Scripture Lesson

From Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 13:

³¹ He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; ³²it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.’

³³ He told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’

⁴⁴ ‘The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which someone found and hid; then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

⁴⁵ ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; ⁴⁶on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.

⁴⁷ ‘Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; ⁴⁸when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. ⁴⁹So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous ⁵⁰and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

⁵¹ ‘Have you understood all this?’ They answered, ‘Yes.’ ⁵²And he said to them, ‘Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old.’

From Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 17:

²⁰He said to them, ‘Because of your little faith. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there”, and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.’

"Seeds and Kingdoms"

A Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Jean Niven Lenk

at the First Congregational Church of Stoughton

United Church of Christ

I’d like to start off with a story…

A group of alumni, highly established in their careers, got together to visit their old university professor. The conversation soon turned into complaints about stress in work and life.

Offering his guests coffee, the professor went to the kitchen and returned with a large pot of coffee and an assortment of cups -- porcelain, plastic, glass, crystal, some plain-looking, some expensive, and some exquisite. He told his students to help themselves to the coffee.

After they all had taken a cup of coffee, the professor said: "If you noticed, all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken up, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is but normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress.

"Be assured that the cup itself adds no quality to the coffee. In most cases, it's just more expensive, and in some cases, even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was coffee, not the cup, but you consciously went for the best cups...and then began eyeing each other's cups.

"Now consider this: Life is the coffee, and jobs, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life, and the type of cup we have neither defines nor changes the quality of life we live. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the coffee God has provided us."

God brews the coffee, not the cups... enjoy your coffee.1

Nice story, isn’t it? And a good lesson for all of us. And if I were a betting person, I’d be willing to wager that this story may be one aspect of this morning’s worship you remember after you have gone on to your Sunday afternoon activities.

That’s the way it is with stories – they tend to stick in our minds better, and make a point more effectively, than a lecture.

How about these mustard seeds that you have all received – did you realize how small they are? When you hear Jesus’ words that “faith the size of a mustard seed can move mountains” while you’re holding this tiny speck, it has a greater impact.

Stories and visuals – these are ways to make an impression, to get your point across. Good preachers know this.

And so did the greatest preacher of them all, Jesus. He used parables and examples from everyday life to make an impact on his audience. This was especially important in a time when there was no printing press or television or internet. Jesus couldn’t expect the members of his audience to go back and re-read his sermons on his website just in case they had missed some of what he was trying to say.

And he was trying to tell his followers something new and different, something that may have been hard for them to understand at first. He was trying to get across the idea of the Kingdom of Heaven.

The people who thronged to hear Jesus preach knew about earthly kingdoms; afterall, the early church was under the tyranny of the Roman empire, and three generations of Herods ruled in Palestine during Jesus’ life.

But the Kingdom of Heaven was a foreign concept to Jesus’ followers, one that was hard for them to grasp. It had nothing to do with power, honor or wealth and everything to do with following Christ and living our lives for others as he did.

And so, Jesus – the master preacher -- told stories, which helped to open their eyes and unplug their ears, and change their hearts and minds – indeed, transform their very lives? And to connect with his followers, Jesus used images drawn from the fabric of daily life in ancient Palestine. In his 40 parables throughout the Gospels, he taught his audience about God with similes about weeds and wineskins and fig trees and lost sheep; in this way, he was able to capture their attention and draw them in in order that they might change their way of thinking and seeing things.

In the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus tells several of these parables. The Kingdom of Heaven is like… a treasure hidden in a field. A worker digging in the field comes upon the treasure, and he sells everything he has to buy the field so the treasure will belong to him.

And the Kingdom of Heaven is also like a merchant in search of fine pearls… When he finds the pearl, he sells everything in order to buy it. Such is the Kingdom of Heaven: a treasure worth everything you have.

And, the Kingdom of Heaven is like… yeast, which transforms a small amount of dough into enough bread to feed a crowd.

And the Kingdom of Heaven is like… a grain of mustard seed, one of the smallest seeds on earth, yet when it is planted, it grows so large that the birds can make nests in its branches. In ancient Palestine, the mustard plant was a common garden weed – kind of like our modern-day dandelions – but such is the King of Heaven: from small, common beginnings can grow something great.

This Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus proclaimed was far different than what his audience was anticipating. In a day when many wanted a military power to challenge the tyranny of Roman rule, Jesus preached that God’s Kingdom is not about power or domination, but of love and generosity and service to others. Rather than being a geographic location, “The Kingdom of God,” Jesus said, “is within you.” It is a relationship between us; it is wherever God’s forgiveness and mercy are felt and lived out among us. It is wherever God and neighbor are loved. It is wherever there is reconciliation and healing, wherever the hungry are fed, the lowly uplifted, the stranger welcomed, and injustice fought.

In this morning’s lesson, God invites us to be part of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth by letting the seed of faith– even it’s only the size of a mustard seed – to let it grow into something big; God invites us to let the leaven of our faith – no matter how small the portion – let it expand into something great.

We might think that in order to make the world a better place, our faith must be bigger, deeper, stronger than it is. But Jesus says to his disciples – and to each one of us -- “If you have the faith the size of a mustard seed, you will move mountains and nothing will be impossible for you.”

No matter how small our faith seems to be, each of us in our own way can reflect the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth and be instruments of God. In the words of St. Francis, “Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy…” Although we may think our faith is insufficient to the task -- dwarfed by the difficulties and challenges of our lives, and by our own separation from God -- Jesus gives us a different message; God can take what seems to be small and insignificant, and can accomplish far more than we could ever imagine.

What is important is not how large our faith is, but how open we are to God’s working in us and through us. Although we may feel inadequate to the task God calls us to, we have what is needed for God to do extraordinary things through our ordinary lives. Let us reflect God’s Kingdom here on earth, being instruments of God’s peace, and conduits of God’s unconditional and overflowing love. Amen.