Westwood Presbyterian Church

    Mustard Seeds 

      In struggling with these two parables - the mustard seed and the yeast - this past week - the thought went through my head - these are very short parables - they are about small things - so the sermon could be very short - very small. What if the sermon was - God makes small things big - there you have it - the sermon is done. Amen.

      That I would even think like that points to a challenge with these two parables - Jesus does not seem to be saying anything more than small things become big things. And there is nothing surprising in that - it is a natural process. Seeds become huge trees, babies grow into adults, it is a natural process. There is no surprise here. But a parable is supposed to have a surprise in it.

      We need to go back to the text - notice what Jesus says about the mustard seed - "it is the smallest of all seeds." Now we know that there are seeds that are smaller than mustard seeds - and Jesus knew that too - he is exaggerating to highlight the surprise. In the parable of the yeast - the woman mixes the yeast into three measures of flour. "A measure of flour" was enough flour to make about 35 loaves of bread - so this woman puts a bit of yeast in enough flour to make 100 loaves of bread and the yeast works its ways through the whole amount. This is not natural growth - this is unexpected growth ­this is super-natural growth. The small is very, very small- so small it appears to be nothing - and the whole, the big is very, very big - it is huge.

      This, Jesus says, is how it is in the kingdom of God. The gospel -- the story of Jesus ­ seems so small and insignificant. Next to the great philosophies of the world - the gospel seems like nothing. As Paul said, the gospel is foolishness to the philosophers. The folly of saying that the way to life is to die - the folly of saying that giving your life away in service to God is the way to keep your life - the folly of saying that a person who lived 2, 000 years ago was the Son of God. That is all folly - all laughable in the eyes of great philosophers in our world. But the church - those who believe in the folly of the dead rising to life - remains - and the names of the philosophers - Plato, Kant, Heidigger, Foucault - are names whose works are studied by the academics but that is all.

      Next to the political powers of the world - the gospel seems extraordinarily fragile.

      Political powers have sought to crush and still seek to crush the gospel. But where the church was thought to have been killed - in the Soviet bloc, in China, in Islamic Iran ­ the church remains. And the Soviet bloc is no more, and Mao's China is no more, and the Islamic regime in Iran is showing signs of weakness. And the church remains.

      A tangent about the kingdom of God - in each of the seven parables in Matthew 13 there is reference to the kingdom of God. What is the kingdom of God? The kingdom of God will be complete when Jesus Christ returns as the King of kings and Lord of lords ­ so the Kingdom of God is a future reality - it is coming. But the first signs of that coming kingdom are visible in our world right now. Visible where God's presence flashes through the seemingly endless despair and hopelessness. Visible where God's power is revealed in bringing hope and renewal and transformation to broken lives, broken relationships, broken communities. So yes, the kingdom is still coming - but the kingdom can be seen now -- the first fruits of the kingdom - the first signs of the kingdom. And stunningly - the first of those first signs of the kingdom of God is the church. To be clear the kingdom of God is bigger than the church - because the church is the creation of God and God is greater than the church. But the church is the most public - the most pervasive signs of the kingdom that is coming.

      So when we read the kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven - we need to have a flexible understanding of what is being talked about. It is still future - but is already here - it is the church - but it is bigger than the church.

      Back to the parables of mustard seed and the yeast.

      We should never underestimate the power of the seemingly small and insignificant nature of the gospel message. I get asked - "what do I say when I go to a funeral and want to say something meaningful to those who are grieving. 'I am sorry for your loss. I am praying for you.' seems too small - I want to say something that will matter." To say that we are praying - is to say that we believe that God hears us and answers us - it is to say that we believe that God can and will work to bring hope and peace to troubled hearts in the midst of circumstances that are chaotic and painful. To say that we will pray for someone seems so small - in the face of the immensity of the challenges of this world ­to pray seems like trying to thaw the Assiniboine River with a blow dryer. But we know that when we pray we engage the God who put the stars in space in the situation - we know that when we pray we engage the God who brought Jesus out the grave in the situation - we know that when we pray we engage the God of hope to bring hope.

      Prayer is one of those things that looks so weak - so unimportant - so insignificant ­but which God uses to transform the world. As the saying goes - "When Christians pray the devil trembles."

      Agnes was born in 1910 in Albania, the most Muslim country in Europe. Her father died when Agnes was 8 years old, and her mother started taking the family to church. At the age of 19, at the start of the worldwide economic depression Agnes responded to a call from God to become a nun. As the first step in that process she was sent to convent in Ireland to learn English, and was then sent to Calcutta, India in 1931. In 1937, she became a nun choosing the name Teresa. And now you know who I am talking about.

      But who would have guessed that a petite woman from a backwater of a country, who worked among the poorest of the poor in India, would become an icon for caring for the needy and walking with oppressed. No one would have thought that that small seed would transform the world and challenge all of us to deeper commitment.

      God takes people who are insignificant and unimportant and uses them for his glory. It is in the smallness of things that God takes pleasure - the incongruity of the smallness against the great that will do is what causes God to laugh with joy.

      God is the God of surprises who is constantly in the business of bring growth beyond our understanding - bring about impact beyond our wildest imagination. Bringing great things out of the small and the insignificant.

      In the 3^rd and 4^th century God used a group of people - called the Desert Fathers and Mothers - who lived on the edge between the desert of North Africa and the cities of Egypt to call the church back to the faithful following of the Triune God. No one would have guessed that a group of monks living in the desert would be God's way of advancing the kingdom.

      In the 13^th century a rebellious teenager threw over the traces and walked away from his family's wealth and status to become a wondering monk preaching the good news of the gospel to the poor - who was this rebellious teenager through whom the kingdom of God was advanced - St. Francis of Assisi.

      In the 16^th century a young lawyer on the run for his life, wrote a treatise on what he understood to be the truth about God. He wrote the treatise as a letter (a very long letter) to the king of France - a country that the writer was never to return to - living the rest of his life as a refugee - his name - John Calvin. And the treatise - The Institutes of the Christian Religion - still regarded as one of the greatest theological treatises ever written.

      In the early 20^th century something starts happening among the black churches in the United States - in the midst of the challenges of segregation and racial inequality - God raised up Rev. Seymour - a black minister from inner city Los Angeles to be at the leading edge of the Pentecostal revival in North America.

      And I could go on - to include the Wesley brothers - John and Charles, Catherine and William Booth of the Salvation Army, and many, many more. The insignificant - the unimportant - the small in the eyes of the world - that God planted and brought something extraordinary out of.

      If you were to attend a conference at which there were a lot of clergy - over coffee you would probably hear people talking about "Natural Church Development" - that there are a set of things that churches can do which will cause their congregation to grow. That there is a natural reality to the growth of church. Now I need to be clear in what I am about to say - Natural Church Development has done the church - especially mainline churches a great service in challenging us to recognize that the church is called to grow. That the church is not to remain static - the church is to live in anticipation of growing - changing - moving forward. The problem with Natural Church Development is that it fails to understand the truth proclaimed on the front of the bulletin cover - we can work as hard as we want - but it is God who gives the increase. God is the one who makes things grow. Natural Church Development also fails to understand the joyful surprise of the parable of mustard seed - the growth that God brings is not natural - not normal - not logical - not scientifically explainable - it is unexplainable - it is beyond our imagination - it is super-natural.

      Tony Campolo tells this story. Campolo grew up in a small Baptist church in east Philadelphia. The year he was baptized, two other young men were also baptized in that congregation, and that was all - there were only three baptisms. It would not have given the elders great joy to report that only 3 people had been baptized that year - it simply confirmed they were a small congregation with little to offer. It was small and insignificant. But as Campolo goes on to point out - one of those young men became a missionary in South America, the second became a minister, and the third, Campolo, became a theological college professor. On one hand only three baptisms - small and insignificant - on the other - God took those seeds planted and made them grow.

      God takes the things that are not - the things that are so small that they don't matter ­ the things that no one really notices. God takes these things - and uses them to transform the world. When we step back and look at what God is doing in the world - we must stand amazed - all we can do is stand with the psalm writer and say - "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes." Because no one would have guessed - no one could have imagined. 

      The kingdom of God is like the tiny bit of yeast a woman took and put into enough flour to make 100 loaves of bread - and it worked its way through the whole mountain of flour.

      The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed - that small seed on the front of your bulletin - that God grows to become a plant so big that birds come and sit in it.