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| Imre Szakács, Mustard Seed, 2009 |
Sermon
preached during the Eucharist at St Stephen Walbrook at 12.45pm on Thursday 17th June
2021 based on the text of Mark
4.26-34 and 2 Corinthians
5.6-10, 14-17
Good News in 100 words
The kingdom Jesus proclaims is described in two
consecutive parables as being like a seed. The kingdom is a place where every
seed flourishes. We often think that our growth and development –
and that of others – is contingent on human agency; our efforts. The good news
is that God has provided all we need to flourish. We can celebrate this by
working to break down the barriers we have put in the way of doing so.
Transcript
Those hearing Mark’s Gospel for the first time in the original Greek would
recognise its opening words as taking
the form of an official announcement.
These days we get a television broadcast from the newly refurbished
Downing Street Press Room – but we still see written notices from time to time
–posted on the gates of Buckingham Palace for instance, announcing a royal
birth, or as we saw recently, a royal death.
Taking a similar form, Mark announces in the style of an imperial proclamation “The
beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.”
Jesus’s first words recorded in Mark’s gospel are also a proclamation – a
proclamation that the kingdom of God has come near; but the kingdom he goes on
to describe seems far removed from the kingdoms and empires of the time; as
Rowan Williams says, this is a proclamation about “Regime Change” – that God is
taking over. With the coming of Jesus, regime change has begun.
In the passage we’ve just heard this new regime - the kingdom of
God - isn’t described in terms of elaborate installation ceremonies or big
manifesto promises – but as being like a tiny seed!
It’s a concept that Mark thinks is so good he uses it twice, placing two
parables of Jesus side by side, for us to read together.
Frankly I don’t really need two parables – I’m sold on the
first! This kingdom sounds like my sort of place - I’m an extremely lazy
gardener!
We are told the kingdom of God is as if someone would simply scatter seed on
the ground and it would sprout and grow – they do not know how this happens - the
earth produces of itself.
It sounds like a reality far removed from the experience of my
schoolfriends in rural Dorset, whose families worked the land. Even at a young
age I could see what endurance is necessary to succeed as a farmer; the long
hours and physical stamina needed, even with the benefit of modern machinery;
the devastating effects of a change in the weather or the onset of disease; the
crippling consequences of BSE and foot and mouth. Contrary to popular opinion,
many independent farmers and their workers in this country live below the
breadline; many have turned away from farming to other activities to make ends
meet. It seems wherever they are in the world, the plight of the farmer is not
an easy one – making bread from the land is hard, sweaty, backbreaking work –
just as God decreed it would be after The Fall.
But in the first parable that’s simply not the case. The kingdom
of God will be a new regime – a new creation - where living off the land
involves no work at all. Of course, the seed must be sown, but this doesn’t
involve preparing the soil, fertilising, or irrigation. Sowing the seed means
scattering it on the ground. What could be easier? The seed sprouts and grows
by itself. The whole process seems even more effortless if we consider that the
“someone” doing the sowing may not be one of us at all.
Unlike other parables, there is no indication here that some seeds will flourish
while others don’t. Every seed grows to maturity. But the one sowing the seed
doesn’t know why. Nevertheless, they keep getting up, day and night, to sow
them. They have faith that the harvest will come and that it will be plentiful.
Like so many of the parables its message is counter-cultural; this really is
regime change. So often we see growth as contingent upon human agency – we have
to do stuff to enable ourselves or others to grow, to develop. We often
overlook the fact that God has given us all we need to flourish.
Of course, this isn’t the same as saying that we can sit back and do nothing
and all will be well. The kingdom has ‘come near’ but it isn’t here yet. Regime
change has started – we’ve glimpsed the kingdom – through the coming of Christ;
but we know that for all sorts of reasons, in this world while we have been
given all we need to flourish, not everyone does so.
Last week we celebrated the reopening of the churches in the Square Mile with a
series of celebrity guided walks, including a wonderful musical walk with the
composer Bob Chilcott starting here and ending in the Musicians Chapel at Holy
Sepulchre, Newgate Street. The walks raised funds for XLP, a charity based
nearby which works with young people growing up on inner city estates; areas with
high levels of anti-social behaviour and gang violence. Through partnerships
with businesses and organisations in the City, the charity supports these young
people by building confidence and unlocking skills through mentoring and
leadership programmes and work experience.
XLP, and those working with them, are – to use St Paul’s words –
walking by faith, not by sight. Walking with these young people, with faith in
their God given potential to flourish – not limited by the sight of the
seemingly insurmountable problems they face.
Paul recognised that the death and resurrection of Christ had revealed God’s
kingdom, which was here ‘already but not yet’. In these in-between times,
before ‘regime change’ has been fully effected, it is even more important for
us to follow Christ faithfully, to prepare for the full realisation of God’s plan
– this means working, like XLP and similar organisations – to break down the barriers
we have put in the way of the flourishing that God intends.
In the first
parable we heard from Mark’s gospel, we see the full glory of that new
creation, - one in which every seed flourishes. We are reminded that true power
– the true source of our growth and flourishing - lies in God’s hands; a mysterious
power which we will never fully understand in this life, but one in which we
put our trust.
Many
believe that Mark was writing his gospel for a Christian community living
through a period of persecution. In the face of such oppression from large and
powerful forces, perhaps we can imagine how the parable of the growing seed
would have been comforting; the knowledge that through faith in God the harvest
will come and it will be plentiful. It will start small and the seeds are
already here.
The setting of those who first heard Mark’s gospel might not be
so far removed from our circumstances today. Two thousand years later, we too
have been living through a time when for many, the world they knew seemed like
it was coming to an end, and for most, the future still seems uncertain. Perhaps
it is not coincidental that during the lockdown here, many people have rediscovered
the ‘joy in the ordinary’ – delighting in the small stuff – the beauty of the
natural world, hidden places to explore right on their doorstep, clapping in
the street, learning how to smile at someone with our eyes as we pass by,
recognising our reliance on all those normally unseen people on whom our
lifestyle depends. We have appreciated the joy of being in relationship; perhaps
we have rediscovered how to walk by faith, not by sight.
It’s that
joy in the ordinary, delight in the small stuff and relationship that we see in
the second parable. The mustard seed. The smallest of all seeds on earth which
becomes the greatest of all the shrubs – not a mighty tree but a great shrub!
It’s branches spread out and allow the birds of the air to make their home
within them. That, says Jesus, is what the kingdom is like.
Relationship
is the great secret of Mark’s gospel story. The death and resurrection of
Christ restored our relationship with God; and made this available for everyone
everywhere and at every time, brought about not by force but by a supreme
sacrifice of faith and love.
Whether
we are a giant English Oak or a stubby Palestinian mustard bush, we all come
from the same roots; we share in this one relationship. Let us today – and
every day, walk by faith and not by sight; to play our part in the regime
change which has begun, breaking down the barriers that stop others from
bearing fruit as we look forward to the time of harvest, which is to come.
Amen.
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