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Mustard Shrubs and Morning Glories; (sermon 6/17/12)
Topic Started: Jun 14 2012, 05:59 AM (110 Views)
Dewey
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HOLY CARP!!!
I like the summer, because my schedule opens up and often I'm not working right up till the last second to get Sunday's sermon done. When that happens, it means that I can actually post these here well before they're delivered, giving the possibility of people commenting on them in sufficient time that I may tweak the sermon to clarify it, based on people's comments or questions. It was this "focus group" aspect that was really behind my posting sermons here to begin with, and I'm really glad when I have the ability to do that. So, as always, comments/questions/thoughts/insights/objections are welcome and invited. Here's Sunday's sermon, at probably the 95% point....

1 Samuel 15:34 - 16:13

Then Samuel went to Ramah; and Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul. Samuel did not see Saul again until the day of his death, but Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel.

The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and set out; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” Samuel said, “How can I go? If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” And the Lord said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for me the one whom I name to you.” Samuel did what the Lord commanded, and came to Bethlehem. The elders of the city came to meet him trembling, and said, “Do you come peaceably?” He said, “Peaceably; I have come to sacrifice to the Lord; sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

When they came, he looked on Eliab and thought, “Surely the Lord’s anointed is now before the Lord.” But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.” Then Jesse called Abinadab, and made him pass before Samuel. He said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Then Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, “Neither has the Lord chosen this one.” Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel, and Samuel said to Jesse, “The Lord has not chosen any of these.” Samuel said to Jesse, “Are all your sons here?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, but he is keeping the sheep.” And Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here.” He sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, and had beautiful eyes, and was handsome. The Lord said, “Rise and anoint him; for this is the one.” Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the presence of his brothers; and the spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward. Samuel then set out and went to Ramah.

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Mark 4:26-34

Jesus also said, “The kingdom 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, he does 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 he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”

He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom 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.


=====

One Saturday morning a while back, I think I almost gave Ed Kruger a heart attack. I didn’t mean to, really. I was driving to the church one morning for the Men’s Breakfast, and it was one of those postcard-perfect sunny mornings, with a beautiful blue sky. A lot of the fields had just recently been plowed, and I could see some little purple wildflowers had come up in a lot of them – mostly along the edges of the fields, but I remember one field that seemed to be half full of them, just spreading out toward the horizon. It was a really pretty sight. So when I got down to the breakfast, I said something about them. I described them, and asked if anyone knew what they were, they were so pretty. It was about that point that Ed almost vapor-locked, and he said “Pretty? Pretty?!! Those are morning glories, and I wouldn’t call them pretty. It’s a real pain in the neck keeping them out of the fields; they’re very invasive and they’ll choke out the crops!”

Now, I really didn’t intend to send Ed into cardiac arrest; I just meant that I thought the flowers themselves were pretty. I’ve learned a lot of things in my life, but an extensive knowledge of farming obviously isn’t one of them. Jesus, on the other hand, lived a lot closer to the land, and he had much more of a firsthand understanding of growing crops, and raising animals. A lot of Jesus’ parables meant to teach about what the reign of God is like are framed in farming illustrations. I guarantee you, if Jesus had grown up here in Ohio, he’d have known those weeds were morning glories But as big a pain in the neck as they might be, I still think he’d say they were pretty, too.

The passage from Mark that we read today is a case in point where Jesus uses illustrations related to planting and growing. Most of us are probably familiar with the Parable of the Mustard Seed – Jesus’ parable that the reign of God is like this tiny little seed that grows to be a very large bush, with big, full branches and making a lot of shade for birds to take shelter in.

Over the course of your life, you may have heard a dozen sermons based on this parable. And I suspect that most, if not all of them, drew out a message something like this: God can use what seems to be the smallest, most humble person or thing in the kingdom of God to achieve wonderful results, great things. And that you can’t judge the true nature of a thing just by looking at its outward appearance, or outward circumstances, but it’s what’s inside – what’s in the heart, if you will – that’s really important. That’s the case with the mustard seed. And that’s certainly part of the message in today’s reading from Samuel, about the prophet’s selecting David – the smallest and youngest of all of his brothers - to be the next king of Israel.

Those are good and true messages that we can get out of the Parable of the Mustard Seed. It’s important for us to understand that God does great things while working through the most unlikely of people, in the most unlikely of places and circumstances. We should take courage in that fact.

But I think there’s something going on here that often gets missed. Often, when we hear this parable, we form this mental image of the mustard shrub – it’s this great, grand thing growing out of that tiny little seed, making plenty of shade under big, graceful branches. It sounds kind of peaceful, and beautiful, a pleasant thing. After all, Jesus is describing the kingdom of God, and that’s a good, pleasant thing, right?

But I want to suggest that Jesus wasn’t trying to convey a pleasant image at all. He was telling this story to people whose lives were closely connected to the soil, most of them were likely hardworking subsistence farmers trying to raise enough food to survive on in a land where there’s iffy rainfall and little good agricultural land, a lot of it painstakingly terraced into hillsides that would otherwise be too steep to farm. Every square foot of the land, and every bushel of the crop, was critical. And these people listening to Jesus would have known immediately that a mustard shrub wasn’t anything desirable or to think kindly about. Mustard shrubs are maybe the most pernicious, invasive weeds known in the region. Left unchecked, they can grow to six or nine feet or even more. They threaten the crops by stealing nutrients and water from the soil, and creating shade that keeps crops from growing under or around them. It’s a constant problem keeping them out of the fields. These people listening to Jesus certainly wouldn’t have been having pleasant thoughts in their heads when Jesus was talking about mustard shrubs. Even that image of the shrubs making a shelter for the birds isn’t the pleasant image it might seem to some of us. Birds that come into the fields and eat the seed sown in a field, or the crops as they’re growing, is anything but a happy thought. I mean, people put up scarecrows to keep birds out of the fields, right? Those people listening to Jesus got that. If Ed Kruger were there, he’d have got that.

So what’s Jesus’ point in this? Yes, that you can’t judge a thing by outward appearance, and that even humble things can accomplish big things in the kingdom of God. But most importantly, Jesus was trying to describe the kingdom itself; what it’s like. And here, I think he’s saying that once it takes root, the kingdom of God – the reign of God, not just in the future but in the here and now – grows like a weed. It’s invasive. It’s pernicious. It’s disturbing to the surrounding environment it takes root in, and it isn’t generally a welcome disruption. It can be an annoyance. Discomforting.

When God breaks into the status quo of this world, and shows that there’s an alternative way of living, a better way of living, than the way that the world is peddling, the world doesn’t like that. The world sees that message of an alternative way of living as a threat. It’s going to be seen as invasive and dangerous to those who have a vested interest in things going along as they have been. But that’s the whole point of the gospel – to announce good news of a change in the way things have been, a change that’s come into the world, a change from the established ways to God’s ways. God’s kingdom is spreading into the world like wild mustard taking over a field, to gradually establish a world more like God’s ideal – a world where people care for each other and aren’t taken advantage of, cheated, or pushed off to the margins of life. A world where the sins of greed, and self-centeredness, and the raw ambition for power, aren’t just given more pleasant sounding names and held up as virtues. And we, the tiny little mustard seeds in God’s kingdom, are called to help make that all take root in this field we’re living in.

That can be a pretty disturbing way of understanding what Jesus is saying, if we’re people who are actually benefitting from those established, sinful, ways of the world, in ways contrary to God’s will as shown to us through Christ. If that’s the case, then Jesus’ message in this parable is much more one of judgment and trouble for us. It’s a message we don’t want to hear.

On the other hand, this idea that the kingdom of God is threatening to grow and choke out the ways of this world is very good news if we’re among those who are suffering under those ways. If we’re a parent trying to raise spiritually and morally sound children in a world that sends tem all the wrong messages almost every waking hour of the day. If we have to choose between paying for our medications or food, because we’re uninsured, or an insurance company has refused to cover the expense. If we feel forced to live in silent desperation in an abusive household, feeling like we have nowhere to turn. If we’re struggling to make ends meet on a fixed income and our dollar is being devalued more and more every day because of downright asinine deficit spending policies coming out of Washington. If we haven’t gotten a raise in three years and had our benefits cut back because we’re told times are tough, while the company reports record profits and the CEO gets another multimillion dollar bonus.

This parable is very good news for you, and for me, and for any of us who in one way or another, large or small, are hurting because of the ways of this world.

Through the life, death, and resurrection of Christ, the seeds have already been sown. The kingdom of God has been planted, and now, through you and me, it’s supposed to be growing. It’s supposed to be disruptive, and invasive, maybe even subversive. It’s supposed to have the power to ultimately take over the whole field, like mustard shrubs. Like morning glories.

Thanks be to God.
"By nature, i prefer brevity." - John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 685.

"Never waste your time trying to explain yourself to people who are committed to misunderstanding you." - Anonymous

"Oh sure, every once in a while a turd floated by, but other than that it was just fine." - Joe A., 2011

I'll answer your other comments later, but my primary priority for the rest of the evening is to get drunk." - Klaus, 12/31/14
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