man who truly and deeply loved growing things.  As a former farmer now living in the city, he channeled all his farm energy into an incredible garden which he took very seriously.   It was amazing how much production he could wrest from the space he had carved out in the back of our yard.  And it was from him that I inherited my great love and fascination with plants, although unfortunately not so much his green thumb as despite my best efforts I seem to be far more likely to kill my plants than to help them grow.

    Maybe that is why the first parable that Jesus tells in Mark today resonates so well with me.  For it speaks of the great wonder and mystery of the natural world.  And about how God the eternal gardener works in miraculous and often completely unknown ways to bring about a great harvest from his bounty even when it was not our toil that brought it about.  I have often found that ministry works in much the same way.  Sometimes projects and ideas in which we invest a great deal of time, effort and resources yield almost no fruit, while seeds  cast lightly in hope sometimes sprout forth amazing bounty because God is working, moving and bringing forth the growth and all we need do is get out there and harvest the bounty.

    Alongside this parable Jesus then tells us another parable about seeds and plants, this well-known old favorite about the mustard seed.  And I’ll confess that on this part I haven’t done quite as well with the lectionary, because if we had been using the normal Old testament reading instead of learning about David all summer, we would have heard the passage from Ezekiel on which this parable is based.  Because here in Mark, Jesus quotes almost word for word from the 17^th chapter of Ezekiel, “On the mountain height of Israel I will plant [this sprig], in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar. Under it every kind of bird will live; in the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every kind. All the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord.”

    And the people in Jesus’ time loved this passage.  This idea that God would plant his people high on a hill so that all the world could see.  And let’s face it, even today as a church we love the idea of being the great cedar on the hill.  For centuries, we even took this quite literally and placed our church buildings atop the highest hills in a city or town so that everyone could see them.  We even invented steeples to place atop these buildings just to make sure they were visible over all the other structures.

    But when we stop to really listen to what Jesus has to say to us today we soon discover that there is something suspicious about the kinds of things that Jesus is growing in his garden.  Because there is a problem.  Because Jesus doesn’t say anything about trees in his parable.  Instead Jesus takes out the sprig of cedar and replaces it with a mustard seed.  And it is easy for us today to miss what a big deal this is, but in reality it changes everything, Because mustard is weed.  It is not a great and shining tree, its not noble or majestic.  It is a weed, a nasty despised weed.  Picture dandelions if they grew to be 6 feet tall and there was no herbicide that could kill them.  Mustard is tall and scrawny, with deep strong roots and a pungent odor.  And what it lacks in beauty it makes up for in tenacity.  For mustard was known throughout the ancient world for being one of the most pernicious, obstinate and intransigent plants around.  The seeds were tiny, would grow anywhere and once established and were nearly impossible to get rid of.  Despite their usefulness for spices, mustard seeds were actually considered a volatile substance under Roman law and it was illegal to transport them through certain parts of the empire for fear that even a small spill could cause an outbreak of this aggressive invasive species.

    Over the years we have tended to forget what mustard is like, but imagine what the people must have thought when Jesus first told this parable.  Here they were pridefully expecting to be told that they would be part of a mighty cedar and instead they are to be weeds.  The kingdom of God is like an invasive weed?  What?  This doesn’t sound like very good news.  But the more I think about it the more excited I am about the weeds.

    Think about weeds for a second.  They are strong and hardy, when you snap the head out or try to pull it without uprooting the whole thing, they grow right back big and strong as ever.  Given a little bit of time, weeds will take over any open space, the cracks in your sidewalk, the space around your deck, the open ground between other plants, if there is any chance, a weed will grow.  Many weeds like mustard also have long tap roots that go deep into the soil making them drought and heat resistant allowing them to draw on deep stores of water even when surround plants wither and die.  Basically weeds are tough.

    So what would it mean to be a church of weeds not cedar?  A church that grows rapidly and spreads quickly.  A church so deeply rooted in Christ that it is able to withstand the dry times even as everything around it turns to dust.  A church that plants itself not on the mountain tops but down in the valley where the people live providing shade and solace for all those in need.  A church that will spread the gospel and take root where ever the seeds of the Word fall, not just where one expects. 

    Whenever people ask me about St George’s, I always tell people that we are small but mighty, we are already a church that punches well above its weight.  We have such a heart for serving those in need.  We have found ways to draw on our deep stores of faith during the dry times of the pandemic.  We have weathered challenges and change.  Our members have grown in new ways of ministry even just since I have come here. I think we are already well on our way to being a church that is weedy in all the best ways.  And today we gather to celebrate with our new members who bring new gifts and new skills who are planting themselves in our garden here at St George’s.  And we rejoice because we never know what amazing things God is about to grow here next. Amen.