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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
After the wet spring we have had, our needing more rain, such as that we received yesterday, seems a little hard to imagine. Yet, the recent seasonable heat is apparently taking its toll on some vegetation; for example, Carl last week told me how the heat was hurting his raspberries. We realize all plants need the right combination of various conditions to thrive, and we are used to looking at plants and gauging their health by outward evidence related to their growth. Corn is supposed to be knee‑high by the Fourth of July, at least in Wisconsin; in Illinois, corn was more like head‑high by the Fourth of July. Obviously, the same judgment does not apply in every case, especially not in the case of the “Kingdom Growth” described in today’s Gospel Reading.
In today’s Gospel Reading, Jesus is again speaking the Word in parables. Instead of parables such as we heard last Sunday about how a divided kingdom or house cannot stand (Mark 3:20-35), in today’s Gospel Reading the two parables are about the growth of the Kingdom of God. Unique to St. Mark’s Divinely‑inspired Gospel account, the first of today’s two parables teaches that, after the seed is scattered like grain, the Kingdom of God grows without human intervention. Reported in two other Gospel accounts (Matthew 13:31-32; Luke 13:18-19) but heard only on this day in our series of readings, the second of today’s two parables teaches that, like a small sown grain of black mustard seed becomes a large plant, the Kingdom of God starts small but ends large. Both parables’ teachings are true: the Kingdom Grows, whether or not we completely understand or along the way observe the “Kingdom Growth”.
To be sure, by most observable human measures, the Kingdom of God is not growing the way we might like or otherwise expect. What are thought of as mainline Christian denominations in the United States are generally declining across the board, and, while the Missouri Synod may not be shrinking as much as other so‑called “Lutheran” bodies, the Missouri Synod is not growing as it once did. Synod and District leaders might quibble about the numbers, but even the Texas District with all its new mission plants is not really gaining new members. And, our own Pilgrim congregation by God’s grace may gain a couple of people from time to time, but we also lose a couple here and there, too. We are not scattering the seed as we should, but we fool ourselves if we think that we need to do something else beyond that. Blending, cross-breeding, or otherwise hybridizing the seed are not going to do any good. Fear, frustration, and over‑anxiousness all are ultimately sinful, as is taking offense from what we think is an apparent lack of growth in the true Church. And, forsaking the true Church for one that appears to be growing more only leaves us in our sin, to suffer the eternal damnation we deserve on account of our sin and our sinful natures.
Today’s Epistle Reading (2 Corinthians 5:1-10) reminds us that either at our individual deaths or when the Lord comes the final time “we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he [or she] has done in the body, whether good or evil.” With such words, God calls us to repent: to turn from our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than to keep on sinning. So, we repent! We repent of not scattering the seed as we should. We repent of thinking, speaking, or acting as if “Kingdom Growth” in any way depends on us. We repent of our sinful reactions to what appears to be too small or inauspicious of a Kingdom, and we repent of all of our sin. When we so repent, then God forgives our sin. God forgives our sinful natures and all our sin. God forgives whatever our sin might be, for the sake of Jesus Christ, our Savior.
Like His Kingdom that is small and inauspicious at the start, Jesus seems to be an unlikely Christ and Savior. Conceived and raised “in a distant and despised province”, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity hardly seemed to be a special man. Having taught for some three years, He really seemed to have made only “a few converts, chiefly among the poor and unlearned”. Then, He seemed to fall “into the hands of His enemies”; He suffered and finally died a shameful death on a cross. (Trench, Parables, 113.) What kind of a Savior is that? Over what kind of a Kingdom can He be anointed? Yet, God the Father chose to work through such a King and Kingdom. The God-man Jesus’s death on the cross made up for all your sin and mine. His resurrection proves God the Father accepted His sacrifice on our behalf. The Holy Spirit, working through God’s Word in all its forms, leads us to turn from our sin and trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake. When we so turn and trust, then God truly forgives our sin, through that same Word in all its forms.
Today’s Gospel Reading repeatedly mentions Jesus’s speaking: He spoke the Word to them, as they were able to hear it, in terms familiar to their experience, the parables themselves in some sense “means of grace” (Scaer, CLD VIII:177). But, the parables almost seem too ordinary, like water, a human pastor, bread, and wine. The Savior, His Kingdom, and His means of grace seem small and inauspicious. Yet, as with the Savior and His Kingdom, so also with His means of grace: these are the ways God has chosen to work. The water of Holy Baptism, the words from a pastor in preaching and individual Holy Absolution, the bread and wine that is Jesus’s body and blood in Holy Communion—they create and sustain faith that receives what they give—the forgiveness of sins by grace for Jesus Christ’s sake. They grow the true Church, and they also “mark” the assembly of the true Church, even if not everyone who so assembles is necessarily part of the true Church.
Appearances can be deceiving. Corn knee‑high by the Fourth of July in Illinois is not going to produce fruit in a long, hot summer. False churches can appear to be healthy and growing but still not be a part of the true Church, the Kingdom of God, which in a sense is somewhat concealed and inconspicuous in the hearts of people who are at the same time sinners and saints. Until the Lord returns the final time, hypocrites and false Christians remain mixed in the church as we see it. Still, there are those who, in the words of today’s Introit (Psalm 92:12-15; antiphon: Psalm 92:1), “are planted in the house of the Lord”, who “flourish in the courts of our God”, who “still bear fruit in old age”, declaring “that Lord is upright,” their rock, in Whom is no unrighteousness. So, we scatter the seed, and we wait patiently and confidently, knowing that the Kingdom grows apart from our efforts, even if we sleep! “Kingdom Growth” comes according to God’s plan, in His way and time. Now, the Kingdom may seem to be insignificant, but on the last day its true greatness will be seen by the whole world.
Until then, we live in the forgiveness of sins, by faith and not by sight. We might be able to judge plants in our yard or house, but with the same judgment we misjudge “Kingdom Growth”. Whether or not we know precisely how, from a small grain of black mustard seed can grow a ten‑foot tall plant with large branches, with leaves to shade nests and seeds for food. Already now we believers are the birds of the air, as it were, who come to that plant, the Church. Jesus’s second parable today drew on the prophecy we heard in the Old Testament Reading (Ezekiel 17:22-24; confer Ezekiel 3:16; Daniel 4:14, 21), which prophecy the Lord God made centuries earlier through Ezekiel. Already now, but all the more on the Last Day and for eternity, we and all believers in Christ rest in His shelter and protection. The Lord God has spoken, and He will do it.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +