Loving God, you lift up before us the mystery of growth, teaching us patience and trust.  Empower us by your Holy Spirit, that we, too, might be participants in your coming kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen.

    When Jesus began his ministry upon this earth, there were those among his followers who wanted everything to change immediately.  They wanted Jesus to become king, to lead armies of people against the Romans, to set up a kingdom in Israel that would rule the world.  They wanted their Messiah to be a warrior king, making Israel God’s kingdom on earth.

    However, God had other plans.  God’s kingdom would not come with trumpet blasts and a coronation and powerful armies.  Instead, God’s kingdom would show up in the birth of a baby boy in humble surroundings in a little place called Bethlehem.  And then that boy would grow up and spend his time among the poor and the despised and the sick and the destitute and the lonely.  It would be apparently insignificant beginnings, and yet God’s kingdom would come and would grow and would reach people all over the world.

    It is this kingdom that Jesus compares with scattering seed on the ground (Mk. 4:26-29).  Once the seed has been sown, it would seem that the only requirement for growth is patience – and this year you might need a little more patience than usual!  It is interesting that in the parable, the person who sowed the seed doesn’t seem to do anything at all to help it to grow.  There is no mention of watering or weeding or fertilizing.  The person simply goes about their daily business, sleeping and rising, and the seed sprouts and grows all by itself.

    And so, what was Jesus teaching?  Inactivity?  Laziness?  Patience?  Or trust in God?  Consider the people who wanted to spring into action in order to bring in God’s kingdom all by themselves.  Kick out the Romans, set up God’s king, and bring about the kingdom of God here on earth.  Consider the people even today who believe that they will bring about the second coming of Christ by doing certain things in Israel or by bringing about Armageddon.  Jesus clearly teaches that God doesn’t work in that way.

    Instead, God works to make the seeds grow until harvest time.  In fact, we are not even going to know exactly how that growth takes place.  And so, it is not up to us to do the weeding and decide who belongs in God’s kingdom and who doesn’t.  It is not up to us to try and bring about the coming of the kingdom on God’s behalf.  It is not up to us to make people believe or to bring about the end of the world.  Instead, our job is to continue to sow the seeds and to trust that it is God who gives the growth.

    We might sow a seed through a simple conversation with somebody that mentions our faith in Jesus Christ.  We might sow a seed through inviting somebody to come to church with us, whether it is for worship or for some other event.  We might sow a seed by living in such a way that people notice our love and care for the people around us.  We might sow a seed through supporting others in their ministry, in order that they can reach people that we might never touch.  We are to keep on sowing seeds, even as we live with an attitude of patience and trust in God.

    Consider what happens if you are trying to grow something and don’t have any patience.  If you dig up the seed just to see if it is sprouting yet, that’s not going to work very well.  If you take off the cast and run around for a while just to see if it’s healing yet, that’s not going to work very well.  If you keep “digging” at people, pushing them to see if they believe yet, that’s not going to work very well.  We are to sow seeds, and to have patience.

    In the first parable that we heard today, we get a real sense of the inevitability of the coming of God’s kingdom.  The seeds were scattered on the ground – not even planted, really – not tended to by the person who sowed the seeds – and yet they grow, all by themselves!  I can’t help but think of Martin Luther’s explanation of the Lord’s Prayer (in the Small Catechism) where he says, “God’s kingdom comes indeed without our praying for it, but we ask in this prayer that it may come also to us.”  Luther then goes on to talk about God’s kingdom coming through the giving of the Holy Spirit, that we might believe in Jesus and live a godly life.

    Can you imagine? – God’s kingdom coming through us!  By the power of the Holy Spirit, we continue to plant seeds.  We plant, and we have patience, and we trust.  The people who first received the gospel of Mark would have wondered why God was delaying in bringing about the end of this world.  Already they felt that Jesus should be returning at once to judge the living and the dead.

    We should not be surprised, then, that there are many people today who feel the same way.  There is the sense of people and things simply getting worse.  There is the sense that evil reigns.  There is the sense that God should just put an end to it already.  In the gospels we learn that God will, indeed, bring about the end – when the time is right, according to God’s wisdom.  In the mean time, there will be growth happening that we don’t even see or know about, and then the harvest will come.

    Jesus teaches patience and trust.  God really is in charge – even when it doesn’t seem like it!  In the mean time, we continue to sow seeds, no matter how small.  Jesus says, “Look – a seed as tiny as the mustard seed grows up into a great shrub – as high as 8 or 10 feet in Palestine.  God can do great things from very insignificant beginnings.”

    Isn’t this true when we look at Jesus and his lowly band of followers?  And yet, the gospel of Jesus Christ has spread over the whole earth.  It only takes faith the size of a mustard seed to move mountains (Mt. 17:20).  It only takes God’s gift of the Holy Spirit for the smallest of beginnings to result in great things.  And so, we keep on sowing seeds, and as we do so, we don’t always know what the end result will be.  However, we do know that God is the one who gives the growth.

    God’s kingdom will indeed come, with or without us.  For my part, knowing what Jesus has done for you and me, I would like to be part of that kingdom.  And so, I continue to plant seeds and to trust.  May each one of us continue to learn and to grow, living as members of God’s kingdom by the power of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Lectionary 11(B)                                Mark 4:26-34
June 14, 2009
St. Luke’s Zion Lutheran Church
Pastor Lynne Hutchison

© 2009 Lynne Hutchison  All Rights Reserved