Oak Chapel United Methodist Church

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I had a policy, when the girls were growing up that, if I didn't know the answer to some question they asked, I would simply make up something. Better for them to be a little off on the facts, I reasoned, than to think their father imperfect. The downside of that policy, which I did not foresee, was that, when they became adults, they wouldn't take me seriously. The other day we were talking about how potatoes grow. I told them that potatoes have eyes, and one simply cuts out the eyes with a knife and tosses them into the ground, and new potato plants spring up, producing more potatoes. They're still laughing.

How far we have come from the earth! How seldom we even notice those wondrous miracles of nature that captivated us as children: lighting and thunder that scared the bejeebers out of us; bees that carried pollen on their legs; hard, dry seeds that came alive (like magic) in the warm soil. We've lost it, dearly beloved. It is a modern paradox: the harder we work to overcome nature (inclement weather, disease, even gravity), the blinder we become to nature's beauty and majesty.

I omitted the Parable of the Sower this morning, which opens the fourth chapter of Mark's Gospel. It mentions seed, but is more interested in soil. Skipped the Sower and read to you, instead, a pair of elegant little seed parables, which occur in the middle of the chapter. In the one, Jesus points out simply that seeds have a life-force of their own, and in the other he reminds us that a tiny mustard seed gets pretty big. In the first he says, "Look how seed that is scattered grows, grows even uncultivated, grows out of the cracks in the sidewalk, grows even as the farmer sleeps! "First the blade, and then the ear -- then the full corn..." Nothing can stop it. Amazing! (By the way, he adds, don't think the farmer's not watching or doesn't care. When the grain is ripe, he comes with his sickle and takes his harvest -- death and judgement happen even in nature. "Even so, Lord, quickly come, bring thy final harvest home.") The second parable says, "Look how a tiny mustard seed is transformed into a great bush. Again -- amazing! But the end of this parable is not harvest and judgement. It is hospitality and grace: a fantastic shrub in whose sturdy branches birds come to nest. "In my father's house are many mansions."

The kingdom of God has its own momentum. That is a secret Jesus lets us in on. "It's something you need to know," he seems to say to his disciples. The kingdoms of men, on the other hand, all our vanities, need constant prodding. If you don't push them, they don't go. But God's kingdom has an internal engine. It's not like that drink of water that has to be repeated over and over again -- it's more like a fountain within us. Or here, it's like a seed that grows even when no one tends it. There is work to do, of course. We Christians know the king of this fast-growing kingdom, Jesus. He is the seed of that great shrub, the church, where so many peoples and nations find shelter. We have responsibilities. But the Kingdom of God will grow even if we do nothing. If we are silent, even the rocks will shout. It can't be stopped now. The Kingdom is not a heavy wagon we have to pull, it is a rocket ship we ride.

Mark and his readers had the perfect illustration of this growth miracle right before their eyes. The Christian Church's beginnings had been extremely humble, lowly, seemingly insignificant, almost invisible. Contrary to H.L. Menchen's funny comment about the abdication of Edward VIII, to marry Wallis Simpson -- that it was "the best news story since the resurrection" -- the resurrection, actually, was no news story at all. Who knew that Jesus died, and rose. Who cared? We see the harvest, but no one noticed the seed. But Mark was beginning to understand. It's hard to know for sure (because Christians were still in the closet), but there were probably 20 to 30,000 followers of Jesus in the world at the time Mark wrote -- just three decades after Jesus' death. Churches in most major cities, established first among the Jewish communities, and now taking off among Gentiles, a vast new field for planting seeds. Mark and his friends marveled at the explosive growth. All this from such inconspicuous beginnings! Now they sensed what Jesus meant when said the kingdom was like a seed that would grow on its own and become large. (Wouldn't Mark be dumfounded to know what we know -- how the church continued to grow, until it filled the whole world, and how it continues to grow in miraculous ways.) Well, what have we to do with seeds and seed with us? Many lessons in these parables. Let's look at the two main points: One: when we seek to grow the Kingdom, we are swimming with the current. And two (as the song says), little things mean a lot.

We know today that living things grow by the division of cells; one becomes two, two four, four eight. That's different from linear growth (1,2,3,4). It is exponential growth. We keep squaring the number. (That is why so much growth seems to take place in the last few weeks before harvest, or in the last days of pregnancy.) If that is also the case with God's seed, if the Kingdom grows exponentially, with explosive power like that, then we have with us a force far greater than any we might muster on our own. And greater than any force that might oppose us. We can rely, we must rely, it would be foolish not to rely on the power of God.

In college I had a summer job maintaining county recreation centers. One blazing hot day I was driving in stakes with a heavy sledge hammer, swinging with all my strength and bearing down mightily. An older man, who had done work like that for years, said, "You're working too hard, son. Let the hammer do the work." Of course, he was right. I only had to get it in the air, and let it fall, to do the job. I could accomplish more with less sweat, if I would learn to use the weight of the hammer itself. We want God's Kingdom (planted by the Jesus seed so many centuries ago) to grow -- not only around the world, but (more germane) in our families, our churches, our communities. We work at it, but we can't do it by ourselves, nor should we expect to. The Kingdom is a heavy hammer… does a lot of work by itself. A seed is a marvelous thing. It grows even when we're asleep. Everything is not up to us. Some things we must leave to God and trust that the forward movement of his Kingdom will carry them along. It seems to me, we could prevent a lot of heart-ache and exhaustion among Christians if we could make that clear.. But it can also be taken from these parables that, if the Kingdom of God is essentially expansive, then even small contributions we make might expand with it, and thus become more important than we might have imagined. In the growth economy of God's Kingdom, little things become big. We never know what a tiny seed, planted at the right time (a word of encouragement, a deed of kindness), might become. "If you cannot pray like Peter, if you cannot preach like Paul, you can tell the love of Jesus, and say he died for all." On Father's Day, if we are lucky, we remember our own fathers' love and support. Chances are it's not the big things that come to mind, but the everyday expressions of love which grew in us (like seeds) as we matured. Little things cast long shadows in the Kingdom of God.

Mahatma Ghandi was so popular in India that wherever he went hundreds of thousands (sometimes over a million) people would come -- just to be where he was. This created enormous sanitation problems: wide areas strewn with trash, garbage, even human waste -- a problem complicated by the Indian belief that only certain groups, those at the bottom of the social order, should do menial work -- like picking up. Ghandi solved the problem by picking up himself. Whenever he went out among the people, as he was talking with them, he would clean up around him. Soon others (of all casts) took up the work. If the great Mahatma is not too good to do it, then neither are we. A small gesture but it solved a big problem, and eventually it changed the social customs of a great sub-continent. In the exploding economy of God's Kingdom, little things (like seeds) become big. Five loaves and two fish feed a multitude, a tiny lump of yeast makes the whole loaf rise, a widow's mite is greater than a rich man's treasure, a few grains of salt flavor much food, a handful of seeds brings a great harvest.

Last week the Finance Committee reported that, by the end of June, we will have $100,000 in the Building Fund. There's a long way to go, I know. But let's at least stop and thank those who've helped, and let us also pause a moment to marvel how well the little things of God prosper and grow. Had anyone said last December that we could raise so much in six months, we all would have laughed. But that would have been because we were underestimating the growing power, the internal momentum, of the Kingdom. We each planted seeds (some small, some large -- depending on our ability), and the seeds have grown because they were of God. And, my friends, they will continue to grow.

We don't think of it often, but being part of the Kingdom makes us all winners We ride the coattails of one who overcame all odds and won the greatest victory of all. We are part of a church that is conquering the world. "…not with swords loud clashing, nor roll of stirring drums", but with little things, with deeds of love and mercy…." We're not doing it; God is doing it. Nothing can stop it. In that sense, we're just along for the ride.