The Sprouting Seed
Second Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 6)
17th June 2012
Homily Preached at Trinity Episcopal Church
Ashland, Oregon
8:00 a.m. Spoken Mass; 10:00 a.m. Sung Mass
Ezekiel 17:22-end; Psalm 92:1-4, 11-14; 2 Cor 5:6-10, 14-17; Mark 4:26-34
8:00 a.m. Spoken Mass; 10:00 a.m. Sung Mass
Ezekiel 17:22-end; Psalm 92:1-4, 11-14; 2 Cor 5:6-10, 14-17; Mark 4:26-34
God, take away our hearts of stone and give us hearts of flesh. Amen.
What would the world look like if
everything were as it ought to be? What would it be like if God were
truly in charge, right here, right now, of everything? And the way from here to there—from this
messed up worlds where things are not what they ought to be, to one where
things are right—what does that process look like? Is it a political revolution or social
disaster? A gradual growth in good trends?
Or simply growth in personal piety and righteousness? Maybe the growing strength of an institution
like the Church?
How do we get from here to there? God’s reign—God fully in charge, right here
and now—how does that happen? This is a
question that Jesus regularly asked himself, and which became the core of his
teaching.
Mark says that Jesus’ message was a
joyful proclamation of the arrival of God to reign in power. “The time
has come. … God’s kingship has come near. Change your ways and believe
the happy news!” (Mark 1:14-15).
To understand what this means, we need
to look a little at the history of the times when Jesus lived.
Jesus lived at a time of world empire.
He grew up in Galilee, a minor client state on the fringes of the Roman Empire.
Rome had conquered, bought, and otherwise swallowed up all the world known to
people living around the Mediterranean. But the Pax Romana, like every “world
order” put in into place by force, was largely a creation of the state’s
propaganda machine: the leader of a nation about to swallowed up by Rome, is
famously reported to have said, “You crucify or enslave whole populations, burn
their cities and leave smoldering ruins in their place, and then use the word
“peace” to describe the burned-out desert you leave behind.” The state spin-doctors
would say again and again that the Emperor was God’s son, and that the Empire
was the order and peace intended by the Gods. Like our world today, this was a
place where might seemed to make right, and where money and power seemed to
count for everything.
Judas Maccabee
One of the peoples thus subjugated by Rome was Jesus’ own, the Jews. Just a century and a half before, they had hoped dearly for deliverance from all their foes and the establishment of God’s just and right kingdom. Judas Maccabee and his army threw off the harsh oppression of the Greek Seleucid kings left behind by Alexander the Great. The Book of Daniel, written at that time, had predicted that the Maccabees and their state would grow and grow, like a rock from the mountains cut out without hands, until it would fill the whole world and smash all systems of oppression and wrong. But that effort had gone seriously wrong. The Maccabees themselves became tyrannical, their rule oppressive and harsh, and their religious establishment hopelessly corrupt. The Temple itself became as much a symbol of oppressive taxes and impossible rules as of God’s presence on earth. Members of the Temple establishment, called Sadducees during Jesus’ time, became quickly the quisling darlings of the Romans. What Daniel had hoped would be the kingdom of God had become just another petty and corrupt oligarchy with a compromised religion and horrendous rulers.
Some Jews fled the Maccabean establishment and went into the Judean wilderness,
seeking to “prepare in the desert” a way for God’s true kingdom. They called
themselves the “sons of Zadok” or the “sons of Light,” and advocated a
separation of true believers from the rest of the world, whom they called “the
sons of darkness,” and believed they would one day destroy them in a great war
for God’s kingdom, together with the evil “Kittim,” or Romans. They are the
ones who wrote and left what are now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. Jewish
historian Josephus called them Essenes.
Others reacted to the collapse of political independence with the arrival of the Romans and to the clearly compromised credibility of the Temple authorities by calling for more and more rigorous study and application of the Law of Moses, and for greater and greater distinctions between Jews and non-Jews. We call these people the Pharisees, and it is from them that all modern Judaisms trace their teaching.
Others reacted to the political subjugation of the Jews by the Romans by calling for military rebellion. According to Josephus, a Galilean named Judas led a major revolt against Rome around A.D. 5 in reaction to a tax increase. The Romans crushed the revolt, and then crucified thousands of the defeated Jewish soldiers. A few surviving guerillas fought on as bandits and terrorists. They are called the Zealots, and were later to lead another revolt from Rome that would bring an end to the Temple, ancient Jerusalem, and most Jewish life in Palestine.
All of these groups in their different ways were trying to answer the question “the Reign of God—what does it look like and how will it come?” The Saduccees and Hasmoneans argued that the world as it ought to be was one fully compromised with the Imperial Power, and in which money, prestige, and control of the religious rites brought order. The Dead Seas Scrolls covenanters argued that the world as it ought to be was one where their kooky sectarian religion had conquered all others by force of arms in apocalyptic struggle. The Zealots thought the kingdom of God would come through force of arms. The Pharisees taught it would come through personal piety, scripture study and prayer, and following God’s commandments.
Others reacted to the collapse of political independence with the arrival of the Romans and to the clearly compromised credibility of the Temple authorities by calling for more and more rigorous study and application of the Law of Moses, and for greater and greater distinctions between Jews and non-Jews. We call these people the Pharisees, and it is from them that all modern Judaisms trace their teaching.
Others reacted to the political subjugation of the Jews by the Romans by calling for military rebellion. According to Josephus, a Galilean named Judas led a major revolt against Rome around A.D. 5 in reaction to a tax increase. The Romans crushed the revolt, and then crucified thousands of the defeated Jewish soldiers. A few surviving guerillas fought on as bandits and terrorists. They are called the Zealots, and were later to lead another revolt from Rome that would bring an end to the Temple, ancient Jerusalem, and most Jewish life in Palestine.
All of these groups in their different ways were trying to answer the question “the Reign of God—what does it look like and how will it come?” The Saduccees and Hasmoneans argued that the world as it ought to be was one fully compromised with the Imperial Power, and in which money, prestige, and control of the religious rites brought order. The Dead Seas Scrolls covenanters argued that the world as it ought to be was one where their kooky sectarian religion had conquered all others by force of arms in apocalyptic struggle. The Zealots thought the kingdom of God would come through force of arms. The Pharisees taught it would come through personal piety, scripture study and prayer, and following God’s commandments.
When Jesus first began to preach
publicly, it caused quite a stir. People were excited. Here was a prophet from
the backwards part of Palestine, Galilee, declaring that God was beginning to
act to establish his kingdom. “God’s kingship has come near, and is in your
midst.” He quoted Isaiah, saying the
time had come to declare liberation to the captive, freedom to the prisoner,
and sight to the blind. And when he began to heal people as part of his message
that God’s kingdom had arrived, they really started to flock to see him and
hear him. Would he overthrow the Romans? Would he thrown out the corrupt
priests from the Temple? Or would he just cause a stir and get himself and his
followers killed in the process? And then, of course, people started to ask him
how the Kingdom of God could have come already when the rule of evil, and of
the Evil Empire, was still all too evident. How could Jesus possibly mistake
his pathetic little gatherings for sermons and healings with the overthrow of
evil and the great and terrible Day of Judgment promised by the prophets?
Jesus told stories from everyday life as a means of letting people know about what he thought about these questions. Many of his parables begin with the words, “The kingdom of God (or, in Matthew, “of heaven”) is like…”
Jesus told stories from everyday life as a means of letting people know about what he thought about these questions. Many of his parables begin with the words, “The kingdom of God (or, in Matthew, “of heaven”) is like…”
What would it be like if God were truly
in charge, right here, right now? Jesus’
parables answer this question. They are directly
opposed to the answers of all those other groups around him. They
usually grab you and throw you for a loop—demand a change of perspectives and
overthrow conventional expectations, politics, and religion.
Today’s Gospel from Mark has two parables
using garden images: the seed growing on its own and the mustard plant.
God coming here and now, fully in
charge—It’s like a mustard plant: a
tiny seed that produces a huge plant. Most people think it is a weed and not a
cultivated crop. It grows in unusual places, unplanned, apart from human
control. If it is noticed, it is unwelcome. If it is some place no
one cares about, then it can go wild. It then will grow really big,
though it will never be what you call “mighty.” It does not measure up to
the usual images for God’s kingdom—vineyards, olive trees, or the great cedar
tree, which in the passage we read this morning form Ezekiel shelters the wild
birds in its branches. For Jesus, the kingdom is the mustard weed.
God coming here and now, fully in
charge—It’s like
a growing seed: it sprouts and grows all on its own
regardless of whether the person who planted it knows that it grows or
understands why it grows. Jesus says
that God’s kingdom comes mainly through God’s action. God will ultimately set
things right, and settle accounts, but that is not yet now, he says.
The kingdom, however, is already here, at work, he says. It is like a seed that sprouts and grows on its own, no matter whether see are aware of it, or understand how.
The kingdom won’t come through force of arms. The kingdom will not come merely through human acts. But it will come. It will come. Regardless of how bad things are, how much the evil triumph and the righteous suffer, how overwhelming the imperial power seems to be or how corrupt the religious establishment is, it will come. God actually is in charge, and God’s reign is here and now. And its full manifestation will come. Trusting in God means not worrying that it will, because it will. It is like a seed growing on its own.
People around Jesus had all sorts of ways to excuse God for not acting, or to try to force God to act, or to act in God’s stead. Jesus focuses on the core issue, the trustworthiness of God. That seed will sprout regardless of us, and will result in something so surprising and so huge that the whole world can shelter in it.
We need to trust in God. We cannot let our impatience get in the way of this trust. We cannot let our laziness get in the way of this trust. We cannot let our pride and desire to control things and have them our way get in the way. We need to surrender to God, and know, in the words of the prayer, that he is doing for us more than we can ask or imagine. That doesn’t mean we are off the hook and don’t have to do anything. But it means the first thing we have to do is trust and realize it is God at work, not us. We have to let God change us and move us to do the works of his kingdom. But again, the seed sprouts and grows on its own. We simply need to let go and let God. We need to get our will and ego out of the way, and let God do his surprising, wonderful thing.
The kingdom, however, is already here, at work, he says. It is like a seed that sprouts and grows on its own, no matter whether see are aware of it, or understand how.
The kingdom won’t come through force of arms. The kingdom will not come merely through human acts. But it will come. It will come. Regardless of how bad things are, how much the evil triumph and the righteous suffer, how overwhelming the imperial power seems to be or how corrupt the religious establishment is, it will come. God actually is in charge, and God’s reign is here and now. And its full manifestation will come. Trusting in God means not worrying that it will, because it will. It is like a seed growing on its own.
People around Jesus had all sorts of ways to excuse God for not acting, or to try to force God to act, or to act in God’s stead. Jesus focuses on the core issue, the trustworthiness of God. That seed will sprout regardless of us, and will result in something so surprising and so huge that the whole world can shelter in it.
We need to trust in God. We cannot let our impatience get in the way of this trust. We cannot let our laziness get in the way of this trust. We cannot let our pride and desire to control things and have them our way get in the way. We need to surrender to God, and know, in the words of the prayer, that he is doing for us more than we can ask or imagine. That doesn’t mean we are off the hook and don’t have to do anything. But it means the first thing we have to do is trust and realize it is God at work, not us. We have to let God change us and move us to do the works of his kingdom. But again, the seed sprouts and grows on its own. We simply need to let go and let God. We need to get our will and ego out of the way, and let God do his surprising, wonderful thing.
In the name of God,
Amen.
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