Mark 6.26-34 The kingdom of God is a mustard seed growing into the biggest shrub of all
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The
parables of Jesus, those pithy stories and illustrations that teach us
primarily about the Kingdom of God and God’s purposes in the world, can be
confusing but they are endlessly rewarding when you spend time with them.
In
fact, our passage this morning concluded by telling us that, ‘With many such
parables Jesus spoke the word to his disciples, as they were able to hear it;
he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in
private to his disciples’. (Mark 6.33-34)
One
of this morning’s parables, the Parable of the Mustard Seed, is very familiar
and speaks truths that are both universal and particular.
We
can read parables on one level and then go deeper with them too.
So,
the Parable of the Mustard Seed is a parable of a universal truth which many
people share and agree with.
It
speaks of the way something tiny can grow big and powerful: it connects with
David and Goliath, never underestimate the little guy.
In
an age that is less and less familiar with the Bible the illustration of this
truth now is more likely to be of acorns growing into oak trees, as an example
of the small beginnings of great things.
But
Jesus’ concern is not about general truths but the particular truth of the
Kingdom of God to be lived out in human lives.
The
parable begins with a rhetorical question: ‘With what can we compare the
kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? (Mark 6.30)
The
kingdom of God.
That’s
his priority.
And
what’s it like?
That’s
where we get the mustard seed. So yes, the kingdom of God has small beginnings
but grows to encompass all times, places and people.
And
the mustard seed, like the kingdom of God, grows to a purpose, that’s the
particular point.
The
purpose is to be a place of hospitality, so that the birds of the air can nest
in its branches: might we read that as a challenge and promise that the
extended branches of the Church should be able to host those who otherwise
would circle around?
A
branch is both a perch to land on and a springboard from which to take off.
In
your flitting through life where do you land and where do you take off from?
I
know beautiful testimonies, from this very church, of people who, in the last
few months, have circled outside the church, like a flying bird, and who have
nested here and received the hospitality and warmth of Christ and of his
people: what a wonderful thing!
Jesus
tells us that the deepest hospitality is life within the kingdom of God; a
place where our rootless selves find a home and a place to rest, and from which
we fly to the heavens and the glory of God.
So
the parables are not the wisdom of the ‘Fortune Cookie’.
And
that takes us to the opening parable of our gospel today which is perhaps less
straightforward and harder, perhaps, to unpack.
‘This
is what the kingdom of God is like.’ (Mark 6.26): Jesus is really rather clear
about it.
The
universal truth in this parable is probably around being patient; be patient
and resilient and you’ll make it through.
But,
again, as we saw in the parable of the sower, what we are being asked to
contemplate is what the kingdom of God is like.
Fruitfulness
– the sown seed; a man sleeping, and waking to a new reality; the harvest and
completion of all things… this parable reconnects us with the second account of
the creation of humanity in Genesis 2.
In
that account God creates, there is the fruitfulness; Adam is placed into a deep
sleep and wakes to the new reality of the woman present with him and, in male
and female, humanity is completed: the man and the woman are fruitful in one
another.
The
kingdom of God is the New Creation and, as St Paul says, ‘if anyone is in
Christ there is a new creation’ (2 Corinthians 5.17)
The
kingdom of God is the renewed, renewing and renewal of God’s creation, all is
being made new and fruitful in him: the bridegroom Christ is united with his
bride, the Church to be fruitful and multiply.
The
seed of the kingdom sprouts and grows and we don’t know how, by God’s grace,
growth and life is all around us.
The
growth of a seed is rooted in the earth: as the parable says, ‘Of itself the
earth brings forth…’ (Mark 4.28)
And
what do we read in Genesis 2?
then the Lord God
formed man from the dust of the ground,
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living
being. (Genesis 2.7)
Our
origins are in the dust of the ground: the earth brings forth… us!
So,
then, the parable of the growing seed is about the kingdom of God growing and
fruiting in human lives, a growth that is only fully realised in the New Adam,
in Christ Jesus.
It
is a parable of grace: of unmerited, undeserved, unasked for; sprouting and
growing.
The
harvest and outcomes are not in our control, they are gifts of grace, like the
growth of seed in the ground.
That
is when we become a harvest worthy of God: the seed grows into a plant to beget
more seed; the human being grows to the greater glory of God – that’s what we’re
made for.
What
we need to pay attention to is the sowing and cultivating of the kingdom of God
within us so that we can be heralds of the kingdom of God in the world.
As
the poet TS Eliot puts it:
Take no thought of the
harvest,
but only of the proper
sowing. TS Eliot, The Rock
God
sows; we grow; God harvests.
May
we indeed be a new creation in him.
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