Third Sunday After Pentecost - Proper 6
June 18, 2012 - Pastor Adam Moline
Ezekiel
17:22-24 2 Corinthians 5:1-17 Mark 4:26-34
Grace, mercy and
peace to you from God our Father through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
amen. Our text today is from the gospel
lesson just read, especially these words, “With what can we compare the kingdom
of God, or what parable shall we use for it?”
Thus far our text.
Dear friends in
Christ, mustard seeds are small, very small.
One of the last Sundays I spoke with Iva Tischer, she brought it a
necklace with a mustard seed embedded in a bead. It amazed me that Jesus would compare his
glorious heavenly kingdom with a seed so small you could barely notice it when
it is even in the palm of your hand. But
that is exactly what Jesus says in our text today, “the kingdom of God is like
a mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the
seeds on earth.” It is tiny, it is
insignificant, something that the average person doesn’t notice. And yet, hidden inside that minuscule tiny
seed is a plant, ready to grow, ready to branch out toward the sky so large
that all sorts of critters can make their home in it.
That’s what seeds
do isn’t it? We who live here in rural
America know – seeds grow. Its how we
make our living, its what keeps us in business.
You take the seed, hide it in the ground, water it and then it grows and
provide for us in all sorts of ways. And
so it is with the kingdom of God – and with Jesus himself. For just as a seed, Jesus came and was
planted on this earth – a seemingly unimportant baby born of a virgin in a tiny
village suburb of Israel’s capital.
Hidden there in that seed, in that baby was the fullness of God, the
only begotten son who has existed since eternity.
That baby grew up,
worked in his father’s carpentry shop, and lived an average, insignificant life
until its 30th birthday. And
then, as a seed finally after much waiting and praying pokes it head above the
ground, the Son of God began to be noticed.
He healed the blind and sick. He
preached to the poor and talked to the sinners.
He turned water into wine, he raised the dead, he became anything but
insignificant. The seed had sprouted,
and was growing at a furious rate.
He grew so fast in
fact that the Pharisees and Sadducees, and all others noticed. This couldn’t happen. He was cutting in on their business, and
making them look small and weedish comparatively. Those who had formerly respected them turned
to watch this mustard seed become a great tree that cast its shadow on all who
believed. And as sinners do, in their
jealousy, in their selfishness in their guilt (the same guilt you and I carry
as well) they decided to take drastic action.
They cut him down by nailing him to a tree and leaving him to die. And when he was dead they put him back in the
ground, into a tomb, sealed it and tried to forget about him.
But even a tomb
could not hold him; death would not be his master. He sprouted again, and grew faster and taller
and more massive than they would ever understand. He rose again on the third day, and now lives
and reigns to all eternity. The tiny
insignificant seed now is the tallest, fullest, most beautiful tree
around. The kingdom of God – Jesus – had
started small but now is huge, with room on its branches for all sorts of birds
to perch, room for you and for me.
There’s room for
sinners there in the branches of the kingdom of God, there’s room for sinners
in the branches of the church. There’s
room for you in the arms of Jesus. I
know, at times it may seem like you don’t belong. At times it may seem like your sin is too
great, that your guilt is too large, and that you don’t deserve to live here in
the church. You are right, and yet,
Christ still has a place for you, because in his name you are forgiven.
Here, in the
church, you have a home, along with all repentant sinners. It’s a home you didn’t create – God planted
it. It’s a home that you don’t sustain,
God does with His holy word and Sacraments.
It’s a place you didn’t find, God brought you in through baptism. And now you, a forgiven sinner, are sheltered
in the arms of the church even to life everlasting. Make nests in the arms of Jesus, dwell in his
love, in his grace, in his gifts. For
here, you will be kept safe from all the dangers of this world.
The kingdom of
heaven, is like a mustard seed, small and insignificant. And yet, it grows up to be the safety of all
that live in it. It is strong, it is a
mighty bulwark against evil, and through grace earned in the death of Jesus, it
is your home forever more. Amen.
