Ezekiel 17: 17-24 Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15
2 Corinthians 5:6-10, (11-13), 14-17 Mark 4:26-34
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.
The Rev. Jim Pike, who married Bruce and I, is one of the most thoughtful theologians I have ever known. He has a brilliant mind and a huge heart and a quick wit. In fact, his wit is so quick, that he is making quite a name for himself in Los Angeles, where he serves as a pastor by day and a stand up comic by night. He swears that he doesn’t use congregational life as material for his stand up comedy without permission. But life in the church can be funny…it can be hilarious, in fact. How many of you were here the morning when we asked the children during Children’s Time what they saw here as a sign of God’s love and Joshua replied….coffee! And once, when I was on internship, the pastor was doing a children’s sermon and asked the kids why we come to church. His precocious son, age 9, raised his hand, eager to answer the question, and his father was just as eager to not call on him. Eventually, though, he did, and Seth offered this response to why we come to church….”to listen to you yack!” Seth was banned from children’s sermons for the rest of the year.
But there are humorous things about our faith and in church and even…dare I suggest it…straight from the mouth of Jesus. In the Gospel reading today, for instance, when Jesus starts to talk about what the Kingdom of God is like…his listeners, those gathered around, would have expected the simile to be completed with an image of strength and beauty….with words used in the Hebrew Scriptures of their upbringing. A strong tower, a mighty rock, an everlasting foundation, or in the image from Ezekiel today…a mighty cedar. And instead, Jesus plays with his audience, just like a stand up comic might. “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs.” The greatest of all the shrubs? That’s it? The kingdom of God is like a shrub?
And I’m just going out on a limb here…pardon the pun….but I’ll bet there were people who heard Jesus say this and laughed! Even as others scratched their heads, I’m just guessing that there were some who were chuckling.
Because not only was mustard a shrub….it was an invasive wild weed of a shrub. It was the Scotchbroom of their time. It was kudzu, for anyone who has ever visited the south. It grew where it was not planted and where it was not wanted.
But there is good news in what Jesus has to say here, especially if one is a shrub.
I have a confession to make to you today….and no, it’s not that I want to be a stand up comic. It’s that sometimes, when I hear about large mega-churches I get a little bit envious. And a little bit curious. And then, usually, a little bit out of sorts. Take for example, the World Changers Church, International, whose pastor is under investigation for, among other things, punching his adolescent daughter. He preaches the prosperity gospel….that is that if you are good enough, and if you tithe, and send that tithe to his ministry, God will reward you with wealth and prosperity. And if you are not good enough, if you do not give to the church, God will take away all that you have. So. If I were to find myself in a church like that I would turn and run the other way before the obvious hypocrisy came any closer. For nowhere does Scripture uphold this way of being a disciple. Most disciples in Scripture struggled just like we struggle, with hardships of all kinds. And yet, the World Changers Church is ENORMOUS! It is HUGE! It is overflowing with people. It looks like an arena it’s so big.
So explain to me why mainline denominations who preach a message of grace, love, and mercy freely given for all….are experiencing a decline.
I do not understand it. There are many days when I am tired of being the shrub. When I am tired of saying “Well, if we were big enough or had enough money or a bigger staff we could do so much more”.
But wait….wait….Jesus says that this is exactly what the Kingdom of God is like. The text says that our job is simply to plant. That we are to plant the seed and trust that it will grow because God will see to it. We don’t know how seeds grow….although science has offered us lots of new information about synthesis and photosynthesis…but the truth is that we put the seeds in the ground and we wait. We water and weed and tend, but mostly we wait.
I love it when a close study of the text in original language yields some rich nugget for us to mine and enjoy. Here’s one for us from today’s Gospel. The word that is translated as grow in this parable is only used in this story. In all of the other biblical stories that talk about growth and growing, there is another Greek word used for grow. This words specifically means to stretch. To elongate.
The seed that is planted, even a mustard seed, to become an invasive shrub, does not just grow. It is stretched. And when it is stretched, birds can come and make nests there. To nest there is to have a place of shelter. To nest there is to have a place of community. There in the shrub.
Maybe you are more drawn to the reading from Ezekiel today, which offers the promise of becoming a cedar. There are good things to learn from this text. The tender sprig that is plucked from the top of the cedar to become a new thing can only become that new thing because of the presence of the old. Just as new ministries and new outreach and new programs can only come about and serve others because of the existence of what has been….because of the existence of the cedar. And every kind of bird will live there. Eagles and sparrows. Bluejays and cardinals. Even crows. Big and small birds. Birds of all colors. Gay and straight birds. Young and old birds. They can all live there. This too, is an image of the kingdom. But we do well to recall that the image of the cedar sapling from Ezekiel was intended for Israel when they were in Babylonian exile. It was a specific promise to a specific people that God would return them to a former status as cedar beginning with a young sapling.
Jesus, in the Gospel, is describing not a particular people or nation but the Kingdom of God. And for all of us who wonder if we are good enough….for all of us who wonder if our gifts are enough or if our struggles are not overcomeable…Jesus tells us the story of the great reversal. Jesus lives the story of the great reversal…where a homeless teenage girl gives birth to the Messiah. Where that Messiah turns the tables in the temple upside down and gathers at table with the greatest outcasts. The story where the greatest act of salvation comes in death. The story of a Kingdom of God, not a kingdom of earth. The story where there is a lot of waiting…and a lot of watching….and a lot of trust…and a lot of faith….and then the kingdom comes and it’s a shrub.
Sisters and brothers, the Kingdom of God is a place that is happily out of our control. Who is in or out. Who is big or small. Not ours to determine. Ours is to plant and dream and dream big….as big as we can. Our is to walk faithfully. Ours is to give as we have been given. Ours is to welcome others. To feed the hungry and clothe the naked and welcome the stranger. And ours is also to laugh when Jesus tells us that what we are expecting to come like a mighty cedar might just grow up among us like a shrub.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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