Most people like to listen to a good story. Some people also like puzzles and riddles, and books of puzzles, both of words and numbers, are very popular these days. I have to admit often these puzzles are beyond me, especially anything mathematical! But sometimes stories can be riddles or puzzles at the same time. Jesus' stories – we call them parables – were good stories, but they were also puzzles that had to be thought about. On the one hand, Jesus' parables are simple stories about down to earth things that were very familiar to his listeners: seeds and plants, farmers and shepherds, lost coins, fathers and sons, widows and judges, marriage feasts and parties. But on the other hand, these stories often have a puzzling quality to them; their meaning can't be grasped immediately, they have to be chewed over and thought about. We might wonder why Jesus didn't speak more plainly to the crowds; they often don't understand what he is talking about. Indeed, even the disciples are often slow to understand. Jesus didn't tell parables to confuse people deliberately, but to awaken their interest, to provoke them to think, to call them to active listening and faith.
The parables still work like that for us today. We have to engage with them deeply in order to understand them, and they can continue to surprise us even when we have heard them many times. We've just heard two of Jesus' parables: the parable of the growing seed, and the parable of the mustard seed. Both of them illustrate something about the kingdom of God. What was Jesus saying through these parables, and what can we learn from them?
In the first parable, a farmer scatters the seed, and then continues his daily life; getting up, going to bed, getting up and going to bed; life as usual. The seed begins to grow and sprout and eventually comes to harvest - without his intervention. He cannot understand it or control it, but it happens. This is like the kingdom of God, Jesus says.
Now of course in reality, a farmer might do a bit more than plant the seed and bring in the harvest. He might also work hard to till the ground and weed it. But Jesus doesn't mention any of that activity, for the point of the parable is to emphasise that the life that grows is beyond the farmer's control.
Jesus seems to be encouraging his followers not to be discouraged by insignificant beginnings, but to trust that God's harvest will come. Jesus ministry is the beginning of the longed for kingdom of God, if they have the eyes of faith to see it. It may not look like the kind of kingdom many people were expecting – a kingdom of political power with a warrior Messiah – but it will come to fruition in God's way. Some people, like the Zealots (a nationalist, revolutionary party) were tempted to hurry the kingdom along in the form they thought it should take; but the parable illustrates that it's only God in the end who can bring the fulfilment of his purposes.
The growth of the seed and the harvest are not within the farmer's control. The farmer can play his part in scattering the seed and bringing in the harvest, but he cannot bring the seed to life or make it grow. Likewise, neither Jesus' first followers, nor we, can control God's purposes or the growth of his kingdom. This bears on the life of the church today. We can sow the seed, but however good our strategies and plans, our worship and teaching, we cannot of ourselves make life and faith spring up in those around us, or transform relationships and communities.
This may seem a recipe for doing nothing! Let's just sit back then and leave everything to God! If we look at Jesus' teaching and the teaching of the New Testament as a whole, we cannot come to this conclusion. We are in fact invited to share in God's work, to co-operate with him in speaking of, and living out, his love in the world. So our plans and strategies, our worship and teaching do matter. But the parable reminds us that in the end all life and fruitfulness comes from God. It's a humbling reminder, but one which should be a great encouragement to us.
As we think about the Marks of Mission, as we make plans for our worship and learning together, for our outreach and service, we can trust that as we sow the seeds, God will bring them to harvest. At bottom, this simple parable is a plea for trust. Even out of small things, God can bring life and growth. We do not need to be impatient or discouraged or anxious, but to play our part humbly and leave the fulfilment of what we do to God himself.
The second parable doesn't focus so much on the process of growth, but on the insignificance of the seed. The mustard seed is known to be tiny, indeed Jesus says, 'it is the smallest of all the seeds on earth'. As human beings we are often mesmerised by what is big and impressive and successful; whether it's a person, a church, or a project of some kind. Often for us 'big is beautiful'. We can easily overlook, or look down on, small and vulnerable people or situations. But Jesus uses the parable of the tiny mustard seed as an illustration of the kingdom of God.
The tiny mustard seed grows into a great bush which will provide shelter for the birds of the air. Jesus may have had in mind various passages in the prophets, including the one we've heard this morning from Ezekiel. The prophet encourages the people of Israel to trust that God will bring life and growth when everything seems to be barren and disastrous. Israel is caught between the powers of Babylon and Egypt, which are compared, a few verses earlier, to two great eagles who break off parts of Israel, which is compared to a tree. Israel cannot flourish; it is nothing in comparison with these two great powers. But then God says: 'I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of a cedar ...I myself will plant it...in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit and become a noble cedar.' God will reverse the fortunes of Israel, through a tiny sprig, a descendant of the line of David, and that which is small, weak and vulnerable will become tall, healthy and strong; this is a sign that God is at work.
The parable of the mustard seed reveals the way God works in our world through people and situations. When we look at the whole of scripture, we see that God regularly chooses the equivalent of 'the tiny sprig' or 'the mustard seed': he chooses the weak, the vulnerable, the small and unimportant to speak his word, reveal his grace, and further his purposes. Jesus tells many stories about the last being first and the weak being strong. God's way of looking at things is different from ours. Think of Jesus himself, and the way that God worked through him. God comes into our world as a tiny, vulnerable baby who grows up to become a poor man, despised by those in positions of authority, a wandering and homeless teacher who is dependent on the provisions of others. Jesus is vulnerable to the whims of the crowd, the betrayal of his friends, the cruelty of his enemies. And he suffers and dies. Jesus compares himself, at one point, to a little seed, a grain of wheat which has to fall into the ground and die in order to bear fruit. This is God's way. Not the way of impressive demonstrations of power and authority, but the way of vulnerable love, the way of death and resurrection.
Let's go back to the parable of the mustard seed. This parable, together with its resonances in the rest of scripture, is both a challenge and an encouragement. We are challenged to think again about our human preference for what is big, strong, impressive and seemingly successful. The mustard seed certainly wasn't that. Neither was Jesus. Sometimes, if we prioritise what we think is important and impressive in our own eyes, we may in fact miss what God is doing in our own lives, our church, our world. We need to look again and think again. Sometimes our self-importance, our egos, our projects and ambitions may have to be cut down in order for our true selves to grow and be fruitful. Just like the seed which must be planted in the ground and 'die' in order to grow, we sometimes need to let some of our plans and projects die in order for them to come to life again in God's way. This may sometimes be a hard challenge to take on board.
But the parable is also an encouragement. God's grace is at work in small things, in small signs of hope, small beginnings of life. When we face times of great suffering, times of barrenness and vulnerability and failure, we are encouraged to open our eyes to see the little mustard seeds, the tiny shoots of hope in the midst of a dark and unpromising situation. We need to ask God to help us to see those seeds of hope and to trust him with their growth. God can bring growth and life from humble beginnings. We must not be too proud to see God in these small things. We must not be too proud to be a small thing in God's hand.
Seeds grow. We don't understand how; it's part of the mystery of creation. The seeds of God's kingdom also grow. We don't understand how; it's part of the mystery of God's grace. While we are all called to do our part to serve God's kingdom, we are encouraged today to rejoice in the small seeds of God's life all around us; in our own lives, our church, and our world. The seeds will grow and one day God's harvest will come. Thanks be to God.
Helen Marshall