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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.
I am glad to be back with you after one week of vacation. During that week I spent time with my mother, including planting plants and feeding birds at her home, activities that provided at least me easy points of contact with Jesus’s two parables in today’s Gospel Reading. Of course, few, if any, of us have scattered any seed on the ground in the fashion of the farmers of Jesus’s day, much less a small mustard seed, but by the enabling of the Holy Spirit we are able both to hear these two extended figures of speech and to understand from them that “God’s Kingdom grows as our dwelling place”.
As the Divinely‑inspired St. Mark tells it, although skipped over by our series of appointed Gospel Readings, some 25 verses earlier Jesus from a boat had begun teaching a very large crowd that had gathered about Him beside the sea—teaching them many things in parables (Mark 4:1-2). Such parables usually have one main point of comparison between the story told and the “real” story, which one main point of comparison leads to the parable’s central truth—a central truth sometimes expressed in the Gospel accounts and other times left unexpressed, as in today’s Gospel Reading. In the case of the so-called “Parable of the Seed Growing”, the Kingdom of God is as a seed that, at first, grows out of sight but, more importantly, grows without any further intervention of the man who scattered the seed, at least until the harvest. And, in the case of the so-called “Parable of the Mustard Seed”, the Kingdom of God is compared to one of the smallest of seeds that grows and becomes a shrub, larger than all of the other garden plants, one with large branches, so that the birds of the air can be at home in its shade.
Unlike with other parables, St. Mark in today’s Gospel Reading does not tell us particularly why Jesus told these two parables to that particular crowd, although we can easily imagine that there were those in the crowd listening to Jesus then who might have not followed Him or would have fallen away from Him because the Kingdom of God at first might have appeared not to grow or might have been so small. Likewise, there might be some in the crowd listening to Jesus now who might not follow Him or might fall away from Him because the Kingdom of God might still appear not to be growing or might be too small. We may wrongly be frustrated when our congregation does not appear to us to be growing, or at least when it does not appear to us to be growing as we may think it should be growing (confer TLSB, ad loc Mark 4:26‑29, p.1663). We may wrongly have lost faith in God’s Word and Sacraments as His means of growing His Church in general and our congregation in particular, and so we may wrongly think that we need to change His message or enhance His message somehow in order for His Church and our congregation to grow (confer Lenski, ad loc Mark 4:27, p.188).
If we do not sin in those ways, we sin in countless other ways, for we are sinful by nature. Any sin, as our sinful nature itself, warrants both death here in time and torment in hell for eternity, unless, enabled by God, we repent of our sin and trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake. The harvest day of judgment is coming, at our deaths or at the Lord’s return, whichever comes first, and, at that time, we will do well if we are bearing the fruits of repentance and faith. For, when we repent and believe, then God forgives our sin, all our sin, whatever our sin might be.
In commenting on the two parables of today’s Gospel Reading, one relatively-recent author refers to the preceding so-called “Parable of a Lamp under a Basket” and points to Jesus Christ as Him Who is revealed by the sowing of the seed, the preaching of the Word, until the harvest (Scharlemann, Parables, 51-52), and another recent author points to Jesus as Him Whose appearance, like that of the mustard seed, is also deceiving (Voelz, ad loc Mark 4:30-32, p.324). To be sure, the God-man Jesus Christ is the embodiment of the Kingdom of God, and, by His death on the cross for our sins, we are reconciled to God. As the Divinely-inspired St. Paul put it in today’s Epistle Reading (2 Corinthians 5:1-17), One has died for all. Jesus died in our place, the death that we otherwise would have deserved, and His resurrection from the grave shows that God the Father accepted His sacrifice on our behalf. Such is what the love of God leads to! When we as individuals trust that Jesus died for us, then God forgives our sins—sins such as both our being frustrated by the growth of His Church and our losing faith in His Word and Sacraments as His means of growing His Church.
His Word and Sacraments are not only His means of growing His Church, but His Word and Sacraments are also His means of forgiving our sins. As today’s Gospel Reading says, Jesus in many such parables spoke the Word about Himself, sowing the seed, to the crowd then, so those whom Jesus has sent read and preach His Word, sowing the seed, to crowds such as this one now. And, those whom Jesus has sent apply His Gospel to individuals with water in Holy Baptism, with touch in Holy Absolution, and with the bread and wine of the Sacrament of the Altar that are His Body given for us and His Blood shed for us, for the forgiveness of sins, and so also for life and salvation. My mother and I may have been feeding the birds at her home, but, in a vision of the Old Testament, a miraculously-grown tree feeds the birds of the air who lived in its branches (Daniel 4:12), even as those who are a part of the Kingdom of God are fed by Him Who Himself embodies the Kingdom of God.
That, apart from our as pastor and people in this congregation faithfully preaching the Gospel and rightly administering the Sacraments, we do nothing of ourselves to grow the Kingdom of God can be miss-taken as if we do nothing at all. In fact, we also live out our lives doing good works according to our various callings in life. Today’s Epistle Reading said that Christ died for all so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for Him Who for their sake died and was raised. Such good works are also part of the fruit that we bear until the harvest day of our judgment comes. Until then, we find, in the Kingdom of God, not only food but also shelter, and the resulting peace and rest. Today’s Old Testament Reading (Ezekiel 17:22-24) is part of the rich Old Testament background for the so-called “Parable of the Mustard Seed”, especially with every kind of bird “nesting” in the shade of the tree of the Lord’s planting (confer Ezekiel 31:6; Daniel 4:21). While “nesting” is a fair translation in the context of the Old Testament Reading, and “making nests” is a fair translation in the context of the Gospel Reading, both the Hebrew and Greek verbs used in those places refer more generally to dwelling and to resting, dwelling and resting in God’s protection, suggested by the shade of the tree.
Homeowners’ landscaping and bird-feeding efforts only seem to have no end, but “God’s Kingdom grows as our dwelling place”, now for eternity. We do not need to worry but can be sure that Kingdom of God is growing and will surprise us by its final state. When we do worry, or when we sin in other ways, with daily repentance and faith, we live in God’s forgiveness of sins. Then, until all else is overthrown and we see fully the victorious exercise of His dominion, we can and do sleep and rise night and day and, in the words of today’s Introit (Psalm 92:12-15; antiphon v.1), we give thanks to the Lord and sing praises to the Name of the Most High.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +