Smallest Seeds, Biggest Trees
Matthew 13:31-33; Romans 8:26-39
After three weeks, you would think that the pool of gardening stories would be wearing out its welcome. Yet it still seems appropriate, given that many of us have been tending to our gardens this week, trying to do something to help our greenery and shrubs survive the ongoing heat of summer. In our readings today we find that Matthew keeps on with his agricultural parables… as always, they take unexpected directions… and give us a glimpse of the kingdom of God. This week, instead of just one, there is a rapid fire progression of them.
Although given that this is the third week of parables, it may actually be helpful to take a real step back and look at what a parable tries to do. For Jesus, Parables were all about the Kingdom of God… or rather like glimpses of it. Knowing that to completely comprehend the fullness of God is impossible, Jesus sought to present small snapshots, small insights of it. Yet as Paul later discovered, no amount of words can completely encompass all that the kingdom of God is. Jesus developed another strategy:
Have you ever had an experience or a feeling that no amount of words can truly describe, or that when we try, the only response we get is that kind of glassy-eyed glazed look from those listening. As we struggle to find the right words, often we find the best way to convey the feelings is through telling a story.
As a personal example, over the past number of weeks and months a number of you have asked me how Sarah and I are managing in buying a house. The short answer is slowly. While we have determined that there are a number of places in Mississauga that we would very much like to own, we cannot move on anything until our townhouse in London actually sells. It’s not like we haven’t had people… and as I’ve discovered, my father-in-law in Calgary is having just as much trouble in getting that one serious offer. However, just relaying these facts aren’t enough to communicate some of the frustration that comes in waiting. I found myself starting to tell a story… a metaphor to convey what that sense of frustration… some of you may have already heard this:
Every summer, my family would drive from Calgary to Nova Scotia and back. Since my parents were teachers, we had two months off, and a van to travel in… so that was my summer holidays. This trip was to visit relatives, and so a number of our stops would include staying with aunts, uncles, grandparents and the like. One of my Uncles lives in Dundas, but during the early summer he would often do a fishing trip at a place called Rainbow Lodge about an hour west of Sudbury… I did some checking, the place is now called Waterfalls Lodge… I remember we could fish straight off shore, including this one spot on the edge of the water. With it being the Canadian shield, there was a rocky outcropping that while only 2-3 feet above the waterline, had a sudden drop off that went down some 15-20 feet to the lake bottom. The water was perfectly clear, which made the next part of this story all the more frustrating.
Because we didn’t often have the opportunity to go out in a boat, my brother and I would frequently fish off of this point. Given that we were between 8 and 10 years of age, this was probably the safest option. We would cast our line into this particular clear spot, we would fish for what would seem to be hours without even a single nibble. The frustrating part is that we knew the fish were there, we could see them! As soon as we dropped the line in, we could see about 4-5 fish… most likely Perch or Bass, swim right up to the lure and just stare at it. They wouldn’t bite, they wouldn’t even nibble… they’d just stare at it. We’d even bob it up and down, and you could see them looking at it, saying “nice lure… but we’re not biting…”
Given the amount of traffic we’ve had through our house… I feel like we are fishing in this perfectly clear water with plenty of fish, but no one’s biting. Well… one did, but we had to throw it back because it was too small…
While this personal story does not fully qualify as a parable, it certainly works as metaphor… to convey the sense of the enthusiastic anticipation and frustration in waiting as Sarah and I continue to sell our home in London. These become word paintings… Metaphors that try to convey something that is beyond our own ability to truly give words to. Jesus wasn’t trying to convey a personal sense of frustration, but was trying to give people a glimpse into the Kingdom of God… This was a truly innovative thing, by using stories and metaphor, Jesus gives us a chance to do the impossible: to see for a moment the world the way God sees it.
What made parables work for Jesus is that he would take short stories or sayings that people knew, and then put a different twist on them. The last two sermons have dealt with stories whose twist comes out of abundance in spite of carelessness. This week, it’s more like rapid-fire comparisons, starting with a Mustard Seed.
It’s a simple, two-line parable:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field;
it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
I’m not sure how many of you have seen or even planted a mustard seed, but they’re pretty small. So small in fact, that it can get lost amongst others very easily… So small that it hardly seems significant… Not only that, when one puts a mustard seed in the ground, we would expect to get a mustard plant… a scrawny weed that might get grow a few feet if left untended.
Yet here, Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to something so small that we might otherwise miss it or lose it, and yet when it grows, it becomes something far larger than we could ever hope or imagine. The twist for Jesus is something that we would otherwise dismiss, far exceeds our expectations. Smallest starting points… unexpected results that reach beyond our imagination…The kingdom of God instils that sense of wonder, the sense of possibility, the feeling of purpose… that no matter how small or how insignificant we might feel, we matter to God…
No matter how small or how insignificant we might feel, we truly matter to God.
I find it curious in what we hear from Paul this morning, he essentially says the same things as Jesus… No matter how small or insignificant we feel, we matter to God… but Paul does so with far more words. I hope I am not the only one to see some irony in this. Paul is trying to be much more direct, and avoids using metaphor, but in so doing he is forced to use a lot more words.
I’m not saying that Paul should have done anything differently. The passage from Romans reminds us that “nothing can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ.” It is perhaps one of the most profound and most meaningful things that he ever wrote. They are words of comfort, they are words that open us up to how much God loves us, and that in Jesus Christ that nothing is capable of breaking that love. He has a direct sense that perhaps many of us need… but his point is no different than the one that Jesus makes with the parable of the mustard seed:
God’s kingdom is far larger than we can ever imagine, emerging from the most unlikely of places... God’s love is broad enough that nothing can separate us from it. Paul tells us what that means; Jesus gives us the chance to experience it.
Amen.
Sermon preached Sunday, July 24th, 2005
Clarkson Road Presbyterian Church; The Rev. John Crowdis
After three weeks, you would think that the pool of gardening stories would be wearing out its welcome. Yet it still seems appropriate, given that many of us have been tending to our gardens this week, trying to do something to help our greenery and shrubs survive the ongoing heat of summer. In our readings today we find that Matthew keeps on with his agricultural parables… as always, they take unexpected directions… and give us a glimpse of the kingdom of God. This week, instead of just one, there is a rapid fire progression of them.
Although given that this is the third week of parables, it may actually be helpful to take a real step back and look at what a parable tries to do. For Jesus, Parables were all about the Kingdom of God… or rather like glimpses of it. Knowing that to completely comprehend the fullness of God is impossible, Jesus sought to present small snapshots, small insights of it. Yet as Paul later discovered, no amount of words can completely encompass all that the kingdom of God is. Jesus developed another strategy:
Have you ever had an experience or a feeling that no amount of words can truly describe, or that when we try, the only response we get is that kind of glassy-eyed glazed look from those listening. As we struggle to find the right words, often we find the best way to convey the feelings is through telling a story.
As a personal example, over the past number of weeks and months a number of you have asked me how Sarah and I are managing in buying a house. The short answer is slowly. While we have determined that there are a number of places in Mississauga that we would very much like to own, we cannot move on anything until our townhouse in London actually sells. It’s not like we haven’t had people… and as I’ve discovered, my father-in-law in Calgary is having just as much trouble in getting that one serious offer. However, just relaying these facts aren’t enough to communicate some of the frustration that comes in waiting. I found myself starting to tell a story… a metaphor to convey what that sense of frustration… some of you may have already heard this:
Every summer, my family would drive from Calgary to Nova Scotia and back. Since my parents were teachers, we had two months off, and a van to travel in… so that was my summer holidays. This trip was to visit relatives, and so a number of our stops would include staying with aunts, uncles, grandparents and the like. One of my Uncles lives in Dundas, but during the early summer he would often do a fishing trip at a place called Rainbow Lodge about an hour west of Sudbury… I did some checking, the place is now called Waterfalls Lodge… I remember we could fish straight off shore, including this one spot on the edge of the water. With it being the Canadian shield, there was a rocky outcropping that while only 2-3 feet above the waterline, had a sudden drop off that went down some 15-20 feet to the lake bottom. The water was perfectly clear, which made the next part of this story all the more frustrating.
Because we didn’t often have the opportunity to go out in a boat, my brother and I would frequently fish off of this point. Given that we were between 8 and 10 years of age, this was probably the safest option. We would cast our line into this particular clear spot, we would fish for what would seem to be hours without even a single nibble. The frustrating part is that we knew the fish were there, we could see them! As soon as we dropped the line in, we could see about 4-5 fish… most likely Perch or Bass, swim right up to the lure and just stare at it. They wouldn’t bite, they wouldn’t even nibble… they’d just stare at it. We’d even bob it up and down, and you could see them looking at it, saying “nice lure… but we’re not biting…”
Given the amount of traffic we’ve had through our house… I feel like we are fishing in this perfectly clear water with plenty of fish, but no one’s biting. Well… one did, but we had to throw it back because it was too small…
While this personal story does not fully qualify as a parable, it certainly works as metaphor… to convey the sense of the enthusiastic anticipation and frustration in waiting as Sarah and I continue to sell our home in London. These become word paintings… Metaphors that try to convey something that is beyond our own ability to truly give words to. Jesus wasn’t trying to convey a personal sense of frustration, but was trying to give people a glimpse into the Kingdom of God… This was a truly innovative thing, by using stories and metaphor, Jesus gives us a chance to do the impossible: to see for a moment the world the way God sees it.
What made parables work for Jesus is that he would take short stories or sayings that people knew, and then put a different twist on them. The last two sermons have dealt with stories whose twist comes out of abundance in spite of carelessness. This week, it’s more like rapid-fire comparisons, starting with a Mustard Seed.
It’s a simple, two-line parable:
“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field;
it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.”
I’m not sure how many of you have seen or even planted a mustard seed, but they’re pretty small. So small in fact, that it can get lost amongst others very easily… So small that it hardly seems significant… Not only that, when one puts a mustard seed in the ground, we would expect to get a mustard plant… a scrawny weed that might get grow a few feet if left untended.
Yet here, Jesus compares the Kingdom of God to something so small that we might otherwise miss it or lose it, and yet when it grows, it becomes something far larger than we could ever hope or imagine. The twist for Jesus is something that we would otherwise dismiss, far exceeds our expectations. Smallest starting points… unexpected results that reach beyond our imagination…The kingdom of God instils that sense of wonder, the sense of possibility, the feeling of purpose… that no matter how small or how insignificant we might feel, we matter to God…
No matter how small or how insignificant we might feel, we truly matter to God.
I find it curious in what we hear from Paul this morning, he essentially says the same things as Jesus… No matter how small or insignificant we feel, we matter to God… but Paul does so with far more words. I hope I am not the only one to see some irony in this. Paul is trying to be much more direct, and avoids using metaphor, but in so doing he is forced to use a lot more words.
I’m not saying that Paul should have done anything differently. The passage from Romans reminds us that “nothing can ever separate us from the love of God in Christ.” It is perhaps one of the most profound and most meaningful things that he ever wrote. They are words of comfort, they are words that open us up to how much God loves us, and that in Jesus Christ that nothing is capable of breaking that love. He has a direct sense that perhaps many of us need… but his point is no different than the one that Jesus makes with the parable of the mustard seed:
God’s kingdom is far larger than we can ever imagine, emerging from the most unlikely of places... God’s love is broad enough that nothing can separate us from it. Paul tells us what that means; Jesus gives us the chance to experience it.
Amen.
Sermon preached Sunday, July 24th, 2005
Clarkson Road Presbyterian Church; The Rev. John Crowdis
Comments