Kingdom Growth
Category: Sundays after Pentecost
Speaker: The Rev. John Shellito
Gracious God, let us receive and embody your incarnate Word here, in community, and give us strength to go forward from this place with the knowledge that nothing will be able to separate us from your love in Christ Jesus our Lord. I ask this in the Name of the eternal Creator, the Word made flesh and Holy Spirit. Amen.
Jesus said: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."
Small beginnings. The mustard seed is the smallest of seeds, and yet it contains a tremendous potential for growth. I wrote in Dragon Bytes this week about the times when our electronic map has to recalculate—when we have to recalibrate and change course. The Hebrew word for turning, T’shuvah is often used to describe a turning back to God, a return to the good path, to God’s good path for our life. For some, a turn to heed God’s call can feel like a small beginning. A tiny change. It can mean a change from a phase of life where we didn’t feel like we had time for church, to a time when we decide to set aside time on Sunday morning to pray and listen for God’s voice in relationship with others, and see where we may be led.
Other times, spiritual growth can be as simple as a short prayer, silently or aloud, for our own need or someone else’s, in church or going about our day. It can mean taking note to notice if a prayer has transformed our attitude, or our circumstances. For me the results of prayer are not always results I would choose for myself, but they are often healthful, creative and life-giving over the long haul.
At times, spiritual growth can mean reaching out to encourage a friend. Or it can mean reaching out to ask for help with something that has been difficult for us. Or, we can reach out to God asking for wisdom in an area where we might feel lost, or confused. It can mean setting aside time to build relationships, and engage in activities and hobbies that give us life. It could involve giving time to help with coffee hour, altar guild, or any number of other crucial ministries, whether within St. George’s, or beyond. We give time in community to serve God because it gives us a chance to be part of God’s work of transforming this world. It also reminds us of God’s presence with us, and it gives us a chance to glorify God, and notice God’s gifts in our lives. Serving also presents opportunities to know ourselves and one another more deeply, as our lives are illuminated by God’s love.
Spiritual growth looks different during different seasons. At times it might be solitary study or reading, whether of Scripture, or a book of fiction or nonfiction. In other seasons it might mean greater focus on our job responsibilities, household chores, or family life.
Whether you are in a season of spreading your roots or putting forth branches and leaves it is important to recognize and give thanks for the ways that God’s kingdom growth is happening within us. At times our branches may be draped with flowers, and provide shelter for many birds, while at other times we may be shedding our leaves in preparation for winter.
Paul wrote that We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose.
Paul was writing about how God can use all the seasons and situations of our life. We might think that a part of our life is desolate, ignored or apparently without growth. And that might be the part that is most fertile for the kingdom’s transformation.
After all, the parable of the Mustard seed gives us an image that is very specific, more specific than just generic plant growth. Jesus gives us the image of a mustard seed that grows into the largest of all shrubs and provides shelter for birds in its branches.
Mustard, whether it is a species that grows to three feet, or a species that grows to eight or ten feet, is an annual, not a perennial. That means that it goes from seed to plant every year, over the course of one short growing season. The growth is fast, and transformative. In the course of growing and putting forth seed, mustard goes though dramatic change every season, as it grows, produces seed, and then returns to the earth, making way for new life, as it plants seeds for the following year. Mustard was actually feared by farmers in Jesus’ day—it was notorious for choking out other plants in the course of its exponential growth. It was actually considered a weed—farmers pulled it out of their fields because it was at risk of taking over!
Yikes. The kingdom as an invasive weed?
If mustard was cultivated at all it was usually grown in between houses, on the margins, in gardens and near homes. Mustard could be grown tended, and harvested in the midst of other household tasks.
God’s mustard kingdom reminds us that the kingdom thrives on the margins—on the edges of the power structures of society, on the edges of our plans, on the edges of our understanding, and on the edges of our human experience.
After all, Jesus proclaimed that the Kingdom of Heaven is near, indeed, that the Kingdom of Heaven is among us. We get tastes of the kingdom on earth, and we see places of brokenness and loss where God’s reign of love is still moving in—new seeds are still being planted in places that might look desolate, or unusable. The kingdom grows with power, and newness of life is springing forth.
"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."
Amen