Sowing, Growing, Reaping
a sermon based on Mark 4:26-34
by Rev. Randy Quinn

Jesus used parables and stories to tell about and explain the Kingdom of God.  He used many, many parables, only some of which are recorded in the gospels.

These are only two of them.

No one parable is complete in its comparison, yet each has a significant thing to say about the Kingdom of God.

I think that Jesus used parables because of the limitations of language.  There is no way to accurately describe God, nor can we expect to describe God's Realm.  Jesus instead tries to help us understand it with pictures and stories that focus on one aspect or another of the Kingdom of God.

So let's look at these parables and see what we can learn and discern about God's Realm.

The first thing I notice is that this is not about farming.  Too often, I think people want the Bible to be something that it isn't.  It isn't intended to teach us about horticulture or biology.  This parable doesn't pretend to be about good gardening techniques.

The farmer in this story doesn't even plow.  The farmer has no concern about the weather or about weeds.  Unlike any farmer I've ever known, this farmer simply sits back and watches.

You've all probably heard about the gardener who had a beautiful garden.  Everything was neat, every plant seemed to add to the overall beauty.  One day a man came by as the gardener was tending his garden.  The man commented about how wonderful God is that he could make such a beautiful garden, to which the gardener responded, "yea, but you should have seen it before I started helping."

Clearly, this parable is not about farming or garden­ing.  It's about the seed, the seed that miraculously grows, the seed that becomes something very different than when it was planted.

Jesus is saying that the Kingdom of God is like a seed.

My own understanding of the Kingdom of God is that it happens on at least four different levels.  It's not a place as much as it is an attitude, an event that happens, an environment.  It's what waits us beyond the grave, it's within our hearts, it's a possibility for the world, and it's acted out and modeled within the church.  There are probably other expressions and experiences of the Kingdom of God, but it's been helpful for me to think of it in terms of a multi-layered, polyvalent concept.

In another parable, Jesus says that the Kingdom of God is like a seed that must die and be buried for it to have new life (Jn 12:24).  Clearly this is an aspect of the Realm of God.  There is hope and promise in the fact that when we die, we are buried and begin a new life that is far differ­ent from the one we have known.

It happens without our help, too.  It remains a mystery because none of us here have experienced it.  Like seeds ready for planting, we cannot know where or when we will be planted, nor can we fully understand what we will be like after we take on new life in the heavenly Kingdom of God.

In the allegorical tale, Hind's Feet on High Places, Hannah Hurnard tells the tale of a young shepherd named Much-Afraid who wants to become like the great shepherd.  Early in the story, a seed is planted within Much-Afraid's­ heart that eventually grows to the point that the heart is reshaped, redefined, and the young shepherd takes on a new name.

I first read the story almost 20 years ago, and perhaps it's because of that story that I began to think of the Kingdom of God as something that happens to and happens within our hearts.

In the fall, we met with Melissa's teachers and therapists at SPARC.  We set some learning goals for her and began to work towards those goals.  On any given day, I saw very little if any progress towards those goals.  Now, however, at the end of the year, we are amazed at her progress.  Slowly but surely, she has grown, developed, and matured.

I like to believe that the Kingdom of God also comes to life in our world in the same way.  Paul's assurance that every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (Phil 2:10-11) suggests to me that he, too, sees the Kingdom of God as something real, concrete, and happening in the world around us.

In front of the Parsonage, there are some mums planted.  When we moved here two years ago, they were in full bloom.  By the following spring, I couldn't remember what it was, but I did know that it was large and bushy.  I waited and watched daily for something to begin growing.

Slowly but surely, a plant appeared and grew.  And then suddenly, I realized that it was in full bloom again.­  This year I've watched them form again.  And even though I know what to expect, it seems as though it's slow starting, then suddenly, it's in full bloom.

Like a seed planted in the world, God's kingdom grows and changes over time, becoming very different than when it was first proclaimed.  Often, it grows so slowly that we don't even notice until it has blossomed into full bloom. 

Two dramatic illustrations of how that happens are the eradication of small pox from the earth, a feat that is still hard for me to comprehend.  Yet, one-by-one, people were inoculated until there were no more cases of the disease anywhere in the world.  Twenty years later, no one is being vaccinated against it because it is simply gone.

The other is the slow but steady progress of the health community in their campaign against tobacco and its use in our society.  Whether you agree with them or not, whether you are a smoker or not, you have to admit that the change has been dramatic.  I watched the films from D-Day last week and couldn't help but notice the number of people who were smoking.  Today, it's an entirely different world.

Like a seed, the Kingdom of God happens around us every day.  When we pray the Lord's prayer, we are asking for that, whether we think about it or not:  "thy Kingdom come . . . on earth as it is in heaven" (Mt 6:10).  And if the health community can change the nature of our society, so can we.

That's why I also see the church as a model of what the Kingdom is or can be.  We are the bearers of the seed that Jesus sowed.  We are witnesses of the miracle of growth and fruitfulness.  We proclaim in word and deed that the power of God can and does transform us into a new thing, a new creation.