Proper 6B, 2024

Text: Mark 4:26-34

Title: Bigger is Better?

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Bigger is better, right?

Bigger house, bigger car, bigger bank account, bigger cup of soda, that’s what you want.

Bigger circle of friends, bigger following on social media, bigger church, right?  That’s what’s best?

When Jesus describes His kingdom, when He looks for something to compare it to, it certainly must be something big: A majestic mountain, a huge mansion, a towering tree.  Right?

No.  Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is like a seed.

Seeds are plain.  Seeds are ordinary.  Seeds are kind of ugly.

But, most of all, seeds are small.

If you’ve ever done a bit of gardening, you’ll be amazed at how small seeds are when compared with the actual plant.

Carrot seeds are some of the worst seeds, in the sense that they are so small that they are hard to place exactly where you want them.  You can only cover them with the thinnest layer of soil, and there’s a good chance that, if you’re not careful, the rain will wash them away, the wind will blow them away, or a bird will snatch them away.

But if that teeny, tiny seed germinates and grows, it practically explodes to become thousands of times larger than it began. And instead of becoming just a larger ugly brown seed, it transforms. It now has a long orange root, juicy and sweet.

Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which starts itty bitty, teeny tiny, and then grows to become a large plant, big enough even for birds to find shelter and nest in.

We often bemoan the fact that the church is small and insignificant.  Researchers will say that it’s shrinking rather than growing, especially here in America.

Yes, our church has grown a bit in the past few years, but it’s still pretty small and insignificant, compared with the size of our community.  More people will probably visit the Dunkin Donuts around the corner in an hour on a Sunday morning than will come through these doors.

It’s easy to get down and discouraged and despair, whether it’s about the size of the church here, or throughout the world.

But Jesus says, The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.  It starts small. 

Remember Noah.  Of the legions of people who lived on the earth, they were all evil, wicked, and violent.  The seed of God’s Kingdom was one man and his family, eight people in all, to ride out the flood.

Remember Abraham.  He and his wife, Sarah, were childless and homeless.  And yet they were the seed of God’s Kingdom to be a blessing to all nations.

Remember the Israelites.  They were a nation of slaves, the lowliest of all the peoples on earth.  And yet they were a seed of God’s Kingdom, brought through the Red Sea to be planted in the Promised Land.

Remember the exiles.  Their nation had been destroyed.  They lost their homes, their temple, and their king.  They, too, were a seed of God’s Kingdom.  In the Old Testament reading you heard how the Lord promised to plant them on a mountaintop so that they will grow and spread like a cedar tree.

Remember Jesus Christ.  He looked like a seed, an ordinary man, born to humble parents, and placed in a manger.  A refugee, fleeing for His life to Egypt.  A carpenter’s son, raised in the boonies.  A traveling teacher with nowhere to lay His head.

That seed was broken open upon the cross and planted in the tomb, only to spring to life three days later from His garden tomb.

Remember the apostles.  Regular guys hiding in fear, full of doubts and anxiety.  But from that seed sprang the church, the Kingdom of God.

We may look small and ordinary.  We may look plain and insignificant.  But that’s how God’s Kingdom always looks.

God chooses the small, the weak, and the lowly, so that His power, His grace is clearly seen.  It must be God at work, because only He can take something so humble and exalt it. 

Seeds start small, but they grow in amazing ways. It’s simply miraculous.

Jesus promises that His Kingdom, His church will fill the world, that His good news will spread to every nation, that the church will be a place of rest and a haven of life.

Birds build nests in places that are safe from predators, that are close to sources of food, places where their offspring will thrive.

The Church is that safe place, that place of life and nourishment for the whole world.

So, how do we do that?  How do we make sure that our church and the whole church grows and bears fruit.

The simple answer is, “We don’t.”

And that’s the point of Jesus’ first parable that you heard in our Gospel reading.

Any growth, any fruit, any good that happens is not the result of our hard work, but only God blessing us.

Jesus points to the farmer.  Yes, farming is hard work.  Yes, the farmer has plenty to do in plowing, in fertilizing, in planting and watering and weeding.

But at the end of the day, what actually makes the seed grow?  It’s not the farmer.  He can’t force the seed to grow. 

It’s the soil that makes the seed grow.  The soil provides what the seed needs to grow, and it happens automatically.  Jesus says, “The earth produces by itself.”

The farmer doesn’t need to understand all the science behind it.  He just needs to know how to create the right conditions for the seed.

If you’re not the farming type, think of a microchip or a microprocessor.  Think about how tiny those components are.  You don’t need to understand how a microprocessor works.  You just need to know that when you turn on your computer or your phone, it works automatically.

But back to the seed. 

Notice that it takes time.  Notice that there are lots of different processes that have to happen between planting and harvest for that seed to bear fruit.

If you’ve ever planted a seed, you’ll notice that it has a hard outer shell.  And the first thing that has to happen for the seed to grow, is for that outer shell to crack open.

That’s the first stage for you, for us.  To be broken open.  That’s repentance.  That’s recognizing that if you’re going to grow, you can’t stay the same. 

The word of God’s law breaks you open.  You hear what you are to do, and you realize that you haven’t done it.  You’ve been selfish and unloving yet again.

And once that outer shell has been cracked, what is the first part of that seed that grows?

It’s actually the roots.  The roots grow before the shoots.  That seed needs be rooted in the ground, drawing nourishment from the soil that surrounds it before it can send up a stalk and start bearing fruit.

Once you are broken open, once you are open to receiving the gifts of God, you need roots.

Don’t be so worried about growth.  Focus on being deeply rooted in God’s Word.  Read it.  Meditate on it.  Pray it. Sing it.  Eat it.  Drink it. Draw your life and your nourishment from the Word of God.

And once you are rooted, then the growth truly happens.  Then you bear fruit in your life.  Then the church grows, maybe not always numerically, but in faith and love.

I think too often we look for fruit, we look for results before the plant is ready.  The plant will bear fruit in God’s time.  It takes patience.  You might not see anything happening.

But one day you will wake up and see that this seed that seemed so small, so insignificant, so ordinary has grown, has matured, has borne fruit, and that you haven’t done a thing to make it happen.

No, bigger is not always better.  God’s Kingdom always starts small and plain and ordinary.  Trust in God that it will grow and bear fruit in His time and in His way.

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