Notice and Trust
Category: Sundays after Pentecost
Speaker: Kristine Johnson
In the name of the one God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer.
Amen.
“He did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.”
Jesus explained everything in private to his disciples. Wow. What I wouldn’t give to have a time machine! If we had time travel, we could go back and eavesdrop on Jesus and the disciples. And then, having heard it straight from Jesus, we would know what the kingdom of God is really like. We would understand what it is Jesus expects of us. All would be clear.
But, alas! Like the personal jetpacks and flying cars many of us expected to be available by now, we have no time machines. But this does not mean that we are without resources, or hope.
Now, I still think that hearing it straight from Jesus would be helpful. But then again, maybe not. If things had been clear to the disciples, wouldn’t we have only one version of what happened? Wouldn’t someone have had the presence of mind to pass on the “real” interpretation of these mysterious sayings?
What we don’t hear in today’s passage, but we do hear often in the rest of Mark’s Gospel, is that despite these private explanations, the disciples STILL didn’t understand. They had Jesus with them. They observed first hand what he was doing. They heard him explain over and over again. And they still didn’t get it. In fact, next week we will hear in the very next passage from Mark that when Jesus calms the stormy sea the disciples are terrified and ask each other “who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!” Later on, after the miraculous feeding of the multitudes, when they are talking about having only one loaf of bread in the boat, Jesus is so exasperated he says to them “Do you have eyes, and fail to see? Do you have ears, and fail to hear? Do you still not understand?” You can almost see the forehead slap.
And yet, Jesus didn’t give up on them. Oh, I imagine there were times he was tempted. Like the frustrated parent on a long trip: “Don’t make me turn this boat around.” Or maybe, like a political candidate whose campaign is floundering, he considered a complete staff turnover. But these were the people he called, and he loved them. And they loved him. And they trusted that even though they couldn’t understand, what they were seeing was the kingdom of God made manifest in the world. They saw it.
Which brings us back to the parables at the beginning of today’s Gospel. In the images of the growing seed and the mustard seed, Jesus is telling us that it doesn’t matter if we understand. It only matters that we notice, and trust.
“The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.” Imagine this completely relaxed farmer. He sows the seed, then just - waits. Every morning, he gets up and walks through the fields, marveling at the growth. Later, perhaps he sits on the porch with a cool glass of lemonade, talks with some friends, shares a meal at day’s end, and goes to bed. Day after day. Until one day the growth is full, and he can harvest. Having trusted God that the seeds he sowed would grow, he watched them grow and then brought in the harvest. But had he not been paying attention, he would not have known when the harvest was ready.
When we notice, when we are alert, we can see some pretty amazing things. Jesus describes how a mustard seed can grow into a great shrub, capable of providing shelter and shade. I don’t know how many of you have seen such a great mustard shrub; I haven’t. But we have our own example of amazing plant growth right outside, in the Plot for Hunger. The plants are growing like crazy! If you didn’t know plants grew from seeds, it would be impossible to imagine how a tiny seed you might be holding in your hand could grow into such a thing. Likewise, if you had never seen a seed, it would be impossible to imagine from looking at a zucchini or tomato how small, how seemingly inert, the seed was. But we do know that plants grow from seeds, and that tiny seeds can produce great plants. So maybe it’s become old hat to us, such a part of life that we don’t even notice most of the time. It’s not only like that with gardens; so much of the time we don’t notice the signs of God’s kingdom around us.
On Thursday I was in Oakland Park at lunchtime, sitting on a blanket and coloring a prayer. One of the people who was coloring with me looked up and said “There are so many different shapes!” He was looking at the leaves on the trees. Each tree has leaves that are a different shape, and even different colors. The trunks are works of art unto themselves. We looked together at all the trees, at the grass, and the clover, the insects, the dogs going by, and the people. We listened to the birds, people talking, and traffic. Now that park is there all the time, but too many times I just drive by. Even if I am walking, I often walk by with my head down, my earbuds in my ears, talking on the phone, or just thinking about the next thing I need to do. In that moment, though, when my friend made me stop and look, the kingdom of God was visible. Not in a way you might expect, perhaps – there were no pearly gates or streets of gold – but it was still very real, and right here.
My friend, with his offhand remark, sowed a seed. It grew quickly in that moment into a great appreciation for the wonder of creation, much like the tiny mustard seed grows into a great shrub. The seeds of the kingdom are sown everywhere, all the time, by God and by each of us. There are literal seeds that grow into plants, cells that divide and grow into dogs, birds, fish, and people. There are seeds of doubt, and seeds of hope.
In today’s parables Jesus is trying to describe the kingdom of God, something that eludes our understanding, using images that we may be able to understand. The kingdom is sown seed by seed in the earth. We do not understand how the growth happens, but we can observe it. We do not make the growth happen, God does.
You may have noticed that in the kingdom of God, as Jesus describes it here, there are no weeds, no droughts, no pests. Elsewhere in scripture, we do hear about the darker side of agriculture - the seed that falls on rocky ground, the seed that is eaten by birds, the weeds growing among the wheat. And we could do a whole series of sermons about the kinds of seeds we sow and the fruit they produce.
But I think Jesus’ message for us today is one of hope and assurance. It is a big-picture view. It is appropriate for summer, when everything is green and full. The trees have all their leaves and provide shade on hot days. The birds who nest in them sing, morning and night. The tomato plants are blooming and will soon have fruit. The cornstalks are high, the strawberries plentiful. In the heat, things seem to slow down a bit. Many of us have more leisure time to simply sit, and notice. If you look around, you can see the promise of the fullness of God’s kingdom. Don’t worry about the fall and winter to come. Don’t even worry about the harvest. Dwell in the glory of summer. Walk through the field and watch things grow, day by day. And remember the promise that whether or not we understand how, the kingdom of God will come, is coming even now. And like the shrub that grows from the tiny mustard seed, it will be so much greater than we can imagine.
Amen.