The Kingdom of God
Scripture References
Ezekiel 17:22-24
Parable of Two Eagles and a Vine
22 Thus says the Lord God: “I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and will set it out. I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it on a high and lofty mountain. 23 On the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar. And under it will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest. 24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I am the Lord; I bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.”
2 Corinthians 5:1-10
Our Heavenly Dwelling
1 For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, 3 if indeed by putting it on[1] we may not be found naked. 4 For while we are still in this tent, we groan, being burdened—not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. 5 He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always of good courage. We know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord, 7 for we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. 9 So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. 10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.
Mark 4:26-34
The Parable of the Seed Growing
26 And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. 28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
The Parable of the Mustard Seed
30 And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? 31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” 33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. 34 He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
Green Thumb
Did any of you plant a garden this spring? If you did, you probably have tomatoes setting on or various other vegetables, herbs and flowers that are really going to town about now. My garden consists of larger fields of corn. With the abundance of rains these past few weeks, it is really going to town as well. Isn’t it amazing how these plants grow so quickly from a small seed? A few of these seeds are… yes, as small as a mustard seed. Could it be they are emerging and thriving from a proverbial green thumb? Like a miracle unfolding right before our eyes.
Today we get to unpack the Gospel lesson from the perspective of a gardener. Jesus often uses growing plants in His parables to punctuate a teachable moment. Let’s look at a couple of them in Mark 4. The parable of the growing seed, and the parable of the mustard seed. However, instead of green thumbs, we must turn our focus to the key phrase in each of these parables…To the crowd that day, Jesus is explaining what “The kingdom of God is like…”
Kingdom of God
Let me first help you understand what Jesus is referring to when He talks about the kingdom. When I hear the reference to God’s Kingdom, I have thought of it as a place. However, it is not a specific place. Let me explain…
Like a king’s realm in Biblical times, the kingdom of God is the realm of God, for He is the absolute king, and in His realm, His will is done. So, to belong to this kingdom of God, then, is to put yourself consciously and deliberately under the reign of God. In other words, be driven and embedded in His Word, love, and forgiveness. For that is what we pray… in the prayer the Lord has taught us, “Thy kingdom come.”
Jesus discusses this kingdom in the Gospel lesson today. This He does with the parables we are about to review, as He addresses the crowds that gathered around Him.
Sower
As you are probably aware, on top of the capital building in Lincoln, there is a tall bronze statue of “The Sower.” This statue was modeled after the traditional method of hand sowing grain for planting. Sowing was accomplished by reaching into a bag and scattering the seed on the ground. Quite amazing how this planting method has evolved into how we do it today.
This sowing by hand is what Jesus was referring to in the first parable of our reading in Mark 4. Jesus says in verse 26, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.”
Then He goes on to say that the seed sprouts and grows even though the Sower does not know how. Grows to maturity and then is harvested.
Plant in the dust and the bins will bust!
As a frequent Sower of seeds, I have experience in knowing how well these seeds will grow when thrown on top of the ground, especially during extreme dry conditions… They don’t. In reality… at times even covering the seed in the soil with advanced modern day machine technology, it is not much better than scattering the seed on the ground. The old timers would say, “plant in the dust and the bins will bust.”
Still, I question if I should plant deep, or plant shallow. Do I plant a heavier population anticipating emergence issues when it does rain, or lighter population to sustain a dry growing season? I lose sleep about all these things and sometimes I have little faith that it will even grow at all… This kind of attitude is what Jesus wants to address when describing what the kingdom of God is like.
This parable ends with the farmer going to sleep and as he wakes up, he finds that the seeds sprouted and grew even though he did not know how. His doubts, his fears, his lack of faith were overcome with the realization that God is in complete control… It goes to show us… that despite our efforts of thinking we can actually change the outcome… We are all reminded that there is nothing we can do without God and there is nothing that God cannot do… In His kingdom…
Let go and let God.
It reminds me of the phrase, “let go and let God?” This is what we must do if we want to grow in the kingdom and reap the harvest that is to come.
Letting go of doubts, fears, and personal agendas that interfere with the realm of the kingdom in which we must dwell. Like Paul told the Corinthians in the Epistle lesson, “walk by faith, not by sight.” We must not get wrapped up in things we cannot control. Having faith that the seeds of God’s Word we plant will grow, and letting God take over from there.
Growing the Kingdom of God…. Like throwing seeds on top the ground, I’m thinking it might be easier said than done. If you think about it, when the opportunity arises to sow in the fields of the kingdom, how often do we stumble over doubts and fears? Questioning why the old timers would say, “plant in the dust and the bins will bust.” Trying to process in my mind if my efforts are in vain… How can I do what is seemingly impossible?
Doubts that the message I proclaim will just lay in the dust… How can I proclaim the bread of life when there are so many hungry people? How can I preach peace when there is so much hurt and strife? How can I walk into a world which has run off its moral track when I am just a meager farmer? Like I admitted earlier… I get in God’s way by getting all wrapped up in walking by sight and not by faith. In the kingdom of God, I must learn how to “Let go and let God…”
Cultivator Blight
Several years ago, part of my farming practice of tending to the crop was to cultivate. This was done when the corn was about knee high and involved running a sweep down the row to control the weeds. At the time, this machine pulled by a tractor was 8 rows wide.
So, if I was sleepy or if I got distracted, the tractor would drift to the side and each row of corn the 20-foot width of the machine would be sliced to the ground. This was called cultivator blight.
The same might be true in your garden at home. Do you sometimes get a little too aggressive with the hoe? Have you ever damaged your lawn with too much fertilizer or spray mix? Sometimes the things we do to care for a plant can be detrimental to its survival. Me myself and I, get in the way. This is what Jesus is telling us with His analogy of the kingdom. After you scatter the seeds, there is a time to get out of the way and let God take over. God’s kingdom will grow when God is ready for it to grow.
This is the same message Ezekiel was telling the exiles that were captive in Babylon in the Old Testament reading. God will sprout the seeds at the proper place, bring a remnant out of all this mess, and restore the nation…. In His perfect timing. The Israelites that were captive obviously were cultivating doubts and fears. But Ezekiel was assuring them that their God can and will do what is seemingly impossible. Ezekiel was assuring them that “God has got this…”
Mustard Seed
In the second parable in Mark 4, we are told about the mustard seed. Condensing this reading, Jesus once again says starting from verse 30, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God?… it is like a grain of mustard seed… when it is sown, grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants.” Like I said before, it’s amazing how those small seeds can grow into such a large plant.
Yes, in God’s kingdom there are small beginnings but also great endings. We must trust the same is true when sowing God’s Word. Plant it, then let God turn it into bountiful produce.
There are times though, like the Israelites, when we place too much focus on the dry dirt. There is a reason the old timers would say… “plant in the dust and the bins will bust.” This is the root of walking by faith not by sight. Jesus didn’t say it would be easy, but this is the way of the kingdom of God.
Growing In The Kingdom
You might be asking, “If this is really the way, how can I grow in this kingdom?” Not a quick answer to this question. How about listening to the following metaphors of walking a Christian life and look for the fruits of the spirit in these ways to grow in the kingdom…. The way to fullness is by emptying yourself… The way to largeness is through smallness… The way to get rich is to give it away… The way to happiness is to make others happy… The way to reign is to submit… The way to magnificence, is humility… The way to influence is to serve…
Growing from these seeds and bearing this fruit is technically the “world” upside down… But when you grow this way… this is how Jesus working through you, will make the kingdom bins bust.
Then, ready, or not… all we are asked to do… is to simply sow the seeds for others to grow in this kingdom as well. Letting the words of our mouth and the mediation of our hearts scatter those small seeds in the mission field. With the armor of God on your side… you don’t need modern day equipment.
God will make them grow.
Jesus does warn us though that not all the seeds we sow will grow… That is what the Sower in a parable preceding today’s Gospel lesson taught us. Some of the seeds he sowed fell on the path, many come to rest on rocky ground, then some fell among the thorns, and only a few of the seeds landed on good soil.
We must not lose hope. Like the farmer that went to sleep and as he wakes up, finds that the seeds sprouted and grew even though he did not know how. We can try to cultivate, hoe, or spray all you want… but only by the loving hand of God will those seeds sprout and grow and only God will know which seeds will go to harvest.
But that promise is why we dwell in the kingdom… That’s why Paul asks us to keep walking by faith. To keep our eyes on the eternal promise given to us through Jesus’ life… great things will come from small beginnings… Look at the early church itself which began with eleven peasants who consisted of fisherman and tax collectors. They had nothing in common except the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The kingdom cannot be judged by what it looks like on the outside. Jesus the carpenter and the disciples didn’t look like much. And we don’t look like much either. Yes, we might appear to be too old, too young, politically incorrect, and inadequate in our own eyes. But that too is what the kingdom is like. Even though you might feel like a mustard seed, Jesus can grow big things.
The bins will bust!
Now, are you ready to grow in the kingdom of God? Walking by faith in the darkness of the world to plant that seed in the dust? Through Christ you can…. Then with the power of the Holy Spirit and the grace of God, the bins will bust.
And they have… Look around, we are living in God’s bountiful kingdom right now… we have been growing in this magnificent kingdom from that mustard seed planted in our baptism. Growing daily from the forgiveness of sins. Growing in the kingdom of God through a new life won for us by Jesus on the cross. Growing as Christians in the fields of sanctification. Growing from the Word of God in ways that will help us grow in relationships with others.
The bins of Christs love have exploded to Christians all around the world… All because of a small seed with an eternal promise. Brothers and Sisters in Christ, you are but a small seed, but within you dwells the green thumb of Jesus which will grow His Kingdom even further…. Head to the fields today, it’s planting time.