Erl Purnell Sermon

b6Pentecost 2 ~ June 18, 2006 ~ A sermon preached by The Rev’d Erl G. Purnell at Old St. Andrew’s Church, Bloomfield, CT

Ezekiel 231.1-6, 10-14; Psalm 92; 2 Corinthians 5.1-10; Mark 4.26-34

It’s Year B and we’re back in Mark’s Gospel. As far as I’m concerned, it’s always good to be in Mark’s Gospel. I like it for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that I studied it in depth during the process of writing Through Mark’s Eyes. Be that as it may, today we hear two of Jesus’ parables.

The first is about seed scattered on the ground that grows, though we know not how. The second is about “the smallest of all the seeds on earth,” the mustard seed. Chapter 4 in Mark might as well be a primer on seed propagation through the lens of parables. It begins with the parable about sowing seed on rocky ground, in briars, and finally on good ground. Jesus ends it by saying, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”

Next Jesus uses a bushel basket—the seed container of agriculture—to illustrate where not to put a lamp. “For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light.” And he says again: “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”

And finally, Jesus begins speaking about the kingdom of God. “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.”

Anybody in Jesus’ day would have had an intimate knowledge of this imagery. The people he taught in Galilee were peasants, most often folks who grew their own crops, who had, in fact, planted seeds that spring. These poor subsistence farmers knew the wait until the seeds sprouted and the plants grew. They knew because this was bread for their table … after paying the tax to the landlord and the Romans. But, unlike we moderns, they did not know the biology and chemistry of horticulture. They had not the slightest idea how the seed became a plant other than to trust that God made it happen, “the earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.”

So, Jesus is pretty smart. He picks images that people know, even if they don’t fully understand. He speaks in parables that evoke common experience. And, what he’s trying to do is describe viscerally what the kingdom of God is like. “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground…”

In Mark’s Gospel, the kingdom of God is the central theme. Jesus constantly juxtaposes the kingdom of God over against the Roman Empire and the Temple powers-that-be. Herod’s kingdom, Caesar’s kingdom, the kingdom of Temple collaborators, these are hurtful and unjust kingdoms. They take advantage of the people and forge wealth and power out of the mettle/metal of peasants. They are characterized by domination and subjugation, Jesus insists. But the kingdom of God is different. The kingdom of God is filled with the abundance of a bumper harvest. “Give us this day our daily bread.” In the kingdom of God there is enough for All because justice demands that All be fed and cared for.

The good news that Jesus brought to common Palestinians was about the breadbasket. The good news is that in the kingdom of God there is enough to eat. The good news is that when God is king, there is justice and compassion, forgiveness and love. Power and domination are characteristic of Rome, Herod, and the Temple elite, not the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is different and Jesus is scattering the seeds of the kingdom of God every day.

“With what can we compare the kingdom of God?” Jesus asks. “It’s like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth…”

Well, because somebody might ask, a mustard seed is pretty small but it’s certainly not the smallest seed. For one, a poppy seed is smaller, or an orchid seed is as small as a particle of dust. Who cares? It’s actually not that important. But, in case you want to know, the black mustard seed sown by Jesus’ Palestinian farmer friends would have been one of the smallest seeds known in the area at the time. Moreover, and again, only if this actually matters to you, the Brassica nigra or Sinapis nigra today typically grows to a height of 3.7 meters or about 12 feet, certainly tall and sturdy enough for a bird’s nest.

Anyway, Jesus does it again. He plants a picture in the ears of his listeners in this parable. What can it mean that a tiny mustard seed “when it grows up [becomes] the greatest of all shrubs…”? On one level, Jesus means what he says as we’ve just seen. But on a far more profound level, Jesus, the Master parable-teller, says that, though something might be small at the outset, it can and will grow into something disproportionately grand. The kingdom of God, in other words, can proliferate like a mustard plant, and it, too, is destined to be grand.

To his listeners, the parable speaks directly to them, for they are small, almost inconsequential in relationship to the greater scheme of society and culture. Yet, Jesus’ description offers another truth, something greater than these simple people have ever imagined: respect, dignity, being big enough to be seen, having enough value to cast a shadow. I wonder how much shadow-time Palestinian peasants got on any given day?

“With many such parables he spoke the word to them…” Mark’s Gospel is like that. Simple and direct, chalked full of parables that speak directly to the common people standing in the hot sun with him. And always in Mark, Jesus highlights the kingdom of God. For a poor hopeless peasant, the kingdom of God can be like a mustard seed that grows into a great shrub. It is tiny when planted in the hearts of each of Jesus’ followers who hear this parable but Jesus is confident that it will grow so that the kingdom of God really can BE.

Amen.