The Gospel isn’t meant to be gulped down on Sunday morning, but gnawed on through the week so it really becomes a part of us. You’ve got to work at it, like a dog with a good bone! Here’s the Gospel for this coming Sunday — the Fourth Sunday After Pentecost — with food for thought on what the kin-dom of God looks like. Gnaw away!

Mark 4:26-34

Jesus said, “The reign of God is like this: a sower scatters seed on the ground, then goes to bed at night and gets up day after day. Through it all the seed sprouts and grows without the sower knowing how it happens. The soil produces a crop by itself – first the blade, then the ear, and finally the ripe wheat in the ear. When the crop is ready, the sower wields the sickle, for the time is ripe for harvest.” Jesus went on to say “What comparison can we use for the reign of God? What image will help to present it? It is like a mustard seed which people plant in the soil: it is the smallest of all the earth’s seeds, yet once it is sown, it springs up to become the largest of shrubs, with branches big enough for the birds of the sky to build nests in its shade.” Using many parables like these Jesus spoke the message to them, as much as they could understand. Everything was spoken in parables, but Jesus explained everything to the disciples later when they were alone.

The Backstory – What’s Going On Here?

After last Sunday’s reading where the scribes accuse Jesus of being in league with Satan, Jesus continues his teaching in Galilee. The next scene (Mark 4:1-9) shows that he is so popular that he has to preach from a boat while a huge crowd gathers on the shore. It is there he begins a series of teachings using the metaphor of seeds and images of abundance. To the crowd he tells the “parable of the sower” (4:3-9) … but then he waits until he is with his disciples in private to explain it (4:10-20). The key, Jesus says, is who not only hear the good word but live it … and the reward is the fruit they will bear in great abundance (thirtyfold, and sixtyfold and a hundredfold). Jesus then continues talking about abundance, using the image of a lamp (put it on a stand, not under a bushel) and then saying, “to the one who has will more be given; and from the one who has not, even what they have will be taken away.” The point Jesus is driving home is that nothing is beyond the reach of those who embrace God … and for those who reject God, nothing lasting is possible.

A few things to chew on:

*The parable of the mustard seed also appears in Matthew and Luke, but what is unique to Mark is the parable that comes before it … the parable of the seed growing secretly (4:26-29). Jesus has talked about seed growing when the ground receives it, but here he makes a different point … one every farmer knows. We have a role in the growth of the seed into the plant. We have to care for it … but the forces that cause the growth are beyond us, and even happen as we sleep. We can participate in God bringing the kindom of God to reality. But that is what we are doing … not doing something ourselves but participating in what God is doing. And really, what could be better than that?

*The mustard seed doesn’t just become the giant shrub — it becomes the giant shrub that provides shelter for the birds of the air. This is a key point that Jesus is making about the kindom of God. We participate in God’s transformation of the world not for our own sake, but for the sake of the world that God loves. In fact, that is our greatest joy. Our efforts in Jesus’ name are never to earn ourselves “points for heaven” (what a strange concept!), but to help God create an ever-expanding circle of love and safety until it encompasses the entire cosmos. So as we look to be a part of what God is doing, the question we always need to be asking is “whom is God calling us to love?”

Try This:

Following Jesus is an audacious, ambitious goal. And audacious, ambitious goals are good. But we set ourselves up to fail if we set an audacious, ambitious goal and try to accomplish it all at once.

There’s a great website called “Couch to 5K” that recognizes that the best way to meet a great goal like running a 5K is to start small, with mustard-seed like efforts, and let them grow and grow and grow. The same thing is true with our goal to follow Jesus.

This week, think of one small thing you can do to follow Jesus more closely … and then do it every day. Maybe it’s spending five minutes in prayer. Maybe it’s reading your Bible every day (if you need a place to start, start with Mark’s Gospel, since that’s the lectionary year we’re in). Maybe it’s a small act of service. What mustard seed of faith can you offer for God to grow?

The Reign of God is like…

The Reign of God (or “The kin-dom of God,” to use the language I prefer) is the way things ought to be.

The Reign of God is love lived out loud. And like love itself, words cannot adequately contain or describe it. We are left, at best, with images or parables or poetry to try to express the inexpressible.

Jesus did this in his time for his followers .. and he came up with images and parables like we hear in this reading. The Reign of God is like a mustard seed, or treasure hidden in a field, or a merchant searching for fine pearls (Matthew 13:44-46).

Words can never adequately describe God — or God’s dreams for us. But we need to try. When we see something that looks like the Reign of God, we need to stand up and say so. Glimpses of God’s realm are the stars that help us navigate toward our destination deep in the heart of the divine.

And so when we see small acts of love and compassion, we need to point and say “the Reign of God looks like this!”  When we open our doors so people who have no place to escape the heat of the day can go inside and get some relief we do so not just because it’s a nice thing to do but because it is our way of shouting “The Reign of God looks like THIS!”

And the converse is also true. When we see that we have gone profoundly off course. When our government continues to separate families at the border, and now declares that victims of domestic abuse and gang violence won’t be granted asylum  … or we see the widening gap between rich and poor in our nation and the world … or when in the name of Jesus, people justify oppression, prejudice and hatred … we need to point and say:

“This is NOT what the Reign of God looks like! We can do better! We must do
better! Love demands and enables us to do better!”

The common thread of all of it is staying awake. Jesus calls us to stay awake and look around us — to be aware and celebrate where we see the Reign of God breaking through … to be aware and call out where we see reigns that are not of God taking hold.

Jesus calls us minute by minute, day by day, year by year, generation by generation to be both guardians and midwives of this vision of God’s reign — and through our following Jesus’ in the way of self-offering love, the way of The Cross, to let God, through us, move it from vision to reality.

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Check out the rest of Sunday’s readings

The Lectionary Page has all of the readings for this Sunday and every Sunday – just click here.

Collect for Sunday

Pray this throughout the week as you gnaw on this Gospel.

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love,
that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and
minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus
Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
for ever. Amen.

Want to read more?
“The Text This Week” is an excellent online resource  for anyone who
wants to dive more deeply into the scriptures for the week.
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