Scriptures:
Ezekiel 17:22-24 Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15
2
Corinthians 4:13-5:1 Mark 4:26-34
Today is Father’s Day, and we congratulate all the fathers
and grandfathers in our congregation.
We’re continuing in Mark’s gospel, and today we read two of
Jesus’ parables. The fourth chapter of
Mark’s gospel summarizes some of Jesus’ teachings and contains several parables
of Jesus, and I’d encourage you to read the whole chapter this week. Today’s parables have to do with seeds. The first compares the reign of God to wheat
seeds or that of some other kind of grain, and the second compares the reign of
God to do with mustard seeds. In both
parables, small beginnings lead to great results. In the first parable, once the farmer plants
the seed of grain, the seed grows of its own accord – as Jesus said, “the earth
produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the
head.” And, once the grain is mature,
the farmer harvest the grain. But while
the seed was growing, the farmer just went about his business elsewhere. Other than planting the seed, the farmer
himself didn’t cause it to grow. The
seed, in combination with the ground, made that happen. But then, the farmer had to recognize the
critical moment when the grain was mature in order to benefit from it.
In Jesus parable of the mustard seed, Jesus specifically
contrasts the tiny size of the seed to the large shrub it can produce. This parable is very similar to our Old
Testament reading from Ezekiel, in which God is speaking of his plans to
restore Israel after their captivity in Babylon. He compares this to taking a tender twig from
a cedar and planting it on a mountaintop, so that the twig will in turn grow
into a mighty cedar in its own right.
Ezekiel was saying that God would use the faithful remnant of Jews left
in Babylon to re-establish the nation.
Jesus, in his parable, gives this a twist – instead of a
cedar twig, a mustard seed; instead of a mountaintop, a garden, and instead of
a cedar tree, a mustard bush. There’s
actually a bit of humor in this parable, because a gardener wouldn’t
necessarily want a mustard bush in their garden, because wild mustard –
basically a weed - would grow out of control and take over the garden. Once it was in your garden, you couldn’t get
rid of it. Even domesticated strains could
get out of control and crowd out other plants.
As Jesus said, it would grow into a shrub, so that the birds of the air
could build nests in it – and a gardener probably wouldn’t want birds in the
garden. So Jesus is saying, of the
reign of God, give it an inch and it’ll take a mile. Give God the slightest access to your life,
and your life will be turned upside-down – or more like turned right side up –
but in any case changed forever.
Today is Fathers Day.
We are here because of our fathers and mothers, or in some cases because
of our grandparents or other people who were willing to stand in for absent
parents, who not only conceived us but nurtured us through our small beginnings
as fetuses, infants, babies, through our vulnerable years, and into young adulthood. We are the harvest of the seeds they
planted. And we are here in church today
because of seeds of faith that were planted in us – by our parents and
grandparents, by pastors, youth group leaders, and other people of faith in our
lives. I’d like us to take some time, to
think of those who have been our fathers and mothers in the faith, and give
thanks for their witness. These seeds of faith have borne fruit. We pray that the seed of our lives and the
seeds of our faith will pass on to another generation, will continue to bless
the world we live in for another generation.
In another of Jesus’ parables, which we didn’t read today,
Jesus spoke of a man who planted good wheat seed in his garden, but then the
man’s enemy planted seeds for weeds there as well. What kinds of seeds are we planting in the
lives of those around us? Both good and
evil come from small beginnings. In
Germany, concentration camps didn’t come into being immediately after Hitler
came into power. Instead, there was a
constant series of small changes, small adjustments to the laws, small
adjustments to the ethos of the society, a slow, constant coarsening of
political dialogue, a slow, gradual, but constant process of degrading and
excluding Jews and other groups disfavored by the Reich. All of these small changes prepared the way
for Hitler’s Final Solution. In Milton
Mayer’s book on the Third Reich, “They Thought They Were Free”, Mayer wrote,
quoting a man he had interviewed who had lived in Germany through Hitler’s time
in power: “Each step was so small, so
inconsequential, so well explained, or, on occasion, ‘regretted’, that…unless
one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what these ‘little
measures’ that no ‘patriotic German’ could resent must some day lead to, one no
more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn
growing. One day it is over his head…”[1] The man went on to say, “I have pondered that
pair of great maxims….’Resist the beginnings’ and ‘Consider the end’. But one must foresee the end in order to
resist, or even see, the beginnings.”
And so we also must be vigilant, must constantly look at developments in
our own society, must recognize what seeds are being planted, and consider what
fruit they may bear in the future.
Both good and evil come from small beginnings. Jesus said that the mustard seed was the
smallest of seeds, and we at Emanuel are surely among the smallest of churches.
Truly, there are few churches smaller
than ours. But, Jesus tells us, what
matters is not the size of the seed, or the size of the church, but the size of
the harvest it produces. And here, at
Emanuel, the seeds of God’s grace are planted in all who attend. And those seeds are carried from here out
into the world. Today is Fathers Day,
when we honor the fathers and grandfathers of our congregation. And so to the extent that the seeds of God’s
grace reach our children and grandchildren, God will have a harvest.
Seeds of faith are being planted here. Here we love to tell the old, old story of
Jesus and his love. And that’s not only
something I do, but something each of us does in our own way. A number of our members have come because of
invitations from friends. And I have to
say that recently, some of our most vulnerable members have been some of our
best evangelists – Bobby inviting Tim and Kasey and others along Aramingo
Avenue, Susan inviting Jonny and Kate and others from the shelter.
Seeds of God’s grace are being planted here. We have a small homeless ministry. People in dire need are being helped. I’m hoping this year that we can launch some
sort of ministry with the veterans in our community…I used the word “with”,
because I hope it would be something we could do in cooperation with
veterans. I’m still reading and praying,
and I hope you will too, asking God what it might look like. But clearly many veterans live in Bridesburg,
and I hope we can work with them to
benefit the community. Another prayer of
mine is that this fall, we here at Emanuel may have our first confirmation
class in many a long year. This would be
open roughly to young people starting 7th grade or later. There are details to work out – finding a
mutually agreeable meeting time probably the most important. But such a class would be an answer to prayer,
a planting of seeds of faith for the future. These are just a few of my dreams,
and I’m sure each of us has dreams of what this church could be, of how this
church can continue to share the love of God with our neighbors here in
Bridesburg. In sharing those dreams with
one another, perhaps more seeds of faith will be planted and come to fruition.
Jesus spoke of seed being planted, and then slowly coming to
maturity on its own, first the stalk, then the head, and then the full grain in
the head. Unlike wheat seeds, the seeds
of faith we plant take a lifetime to mature. Indeed, we may not live see the
seeds of faith that we plant come to full maturity, may never fully know the
influence our lives have on others, just as those who brought us to faith may
never have known how important their lives were to us. Again, think of those persons who have been
your fathers and mothers in the faith.
Remember them. Give thanks for
them. And then consider how you can be
that person, can be a father or mother in the faith, for someone in your
life.
May we give thanks to our fathers and grandfathers, our
mothers and grandmothers, and to all who were there for us on our journey to
adulthood. May we give thanks for our
fathers and grandfathers, mothers and grandmothers in the faith, all who
planted the seed of faith in us and nurtured its growth. May we so live that in days to come, others
may give thanks for us and for our role in leading them to Christ and nurturing
the seeds of faith in us. Amen.
[1]
Mayer, Milton, They Thought They Were Free: The Germans 1933-1945,
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1955; paperback edition 1966
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