|
First
Reading
|
Psalm |
Epistle |
Gospel |
| Ezekiel 17:22–24 |
Psalm 92:1–4,11–14 |
2 Corinthians 45:6–10, 14–17 |
Mark 4:26–34 |
In today’s lessons, the words of the prophet Ezekiel are appropriately paired with Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed. Most, who first heard this parable, would have readily recognized the image of a small plant growing to produce large branches that would provide shade and nests for the birds of the air as coming from the words of the prophet, 600 hundred years previously.
Nonetheless, there are subtle but important differences between Ezekiel’s image and what Jesus was planting in the minds of his hearers. Ezekiel was talking about a hope that was understood mostly in terms of the restoration of Israel’s former glory as an independent kingdom. By the time of his pronouncement all of Israel had been overrun, Jerusalem was in ruins, and Ezekiel was living in exile in Babylon. Ezekiel insisted that God would restore the people to their homeland and God would take a rightful descendant of the Davidic dynasty, symbolized by the top most part of the cedar tree, and plant it so that once again the throne of David would rise and rule like a tall cedar towering over all its neighbors, providing universal peace and protection.
Jesus did not use the image of a sprig of the cedar branch growing into a great cedar. In one sense Jesus was deliberately subversive of the commonly held interpretation of Ezekiel’s vision. Jesus dropped the nationalistic implications, but made the vision even more expansive and remarkable. Jesus offered the image of a small mustard seed, having no obvious potential to grow into a mighty tree. The best that would be expected from a mustard seed would be for it to grow into a large bush before it succumbed in the fall. The mustard plant was a fragile annual, not a perennial and hardy like a tree, continually growing tall from its previous old growth.
It is so tempting to twist the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the seed growing day and night until the harvest, into a divine guarantee of the inevitability of obvious success. That is to say, if we are persistent enough or wait long enough, everyone will comprehend the unmistakable upward and onward progression of God’s mission. Make no mistake about it: the parables are not primarily parables about the recognition of success. The parables are about the virtually incomprehensible discrepancy between the way the world would like us to view things and how things operate, from how God values things and works. These two parables are about the discrepancy of the smallest seed of a yearly bush becoming a great tree, and of a seed neglected and thrown to the mercy of the elements and wild animals, yet yielding a bountiful crop.
There is an old story about a Sunday School teacher who emphasized to the class that Jesus invited the ordinary working men and women of the villages around Galilee to be his disciples and first followers. Jesus went out and visited their homes, ate at their tables, and blessed them. Then the class listed on newsprint the people Jesus went to first. The class decided that they probably included mothers with small children, shopkeepers, women and men who made rope, repaired boats and sails, fisher folk, farmers, even tax collectors and people who had been sick and unable to work for a long time. At the end of the long discussion, the teacher asked, “Well, what does this tell you about Jesus?” One student knew the answer immediately and blurted out, “It tells me Jesus sure was a lousy judge of character!” The child was precisely right. There is an incredible discrepancy in the way the world judges things, and what God sees in us and how God leads us in hope to become citizens of a new earth.
Today (at the 10:30 service) we are holding up in prayer and thanksgiving our nursery and Sunday School teachers. They include those involved in teaching our children, and those who guide our class of adults who in some way are especially challenged. In a larger sense, our youth ministry, our acolyte guild, the Education for Ministry Program, the adult and youth choirs and the bell choir are all linked together as part of our educational ministry.
Surely when we compare what happens here, with the teaching in the recital halls of Ithaca College or the research in the labs of Cornell, there seems to be a great discrepancy in importance and urgency. Yet God’s grace surely operates and occurs sometimes in sharp contrast to what we anticipate and in completely unanticipated moments. I think Jesus’ parables today speak to those who are willing to serve as Sunday School teachers and sometimes wonder if it’s worth it. Why is what happens in the rooms below the nave or parish house important? Why should we take it seriously? Because God’s gift of grace to humanity occurs in life changing ways, and God’s ways of measuring value persist and endure despite the scorn and derision of the world. I believe that the unpretentious sharing of the Gospel with children and the least of our brethren will have more profound and lasting effect than the marketing genius of Wal-Mart. On this day our society calls Father’s Day we might also affirm that those who are entrusted with the care and upbringing of children usually have far more influence for the health and spiritual well being of succeeding generations, than the world wishes to acknowledge once a year with a greeting card. For despite the great discrepancy of the world, God promises to redeem humanity and make all things whole. That may be incomprehensible for the common culture of the world, but that is precisely why we are called to proclaim and live out the Gospel.
And
I offer this to you in the name of the Living God, Amen.
