Our Youth Group just got back from its Mission Week. I went with them for part of it, a trip to St. Andrew's Children's Clinic in Nogales, Arizona. We heard so many stories there of miracles. I want to share one of them with you. One of the departments at that clinic is speech therapy for children who have difficulty talking. Rev. Lucie, the vicar there, helps out in that department, translating from English to Spanish for the clients. She tells the story of a girl whose parents had brought her to the clinic every month for years. The girl could not speak at all, and she really didn't even interact with others. Nevertheless, her parents kept bringing her. One day, Lucie was sitting in her office down the hall from the speech therapy room, when the girl came walking in, climbed up in Lucie's lap, and just started talking. Not in words, but in complete paragraphs. A miracle had happened.
· All those years, when it seemed nothing was happening, when her parents kept bringing her to school although there were no results, something was happening inside her mind – some part of her was listening. And when the right time had come, that part of her mind blossomed – and she began suddenly to talk, as if she had burst into full flower overnight.
The kingdom of God is like that.
· The kingdom of God, says Jesus, is like the tiniest of seeds, that when planted in the earth, is invisible for a long period of time. Any gardener or farmer can tell you what it takes to plant a seed and to create the conditions necessary for it to thrive – but they will also tell you that once the seed is in the ground, there is nothing they can do to make it sprout. The kingdom of God is like mysterious, underground, invisible energy, hiding in darkness, that suddenly bursts forth in blossom that everyone can see.
When we read today's gospel of the mustard seed in conjunction with our lesson from Ezekiel, we can see something very interesting Jesus is doing. Clearly, Jesus is using Old Testament roots to grow something new: Jesus bases his parable of the mustard seed on Ezekiel's prophecy. As Ezekiel speaks, the people of Israel are in exile in Babylon, and the people are hoping for restoration to their home in Israel. Ezekiel speaks God’s words, promising that Israel would be re-planted in its old home atop a mountain as a lofty cedar – like a redwood. A grand and glorious future, of power and might, awaits Israel.
· Jesus takes this vision and uses it – yet, Jesus transforms it in surprising ways. Instead of a grand cedar, Jesus gives us a mustard plant – a ubiquitous plant in the holy land, somewhat like a mesquite tree allowed to grow wild, or sagebrush in the desert that sprouts in every yard if you don’t weed it out. If you see a natural mesquite tree, you see how it grows – out, bent, low to the ground, offering shade to birds and other creatures, not height and grandeur.
· The kingdom of God is like the most common of plants, spreading out not up, leaning close to the ground, easily seen once you know where to look.
And yet it was also clear to anyone listening that the kingdom was not here: that the grand and lofty rulers of the world were still in control, as they had always been, that the poor were still poor and the sick were still sick. And so from the very beginning, Jesus’ preaching had what scholars call the “already … and not yet” quality – the kingdom of God is here, closer than the nose on your face, and yet the kingdom of God is still to come, that kingdom that is the glorious eternal reign of peace and justice for all creation.
· But in the meantime, I think we should be looking for signs of the kingdom all around us, the “already” kingdom – so common that we might assume these signs are just weeds, poking their stems through cracks in the sidewalk.
Where is God’s kingdom in this world? If we are craning our necks looking for lofty cedars, maybe we’re looking in the wrong place, maybe we should be bending our heads to look at weeds that keep on growing, no matter how hard we try.
· Where is it that the power of this world is being challenged with the weeds of God that will not stop growing?
One place is certainly in St. Andrew’s Children’s Clinic, where a band of intrepid volunteers has quietly transformed lives of the poorest of poor, every month for years. Another place is in hearts and minds of our young people who experienced the transformation God brings when we allow him to work through us. Another place is in parents of children and teenagers who pour their hearts into making sure their children grow up with an awareness of God’s love. Another place is in many, many members of this congregation who come here to be refreshed in God’s shade, and then go out again to make a difference in their daily lives. It may not be obvious that as they interact with those around them, they are doing it in a Christ-like way – but spending time in Christ’s presence transforms people, and the seeds that are planted grow into shrubs that can shade many people in many different ways.
· And I have come to the conclusion that it is my purpose in life, and the purpose of this church, to create the conditions under which those seeds can grow, to make the ground fertile so that God’s Spirit, working in darkness and quiet inside each of our spirits, can make the kingdom blossom, and change the world.
This is why I have a passion for evangelism – that frightening word that scares Episcopalians into running out the door. Evangelism is simply doing what Jesus did: proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God, that is coming and yet is already here, easily seen if you know where to look, easily measured if you can understand the many ways it shows itself in the world; and helping create the conditions for that kingdom to grow.
· this is what I think God has called this church to do: to announce that the kingdom of God is here, and help it grow like beautiful, unstoppable weed. The kingdom of God, says Jesus, grows in dark, hidden, and unexpected ways. It grows in us when we’re not looking, it surprises us by how it changes us. The harvest will come in God’s good time, as we create the conditions for God’s seeds to flourish in our lives, and give them space and time to grow, because God adores us and it is God’s love that is the power of growth.
· It is this love that transforms the tiniest seed into a shrub that spreads like weeks, and gives rest and shade to the singing birds, just as it transforms our tiny, distorted awareness of God into shining awareness in which we can rest.
What is growing underground and in the dark in your life? What fruit is God bringing to life? What has God planted in you long ago, that just now may be ready to burst into flower? My prayer for us all is that God will bring new love, new excitement and new growth to harvest in each of our lives.
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