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Small Seeds An Address to the Third Annual Diocese of Kansas Ministry Fair by The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe Bishop, The Episcopal Diocese of Kansas Come Holy Spirit and kindle the fire that is in us. Take our minds and think through them. Take our hearts and see through them. Take our souls and set them on fire.  Amen.

I always love it when Episcopalians gather together!  Episcopalians are a peculiar part of God's people.  We approach the Christian faith in a way in which I find quite wise and wonderful...but in a way which some, even those who have become part of us, often find difficult to comprehend. We are a people who believe in a scandalous, amazing, and radical grace. We Episcopalians are as diverse a group of Christians as you are ever going to find and I believe, in my heart of hearts, that this is what God had in mind when God created the Kingdom of God in the imagination of God's heart.

And I always love it when Jesus teaches us by telling us stories.  These stories, or parables, from the gospels help us explore the mysteries and the paradoxes of the teachings of Jesus.  If you can't appreciate the imprecise nature of mystery or the nuance of paradox, then you are going to have one heck of a time surviving as a Christian... because the teachings of Jesus are so full of paradoxical sayings which illumine the mystery of God.

For example, one can say that the teachings of Jesus are very simple.  Yes.  That's true.

One can also say that the teachings of Jesus are exceptionally complex.  Yes.  That's also true.  To be rich you must be poor.  To find safety you must put yourself at risk.  To be powerful, you must become weak, to rule, you must become the servant of all, and to truly live, finally, you must offer yourself up to die.  This is the economy of God and it is anything but simple to understand; four gospels; four separate and slightly varying attestations of Christ's words and actions and one God; made known in three persons; God the Father... the Creator, God the Son... the Redeemer, and God, the Holy Spirit...the Sustainer.  Jesus himself, that simple carpenter who taught such transparent truths, was both "fully human," and yet, "fully divine."  Not an easy thing to wrap your mind around! But these complexities shouldn't discourage or perplex us, bur rather, they should serve to entice us to appreciate the multiplicities of God's activity; the holy intricacies of the divine which remain hidden and revealed in the mystery of Christ.

When I was twelve years old, and a very serious young member of a Confirmation Class, I can remember thinking how cool it would be if I could talk to Jesus face to face.  The clergyman teaching the class was certainly knowledgeable enough, but in my adolescent estimation, his didn't count as a truly expert opinion.  If I could just hear it directly from Jesus... if I could walk beside him on the dusty streets of one of those ancient villages... hanging on his every word in rapt attention.  If I could just hear it from The Source of all that was and is and is to come.  Well, thirty-six years... and several degrees in religious studies later... I still long for that walk and for that talk!!!!  I still long to discover, face to face, exactly what it was Jesus was... and still is... trying to tell you and me.  What did Jesus want us to know?

Well, I believe it's in these parables that we find the clearest window into the fundamental thought and spirit of Christ.  It's in these parables that we find a unique opportunity to explore what it is that Jesus is trying to teach us concerning the nature of the Kingdom of God.  And, just in case we have forgotten, it is all about the Kingdom of God!  It is not about the kingdoms of this world!  The Kingdom of God is the goal.  Remember the hymn, "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness... and all these things shall be added unto you... Alleluia."

A refrigerator magnet says it all... (Don't' you love those little magnets with the pithy sayings?)  I saw one the other day which expressed this thought perfectly. The magnet read, "You move toward your most dominant thought."  Our most dominant thought is the Kingdom of God:  To seek it.  To build it.  To become it.  This is our mission.  This is our purpose.  This is what we were made to do. 

And the parables, especially the ones found in The Gospel of Matthew, are strung together like beads on a necklace as illustrations of what that Kingdom is like. (Jesus tells us that The Kingdom is a way of being.  It is a destination.  And it is the journey itself.)

Using the full spectrum of colorful metaphors, Jesus says, The KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is like...

     A MUSTARD SEED

The Kingdom of heaven is like...

     YEAST

The Kingdom of heaven is like...

     A PEARL.

The Kingdom of heaven is like...

     A NET THROWN INTO THE SEA

And notice, for just a moment, how the author of Matthew has organized these parables. If you look at the thirteenth chapter of Matthew you can see that the parable of the Mustard seed and the parable of the Leaven are a natural couplet; they form a perfect pair.  The mustard seed is planted (Have you ever actually seen one?  It is just a little itty bitty thing.  It's no larger than the head of a pin.)  and from it grows an enormous plant; a plant more than TWICE THE SIZE of the average person!  And you can imagine what an impact made on people from the ancient Near East where deserts stretch out into the horizon and any plant providing any kind of shade makes a huge impression.

It's the same thing with yeast.  The smallest amount of yeast (I don't need to be telling some of you bakers in the crowd anything about how yeast works)... but the tiniest bit of yeast can be mixed almost invisibly with three measures of flour and the action of that yeast will leaven the entire amount. The whole three measures will rise. (And, by the way, three Biblical measures of flour is no small amount.  That's enough flour to make bread enough for more than a hundred people!)

You see.  Jesus wants us to know that from the smallest beginnings, great things can come.  It all begins will small seeds.  Small seeds.  Fred Borsch, the former Bishop of Los Angeles and a fine biblical scholar, has done a wonderful job of exploring these parables and much of my thinking has been influenced by his work.  He wrote, "There are four (different) presentations of the story of the mustard seed in the gospels, behind which...can be glimpsed two and possibly three older traditions.  Matthew, it seems, combined Mark's version of the story with one from another source he shares with Luke, and then he contributes some of his own material.  The author of The Gospel of Matthew made the parables of Jesus applicable to the hopes and concerns of his own struggling community of faith.

And what was Matthew's church like?  How was it struggling?  Well, Matthew's church was filled with Jewish-Christians and they were all a long way from Jerusalem.  The recent break with the synagogue was very difficult for them and, if that were not enough, they were faced with a huge infusion of Gentile converts.  They were beginning to wonder what in the world was happening to them. "What should they do in order to be faithful?' they wondered.  Matthew's community needs the assurance that even a tiny, almost cast-away seed, can be the start of something which can hold lasting significance. 

In this parable, the seed represents the Kingdom of God and it starts out as something very small.  Remember, it's no bigger than a raspberry seed that slips so irritatingly between your teeth.  It's so small.  It is so small.  And yet a full grown mustard plant becomes like a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.

Every great journey begins with a single step and small beginnings often lead to great conclusions.  Our nation's history is filled with the revered stories of men and women who rose from humble beginnings to attain greatness. Let's take some examples from the Midwest.  Harry Truman, a clothing salesman from Kansas City (by his own admission, poorly prepared to assume national leadership at such a critical) becomes, after the death of Franklin Delano Roosevelt; a well respected president who leads the country and our allies to the conclusion of World War II.  Could a Missouri shirt salesman do all that?  Small seeds.

Dwight Eisenhower grew up a modest farmer's son in Abilene and attended West Point because it's the only way he can afford to attend college.  He goes on to lead the combined allied forces in the liberation of Europe, arguable one of the most significant events in world history in the last one hundred years, and follows Truman to become to the President of the United States.  Small seeds.

Growing up, as I did, in Dayton Ohio, a young boy could believe the Wright brothers were still living members of the community!  The fact that a couple of young men with a bicycle shop and a dream so audacious they were embarrassed to share it beyond their immediate family, could create so fantastic a thing as a "flying machine" made almost anything seem possible.  Small seeds.

What makes the parable of the mustard seed particularly interesting is this notion of a nearly insignificant seed growing into something of genuine value. You merely plant the seed.  But not every seed with potential is planted.

I remember my high school friend Brady Whyte.  He was a great friend and soul mate.  He was the kind of friend to whom you tell both your dreams AND you nightmares. We graduated from high school together and then went on to attend different colleges.  After his freshman year he was a pre-med major with a C- average.  He wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life and when the next fall came and it was time to get back to school, Brady decided he would sit out a year and try to find his bearings.  He would work and save some money and try to get back on track.  I had packed my car and was on my way back to school when I stopped by his house to say goodbye.  I can remember that conversation as if it were yesterday... I was going back to college and Brady was staying home.  I was going back into the big game and he was left sitting on the bench. 

Two months later, Brady stepped into his tiny Opal sedan and, driving much too fast, he missed a curve on a familiar road.  They said he was killed instantly.  Over the years I have fought back my anger at Brady for being so wreckless... but I have never been able to fight back the pain of his death.  And I'll never know if it was something that was said, or left unsaid, or something else again which contributed to his self-inflicted death.  Was it just one of those things?  I don't know.  All he did was miss one turn.  Small seeds.

We have all risked missing the harvest because we have failed to pay proper attention to the dangers which lie in wait for us.  

A friend makes the decision to drop in at a noontime AA meeting.  He's just there to check it out. All he does is show up and walk through the door.  Three weeks later he finds himself at a meeting and he hears himself saying, "He, my name is David, and I'm an alcoholic."  His confession, and the hard work he does from that day forward, virtually saves his life.  The quality of his life and his commitment to his friends and family makes an impact on everyone who has met him since that fateful day.  And all he did was show up!  Small seeds. 

A middle aged woman makes a phone call.  Nothing more than a brief call from her desk at work.  She makes the call during the lunch hour when everyone is out of the office.  She's been feeling so depressed and tired and so isolated from everyone.  She's even thought about ways to make the pain go away permanently.  But, for some reason which even she can't explain, she picks up her phone and dials a seven digit number...she just pushes seven tiny little numbers on her telephone.  It's nothing, really, just one phone call.  But a counselor answers the call and they set a time to meet and from the moment she hears that compassionate voice on the other end of the line she begins the slow, painful process which brings her to wholeness and healing and faith.  One phone call.  Small seeds.

A man drives by a church.  Nothing more.  He used to go to church all the time when he was young and his parents brought him.  But he hasn't been to church in years.  He notices the time of the services and out of the clear blue sky, he decides he should go...that he wants to go...needs to go.  Something inside him pushes him...compels him and so he shows up one lifeless summer Sunday morning and sits as far back as the empty pews allow.  He just sits there.  But then he hears the words of a prayer...and something in the sermon...and maybe one short line in the anthem sung by the tiny choir...and suddenly he finds it hard to swallow and he can feel the sweat under his shirt and it feels like the building's falling in on him.  It's as thought a bright light is shining directly on him and the thinks to himself, "Is this a God thing or am I going crazy?"  But after that instant, nothing is ever the same for him.  Nothing!  Not the blue sky above him as he walks out the door or the pock-marked sidewalk he uses to make his way to the parking lot.   No, it didn't all change immediately.  It didn't change in an instant... but in an instant... in the time it takes to turn a page in the Prayer Book, something began to transform every part of that man's life and, from that moment on, no aspect of his life is left un-illuminated by that strange and holy light.

Small seeds?

There is a children's rhyme we used to sing to our son when he was a baby.  It has to do with a little girl who is very excited about planting a garden.  She sings merrily to herself, "Carrots grow from carrot seeds" as she plants her tiny carrot patch.  But her older brother, scornful of her optimism and her hard work always replies, "No, No, they won't come up.  No, No, they won't come up."  But the little girl perseveres.  She has faith in nature.  She plants small seeds.  She keeps singing to herself, "Carrots grow from carrot seeds."  She diligently cultivates and waters and tends the little patch until the fragile plants begin to sprout up through the hard earth.  She only plants small seeds...and yet, to her ultimate delight, and to the consternation of her negative brother, her efforts are richly rewarded.

Did you hear about the old New Englander who was asked what the thought about the first steam locomotive he'd ever seen?  He looked at the large, black contraption with steam rolling out of the funnel and he said, "Well... they'll never get it started." But once it started to move and the steam rolled out of it and it picked up speed and made more noise as it moved down the track he was asked, "What do you think of it now, old timer?"  And he said, "Well... they'll never get it stopped." We need to plant small seeds.  We need to get something started.  We need to write one letter.  We need to make that one visit.  We need to make one phone call.  We need to say one prayer.  We need to plant small seeds.

The apostle Paul writes, "The Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words."  We can plant seeds even when we cannot find the words... "for the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words."  What a beautiful promise!  We can plant seeds even when we're unsure of our faith.  We can plant seeds when people think they will never get started.  We can plant seeds even when those around us taunt us by saying, "NO, NO, they won't come up."  We can plant seeds when everyone else has given up on the promise of the harvest.  We need to plant small seeds...

I know in these workshops two thoughts will pop up repeatedly in the minds of those of us who are listening.  1.)  That won't work in my parish.  2.)  We tried that once before and it didn't work.  Paul writes, "We know that all things work together for good for those who love God...who are called according to his purpose."  If God is for us, who can be against us?  The One who did not withhold anything from us...the One who did not withhold even his only Son...will he not give us everything we could possibly need?  Will he not provide food and water for our seeds to grow?

What would you say to a starving people who, when given a seed to plant, chose not to plant it...but out of their own ignorance and our of their desperate need... ate the seeds instead?  There are tribes of primitive people who have starved to death because, when they faced the choice between eating the seeds meant for planting or planting the seeds and watching them come to fruition later on, they ate the seeds intended for planting.

We can do this as well.  We "eat the seed" when we constantly focus on the negative.

We eat the seed...when we are apathetic...and passive...and sometimes aggressive to boot.

We eat the seed...when we are fear-filled.

We eat the seed...when we are too selfish to share the resources God has blessed us with... and when we keep them for our own...

Honestly, could we not build an entire church...with the money that members of this congregation sitting here today have spent foolishly?  Or five churches?  Or twenty-five?

Remember, our forefathers and mothers did not have the things we have...and did not dare to even dream of having such luxuries...yet with their church they were extravagant... they were lavish when it came to planting seeds they felt would yield an eternal; a plenteous harvest.

Christian Ethicist Stanley Hauerwas suggests that the church has tried to grow by adapting itself to the values of society at large rather than by first concentrating on the genuine conversion of its members.  Christians, he suggests, must develop a sense of morality and virtue in order that they might then live so as to help change the society!  True evangelism is not merely shrewd marketing or gimmicky salesmanship.  It is, rather, the conversion of hearts and souls to the love of God in Christ.  It is the devotion of mind and body to the Infinite and Immortal One!  It cannot be achieved by conning someone.  It cannot be accomplished by stealth.  It cannot be accomplished alone.

That's what makes people want to work and sweat and strive and give!

Some of you may know the story from a few years ago.  It took place at the Seattle Special Olympics where nine contestants, all physically or mentally disabled, assembled at the starting line for the 100 yard dash.  And they were so proud!  At the gin they all started out, not exactly in a dash, but with a genuine desire to run the race to the finish and to win.  Everyone, except one boy, who at the very start, stumbled onto the track, tumbled over a couple of times, and began to cry.  When the other eight contestants heard the boy cry they slowed down... and then they paused and then they all came to a complete stop.  And then they turned around and went back!  Every last one of them.  And one girl with Down's syndrome bent down and kissed the fallen runner and said "This will make it better."  Then all nine of these very special athletes linked arms and walked together to the finish line.  And did you know, every one in the entire stadium stood and cheered... and the cheering went on for a full ten minutes?  Because it was not what they expected.  But it is what Christ expects of those of us who seek to follow him... and unexpected compassion for the least and the lost and those who have fallen along the way. 

"Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple...truly I tell you, none of these will lose their reward."

A friend of mine taught me early on, "Assume Resistance!"

Moses told God, "My brother Aaron is really better at all of this than I am.  Perhaps you should call him instead."  Sarah laughed.  She knew for certain she was too old to be an instrument of God's will.  David sent a man to his death in order to conceal his relationship with Bathsheeba.  How could he be forgiven and made whole for God's purposes?  Mary, that young girl in the village of Nazareth, couldn't possibly understand why she had been called to such a holy, sacred task.  And how could the Apostle Paul, present at the stoning of Stephen, be transformed by the power of the Risen Lord?  It wasn't what any of them had expected!  They all, each one, found their lives by losing them in God! "Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it." Like trying to get the toothpaste back into the tube, I've discovered that my words do not return easily to my mouth.  At times like those it seems that there may be some truth in that old Pennsylvania Dutch saying that, "Vee are too soon olde und too late schmat."  Some find they are much harder on themselves than they are on others...and they label themselves weeds in the fields of the Lord before anyone has come to that judgment.  Often forgiveness, like charity, should begin at home.

My father, who loved to garden, has what I think is a perfect definition of a week.  "A weed," he once told me, "is a flower growing in a place where you don't want one to be."  And so it is.  Who hasn't been perplexed by the gardener's zeal in killing little yellow flowers growing in the lawn (called "dandelions") with abandonment...while cultivating little yellow flowers in a garden (called "marigolds") with the utmost of care!  Some of the people we so easily label weeds are merely stubborn flowers.  Our capacity for  making wise, discerning judgments about our fellow human man is recorded in thousands of years of human history and the final tabulations are not particularly edifying.

For humanity to engage prematurely in this discernment process is to risk losing some of the healthy harvest in the search for that which is bad...and this is a risk one dare not take in the sight of God.  For every individual stalk of wheat is valued by the Creator beyond all measure.  Of course, the householder's decision has a cost associated with it.  Allowing the weeds to stay will undoubtedly limit the crop. A good deal of wheat remains at risk by not doing the weeding but we should not be so surprised.  After all... this is our God... the One who loves each one of us as if there were only one of us!

This is the good shepherd who risks the ninety-nine and goes after the one.

This is the host who fills his dinner party with all kinds of guests when those who were originally invited fail to come for the feast.

This is the father who embraces his prodigal son as if he were embracing life itself.

This is the vineyard owner who pays everyone the same wage, irregardless of the amount of time they have worked.

Scandalous!  Extravagant!  Excessive!  Lavish!  Extreme!

In Christ, "What is hidden becomes revealed.  What is poor become rich.  The last are first, the small become great, the hungry are filled, the weary find rest, those who weep laugh, the mourners are comforted, the sick are healed, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the prisoners are freed, the lowly are exalted, the humble bear rule, sinners are forgiven and the dead rise to new life!  The great reward is paid in measure pressed down, shaken together, and overflowing; it is poured into our laps..."

And on that final day...on that precious and holy day, Jesus said, "the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." And you can envision that too, if you try...Can you see those weeds, standing in the distance, so brilliantly transformed; bright as the dawn, hopeful as tomorrow, and as powerful as the noonday sun?

With Argentine hymn writer, Federico Pagura, we too can make this affirmation of our faith,

"Because Jesus came into our world and story,

because he heard our silence and our sorrow,

because he filled the whole world with his glory,

and came to light the darkness of our morrow,

because his birth was in a darkened corner,

because he lived proclaiming life and love... 

because he quickened hearts that had been dormant,

and lifted those whose lives had been downtrodden... 

Because he drove the merchants from the temple,

Denouncing evil and hypocrisy,

Because he raised up little ones and women,

And put down all the mighty from their seats,

Because he bore the cross for our wrong doings, 

And understood our failings and our weakness,

Because he suffered from our condemnation

and then died for every mortal creature. 

Because of victory one morning early

when he defeated death and fear and sorrow

so nothing can hold back his mighty story

nor his eternal kingdom tomorrow

SO WE TODAY HAVE HOPE

AND EXPECTATION

SO WE TODAY CAN STRUGGLE

WITH CONVICTION

SO WE TODAY CAN TRUST

WE HAVE A FUTURE

SO WE HAVE HOPE IN THIS OUR WORLD OF   TEARS."

In this, "our world of tears"... we must plant small seeds.  We must lay claim to the faith which, once planted, returns many times over, pressed down and overflowing. We must grow in our capacity to understand that even the tiniest seed can develop into a tree, "offering room for the birds to make their nests."   Mother Teresa once said, "We can do no great thing; only small things with great love." So let us  please God by planting these small seeds with great love.  Because even the very smallest, most humble seed of them all, may serve to provide sweet, sweet shade for the sun-blasted and world-weary people of this land.

And may we, in the Episcopal Diocese of Kansas, be proud of the fact that we have been called to plant small seeds.  And may we plant them all in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. 

Amen.

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