Lectionary Reflections
by Various Authors

The Kingdom and the Seed
Sermon Starter

Mark 4:26-34

Most of us have planted a garden or lived on or near a farm. In my case, I grew up in Chicago 
where they have to put cows in zoos because so many city people are shielded from agricultural life 
and would never otherwise get to see one. But for eleven years I served as the pastor of a church 
in the agriculturally-oriented community of Davenport, Iowa. Davenport is located in Scott County 
which is Mississippi River land. It is reported to be some of the richest soil in the world. 
I learned a lot about farming while living there. I learned about soil and seeds. 
I learned about the need for cooperation and balance between the various parts of nature - 
the sun, the soil, and the rain. Having returned recently from a trip to Iowa, I was very mindful 
of the soil. As we drove along the highway we saw some fields which were completely washed away, 
others that were too dry. For all farmers, life is intricately linked to the soil. Having some agricultural background 
is helpful when it comes to looking at the three parables of the soils and the kingdom 
in the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark. 

The first such parable is called the Parable of the Sower (4:4-20). 
There are four different kinds of soil, Jesus said, 
 hard soil (a path); 
 rocky ground; 
 thorny ground; and 
 good soil. 


People, Jesus said, are like those four kinds of soil. The Word of God 
is the seed which falls into four different kinds of soil. 

The second parable in the fourth chapter of Mark is the parable of the harvest (4:26-29). 
The seed grows as the farmer goes about his work day by day. The day comes when the grain is ripe. 
Then comes the harvest. We must live with a knowledge that for each of us there will be a harvest day, 
a time of death, and a time of astounding change. Who would guess the wonders of heaven 
having seen the original seed of life? 

The third parable about soil is the parable of the mustard seed (4:30-32). The Kingdom of God, 
like the mustard seed, starts small, but grows into a large shrub with many branches. 

These parables of the soil are designed to take the familiar and use it to show something new. 
New perspectives are thus encouraged. New Kingdom participation is encouraged... 
 


A beautiful maple tree is in Patty's backyard. During the summer she enjoys sitting in the shade 
of the tree for hours. She thinks about who might have planted the tree that she and her family enjoy. 
Did a young newlywed couple plant the tree when they first moved into their home? 
Or maybe the tree sprouted from a seed that blew into the yard at some point. 
Patty did not know but was appreciative for the tree.

In the fall the tree's leaves turn bright colors. She would rake the leaves and the next day 
the ground would be covered once again. Patty thought about the tree during the cold winters. 
Somehow the tree would survive the cold winter months and in spring new life would emerge.

Then she thought about our lives. We grow and mature in our faith. Difficult times make us wiser. 
In our autumns God picks up the pieces of our shattered lives and makes something beautiful. 
In our winters God gives us the strength to endure. And in our springs God breathes new life into us.

Patty realizes that God is with us during all the cycles of our lives -- the good and the bad. 
The spirit equips us to do our best. Even at those times when we stumble, God is there to gather us up, 
redirect our lives, and provide strength for us to continue.

In the parable of the mustard seed Jesus teaches that the mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds grows 
and "becomes the greatest of all shrubs." We do not understand how seeds grow -- 
we place our trust in God. Like the tree in Patty's backyard God will see us through all the seasons of life.

2 Cor 5:6-10 (11-13) 14-17

Because of a funeral, the pastor arrived Saturday night, a day late to the high school retreat, 
and just in time to lead evening worship. The retreat's theme was faith. The pastor decided 
she couldn't continue a Bible discussion after missing the first half. So, she grouped the students in twos. 
One person in each couple was blindfolded and the other led the blindfolded person around the building 
for ten minutes. Then they switched roles.

Twenty minutes later they gathered in the worship room. She asked students to share feelings and thoughts 
about the experience. Finally she said, "I'm sorry I couldn't be with you last night or today as you've studied faith. 
But I want you to know that whatever you studied and whatever our ideas about faith, 
faith means trusting God when you don't have a lot of evidence to go on. If I could give you one scripture 
to hang onto, it's Paul's: 'We walk by faith, not by sight.' "



I am intrugued by this parable which is so domesticated that we forget the 
wildness and chaos that faith can cause in a settled and complacent 
community.  The attracting of the birds to a freshly sown field of ripening 
harvest also is not necessarily welcomed. 
Just thinking on this.
After reading quote below.
Dominic Crossan in The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean 
Jewish Peasant writes "It is hard". Douglas Oakman rightly concludes, 
"to escape the conclusion that Jesus deliberately likens the rule of God to a 
weed." And he is also surely correct that a peasant audience hearing Jesus 
speak of birds attracted by the mustard plant would think immediately, as in 
34 The Sower[1/3] parable, "that birds are natural enemies of the sown" 
(1986:127).

The point, in other words, is not just that the mustard plant starts as a 
proverbially small seed and grows into a shrub of three or four feet, or even 
higher, it is that it tends to take over where it is not wanted, that it tends to 
get out of control, and that it tends to attract birds within cultivated areas 
where they are not particularly desired. And that, said Jesus, was what the 
Kingdom was like: not like the mighty cedar of Lebanon and not quite like a 
common weed, like a pungent shrub with dangerous takeover properties. 
Something you would want in only small and carefully controlled doses-if 
you could control it. "



(In response to the above posting:)
you seem to have gotten to a truth that stirs up something for many on this list.

It took me to the place of thinking about the KOG as something not wanted, something 
that takes over, something uncontrollable.  Now as a preacher, I can certainly get into preaching 
about that.  It might be very fun to let myself run out of the usual bounds in preaching 
about the boundlessness of God, or the fact that the church has tended to domesticate 
the Spirit or many similar themes.  I'm not preaching this week, but if I were, 
I think that would be tempting and enjoyable. 

However, if this parable is really going to speak through me, I would have to let it speak to me first.  
And that would probably mean finding examples of those times when God is or has been unwelcome 
in my life, those times when I have felt that what God was doing was out of my control 
and when I resented that or felt run over or some other negative thing.  I'm not awake enough to do 
that at this very moment, but if I were going to preach along the lines of these commentators, 
I think I would have to come up with some of those examples.  Otherwise, I would run the risk 
of continuing to domesticate the parable while perhaps seeming to attempt to do otherwise.



At age 42, I had just begun my journey of faith.  The amount of faith was no where near the size of a mustard
seed but still there was a bit there.  I didn't tell anyone at all that I
had claimed my "beloved child status" - that I had heard God's whispers -
that I had knelt.  For some reason, I wanted something that I could feel
as being a reminder of that awesome moment in my life, so I ordered a
mustard seed necklace with one seed.  I knew that this one seed would be
way larger than the amount of faith that I had.  Oh, if I could only cut
it in 1/8's and throw away but 1 portion, it would be much more
accurate!When the necklace arrived, it was the wrong one!  It was a small
cylinder filled with mustard seeds.  There might be 20 in the cylinder. 
How could I wear this?  It certainly was NOT representative of who I was. 
 But I wore it anyway, every day.  One morning, a man came into my
workplace to look for work.  He asked me about the necklace.  "What is in
there?"  I told him and shared some "mustard seed Scriptures" with him. 
He asked me if I would write the Scripture references down for him.  I
did.  The next day he came in again.  He said "I read the Scriptures.  Can
I see your necklace again?"  I showed it to him again.  He thanked me and
left.  The third day, he came in again, this time with a friend.  He had
shared the Scriptures with his friend and wanted him to see the seeds. 
That day was the first day in 3 months that I had NOT worn the necklace. 
With the exception of only a few days, I have worn it every day since
then.

My very first glimpse of the kingdom of God ....
In something as small as a mustard seed, there is a moment of sharing (as
stuttering as it might have been), there is a heart wanting (or maybe
needing) to listen, and there good news and God-news for another (and yes,
they came back the next day!).  That tiny mustard seed grows into
something that is who-knows-how-large and encompassing now!



I preached on "the Mustard Seed" last summer, talking about its
noxious and prolific quality. Mustard is a threat for farmers if it
gets into a field and has to be eradicated. I said in the sermon, "Can
you imagine anyone planting mustard seeds in their field or garden on
purpose?"

Two or three individuals approached me afterwards and told me that
when they ordered seeds for their garden from the seed catalogue one
year, they had sowed the seeds and one packet ended up having "mustard
seeds " in it, rather than the labeled seed. So, they had ended up
unknowingly planting mustard in their garden, and were still trying to
get rid of the prolific, hardy plant.



A Riddle

About ten years ago, the youth director on our staff told me a riddle, 
and then he left town on a week-long camping trip without telling me the answer. 
He told me the riddle, and then he said "Oh yeah, only 17% of Stanford graduates 
figured out this riddle, but 80% of kindergarteners knew the answer." 
And then he left! I could have strangled him! But here' the riddle:

"What is stronger than God, 
more evil than the devil, 
poor people have it, 
rich people don't need it, 
and if you eat it, you'll die?" 
(Repeat)

The answer is: "Nothing." I knew I should have gone to Stanford!

Literally, the word parable means "a riddle." They are stories that leave the listener 
with the responsibility of figuring out just what they mean. Jesus told more than 40 parables 
during his ministry, and he only explained one of them to his disciples, so that left the disciples 
with a lot of figuring out to do. And then Jesus took the answers with him 
when he ascended into heaven. So here we are, some 2000 years later, 
still pondering what Jesus must have meant when he told the story of The Wedding Feast, 
or The Dishonest Steward, or The Good Samaritan.

(by Steven Molin from Yup, Them Are Mustard Seeds)



Mortals Only See the Beginning

All their lives the two young brothers had lived in the city behind great stone walls 
and never saw field nor meadow. But one day they decided to pay a visit to the country.

As they went walking along the road they saw a farmer at his plowing. 
They watched him and were puzzled.

"What on earth is he doing that for!" they wondered. "He turns up the earth and leaves deep furrows in it. 
Why should someone take a smooth piece of land covered with nice green grass and dig it up?"

Later they watched the farmer sowing grains of wheat along the furrows.

"That man must be crazy!" they exclaimed. "He takes good wheat and throws it into the dirt."

"I don't like the country!" said one in disgust. "Only crazy people live here."

So he returned to the city.

His brother who remained in the country saw a change take place only several weeks later. 
The plowed field began to sprout tender green shoots, even more beautiful and fresher than before. 
This discovery excited him very much. So he wrote to his brother in the city to come at once 
and see for himself the wonderful change.

His brother came and was delighted with what he saw. As time passed they watched 
the sproutings grow into golden heads of wheat. Now they both understood the purpose of the farmer's work.

When the wheat became ripe the farmer brought his scythe and began to cut it down. 
At this the impatient one of the two brothers exclaimed: "The farmer is crazy! He's insane! 
How hard he worked all these months to produce this lovely wheat, and now with his own hands 
he is cutting it down! I'm disgusted with such an idiot and I'm going back to the city!"

His brother, the patient one, held his peace and remained in the country. He watched the farmer 
gather the wheat into his granary. He saw him skillfully separate the grain from the chaff. 
He was filled with wonder when he found that the farmer had harvested a hundred-fold of the seed 
that he had sowed. Then he understood that there was logic in everything that the farmer had done.

The moral of the story: Mortals see only the beginning of any of God's works. 
Therefore they cannot understand the nature and the end of creation.

(by Brian Stoffregen from Exegetical Notes)



Let the Gospel Run Its Course

For me, one of the classic interpretations of this Biblical passage about the seed growing automatically 
(Mark 4:26) was written by Martin Luther when he said about this text: "After I preach my sermon on Sunday, 
when I return home, I drink my little glass of Wittenberg beer and I just let the gospel run its course." 
I like that. Luther said that after he pounded on the pulpit and expounded the gospel, he would go home 
and pull out the Sunday newspaper, and pull out his glass of warm Wittenberg beer and start to drink it 
and enjoy the afternoon. Luther knew that the power of his sermon was not based on the power 
of his theological acuity. He knew that the power of his sermon was not based on his eloquence or his abilities. 
He knew that the power of the sermon would have no effect whatsoever unless the very Word of God 
got into a person's heart. Luther knew that he couldn't do that. It was the Holy Spirit who did that. 
Luther keenly understood the power of the Word.

(by Edward F. Markquart from The Mustard Seed)



Small Ways Every Day

I hate to bring up The Ten Commandments when I'm preaching on the Gospel of Mark, 
but...remember that they are very rarely Cecil B. de Mille, big-screen, neon-sign events. 
They really aren't. They are small choices made on small days, over and over and over again. 
Such as choosing to remember that God made us for freedom and gave us as a gift, not a punishment, 
rules to live by. Small things such as remembering God made us, so we don't make God. 
Such as remembering that we had better not put God's name on anything in a vain show of power. 
Such as remembering that if God made the universe from a little marble and rested, then we are just created 
and hard wired to let go of our tiny universes and rest too. Little things, like remembering not just to honor 
your parents when they are old and gray, but also to train your own children to honor you. 
And don't let them get away with small, crummy, petty things. And don't lie in small things. 
Then the great truths within you have a shot. And don't strike up teasing, betraying relationships. 
Almost every adulterous relationship that people bring to pastors like me is when their miserable family is imploding. 
Every one of them begins with small, careless choices. And don't murder, which may mean more than we want it to mean. 
And don't steal. I know that means more than any of us want stealing to mean. But if we don't steal in small ways, 
we won't get all messed up in big ways. And then this last one, which this year I think is the biggest one. 
Don't covet. Don't waste your life wanting another life. An old friend calls it a case of the "I wants". 
Whatever "I wants" you have right now-bigger, better, more, different-find little ways of not renting 
that room in your head. Little ways, like I will not think about this for five minutes kinds of ways. 
Things perhaps no bigger than a mustard seed.

I follow the God who showed up two thousand years ago in small ways on days of small things. 
A healing touch here. A compassionate word there. Small things like not giving up on flawed friends. 
Like praying every day. Small things like enjoying life. Jesus really enjoyed life. Small things
like speaking truth to power. Like giving his small, mustard-seed-sized life so that the great labor 
of the new universe of resurrected, reborn life could be created.

(by Martha Sterne from A Day of Small Things)



What It Takes to Grow

James A. Garfield, prior to serving as President of the United States, was president of Hiram College in Ohio. 
One day a father asked Garfield if there were a short-cut whereby his son could get through college in less
than the usual four years. He wanted his Son to get on with making money. The college president gave this reply, 
"Of course there is a way; it all depends on what you want your boy to do. When God wants to grow an oak tree, 
he takes 100 years. When he wants to make a squash, he only takes two months."

(from Emphasis, CSS Publishing)



We Are Called to Plant

When it comes to being God's fellow workers, the first thing to realize is that we are not in control of the growth. 
We are called to plant. God gives the growth. God gets the credit. We cannot boast about the success 
that comes when the seeds are planted. We must be very cautious about taking too much credit 
for apparent success in the spiritual area. A visitor to the Vatican was quite impressed with the beauty 
and power of the place. He asked Pope John XXIII this question: "How many people do you have working here?" 
With a twinkle in his eye, the pope replied, "About half of them." We must never get puffed up with ourselves 
in the spiritual realm. Only God produces growth. Real spiritual growth comes from God. 
We just plant seeds and try to nurture them as my farmer friends have taught me over the years.

(by Ron Lavin from The Advocate, CSS Publishing)



Humor: Size Is Less Important Than Spirit

A small fellow, not much over 5 feet tall, applied for a job as a lumberjack in Alaska. The foreman, 
thinking to discourage him, gave him a large ax, set him before a tree hundreds of feet tall, 
and yards in diameter, and told him to chop it down. Within minutes the tree had been felled. 
The amazed foreman asked him where he'd learned to chop trees so powerfully. The little fellow replied, 
"When I worked in the Sahara forest." "You mean, the Sahara desert." "That was after I got there," 
said the small lumberjack. 

The point of the story is that size is less important than spirit, or intelligence, or courage -- 
a point made when King David was selected at a young age: "Do not look on his appearance 
or on the height of his stature ... for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, 
but the Lord looks on the heart." 

A faith that grows has heart, a heart that belongs to God. Faith grows from the inside out. 

(by Merritt W. Ednie from God's Program In Process)



In John Dominic Crossan's book "Jesus: A Revolutionary Biography", he says:

The Roman author Pliny the Elder, who was born in 23 CE and died when
scientific curiosity brought him too close to an erupting Vesuvius in 79 CE,
wrote about the mustard plant in his encyclopedic Natural History:
    
"Mustard... with its pungent taste and fiery effect is extremely
beneficial for the health.  It grows entirely wild, though it is improved by
being transplanted: but on the other hand when it has once been sown it is
scarcely possible to get the place free of it, as the seed when it falls
germinates at once."
     
"Nesting birds, which may strike us as charming represented to ancient
farmers a permanent danger to the seed and grain."
      
"And that, said Jesus, was what the Kingdom was like.  Like a pungent
shrub with dangerous take-over properties.  Something you would want only in
small and carefully controlled doses- if you could control it."

And in Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer and Bret Hesla's book, "Worship in the
Spirit of Jesus", they draw the contrast between the vision of the Messiah
as a violent conqueror and this image.  Their comments include: 

"This shocking metaphor clashes sharply with conventional wisdom that said
the arrival of God's realm would be dramatic, even cataclysmic."

"For Jesus, God's domain was a modest affair, not a new world empire.  It
was pervasive but unrecognized, rather than noisy and arresting."

"Most of us, like many of Jesus' contemporaries, when faced with evil and
the power and resiliency of oppressive systems, bring out our giant-sized
imaginations.  Our hope hanging by a thread, we cling to promises of God's
redemptive or apocalyptic violence.  We wait for God to hand over some new
weapon in the divine arsenal, only to be given a packet containing a single
seed.  Most of us throw the seed away."



Trifles Make Perfection

Michelangelo, one of the world's great artists, was also a great sculptor. 
One day a visitor was looking at a statue that Michelangelo was making. 
The visitor said, "I can't see that you have made any progress since I was here last time."

Michelangelo answered, "Oh, yes, I have made much progress. Look carefully 
and you will see that I have retouched this part, and that I have polished that part. 
See, I have worked on this part of the statue, and have softened the lines here."

"Yes," said the visitor, "but those are all trifles."

"That may be," replied Michelangelo, "but trifles make perfection and perfection is no trifle."

Successful people are aware of the trifles. As a Ethiopian proverb puts it: 
"When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion." The great writer Bruce Barton once said, 
"I am tempted to think there are no little things."

(by King Duncan from Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com)



The Mystery of Growth

If the growing seed parable seems to be about the mystery of kingdom growth, 
the mustard seed image is about the apparent weakness of the kingdom. 
The day will come when the results of the kingdom's silent, steady growth will be impressive. 
Meanwhile don't be surprised if the seeds you plant look ineffective. 
Don't be surprised if the witness you have to offer gets laughed at on account of looking so puny. 
It's the old "Jack and the Beanstalk" fable: Jack's mother scorns the tiny beans 
he brings home from the market. They can never live off those! So in anger she hurls them out the window. 
Those beans were a non-starter, a mistake, a dead-end nutritionally and in every other sense. 
Except that, of course, they ended up sprouting into a beanstalk that went, in a way, clear up to heaven.

(by Scott Hoezee from Mystery Seeds)



The Seed of Faith

Faith is a seed sown within the life of all human creatures. Faith is a seed full of potential 
for accomplishing great things for God. But unless that faith seed is nurtured and cultivated, 
unless that seed is given the opportunity to realize its potential, that potential goes untapped. 
Think about the keyboard of a piano; that keyboard contains in its 88 keys an "almost" infinite 
range of melodic potential and possibilities. Not only have untold thousands of compositions 
been written within its range of notes, but also many compositions can be played with various combinations 
and qualities of instruments and voices, and can be interpreted differently each time 
they are performed. Such is the vast potential of a piano keyboard.

What is true about music is symbolic of the human soul, too. A human life, 
beginning from an infinitesimally small cell, has potential for greatness and goodness. 
I believe this to be true of faith. Each of us has a kernel of faith, and within that kernel 
is a large potential to do God's will, to live a life full and productive for ushering in the Kingdom of God. 
Intellect, knowledge, practice will only release so much from that kernel of faith.

(by Merritt W. Ednie from God's Program In Process)



Growth Is in Our Reach

A third-grader taught the teacher an important truth: The teacher asked, 
"How many great people were born in our city?" "None," replied the pupil. 
"There were no great people born. They were born babies who became great people."

Greatness may not be within the reach of every one of us, but growth is. 
We are each capable of being a more mature person today than we were yesterday, 
and tomorrow can find us further along than we are today. And when we forget this vital truth, 
we lose sight of the essential meaning of life and the sources of its deepest fulfillment.

If a seed in its dark, restless journey underground is not content until it breaks through the mountain 
of soil and strains ever higher toward the sunlight, will we human beings be content 
to have our faith remain simply a seed full of potential?

(by Merritt W. Ednie from God's Program In Process)