Trinity 2 Confidence in the Kingdom
We are in the season of sowing and growing. Some gardeners will have
been planting and sowing for some weeks now, despite the cold, even for
months if you have a greenhouse. This time of year reminds me, then,
and not greatly to my credit, of just how cross I get about seeds that just
don’t grow! I grumble about what little point there is in planting things like
broccoli, carrots, cauliflowers or beetroot, and especially things like
onions or garlic, because they never actually grow into anything even
vaguely resembling the finished product! They either get eaten by the
slugs or infested by various worms, or they grow so slowly and
ineffectually that before anything meaningful appears, they’ve started to
go to seed! You will be pleased to hear, however, and will not be very
surprised to learn, that I am not the one in our household who does most
of the buying or the planting, so potential production in the garden does
actually stand a chance!
Some of you may share with me a different passion, namely a love for the
Frog and Toad books by Arnold Lobel. The Frog and Toad stories are
part of one of the Puffin young readers’ series. If you haven’t met them, I
recommend them strongly. Frog and Toad are two great friends who like
nothing better than spending a long, fine day together. They of course
have plenty of adventures. In one of these, Toad is leaning over the gate
at Frog’s house and is admiring his garden. He says how he wishes he
had a garden like Frog’s. So Frog gives him some flower seeds and tells
him that if he plants these he can have a garden like Frog’s! So he does
that very thing. He plants the seeds and then says to them, “now seeds,
start growing!” But they don’t, or at least not in the time frame that Toad is
anticipating. So Toad adopts various strategies to try and help the seeds
to grow. He puts his head to the ground, saying loudly this time, “now
seeds start growing!” But they do not grow. He then shouts at them, but
still nothing happens. Frog then, disturbed by the shouting, comes to tell
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Toad that he’s shouting too much and his seeds are afraid to grow! Toad
is puzzled. Frog says, “leave them alone for a few days. Let the sun shine
on them, let the rain fall on them. Soon your seeds will start to grow.”
Toad, however, remains sceptical. That night he looks out and can see
that still his seeds haven’t started to grow, so he goes out and reads them
a story so they don’t need to be afraid. Then, the next day, he sings to
them. The next day he reads poems, and the next day he plays music to
them. But still they don’t grow. “These must be the most frightened seeds
in the world”, says Toad! And exhausted he falls asleep. The story ends
with Frog shouting at Toad, “Toad, Toad, wake up, look at your garden!”
Because his seeds have started to grow.....
Toad provides, I think, a rather delightful example of what could be
described as a very human reluctance and scepticism that can often
surround our attitudes to the potential for growth of almost anything we
might care to name. I also observe a rather damning parallel between
Toad’s impatience and lack of faith in his seeds, and my own grumpy
gardener tendencies!
The matter over which this becomes compelling, I wonder, is the
connection it makes to our attitudes and approaches to the growth and
flourishing of the kingdom of God. In Mark chapter 4, we have two
vignettes about the growth of the kingdom. In the first, someone scatters
seed and “would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout
and grow, he does not know how”. The question arises here as to
whether like Toad, the one who sowed has had little faith in the seed, and
has been shouting at it, singing to it and playing music to it; or whether
the sleeping and rising night and day has been done in eager, faithful
anticipation. In so far as the sower is waiting with his sickle at harvest
time, this tends to suggest faithful anticipation. It certainly suggests the
expectation of fecundity. On the other hand, with regard to the fact that
the seed would sprout and grow “he knows not how”, is it possible that
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the ‘not knowing’ could be a pointer towards a lack of confidence in the
potential of the seed? Well, perhaps it’s possible but I don’t think this is
really how it reads. I think the ‘not knowing’ is more likely to be a pointer
towards a genuine sense of wonder at how the kingdom is brought forth.
It suggests the recognition that the maturation of the seed is something
beyond human control and comprehension. It lies necessarily within the
domain of the inscrutable mystery of God. This rings true I think. It also
chimes in with the gospel theme in Mark of the way in which the secrets
of the kingdom of God are revealed only privately and elliptically to those
who will make the leap of faith and understanding. For the rest everything
comes in parables which leave them cold and on the outside. The
knowledge, then, that the kingdom emerges, grows and flourishes “we
know not how”, and we must be prepared to suspend judgement and
await its coming with confidence, is surely one of the key senses of the
growth of the kingdom that the gospel teaches, and that we need to try
and grasp.
Interestingly, we see very much the same requirement to suspend initial
judgements, in the story of the anointing of David. Even the thoughtful
and experienced prophet Samuel is looking in the wrong place for divine
initiative to be breaking through. “When they came, he (that is Samuel)
looked on Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the Lord’s anointed is now before the
Lord’.” But it wasn’t to be so. The anointing was to fall on the youngest,
David, who was out t ending the sheep. The passage states that, “the
Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance,
but the Lord looks on the heart”. And this alerts us to this key feature of
the kingdom, that both its genesis and its fruitfulness are held and shaped
through the gracious, mysterious actions of divine love and purpose. Our
perspectives are particular and limited, we look on the outward
appearance. We need to learn to wait and wonder as the kingdom is
brought forth.
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The second vignette of the mustard seed appears to expand on the same
theme of imperceptible but plentiful growth. Here the kingdom is likened
to the “smallest of all the seeds on earth”, which grows into the “greatest
of all shrubs”. The feature that strikes us most powerfully is the contrast
between these two. It points towards both the great potential and the
power of the kingdom. Some commentators suggest that the capacity for
birds to nest in the shade of the mustard tree is a reference to the reach
of the gospel beyond the community of Jewish faith into the Gentile world.
The fact that the provision of shade is a secondary function of the tree,
may indicate a sense of the household of faith extending to include new
others. Whether this is accurate or another interpretation is preferable,
either way, the inclusive nature of the kingdom is indicated. This refers
us, perhaps, to the situation of the Corinthians in Paul’s second letter to
the churches there. As Jenny indicated to us in her sermon last Sunday
evening, relationships between Paul and the community are strained. He
has fallen out with one particular leader and there is a need for
rapprochement and reconciliation – for a divided and troubled community
to be united. Paul sends Titus as his envoy and in his second letter writes
in the later chapters to try and heal the rift. Many in the community have
felt that he should have spent more time with them and that he has
become distant. This is clearly not good for morale or for unity. What we
saw last week and this week, respectively, are his appeals to “not lose
heart” and to remain “confident”. In this week’s reading, in the interests of
addressing differences of opinion and affiliation and for bringing people
together, he uses various theological devices to encourage both selfscrutiny and commonality. There are calls to remain confident in faith
whether believers are “in the body” or “with the Lord” i.e. whether they are
alive or have died, also to be ready to “appear before the judgement seat
of Christ... for what has been done in the body”, to “please the Lord” in all
circumstances, to “boast” of Paul and Titus as their leaders so as to
answer those who boast in outward appearance and not over what is in
the heart, meaning the false leaders and their followers we should
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suppose. Paul then asserts how Christ must be at the centre who “urges
us on”. He tells them how, “Christ died for all, so that those who live might
not live for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.” In
other words all are to unite around the saving grace of Christ. And not
only that but, “from now on we regard no one from a human point of
view,” for, “if anyone is in Christ there is a new creation: everything old
has passed away; see everything has become new!” There is a way out
and a way ahead for everyone. Differences can be relativised by a
greater and deeper belonging. Paul is sowing seeds for the potential for
reconciliation here. He wants a community that can live graciously with its
differences under Christ. He wants to both maintain their faith in him as
leader but also in each other. Following from our second parable we
might say that Paul is looking for the shade of the mustard tree to be able
to provide an umbrella under which all in the community can indeed come
together. For this is a mark of the kingdom.
The kingdom of God grows from its imperceptible beginnings, not
because we shout at it, like Toad, nor when we have well laid plans for it,
like Samuel selecting the king, nor when we want or need certain
outcomes as Paul may have had in mind for the Corinthians. It grows,
rather, when in faith and expectation we take all of our own steps in each
situation at issue; for example, to plant the seeds as Toad did, to wait for
the purposes of God to be revealed before making a judgement, as
Samuel eventually did, and to make honest entreaty towards the
believers in Corinth to prepare the ground for reconciliation, as Paul did.
For the seed spouts and grows “we know not how”, and it can and will
grow into the “greatest of shrubs” if only we will have “confidence” and
“not lose heart”.
Reverend Julian Francis
14.6.2015.
1869 Words
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