6/16/24 – 4th Sunday after Pentecost                    

Mark 4:26-34

[Jesus] also said, “The realm 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, they do not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But, when the grain is ripe, at once they go in with their sickle, because the harvest has come.”

He also said, “With what can we compare the realm of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

Dandelions

A lot of you know that I’ve been waging war against the dandelions growing in the North 40. A lot of people, including me, consider them to be a pest, a weed, a blemish on our gardens and lawns. I don’t have a problem with the plant itself, the flowers are pretty, and I have fond memories of making wishes as I blew the seedheads into the wind. But, they’re not supposed to be here. Dandelions are an invasive species, likely brought over on the Mayflower as a medicinal herb. Dandelions outcompete and displace native plants, and cause significant losses for farmers as they invade their crops. And, dandelions are incredibly prolific, because of the aforementioned seedheads, and our tradition of blowing on them to make wishes has certainly exacerbated the problem.

But, there is more to the story, here. Like the mustard plant in our parable, the dandelion is quite a useful plant. It’s one of the first flowers to bloom in the spring, making it an important source of nectar for bees and other insects. Dandelions have been harvested for food throughout most of recorded history, and have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for over a thousand years. The entire plant is edible, from the flowers to the root, and is high in vitamins A, C, and K. These days, you can even find bunches of organically grown dandelion greens at fancy grocery stores.

To the people listening to Jesus tell this parable, the mustard plant would have been viewed in very much the same way that we view the dandelion in the current day: a useful plant, but an annoying one, that’s hard to get rid of and spreads incredibly quickly. So, you can imagine how surprised they might have been when Jesus said the realm of God is like a mustard seed. The realm of God is like a dandelion seed, carried on the wind to a place where nobody wants it to grow, where it can send its long and robust taproot into the ground, pulling up water and nutrients to feed the dozens, if not hundreds, of flowers it can produce over its lifetime, each of which will turn into a hundred seeds to perpetuate the cycle.

It’s strange to compare the kingdom of God to a weed, isn’t it? For millennia, people have been pondering the parables that Jesus told, and we will likely ponder them for millennia to come. If I had to guess, it’s because Jesus planned it that way. The truths the parables encompass are too complex to grasp all at once. We need to sit with them and meditate on them. At best, we can get little glimpses, now and then, of the truths that Jesus is trying to share with us. There are so many different aspects to the parable of the mustard seed, so many nuances and layers. Let’s take a look at some of them:

The reign of God cannot be stopped. God can’t be stopped. No one can stop the coming of God’s love and goodness into the world. Mustard seeds are tiny, and they can sprout almost anywhere. All a person needs is the slightest touch of God’s presence, a kind word, a smile, a gesture allowing someone to cross the road, a baby’s laugh, a sunset, the scent of jasmine on a warm summer night, and the seed will be planted. And, the realm of God can take root and grow.

The kingdom of God is unexpected. We can’t predict where all the weeds are going to pop up, and as much as we try to stop them, they always find a way. But, unexpectedly, these troublesome and annoying plants are useful to us, as food and medicine. Maybe the kindom of God doesn’t look like what we expect it to look like…what we want it to look like. But, looks can be deceiving, and we know that whatever God presents to us will be exactly what we need. And, it will be wonderful.

The kingdom of God spreads exponentially. From one person to the next, kindness, justice, fairness, and equality spreads throughout the world. The arc of history always bends towards justice, and it is God who does the bending. We are bombarded with images of conflict and war, we’re told that danger lurks around every corner, and we see all of the reports about mass shootings. And, while these things are horrible and tragic, they don’t tell the whole story.

Throughout human history, war was the norm. Subsistence was the norm. Believe it or not, we are living in the most peaceful time in all of human history. And, a greater percentage of people living today don’t have to worry about getting enough food or water than in all of human history. Of course, things are not perfect; we still have a long way to go. There are still millions of people around the world caught up in conflicts, or who go to bed hungry, or who don’t have easy access to clean water. But, the arc of human history bends towards justice, and with God’s help, we are working to make sure that trajectory continues.

The realm of God is a mystery. Like the sower who doesn’t know how the seed sprouts, we don’t know how God works. We do our best to be good, to study the Bible and understand what it says, but the workings of God are too big for us to comprehend. As far as our science has come, we still don’t fully understand how life even works. Unlike God, we haven’t figured out how to create life out of nothing. And, we don’t know why some people hear the Good News and accept it, while others hear the Good News and reject it.

There is another sower in the parable that starts at verse thirteen, the one who scatters seeds on the path, on rocky ground, among the thorns, and on fertile ground. The seeds that land on the path are snatched away. The seeds that land on rocky ground grow quickly, but have no roots, and are unable to withstand any type of hardship. The seeds that fall among the thorns are unable to grow at all, but the ones that land on good soil yield thirty, sixty, a hundred times what was planted. We cannot know what type of soil a person is. We cannot know what type of soil a community is. It’s not our job to know. It’s our job to sow the seeds. Or, maybe it’s our job to water them. Or, maybe our job is just to watch. That’s between you and God. Whether or not the seeds grow is up to God.

~ Rev. Charles Wei