Devotional Messages

DEVOTIONAL MESSAGE

Mark 4:26-32 – He also said, “The kingdom of Good is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.  The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.  But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”  He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it?  It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”  (NRSV)

Have you noticed this theme that runs through all of what Jesus teaches us about the realm of God?  It’s not about us.  We are part of it, and we are called to seek it and live as though it has arrived.  But it’s not about us.  We don’t make it happen; we are simply invited to participate in it as it is unfolding.  We can find a home within it, but it is not for our sake alone.

The farmer sows the seed, but can’t make the plants grow.  But the plants do grow, and the farmer is called to assist with the harvest.  The tiny mustard seed defies appearances and grows large, and what Jesus sees there is an opportunity for hospitality to others.  So much of what Jesus is trying to teach us is about looking beyond ourselves, stretching our hearts to understand that God is calling us into something bigger than ourselves.

It's not that that bigger thing doesn’t include us; it definitely includes us.  But it’s not for us alone.  It’s not even for us for our own sake, but for the sake of connecting us to the whole of creation.  That’s how love works; it’s not something you do on your own.  Learning to live in the love of God requires a certain humility, the humility of the farmer who understands that there’s only so much he can do and then he must depend on the earth to do what it does.

We cannot make a church grow, no matter how much we love it.  But we can keep loving; we can keep tending the little garden that God has given to us, and God till tend to the growth.  We can keep extending hospitality, and God will keep showing us how mighty the love of small things can be.