June 14, 2009

2009 06 14

Branching Out

Ezekiel 17:22-24

Psalm 92:1-4, 12-15
Mark 4:26-34

Many of you probably know by now that I am a fan of Ohio State.  Not only am I a fan, but I am also a graduate of THE Ohio State University.  I hold a Bachelors of Science in French Education, and in the spring of 1991, I had the opportunity to spend two months in France.  We traveled throughout the country from Normandy to the Riviera.  I visited numerous museums and saw historic castles.  I traveled along the coasts, in the mountains, and through the farmlands.  There were vineyards filled with luscious grapes for wine and fields of sweet-smelling lavender for perfume.  But as I was reading the passage from Mark 4, I was taken back to something else I saw on that trip...mustard. 

The French are well known for their mustard, and as we were traveling from one town to another, I saw field after field of these bright yellow plants.  Expecting some exotic crop, I was surprised when our bus driver informed me that they were simple mustard plants as far as they eye could see.

The parable of the mustard seed is the last of four parables Jesus shares in this chapter.  There is the parable of the Sower, the lamp under the bushel basket, the parable of the growing seed, and finally the parable of the mustard seed.  Parables are stories meant to teach a lesson or even a moral.  However, there is more to a parable than meets the eye.  This is because there are always three parts to every story.  First, there is the story itself.  We see it in black and white in our Bibles.

³⁰ "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. ³² Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."

The second thing is:  who is telling the story?  We know that it is Jesus.  He is going about form place to place with this small band of men in tow behind him.  Jesus is teaching in the temple courts and city streets.  He seems to appear on the religious scene from out of nowhere with questions about his family and background.  To the crowds, there seem to be as many questions as there are answers about this man and from whence he comes. 

The third part of every story is the audience.  The story and the storyteller are of no importance if no one is there to hear it.  Jesus is trying to tell the people who he is and what his kingdom is like.  To his disciples, he speaks directly.  Jesus has called them to drop their nets, to leave their families, and to follow him.  He speaks directly to them, but to the others, the people of the crowds, the religious leaders, the Sadducees and Pharisees, he speaks to them in parables. 

In Mark 4:11 Jesus told the disciples, "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, "'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!'"

Have you ever been on the outside of an inside joke?  You're in a group of people, and someone says something, and everyone just busts out laughing...except you?  You didn't get it.  You did not understand the joke because there was some piece of information, some little tidbit that you missed.  So while everybody else is laughing, you just stand there feeling awkward...feeling stupid...for not getting it.  That is what is going on with the parables.  The crowds do not understand the parables.  They're not really supposed to.  It is the disciples who are able to understand the parables. 

Why?  Because they have Jesus.  They know the storyteller.  Better than anyone, they know his background and are learning day by day who he is and what he is trying to accomplish.  He is not just a carpenter from Nazareth.  He is not just a rabbi out to teach the world some new way of thought.  The longer they know Jesus, hear his parables and witness his miracles...the more they understand that he is the messiah who has come to save the people of Israel.

But what is this Kingdom of God?  The people struggle to understand what this is because the each have their own idea of what it is or how it might come about.  Some of the people believed that this kingdom is an earthly one like it was in the Old Testament.  They believed that when the messiah came to establish his kingdom, it would be a community...a political state with a king and an army.  They would be a "people of God" They would go into battle as they did in the past and always come out triumphant.  They believed that Israel would rule itself on earth by God's strength, and no other political or military power would be able to overtake it.

Other people believed that the Kingdom of God was solely a spiritual or heavenly kingdom.  They believed that it could be attained when the messiah came and took each of the faithful to heaven where they would be with God for eternity.  The only thing that mattered on earth was individual obedience to God's laws.  If I obey today, I get heaven tomorrow, and it doesn't really matter what anyone else does or says.

^{Mark 4:30} "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. ³² Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."

The kingdom of God is individual.  The kingdom of God reaches and touches each and every person right where they are.  The requirement for entry is faith.  Only my faith in Jesus can save me.  No one else's faith can meet the requirements for my sins.  Nor can my faith bring about the forgiveness of someone else's sins.  Strangely enough, in Matthew 17, Jesus tells us how powerful our faith can be, even when we have just a mustard seed's worth. 

²⁰ if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

The faith of individuals is powerful.  Powerful enough to grow.  Powerful enough to move mountains.  Powerful enough to change the world.  But we are not individuals on a journey alone.  Jesus is also the mustard seed that was planted.  The seed that was buried and dead in order to create the Church.  He came back to life and gives us the power by which we live in him.  The saints that came before us, planted faith in us.  And we are to replant that faith in the generations to come. By the power of the Holy Spirit we are always being renewed.   We live together as one body, one Lord, one faith, one baptism.  The mustard seed of faith grows us in our individual faith.  However, Jesus is the seed that was planted.  He is the vine...the tree.  And we are the branches. 

Jesus came to establish the kingdom of God...his heavenly kingdom...here on earth.  And we are blessed to be a part of it.

Our family has greatly enjoyed the large backyard behind the parsonage.  The flowers and the grass...beautiful.  I love the sound of the wind rustling through the trees.  We have enjoyed the trees.  The branches offer us shade and rest on a warm day.  But I also have noticed that while I am mowing the yard, the branches are always poking me, prodding me...in the way.  Maybe that is how the kingdom of God really is supposed to be.  Maybe that is how the church is supposed to be.  Like the mustard bush, we are here to offer rest to those in need.  And at the same time, we are here...there...in the way.  Poking, drawing attention...calling people to slow down and take notice of what God has given us all.  Either way, I believe that the Church is called to be continually branching out.  I think that this was something that Pastor Abby was working on with you...branching out

Let me put it to you this way.  The kingdom of God is like a mustard plant.  Sunday mornings...Thursday evenings...any time we stop to worship, pray, and read the Bible...we grow closer to God and deepen our roots.  But any other time...at work, play, or school...we draw people to God, and spread our branches.

Deepening our roots and spreading our branches.  I hope this becomes more than a motto, mission, or good idea.  I hope that for each and all of us, it becomes a way of life and brings about the kingdom of God, here on earth.