HEAVEN GROWS - by Revd Gilbert Wong

Scriptures:    Mark 4:26-34; 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13

First Sunday After Trinity 18 June 2006

Prayer:

God of truth, help us to keep your law of love and to walk in ways of wisdom, that we may find true life in Jesus Christ your Son.  Amen.

Title:   Heaven grows

Sermon in a sentence:   The church grows by the grace of God. 

INTRODUCTION

The title is Heaven Grows.  The emphasis is on heaven as the source of growth which follows the principles of the Kingdom of God.  And these principles are for Christians to understand for spiritual growth in our church as well as to influence the world with the same kingdom values.

CONTEXT

There are two parables in Mark 4:26-34.  .  Jesus specifically labels the third and fourth parables (the ones in our Gospel lesson) as kingdom parables (4:26, 30) - the Growing Seed (4:26-29), and the Mustard Seed (4:30-32).

I want to ask three questions to help us understand these two parables.

WHAT IS A PARABLE AND ITS PURPOSE?

A parable is a simple story used to illustrate moral or religious lessons.  And Jesus uses parable effectively to share the kingdom values to his hearers particularly the outsiders.  As for his inner circle of disciples, he would spend time explaining to them privately (Read Mark 6:34).  But why did Jesus do that?  Mark explains it this way in Mark 6:33, “With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand.”  It appears that some could discern what Jesus is saying and some could not.  Is a parable so difficult to understand?

"He did not speak to them except in parables" (v. 34).  "For Mark's Gospel this is not entirely accurate, for Jesus will teach publicly without parables on numerous occasions (for example, 6:1-2; 7:14-15; 8:34; 10:1).  Perhaps Mark means that Jesus spoke to the crowds about the nature of the kingdom of God only in this indirect manner (open proclamation is suggested in 1:15)" (Hare, 60).

I want to suggest that the ability to understand parable is surely upon the hearers.  And this I believe has nothing to do with Jesus’ not wanting to spoon-feed them.  Discernment and perception are not something that could be acquired without effort.  Understanding spiritual lessons is an art, a craft which takes time to cultivate.  It is very much like appreciating paintings.  At first glance, nothing could be said about the painting.  But if one could take time to appreciate and observe and examine certain characteristics of the painting in question, it would reveal amazing lessons.  It is very much like the painting of the Prodigal Son of which a spiritual writer wrote an entire book on it.  In the same way, as Christians, we should not assume that we can understand God’s Word swiftly and at will.  It would take time to develop an art of appreciating God’s Word and that could only come by regularly reading and meditating on God’s Word.

It seems clear then that those who are outside of Jesus’ inner group of disciples are not able to perceive as well as the inner disciples.  Only those who have been well soaked in God’s Word are they able to discern and perceive the meaning of the parables well.  Even some of Jesus’ inner circle of disciples who are supposedly better trained would at times not perceive what Jesus is getting at.

For us today, it should be clear to us why some of us find it difficult to know God’s will.  Partly, it is because we have not trained our minds to think the ways of God.  His Word is our only material for us to meditate.  According the John’s gospel, the Holy Spirit brings only what Jesus has taught which is recorded in Scripture for us.  We should develop the knack for the things of God with regular use and meditation on his Word.  It is very much like some of us who have developed through use of use a knack for our work.  We usually use the phrase ‘the second nature’ which simply means that the craft is naturalized into that person’s life.  We as Christians should do just that.

With what parable is and its purpose more or less answered, let us look at what lessons are taught in these parables.

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE LESSON TAUGHT IN THESE PARABLES?

There are two lessons that I want to share with you.

Firstly, we shall not judge by appearance

The reading of 1 Samuel tells us that we as humans are tempted to look at the appearance of things.  We are taking about small things but even in big important things we are tempted to do that.  You know the story of how Samuel was attracted the outward appearance of the one of the sons that was brought before him.  God reminded Samuel before more sons are passed before him that “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him.  The Lord does not look at things man looks at.  Man looks at outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Sam. 16:7).

Nowadays with all these beauty care and slimming outlets flooding Singapore in every corner, men are tempted to look at outward beauty as the end all and be all of ladies.  Husbands are pressuring and even spending thousands of dollars on their spouses and even the wives themselves are under a lot of pressure to look slim and beautiful.  I am not against all these.  But I am simply emphasizing the point that outward appearance to us humans matter so much until we are responding to it in unprecedented ways.  TV programmes like “Extreme Makeover” and the likes are filling our minds as to what beauty is.

Proverbs has this to say in 31:30, “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.”  In other words, outward appearance is very deceiving and temporary.  If you are in love with a lady because she is sexy and beautiful without an inner beauty than your love for her (if it should be called love at all) is going to very short-lived. 

So husbands and fathers accepted your spouses.  Henry war Beecher whose words are printed in your bulletin that “The most important thing a father can do for his children is to love their mother.”  And of course, I am expecting you to change over night but to encourage you to love your wives as time progress through the first years of marriage right up to the last years of marriage.  We grow together as Christian spouses as David Gottesman says (it is in your bulletin again) that Fathers, like mothers, are not born.  Men grow into fathers – and fathering is a very important stage in their development.” 

The intriguing thing about not trusting on outward appearance is that growth is essentially invisible to the human eyes.  When did anyone of us ever see our children growing up right in front of our eyes?  But they certainly different in stature months later.  But they do not just grow up in a second.  Growth comes progressively and daily imperceptible to the human eyes. 

That is why the Parable of the Growing Seed is telling us.  The farmer sows as usual, waters as usual, harvest as usual.  In other words, he works dutifully.  He sleeps too.  While he is doing these things and more, he as the Bible tells us in Mark 4:26-27 does not know how the seed grows.  “A man scatters seed on the ground.  Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.”  And moreover, God has implanted life in that seed and “All by itself the soil produces grain – first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.”  The logical progression of growth takes place.  There is nothing miraculous about the stage of growth.  Mark deliberately set up the stages of growth in order to show us that there is nothing amazing about the stages.  What is amazing that it is invisible to the human eyes as to how the seed actually grows?

That itself is the hand of God.  We ought to be less anxious of what result we would get as we continue to serve the community.  There is going to be growth and it is in the nature of seed to grow.  And how it grows is not something we can determine either in terms of quality or quantity.  That is why measuring a church based solely on numerical growth is highly dangerous and I would argue heretical and erroneous.  We are tasked to be faithful and dutiful to the charges that God has given us as a church.  How it is to grow not something we have control over.

Pastors are usually under self-induced pressure to be like the mega churches.  They played the number games to their own perils.  The Bible clearly teaches that while we work real hard as God’s grace enables us, we are not to spend hours getting depressed over the results.  Growth will certainly come but in what forms or number may not be what we expect. 

As Helen Keller who is deaf and blind says this, “I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.  Green, the historian, tells us that the world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pulses of each honest worker.”

So do not be discouraged when things are not growing at the pace and at the way that your investment should expect.  But rather be faithful and dutiful to the tasks that are laid before.  Do you best and let God handles the rest.

The second lesson that these two parables teach us is that...

Secondly, we should not be afraid to start small

Generally, we want success at the shortest possible time and at the lowest possible cost.  That is how sometimes start-up companies try to pursue relentlessly.  But that is not how our kingdom works. 

The kingdom of God is like this slow but steady growth.  We preach and invite and witness, but the results are overwhelmingly ordinary -- a few children come forward to listen to the children's sermon -- an awkward teenager presents himself for baptism or confirmation -- a young couple chooses to be married in the church -- a men's group studies a popular Christian book -- a women's group raises money to buy a heifer for people on the other side of the world.  It seems not to amount to much of anything, but the seed is growing!  God is present!  Watch out!  Get on board!

Let us look at the second parable in some details, the Parable of the Mustard Seed.  "So that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade" (v. 32).  Nesting birds serve to illustrate the large size of the mustard plant, but might serve another purpose as well -- hinting at the inclusion of Gentiles in the kingdom.  The Old Testament presents the image of birds nesting in the branches of trees on several occasions where the wording is inclusive, i.e., "in the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every kind" (Ezekiel 17:23) -- "in its shade all great nations lived" (Ezekiel 31:6) -- "from it all living beings were fed" (Daniel 4:12) -- and "which provided food for all" (Daniel 4:21).  However, if the inclusion of Gentiles is intended here, it is a secondary emphasis.  The primary point is the contrast between the small beginnings of the kingdom and the certainty of its great future.

There are some of us who may be thinking that you amount to nothing given the huge task of what God may be calling you to do.  You could feel the call of God to be a preacher, a missionary, a teacher, an ordained minister and such similar divine callings.  But do not be afraid to start small.  It is a strong teaching in the New Testament of the need to be faithful with small things.  See for instance Matthew 25: 23, “You have been faithful with small things; I will put you in charge of many things.”  Even though this verse is in the context of God’s judgement but it does tell us what matters to God is how we make use of the little that he granted us.  When you and I are faithful with these small things, then God will increase your faith.  Rome was not built in a day!

On a human level, we are more likely to push for growth and also to want to guarantee the results of our hard work.  We should work hard and wisely of course but the result might not turn up the way we wanted.  We could give a lot of reasons for that lack of growth and think of more effective ways forward.  All these preparation and analysis are useful for her to use God’s resource responsibly.  But remember this God’s work starts humbly. 

When he sends his Son, he was born in a manger and died like a criminal.  All these are not only small; they are scandalous to the world and what the Corinthians consider as foolish and as stupid.  And yet God uses precisely such things to shame the wise and the powerful. 

All are necessary work but Scripture reminds us that growth in fact comes from God.  We see that in the first parable of the growing seed (Mark 6:26-29) the hard work of the farmer was almost ignored.  We know that farmer would have to work very hard. He would sow, weed, water, and harvest.  That goes without saying.  But Mark seems to ignore this aspect of hard work and focuses on the fact that the farmer does not know how the seed grows even though the seeds continue to grow during his sleeping and waking hours.  The farmer simply scatters the seeds.  And that growth seems to come from somewhere.

It is nothing unusual that the farmer does not know how the seeds grow.  Even modern science does not seem to know how seeds grow.  In other words, God has implanted in these seeds mysterious life.  It simply grows when the time is right.  The farmer could predict when the harvest would come and there would be a particular time when the farmer would have to harvest and sell the fruits of his labour.  But he could not ensure that he would have the amount that he planned for.  We are told in this parable that there is a harvest but we not told how much harvest. 

There was growth nonetheless but the amount of harvest is not guaranteed.  The quality and quantity are not mentioned at all.  Elsewhere in other gospels, there are mentions of bountiful harvest but not here in Mark’s gospel.  The aim of Mark is clear for he wants us to know that it is God who causes growth in all of our human endeavours.

On the one hand, we should place the results of our human endeavours too much on our shoulders but learn to offer our services to the hands of God.  Neither should we depend so much on God that we do very little about it.  Hard work is still necessary but we must all be aware of the thin line between God’s work and ours. 

The parable of the mustard seed also is planted in the ground and it grows.  Once again, nothing much is mentioned of the farmer.  It was just planted!  But the amazing thing is that it grows to become the greatest shrub of all of a height of 10 -12 feet or 3 – 4 metres. 

A scholar by the name of Williamson argues that "This parable is significant whenever and wherever we Christians take ourselves and our efforts too seriously, seeking by our plans and programmes to 'bring in the kingdom of God.'  Against such arrogant self-importance stands 'of itself', a subtle allusion to God's hidden presence and power" (p. 98).  Marcus argues that our role is "to cast the seed into the waiting ground, not to dictate in what way or at what pace it will bear fruit.  Ultimate success is assured, but the precise modalities of its realization are known only to God" (p. 326).

The Parables of the Growing Seed (vv. 26-29) and the Mustard Seed (vv. 30-32), then, "both warn against underestimating the significance of the proclamation of the kingdom of God, however unimpressive its initial impact may seem.  What has begun in the Galilean ministry of Jesus will, by the power of God, one day prove to be of ultimate significance.  If for the time being its power is hidden, it is not for that reason any less certain, and its growth will be spectacular" (France, 217).

It is necessary for once more to remind ourselves of how we as citizens of this new kingdom are to value most.  That we do not judge by appearance, and secondly that we do not be afraid to start small.

So are you judging people by appearance?  And are you afraid to what God is asking you to do because you feel that you are too small?

CONCLUSION

O God, the strength of all those who put their trust in you, mercifully accept our prayers and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without you, grant us the help of your grace, that in keeping of your commandments we may please you both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.