Pentecost 2 Year B

Pentecost 2 Year B Mark 4:26-34 June 14, 2009 The Rev. Benton Quest

One of the really cool things about scripture is just when you think you have it all figured out, a new and exciting interpretation suddenly appears.

I think I may have said this before: Often as I look at a reading for Sunday, my thought is, “Oh, this is the ‘Good Samaritan’ story,” or “This is the ‘Turn the other cheek’ reading.” And this Sunday, my thought was, “Oh! It is the Mustard Seed reading!” And for those of you who know how I feel about mustard, you know that I had to wrinkle my nose a little bit. But then I began to read the story; and also read what some of the commentators had to say about the reading. It was then that I realized that I had overlooked something in the reading. Well, maybe not overlooked, but I found a new understanding of the reading that I had not considered before. I am always impressed that there always to be something new hiding in the scriptures.

In the past, I had looked upon this reading as having something to do with my faith. It was my and my interactions with God that were important. You know, “If I just plant my faith in God, it will grow into a really, really big faith.” It was about me doing things and then having God make them grow. And, all in all, I think we could look at this reading with this understanding and not be too far off. I think it is a good thing to place our trust in God, and it is my belief that God will make our faith grow and flourish. But this time when I looked at the reading, I began to understand more.

Let’s think about this whole growing process. The first thing that must happen is the seed must end up in the dirt somehow. The seed needs to get planted. In some cases, this planting is intentional. Growing up in Iowa, I was well aware of the large planters that were drub through the fields to plant corn. Another intentional method is planting gardens. We go through the work of digging holes and placing the seeds into the holes. Then we carefully place the dirt on top. These are very intentional ways of planting. We place the seeds exactly where we want them.

But there are also other ways to plant seeds. Squirrels hide their acorns underground. Now many of the nuts that are hidden underground are forgotten by the squirrels and begin to grow. The burying of the acorn was not for the purpose of planting a tree, but a tree is the end result. These seeds are not planted in any particular manner. And they are not planted with any particular intent. But even so, they do produce trees. There are some other types of seeds that don’t even get planted. The “helicopter” that fall from some trees just need a patch of fertile land to alight upon. No particular plan, just a lot of seeds and the hope that one will find a hospitable place to land.

Now the second step in growing something may seem almost too stupid to mention, but it is the place that many people get tripped up. Not only does the seed need to be planted, but the seed needs time to grow! This whole growing and changing process needs time! There is really nothing that we can do to speed this process along. All we can do is provide the optimum conditions. The optimum conditions help the seed to grow quickly. But even with conditions that are not optimal, the seed can still grow.

Then we come to the final step in the growing process; the produce must be harvested at the right time. If we harvest too early, the crop may not be edible. But if we harvest too late, the crop my rot on the vine. We want to harvest at that right time, when the crop is perfectly ripe for picking.

So we can compare God’s work in the world to the process in which plants grow from seeds into mature plants. We can also see how we are to be God’s people in the world, how we are to not only plant the seeds of our own faith, but how we can help plant seeds and help with the harvest.

We plant many seeds in many ways. We actively plant seeds by bringing our children and grand children to Sunday Worship. We actively plant seeds when we pray in our homes with our families. We also actively plant seeds when we volunteer to help, not only in church but in the community. We actively plant seeds when we invite others to join us on Sunday for worship. It is in these ways that we place seeds of God’s love into others lives. And it is in these ways God can grow the seeds to bring love and life to those we know.

Sometimes, however, seeds get planted when we don’t even realize we are planting them. I remember a letter my cousin once wrote to me. She remembered a time when I was with her as a little girl and how much that time meant to her. She said she remembered the time that I was pointing out the stars to her. I remembered that time. I thought I was just pointing out stars and I thought she was enjoying learning about the constellations. What she told me was that she had no idea what I was pointing out, she didn’t have her glasses on! She just enjoyed the fact that I was spending time with her and paying attention to her. I thought the important thing was the stars, she told me that the seeds that were planted were the seeds of time.

Sometimes we may not be called to plant the seeds but to prepare the ground. We may be called to prepare the soil so that someone else may plant the seed. How we act in the world helps to prepare the soil. When we claim to be Christian and act in the ways of love and kindness, we prepare the soil of others’ hearts to the message of the gospel. But when we claim Christianity and then act in ways that are judgmental and hateful, we help to harden the soil of others’ hearts and make it all the more difficult for the message to take root.

But I think the hardest part of this whole process is the waiting part. We want things to happen immediately. We want to see the seeds that we have planted grow and produce fruit right now! We have difficulty waiting. We may plan something and then be disheartened when there is not an immediate growth in membership or in giving. But this is not how we should look at things. We can plant seeds and we can work to make the ground fertile, but only God can make the seeds grow. We need to remember that although we may plant seeds, we may never see them grow. What we need to do is to do what we can do and then trust in God, and in God’s time, those seeds will grow into a bountiful harvest.

Another part of the process where God can use us in assisting with God’s will is in the harvest. We need to be aware that there are seeds growing all around us: seeds we may have planted and also seeds that others have planted. And these seeds are maturing to ripeness constantly. If we are too preoccupied in looking only at the seeds that we have deliberately planted, we may miss seeing the other plants that are ready for harvest. We may be too busy looking down, that we do not look around and see all the harvest that is ready to be picked. Or we may be so intent in looking at one spot that we may miss the seeds that have fallen elsewhere. When I look around, I am shocked at the places where things have grown! Just look at the cracks in the pavement. Or look at the gaps between bricks in some buildings. Things are popping out all over! The same can be said about our world. The seeds of God are being planted all over and are constantly reaching maturity. If we limit our sight to those places where we think things should be growing, we can so easily miss the places where things actually are growing!

Are we missing those seeds that are gowning in our community? Are we missing those seeds that are growing in our places of work? Are we looking for the fruit of God wherever we go?

Are we planting seeds wherever we go? Are there people who heed to hear the word? Are we reaching out to all whom God has placed before us? Are we spreading the seed of God’s love like the trees with the helicopters; spreading the love far and wide in the hopes that it will find a place to grow?

We have done a good job in planting seeds. We have given to other and we have invited others to join us. We can take joy in that. But we also need to realize that the fields to plant are immense and that the harvest is bigger than we realize. We can take joy in what we have done, but we also need to be challenged to extend our reach even further.

We need to trust and believe that in God all things are possible. In God, seeds will be planted and seeds WILL grow. We need to trust that even if we don’t see the seeds grow, others will be there to gather the harvest that we have sown. We need to trust that God will give us the eyes of faith to see the harvest that is right under our noses and the faith and courage to go out and gather the harvest. The harvest is plentiful, we just need to go out and gather it in!