Third Sunday After Pentecost
The Rev. Rod Sprange

Feeding and Weeding (Mark 4:26-34)

Mary Holmen sent Susan a text message with this joke: A priest, a minister and a rabbit walk into a bar. The bartender asks, “What’s going on here”, the rabbit replied, “I don’t know, I’m only here because of autocorrect”.

And that has absolutely nothing to do with this reflection, other than to recognize the very different lifestyles and challenges we face today, compared to the lives of those first century Palestinian Jews who listened to Jesus’s teaching. It’s good to keep that in mind as we hear the retelling of the parables.

The crowds would often ask Jesus to tell them what the Kingdom of God is like. He would begin with something like this. “The Kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground…” or; “The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed”. When asked to explain what the Kingdom of God is and will be like, Jesus always used parables - side-by-side comparisons, the word parable comes from the same root as parallel. Jesus never gave an actual description of the Kingdom of God. I think this is partly because the Kingdom of God is not a place, its a way of being. It is when humankind lives in close relationship with God our Creator; living our lives as God intended, doing so, not out of fear, but out of love for God, our neighbours and all creation. It’s what we pray in the Lord’s prayer “…Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven”.

If we are to do God’s will, live as God intends for us, we need to have a good understanding of God. That was a large part of Jesus’s mission, as Emmanuel, God with us, to teach us about and show us God’s true nature. And, to give us a person who so embodies God’s nature that it makes it possible for us mere mortals to be in close relationship with the divine.

I love to explore the parables and try to see and hear what Jesus’s is saying beyond the simple story. I think it is harder for us, in this century, to get the point, because it’s harder for us to recognize and be shocked by the incongruities that would have been so obvious to Palestinian peasants of the first century.

I’m sure we all remember the parable of the lost sheep. Jesus says “What person, having a hundred sheep, losing one, wouldn’t leave the 99 and go to find the one that was lost?” I think those listening to him over 2000 years ago, would likely have looked at each other and said “no one would do that, you’d be risking all the other sheep“. So, if the owner of the sheep, presumably a shepherd, is supposed to represent God, it means God thinks and acts differently than us. And what about the woman who lost a coin with high value. She spends all day cleaning out the house to find that coin. What does she do when she finds it? She is so pleased, she rejoices by inviting all her neighbours in for a big party - probably spending more on the celebration than the value of the coin. If the woman represents God, then God clearly values things differently than do we.

Today in Mark’s account of the Gospel, Jesus told the crowds two parables comparing the Kingdom of God to seeds. Later, Jesus would take his disciples aside and explain their meaning in private. But we are left to figure it out for ourselves - well with the help of all the great scholars and theologians who have explored these texts before us. But we need to do our own work, not just rely on what someone else has written. It’s in doing the work, on our own and in groups, that we really learn and through learning gain understanding. David Lose, in his very accessible book ‘Making Sense of Scripture’ says of the text, that we need to really and carefully listen to the text, but also we need to look in front of, behind, around and inside the text. With any text context is crucial to understanding. He says we need to look at the context of the text itself in relation to the text that precedes and follows it; and the context of the author and the author’s intended audience.

Therefore try and keep the following examples in mind when we look at this text:

1. Jesus was teaching in a time when the people of Israel were desperately and impatiently awaiting the arrival of Messiah - a messiah who they expected would be much like King David, a king who would lead them to victory over the Romans and restore Israel to power, and bring about a new era of peace and justice when all worship the God of Israel.
2. At the time of Mark’s writing (around the year 70) there was great unrest and acts of rebellion against the Romans. This would soon result in the iron fist of Rome striking hard against Israel and even destroying the temple in Jerusalem.
3. At the time of Mark’s writing, some of Jesus’s followers were getting anxious. They had expected Jesus to return within a short period of time following his resurrection and ascension. Many were starting to wonder if he really had been Messiah. Was he really coming back? When would God’s promises of redemption for Israel happen? Some were losing hope
4. Scripture often referred to great nations and their leaders as being mighty trees, like the Cedars of Lebanon.

Jesus said about the coming Kingdom of God; “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.” The sower doesn’t know how the dead seed comes to life under the ground and sprouts and grows and eventually produces the harvest. All this happens in God’s good time. There is nothing the sower can do to speed it up. He just has to go about his normal rhythm of life, sleeping and waking, until God’s miracle of life, growth and harvest is complete. But he needs to be ready to bring in the harvest as soon as it is ready. It’s a time of waiting and preparation.

So that’s what the coming of the Kingdom is like. Jesus is saying. The seed has been sown, even now it is germinating and growing, the full harvest will be complete in God’s time.

Then Jesus compared the Kingdom of God to a mustard seed. The mustard seed is indeed a tiny little seed that grows into a shrub up to 8 feet tall - hardly a majestic tree like the Cedars of Lebanon. But the mustard plant, once in a field, would spread like a weed. Many farmers didn’t want it in their fields. The powerful people of Jerusalem didn’t want Jesus sewing his Gospel seed in their field. They could see how it could germinate among the poor and quickly grow beyond their power to stop it. Once the word had been sown and started to germinate, it proved to be impossible to stop from thriving and spreading. The Kingdom of God is not about power and might it is about abundance of life. The Gospel infects those who hear and accept it.

I was pleased to see that the opening hymn David had chosen for this morning referred to both good and bad seed growing intertwined. We need to do everything in our power to spread the good seed, the Gospel, both in our words and in our actions. But the fruits of bad seed are ever present and we need to help with the weeding. And that starts with taking an honest look at what has been sown in us.

One particularly bad seed that is unfortunately flourishing right now, is the seed of prejudice. This last week we have seen the tragic results of the seed of prejudice flowering into racial and religious hatred and terrible violence.

I wish we would be more careful with language and talk more about prejudice, rather than label everything as racism. Don’t get me wrong, racism is only too alive and well and we must not tolerate it. But the problem I see is that not many of us would see ourselves or our actions as racist, but we would be deluding ourselves if we did not admit to holding prejudices. It is not possible to grow from a child to an adult without developing prejudices - we learn prejudice from experience and from hearing others stereotype groups of people different from us, different in race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religious belief, level of wealth, educational standing. You name it, we can find a way to be prejudiced.

Until, and unless, we acknowledge our own prejudices, we can’t rationalize them and eradicate them. We may unwittingly influence or injure others by our thoughtless words or actions. Unfortunately, prejudice too easily develops into intolerance, dislike and fear of others, just because they are different than us. We need to take great care over which seed, sown in us, we feed and nurture. The seed of the Gospel bears the fruit of love, trust, compassion, kindness, generosity, and hospitality. The seed of prejudice bears the fruit of racism, hatred, distrust, anger, violence, judgment and intolerance.

It is very hard to change the hearts and minds of committed racists, and so, we need to deal with prejudice before it grows into bigotry and hatred. We must confront prejudice when and wherever we experience it, we must not tolerate stereotyping, or hurtful jokes, however innocently told. We must be willing to speak up. As always trying to speak truth in love.

I invite you this week, at an opportune time, to examine your heart for signs of your own prejudices and pray about what you might do about them. Will you be courageous and write down your thoughts, to have available to remind yourself? This is not intended as an act of creating guilt, but an opportunity for personal growth.

I want to close by sharing this prayer that Bishop Geoff sent to diocesan clergy this week.

Let us pray

God, creator and protector of all,
use us to gently love, heal and nurture Fayez Afzaal
and the families and nations of the 215 beautiful lives,
may your spirit begin to repair the damage left by terror,
deep sorrow, and the betrayal in the human family.

Touch us with your rage, as a hot coal might touch our lips,
so that we might act upon your truth and justice,
with strong conviction, unmuted voices
and deep compassion for the family you have made for yourself.

We have grieved your soul, O God, by our inactivity and careless behaviour,
forgive our sins of complacency and ignorance;
help us to remain vulnerable for and to our neighbour,
teaching us to respect the dignity of every person
and find you waiting there to greet us.

We ask this in the name of Christ,
who holds us to the truth. Amen.