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Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time (B), June 17, 2012
Ezekiel 17: 22-24; 2 Corinthians 5: 6-10; Mark 4:26-34
The Grace of Small Things
Today's gospel brings us a message of hope and encouragement. It tells us
that the reign of God, where every tear will be wiped away, begins very small and
comes very slowly. Our hope is not that today before sunset dramatic events will
end all sickness or injustice or war. Our hope grows from the small signs of love
around us, including the love of fathers for their children we celebrate this Father’s
Day. Such loves can seem small on the political or cosmic scale. But they are the
small seeds that grow into the healing of our world.
What better time for a gospel about hope than when our deeply divided
county limps toward the fall election, or as the church faces divisions over the role
of sisters or insurance coverage for contraception? Today, Jesus encourages us to
hope. "With what can we compare the kingdom of God?" he asks. Jesus answers
with a parable about hope. Take a tiny, very tiny, mustard seed. Plant it. Over time
the seed will sprout and become one of the largest of plants. In a different
translation of Mark’s gospel the passage tells us that the mustard seed becomes the
largest of shrubs. Wait a minute. A shrub? Is this supposed to bring us hope?
"Yes," says Jesus. A shrub tall enough for birds to perch on its branches. Small
birds, no doubt. "All right,” says Jesus, “small birds.” This probably wasn’t
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encouraging enough for some of the earliest Christians. When Luke retells this
parable later, he has Jesus say that the seed "became a mighty tree"
But I love the way Mark leaves the shrub a mere shrub. When Jesus
compares the kingdom of God to a shrub, he is not only cracking a small joke. He
is also telling us something very important about the way God reigns in God’s
kingdom. It reminds me of a poem by Christina Rosetti. Here's part of it:
Give us grace, O Lord, to work while it is day,
fulfilling diligently and patiently whatever duty thou appointest us,
doing small things in the day of small things
and great labors if thou summon us to any. ("April the Eighth," C. Rosetti)
Jesus’ parable invites us not to downplay the importance of doing small things and
not to devalue the "days of small things" that make up most of our lives God's
reign begins with small things like a miniscule mustard seed. It begins on a day of
small things, when nothing major seems to be happening.
Think about Jesus own life. What could be a less likely beginning for the
establishment of God's reign than a peasant teacher from Galilee in a totally
insignificant outpost of the Roman empire? This was God's Messiah? Jesus of
Nazareth was really a pretty small time figure when he appeared. Or look at the
rag-tag group of fisherman who became Jesus’ disciples. Who would predict that
they were the beginning of a movement to spread Jesus’ message to the ends of the
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earth? These were the people through whom God was going to change the world,
bringing people joy based on hope in eternal life? Not likely. Jesus of Nazareth
and his first followers were as insignificant as a mustard seed. Or so it seemed.
As we read along in Mark’s gospel, we learn that the true power of Jesus and
of God’s presence is very often hidden in small things. It becomes visible only on
small days when its power almost invisible. It began in the context of the powerful
Roman empire that was occupying Israel in Jesus’ day. The kingdom of God
proclaimed by Jesus did not overthrow this Roman empire by force. But in a few
short centuries the empire was gone, and Jesus and his words are still alive here
with us today. God’s reign begins in small things. In fact, the power of Jesus and
his kingdom is so small that it is hidden in Jesus’s cross—his diminishment into
the utterly small place we call death. The contrast between the diminishment of
Jesus death and the greatness of his resurrection is like the contrast between the
smallest of all the seeds and the greatest of all the towering trees. So we should
pay careful attention to the small signs of hope around us—love, friendship, the
caring word, the small gesture of a father’s encouragement for his children.
Jesus’s parable tells us these small words and small deeds can the beginnings of
God’s reign among us. And as our poet wrote, letting hope grow from these small
things can prepare us for great labors if God wants this.
David Hollenbach, S.J.
St. Ignatius Church
June 17, 2012