Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com
Mark 4:26-34 “Two Stories about Seeds and a Really Big Tree”
Check out General Sherman. It is a tree, a giant sequoia, Sequoiadendron giganteum to be more exact. It is located in Sequoia National Park in California. Let me tell you a little bit about this tree. It is 275 feet high. For a little perspective, the tree is as tall as a 27 story building. A thirteen story building would barely touch its first huge branch. The total volume of the trunk of the General Sherman tree - 52,500 cubic feet - is equal to the lumberman’s measure of 630,000 board feet. Since a board foot is 12 inches of 1x12 lumber, the trunk of the General Sherman tree theoretically could be cut into 119.3 miles of 1x12 planking. That would reach from our front door to this end of the 410 loop outside of San Antonio.
Giant redwoods like this have seed cones. When a forest fire burns through the forest, the updraft causes the cones to open dropping hundreds of tiny seeds to the ground, seeds so tiny that it takes 91,000 of them to weigh one pound. These tiny seeds fall to the ground onto the fertile soil produced by the fire and from them come more trees, trees with the potential to be as big as the one we just looked at. Now this is all just part of how nature works, but it is fairly mind blowing. From that tiny seed, comes that gigantic tree.
26He also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.
Jesus loves to talk in parables, starting with things that we do understand to help us figure out things we don’t understand. Except maybe, this time, using something we think we understand, but really don’t, to explain something beyond comprehension.
There are actually two parables here back to back:
26He also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground,
31It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;”
The kingdom of God is sort of like someone scattering seed on the ground, and sort of like a tiny little mustard seed. Let’s look at both of these.
26He also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.”
Most of us have been through elementary school science. We know that if seed is scattered and the soil is fertile enough and there is enough moisture, it will sprout and turn into a plant.
However well I understand the science, it is no less miraculous. If you are a gardener or a farmer you toil in the dirt and work hard to make sure your seeds are in the right dirt and that they get plenty of water and the right amount of sun. However, there is a part you aren’t really in control of. That certain something that changes that seed from a seed to a living thing.
28The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.
We can plant seeds, but we can’t make them grow. This is an interesting lesson in mystery and humility. All of our efforts aren’t much compared to what God can do. That is true with the seed, we can plant it and fertilize it, but only God can make it grow. That is true with our efforts as people of God. In our efforts to help initiate God’s kingdom in this world, to bring change, to follow God ourselves and help others find their way to God, we can do good things, but it is truly God who can take those seeds and make them grow.
There is great mystery in the spark of life that turns a seed into a living thing and there is great mystery in how God takes what we do and truly turns it into something that can build the kingdom of God.
30He also said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32yet 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."
Back to the General Sherman tree~ Remember those seeds? It would take 91,000 of them to make a pound of seed. Yet from just one of them can become a tree 275 feet high! That is part of the mystery, part of God’s work.
From the tiniest beginning, God can create wonderful, enormous results. The coming of the kingdom of God is a wonderful, enormous result. But all we have is little seeds. But that is ok. Because this is a God thing.
What I love about parables is that sometime we can hear them differently when we are in different places.
Let me give a couple of examples.
Pride
Betty is a young pastor, just a couple of years out of seminary. For her first appointment, the Bishop sent her to a small church that was just about dead. After only two years under Betty’s leadership, worship attendance has doubled, membership has doubled, there are a number of new young families with children, and they have just begun planning an expansion of their sanctuary to provide for all the growth. Betty sits back one day and thinks to herself, look what I have done. Our parables say, “look what God has done!”
1 Corinthians 3:7 reads:
7So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
26He also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.
I think that this parable reminds us who is doing the work. It tells us to not give ourselves so much credit and remember that God is doing the real work. That is a pretty good sermon right there, so I could stop… but I am not sure that pride is the biggest problem we face.
Pressure
Let’s look at another example, another set of ears through which to hear this parable. Matt is a lifelong Christian, but while in a group Bible study really hears God’s cry for the poor. If you spend any time at all reading the Bible, you will see that God is much more concerned with the poor than God is concerned with issues that we want to pass laws about. So Matt does some research and finds out that 20,000 people a day perish die to extreme poverty. He looks a little deeper and finds out that 1.1 billion people worldwide are living in extreme poverty, meaning they earn less than the equivalent of one dollar a day.
Matt reads that and then says, “what the heck am I supposed to do about that?” He could have two equally dangerous reactions. One is to take the entire burden of this problem on his shoulders. He could become convinced that he needs to fix this situation. He might accomplish quite a bit, he may actually make a difference in the lives of many hungry people, but eventually he is going to burn out. He is going to miss out on the opportunity to work in unison, to be a vehicle of the amazing transforming power of the one who created the universe.
Matt could be overwhelmed by the pressure he has put on himself.
Complacency
I said Matt could have two dangerous reactions to being overwhelmed, let’s look at the other one with another example. Back in Austin where I was last appointed we have a lot of pan handlers. I mean a whole lot. Every major intersection featured at least one man or woman with a sign asking for money. Laurie comes to me one day and says, “I don’t know what to do about these panhandlers. I feel like I should help them, but I am afraid if I give them money they will spend it on drugs.” My response, “Good point, so what are you doing to help?” Her response, “Nothing.”
That other dangerous and perhaps more dangerous reaction to being overwhelmed with the enormity of the task is that of complacency. Sometime when we look at a problem as big as homelessness or as big as world hunger, we just say, “I can’t possibly fix that, so I am not going to even try.”
Laurie’s feeling of being overwhelmed has led to complacency. “I can’t do it all, so I will do nothing!”
2 Corinthians 9:10
10He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
26He also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.
31It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32yet 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."
These two parables remind us of our place in all of this kingdom building. We can’t take all the credit (avoid pride). We shouldn’t carry the whole weight on our shoulders (pressure) and we can’t just do nothing (complacency)
The Parable in Action
Now I have given you examples of how this parable corrects us. Now, let me talk about where I have seen this parable in action. I was in a class with a couple of people like Matt and Laurie, the ones I mentioned in the examples. They were both convicted of their need to be in ministry with the poor but overwhelmed with the task before them. One was facing pressure the other complacency. I found out one day that they were both volunteering in downtown Austin at the homeless shelter serving dinner Friday nights. They weren’t ending hunger, they weren’t solving the problem of every homeless person in Austin, but they were doing their part trusting that God is faithful doing God’s part.
A lot of people know that there are a lot of parts of Corpus Christi that aren’t as nice as some of the neighborhoods we live in. There are neighborhoods with frighteningly high crime rates, drug trafficking, and enough violence to keep most of us away. In some of these neighborhoods live people who are trying their best to raise families and retired people trying to get by on fixed incomes. It is so easy to look at these people in these neighborhoods and either be overwhelmed with the pressure of trying to fix the entire situation or more likely to say, “I can’t fix that, I am not going to even try.”
There is that option and then there is the idea that if you were to go into one of these neighborhoods and touch one life or one family that you would be planting the seeds of the kingdom. What if you went to one family whose house was broken down, perhaps even falling down and said, “we want to help.”
That is exactly what Sea City Work Camp does and just go finished doing last week. Just during the week hosted by Grace, 10 houses 100 youth at least 100 adults supporting the whole thing. The Sea City organization takes applications from people who need help and then people go out and help. And you know, in two or three weeks each summer, the whole city isn’t changed. But what is amazing is the sort of life God brings out of those seeds. In the communities where the work is done, you can sometimes notice a little chain reaction as neighbors decide it is time to clean up their lots, mow their lawns, maybe even put on a little paint. There is a little more pride in the neighborhood. More importantly seeds of the love of God have been planted. Who knows what God can do with what has been done in those neighborhoods?
And what about the seeds planted in the young people. Yeah so they work hard for a week in the sun helping someone. But God takes that week and brings transformation out of it. Young people leave Sea City Work Camp forever changed with a deeper understanding of the call of God in their lives, a deeper understanding of people who don’t have what they have.
Now, I could meander around on this topic all morning. I could give you other examples and tell you stories and reread the parable another way. But instead, let me go against all the conventions of good sermon writing and ask this question:
Where is God calling you to plant seeds?
Are you feeling called to share the good news of God, but overwhelmed with the task? Is there one place, one person, one thing that you can do and then trust in God?
Is hunger and homelessness something close to your heart, but you can’t even imagine where to start? You know all the money collected at the communion rails today goes toward restocking our food pantry so that when people come to Grace looking for help, we can give them groceries. That won’t end hunger overnight, but we can do our part and trusting in God to be faithful doing God’s part.
God is calling us all to look after God’s most precious little ones. Some of us have a special call to help children. But where do we start? There are children right here in our city, right here in Annaville/CalAllen without enough to eat, without proper healthcare, with unstable households that nearly guarantee for them an entire life of poverty, and children without homes at all stuck in the system just hoping for a family to love them.
Well that is too much to even begin to tackle. But we can all support Metro Ministries or the Wesley Community Center which provide basic necessities for people who have fallen through every other safety net. Almost any one of us can all take part in our mentor program and give one child a role model that can help them escape from the trap of poverty. Maybe some us can open our homes to foster children through Methodist Children’s Home. These are kids who don’t want a new X-Box for Christmas, they just want someone who will actually demonstrate that they are worth loving.
Perhaps you worry about the young people in our community, about the choices they will make or how they will navigate this complex world. But there are a lot of young people out there and only one of you. What if you start right here working with our youth. Some will say, “Oh I am not ready to actually work with youth” That’s ok, there are ways you can support the people who do work with you, providing meals or transportation or even money for scholarships. Do what you can, we can trust God to provide.
As Christians we have to fight the temptation to sit back and watch the television or read the paper and say, somebody ought to do something about that! We have to be out there planting seeds!
Where is God calling you to plant seeds? Those seeds might be your time, your skill, your money. Those seeds could include a small commitment or a total life change. The seeds you plant might create instant results or through them God might create something you will never see.
You know, I have dreams for Grace. I think that God can and will do amazing things here. I am not just talking about more members and better programs. I am talking about real kingdom of God stuff, transformation that actually affects the community around us, bringing positive change and a tangible sense of the love of God. I see that happening here, but as a pastor, I see the hurdles. We need more room, more parking, more bathrooms, more signs, more money. But, I only worry so much, because I know that if we all really do what God calls us to, if we do our part, God will be faithful. We will be able to overcome any obstacle that keeps us from truly reaching out and transforming the community that surrounds us in the name of Jesus Christ.
If God can create a tree 275 feet high from one, tiny little seeds, God can transform anything we can offer into things beyond our belief. We should be spreading as many seeds as we can. Amen?
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