June 14, 2015

Helen Jacobi

Ordinary Sunday 11     Ezekiel 17:22-24     Psalm 92     2 Corinthians 5:6-17     Mark 4:26-34

Video available on YouTube, Facebook

When we moved to Ottawa, Canada in January 1996, it was winter; and our house and garden was buried deep in snow, so it wasn’t until May that we got to see the garden. As the snow melted the whole garden came to life as if by miracle, all by itself. We waited to see what plants would pop up. By our front door we watched some plants grow, which later turned out to be peony bushes. One day I went out and came back a few hours later and looked at the plants and I could have sworn they had grown inches. So the next day I counted the number of bricks to measure them. And sure enough at the end of the day the plants had grown one whole brick! Then the beautiful peony flowers came (and I made the mistake of picking them and putting them in a vase, not knowing that peonies are always crawling with ants!)

The kingdom of God, the realm of God, is like when a plant grows by itself, we do not know how.

Last Monday I went to a meeting of the client committee at the City Mission. It was really good to meet with the group who represent the users of the Mission’s services. Also at the meeting was a woman, Rachel, who had got into the habit of bringing a home cooked meal once a month to the Mission for the evening meal. And her friends found out about it and wanted to do the same. And so they started a Facebook page and now they have two deliveries a day. It is called “Mum’s Mince”. The realm of God is when one mother cooks food for more than her own children and others decide to join her, we do not know how.

Jesus says the kingdom of God is like when a farmer scatters seed and the seed sprouts and grows. But the farmer doesn’t understand how or why. The farmer knows and trusts it will grow but he doesn’t know how or why. Any Year 9 science student could tell the farmer how and why, explaining about the soils and the oxygen and the temperatures and the germination process; but a farmer in first century Palestine didn’t know how the seed developed into a plant; but he still knew that it would, every time, as long as there wasn’t a drought, or the seed was bad seed.

Then Jesus says the realm of God is like a mustard seed; mustard seeds are the tiniest of seeds, you can barely see them; and Jesus says the mustard seed grows into a bush and all the birds can nest in it. Well any self respecting Palestinian farmer knows mustard seeds don’t grow into bushes, they are just small flowering plants; but the kingdom of God is like the mustard seed which grows into a bush. So it grows bigger and better than it is supposed to; it doesn’t grow into the tallest and best tree on earth like a towering cedar or kauri; it grows into a bush, a useful bush where the birds can shelter.

The realm of God is like a singer, with a natural talent, who can just sing and we all enjoy their song. The realm of God is like an artist who the minute they have a paintbrush in their hands can paint, and we enjoy it. The realm of God is like the netball player who always gets an intercept and the goal shoot who always gets the goal. The realm of God is like hearing the call of a karanga on the marae as the hosts prepare to welcome the visitors.

The realm of God is not something far away and ethereal and in the future. The realm of God is present and tangible and right here. It is what our lives could be like if we allowed God to be at work, rather than keeping God in the box labelled church or heaven somewhere out there. [1]

Now Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom is very disconcerting for those of us who are mothers, or teachers or employers of staff. Because Jesus says the kingdom just happens, through no effort on our part. “The earth produces of itself” Jesus says – the Greek word is “automatos” – where we get automatic from. We don’t have to try hard, study hard, work hard, put in more effort; the kingdom is just there, like a seed sown in the ground, even a mustard seed, the tiniest of seeds. That doesn’t sound right does it? We all know that if we study hard we get results; if we put the effort in at work, we get results. Then we transfer that experience to our life with God. We think we have to work hard to please God, pray hard, do good to others.

Well all of that is great, but Jesus says, the kingdom of God is like a seed sown which grows and we do not know how it grows: the stalk and then the grain, and when the harvest time comes the farmer brings in the harvest. It just happens, because the seed is sown.

The trouble is a lot of the time we don’t even notice the seed growing, we think it’s just a seed, just an ordinary old mustard plant. The first step of living life in the kingdom is noticing the seeds flourishing, noticing the love and action of God which goes on around us all the time. Noticing and naming what we see. God is at work all the time in and around us. Notice it and name it.

Then we get to participate in the love and action of God. The farmer nurtures the seed, waters and tends it, pulls out the weeds. Like the women who have joined the Mum’s Mince group. Like those of you who have tended to sick friends or relatives this week. Like those of you who have listened to a work colleague in distress. Like those of you who have taken a moment to say thank you to someone. Like those of you who have celebrated the success of some young people you know.

The kingdom of God though is not just about love and being nice to each other; for when we take the next step into the realm of God we find we are called to action, the seed grows and is harvested, the mustard seed grows into a bush where all of the birds can take shelter. There is work to be done. So the City Mission are going to invite the mums from Mum’s Mince in to learn more about their work and why people are needing to be cooked for. Raising their awareness above the immediate need brings more voices to the call for political attention for homelessness.

At our parish visioning day last week our facilitator put is in groups and got us to create an article for a parish magazine in 2025 – what might we be doing? And it was interesting to see how many of the groups talked about our outside space: the garden and the carpark, with ideas for development. These ideas are so much more than tidying up the trees or planting new plants – they are about creating beauty in the midst of our urban landscape; they are about greening the earth and being grounded in the land; they are about connecting with the neighbourhood – what might our neighbours need from our green space? We will explore what we might do with our outside space as a task of growing God’s realm. Seeds will be planted, more than actual seeds, seeds of ideas and relationships as well. Seeds of action for our planet, God’s earth.

Our reading from Ezekiel might be a guide:

I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of a cedar; I will set it out. I will break off a tender one from the topmost of its young twigs; I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it, in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar. Under it every kind of bird will live; in the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every kind. All the trees of the field shall know that I am God. I bring low the high tree, I make high the low tree; I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.

Now that sounds all very lovely, trees growing, birds nesting; but this passage is actually very political – written while the people of Israel are in exile in Babylon (6the century BC). The sprig of cedar to be planted is someone to be king from the line of David; the mountain is Mt Zion in Jerusalem; the tree is like the tree of life from Genesis in which birds of every kind can nest – that is the all people, gentiles and Jews, enemies and friends; and the high tree is to be brought low – the powerful are to be humbled and the low tree high – the poor and the oppressed are to be honoured. This passage from Ezekiel about a tree on a mountain is very political; it is revolutionary talk in code .And so Jesus’ parables about the realm of God are the same.

The kingdom of God is like a parish who decided to plant a garden; they talked to their neighbours and found they wanted vegetables / or a playground / or a beautiful space to sit; and they wanted a beautiful mural to look at as they passed by; so the parish planted a garden and the plants grew; and so did the conversations about the plants and how to care for God’s earth; and the conversations sitting in the sun beneath the tower of the church turned to care of the neighbours and the workers; and one part of the mural changed from time to time with statements and slogans regarding the politics of the day and people looked forward to being challenged.

The realm of God is like a parish who planted a garden. The realm of God is as if someone scattered seed on the ground and it grew, they knew not how. But it did grow, and God knew how.

[1] “the kingdom of God is present on earth whenever life accurately reflects the will and sovereignty of God. It is the way life and society would be if a compassionate God were in charge or imitated instead of Roman governors, client kings and the Temple establishment.” Nelson Pallmeyer quoted in John Dally Choosing the Kingdom p. 63