First Friends Meeting
Luke 13:10-19
‘The Mustard Seed’
Doug Gwyn

In recent weeks, we’ve had a lot of gardening going on here at First Friends. I hope you have been impressed with all the weeding, pruning, and mulching that you can see in the island of the parking lot, and all around the building. Our thanks go to Dick and Duane, Toby and Dillon, and others who worked out there in some pretty hot sun. As with other kinds of work at First Friends, this project has been not just a matter of time and energy, but discernment. In these thickets that grew up over the spring, which ones are weeds and which ones are flowers and other ornamentals? And even when we know what the plant is, we don’t always agree whether it’s a flower or a weed. Corn flowers spread like weeds, but they’re also beautiful. We plant tulips for their flowers, but when they no longer bloom anymore, are they weeds? It’s a matter of group discernment, really. Much like the business of all our commissions and committees. We’re always struggling to discern which activities, programs, and directions to keep, which ones to try, which ones to drop.

First Friends is an institution in many ways, with a building, nonprofit status, payroll, etc. But the institution is really just a container for the worship and fellowship we hold so precious here. For activities and programs we carry on. You might say the institution is the parking lot, which is necessary and important. But the life is in the garden, in the middle. It’s the kingdom of God in our midst. As we do our best to discern God’s will and God’s good news among us at First Friends, we’re seeking first the kingdom of God.

Of course, the kingdom of God was the central theme of everything Jesus said and did. It fired people’s imaginations, especially in the time and place where Jesus lived. The people were not free. They lived under an oppressive Roman occupation. They longed for God to liberate them from poverty and injustice. So when Jesus preached the coming of the kingdom of God, aroused all kinds of hopes for something grand and glorious. In the gospels, we hear the disciples engage in magical thinking about how the kingdom of God works and how it will be. Hey Jesus, after you’ve conquered Rome, can I sit next to you? But Jesus tried to steer them away from magical thinking. He tried to open people’s eyes to see how God is doing amazing and surprising things here and now, in the most ordinary circumstances of household chores, daily work, family life.

Now, as Jesus taught about the kingdom of God, a lot of it confirmed the religious traditions and practices of his people. He said he didn’t come to abolish the law but to help people practice it better. But along the way he shocked some people, especially those who felt responsible to protect the traditions. The kingdom of God often interrupts our tidy belief systems and religious regimens. This comes up again and again in his parables. These little stories contain ironic twists. They capsulize the surprise of the kingdom of God. Down to this day, they can still act as little time-bombs to surprise us.

The Scripture that Emily read for us is a classic example. Jesus is preaching on Sabbath-day in a synagogue. A woman shows up, bent double by some terrible illness she has suffered for 18 years. Jesus lays hands on her and declares her healed. She stands up straight and praises God. Notice that Jesus doesn’t say, hey, I’m going to heal you. No, it’s more that then and there, he senses the moment, the opening of the kingdom of God to work something powerful for this poor woman. He knows it’s the Sabbath. He knows it’s considered wrong to work on the sabbath, even to work a miracle, apparently. But he’s not really working. He’s letting the kingdom of heaven work. He’s in tune with it, he can channel that power. Just by making people aware of it, they can be healed.

The kingdom of God is not something you put on hold. You can’t bottle it. Jesus didn’t say to the woman, come see me tomorrow and we’ll do something about that back. The moment appeared then and there, and Jesus went with it. Well, the leaders of the congregation were scandalized, but the congregation generally was thrilled by this wondrous act. Probably neither the leaders nor the congregation really understood what happened. The leaders were blinded by their orthodoxy. The congregation probably thought it was magic. Neither really understood what had happened.

So for the sake of all of them there, Jesus told this little parable. It compares the kingdom of God to a little mustard seed. Now, this little story is actually stranger than it seems to us, hearing it from this distance. First, the audience would be very surprised that the man planted the mustard seed in his garden. According to rabbinic law, you were not supposed to mix things up in your garden. You plant only vegetables in the garden. A shrub like mustard must be planted somewhere else. Maybe the border of the garden, but not in the garden. So, like the woman being healed on the sabbath, the mustard seed in the garden is out of place. I would imagine that the leaders of the synagogue, teachers of the law, dislike this story already.

Second, the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, because it has healing effects. It’s very pungent when ground up. Mustard seed was used in the ancient world many different ways. You could make a poltice of it to draw out the poison of snake bites and scorpion stings. You could gargle with a mustard-seed solution to cure phlegm. You could chew it for a toothache. Eat it for a variety of digestive troubles. The list of ancient uses goes on. Mustard seed was a cure-all, folks. Having a mustard plant is like having a pharmacy in your garden for all occasions. So the parable suggests that, when we look for the kingdom of God among us, we should look for its healing effects. Upon body and mind. Upon individuals and communities. When Jesus healed people, it was partly for their own sake, of course. But he also did it as a sign of the kingdom. It was meant to provoke the imagination of those who saw it.

But third, this little story contains a twist that was probably meant to tweak the noses of his enthusiastic supporters. Something to give pause to magical thinkers wowed by the healing they had just witnessed. They would all know that the mustard plant grows and spreads very rapidly. And Jesus probably meant for that to stand for the kingdom too. The movement that was building around Jesus grew and spread as fast as a mustard plant. But the truth is, the mustard plant of Palestine is an annual. It grows to become a shrub no more than four feet high. Yes, birds might roost and even nest in its branches. But a tree? No. An annual, even one that grows that quickly, is not a tree.

Jesus is probably playing on a popular image here. Centuries before, Ezekiel had prophesied that God would restore Israel like a newly planted cedar. It woud grow to great height, like the cedars of Lebanon, and birds of the air would nest in the shade of its branches. All the idealists in the congregation would think of Ezekiel’s prophesy when Jesus mentioned the birds nesting in the shade of the branches. But a mustard plant – an annual? A shrub? Fast growing, yes. Medicinal, yes. But not grand, not glorious. If anything, it’s an overgrown weed! It’s all over the place. Most people probably didn’t bother to plant it at all. You could just go out there in the scrub outside of town and collect some. What a come-down!

So with this little parable of the mustard seed, Jesus teaches us some keys to searching for the kingdom of God. Like a Peterson Field Guide, here are some things to look for. The kingdom of God is an annual. It’s not a long-term institution, like tree. Institutions and traditions can serve it, but keep an eye on them – they may weed out the kingdom just as easily, and usually without thinking twice. Second, and by implication, the kingdom of God is often taken to be a weed. It spreads so quickly and haphazardly, it can’t be good, can it? Again, discernment is needed. Finally, the kingdom of God is recognized for its healing effects. It works peace, not violence. It reconciles differences among us. And yes, it can heal our bodies and our minds.

And so, down to this day, the kingdom of God appears and spreads, in that uncertain territory between our traditions and our dreams. Between the orthodox, who are always trying to find a way back to the golden age of the past, and the progressives, straining forward to the golden age that always seems just around the corner. Where is the mustard seed taking root in your garden?