As explained below, this weekend was synod assembly here in the Northeastern Iowa Synod of the ELCA, and for Saturday worship and the online sermon video, I used the service provided by the synod. So, no video or audio recording this week – just text. Parts of this sermon were influenced by interim bishop Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl’s sermon (here’s the service with her sermon) as well as Janet Gwin’s GodPause devotionals for June 10 and June 11 and Debie Thomas’ essay The Sleeping Gardener. This weekend’s text is Mark 4:26-34 and 2 Corinthians 5:6-17.
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen
This is a bit of a strange morning for me, because as some of you know, I spent all day yesterday attending our Northeastern Iowa Synod’s annual assembly, and since that overlapped with Saturday service, those who were here last night and those who are watching online today saw a video sermon from our interim bishop Andrea DeGroot-Nesdahl. So you’re the first and only ones to hear my sermon, which I think has only happened once before.
As I’ve thought about this parable Jesus tells, I’ve thought about it a lot in terms of our being church, both us as a congregation here at St. Peter, and as part of the larger church, the Northeastern Iowa Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. This is odd little parable Jesus tells—actually two parables—comparing the kingdom of heaven to seed scattered on the ground and a mustard seed.
The key to the first parable, I think, is to look at what the farmer does, or rather, what the farmer doesn’t do. There’s a lot I don’t know about farming, but I do know that in real life farmers, do a lot more than just scattering seed. There’s fertilizing, weeding, spraying, and more that most of you know better than me.
But not in Jesus’ parable. In this story, the farmer scatters seed. That’s all. The farmer sleeps and rises night and day, and yet the seed grows. And the farmer doesn’t know how. The farmer is not the one causing the seed to grow; God is.
And this idea—this promise—that God makes the seeds grow is tremendously encouraging for us as the church. The candidates for bishop yesterday talked about how the world around us is changing. You know that.
Our neighbors don’t automatically come to church the way they used to. We still live in an overwhelmingly Christian culture and we’re very blessed that we are certainly not persecuted for our faith, but the cultural norm of everyone holding membership in a church and attending worship is gone. That world’s not coming back, at least not anytime I can see. We can’t just assume people will show up and sit here and wonder where everybody else has gone.
And of course, that produces anxiety for us, because we believe church is important. This is where we encounter God. I know church is meaningful for you, or you wouldn’t be here.
So what do we do? Well, there’s a temptation to say we need a new program, or we need the synod to do better, or if only we had more money in the budget, or if only there weren’t sports all the time, or if people weren’t so busy. I fall into those temptations too.
But the good news of this parable is it’s not up to us. Within my lifetime, the institutions of this church are pretty much guaranteed to look different than they do right now.
And I’m preaching to myself, by the way, because I have a hard time accepting that sometimes.
The way people practice faith and connect with God will look different, already does look different than even a few years ago. Our power to change that is limited. And yet the kingdom of God grows. God is growing a harvest.
Institutions won’t save us. Budgets won’t save us. New programs won’t save us. But that’s ok, because Jesus has already saved us. God has been at work through the church the way it has been and the way it is, and God will continue to be at work in the future.
I think any farmer will tell you that when you plant a crop, there are things beyond your control. We can’t make it rain. We can’t control the temperature.
There are factors we can control, things we can do to give the best possible chance of a good outcome, but ultimately, as Jesus says, the earth produces of itself. We have work to do to build God’s kingdom.
We need to share the good news we have. We need to invite people into knowing Jesus. But ultimately, it’s about faith. Our call is to trust in God, and to join in the work God is doing as much as God enables us.
That’s not pessimistic, it’s actually optimistic. We’re not giving up on church; exactly the opposite.
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The world needs the Gospel message we have as much as ever. God’s kingdom is growing no matter what we do. God is at work and we get to be involved.
Our job is to plant seeds, not to ensure the harvest. I don’t always know what that looks like. But we know what to do.
I think of it in terms of Anna’s song from Disney’s Frozen 2: “Do the next right thing.” Our call is to do the next right thing, one step at a time.
Listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians: We are always confident…for we walk by faith, not by sight. Whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please the Lord…the love of Christ urges us on.
Plant seeds, and let God do the rest. We don’t need to have a huge campaign to convince everyone to come to church. We need to do the next right thing, to share God’s love with one person at a time. The kingdom of God grows by the planting of seeds, so plant seeds.
What do seeds look like? They look like doing what we can as the Holy Spirit enables us. Share encouragement with people you know. Be the listening ear when the opportunity comes. That’s a seed planted.
Think of someone who’s not here and invite them to come to worship with you. Sew a quilt and send it across the world as a reminder of God’s love. That’s a seed.
Write a card to someone who lives alone. Stand up against an injustice. That’s a seed planted. Look for what God is doing and join in.
The second part of Jesus’ parable helps show a little more of what he’s talking about, and there’s actually some humor here. Jesus says the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed—a little tiny seed—and that’s part of the point, that God uses our little acts of faith, but also, no one plants mustard seeds!
As Debie Thomas says, “For the people in Jesus’ day, mustard was a weed — and a noxious, stubborn weed at that.” It’d be like intentionally planting dandelions – no one does that, and if someone did, they’d take over, just keep spreading. Isn’t that an interesting image of God’ kingdom?
Not only that, but Jesus says the mustard seed of God’s kingdom grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so the birds of the air can make nests in its shade. It sounds lovely and picturesque and there are some beautiful paintings of this parable by artists like Van Gogh.
But…actually, think about it. Birds are not good for a garden. Scarecrows exist for a reason. Birds cause disruption.
So what does it mean for the kingdom of God to welcome birds? To attract and welcome people no one would expect? To provide shelter for those who shouldn’t be welcome?
Jesus has strange pictures of what God’s kingdom is!
And of course, that’s the point. God’s kingdom doesn’t spread through publicity campaigns, or billboards, or tv commercials.
Maybe some of those can help, but really…God’s kingdom like a weed, through the Holy Spirit’s work in and through individual people, one person at a time.
God’s kingdom doesn’t grow in neat, orderly lines meticulously tended, but through the wild chaos of human lives – our lives.
Every year I’ve gone to synod assembly, and perhaps especially this year, I’ve come away wondering that God works through this, through us, through the feeble efforts of congregations like ours and rambling sermons like this. But that’s looking through human eyes.
God’s work isn’t limited to what we expect. After all, the greatest marvel of all is that God chose to come live among us, chose to be found in the person of a crucified itinerant carpenter.
And to go back to Paul again, “From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.
So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!”
Faith is believing that promise. Faith is trusting that amidst the disruption and the changes of this world, God is making all things new.
Faith is doing the next right thing, serving Jesus as best we can.
And then faith is trusting that through whatever we can offer, God is planting seeds and causing growth.
And God is making you new. Thanks be to God.