This world is God's world.
He created it, and imbued it with purpose and significance.
It has been designed to be inhabited by humans, animals, and plants in a particular way.
There is a way of life in this world that is in harmony with its design. While many of our ways of being in the world strike dissonant tones and create cacophonous (a)melodies, God's music gently resounds behind our noise.
This way, this song is designed by the same God who designed the universe and called it good. And this way is good, this song is beautiful.
This way broke in to our world with the presence of Jesus – a new life was declared and it was light in the darkness, not overcome by the darkness but shining into the dark corners of our broken systems and broken desires.
Some of the Jews and some who were not Jews had begun to hear bits and pieces of the song, and begun to hum along and nod to the music of this way – and those saw Christ and saw a light, a beauty which seemed in line with what they had heard before.
Following Christ they realized eventually that here was not just another prophet, not just another like them who had heard part of the song and begun to sing it to the best of his ability, but here was one who knew the song very well. Here was someone who knew the song like it was his, like it emanated from his person. Here was not just another singer, but the very song himself.
His way of being in the world was one of gentleness and love, but also zeal for truth and justice – these strands came together not like clashing cymbals, but like interwoven melodies pointing to the depth of God's love and revealing the shallowness of our own conceptions of what is good.
Loving our own songs, we sought to destroy this song – the beautiful sound became in our untrained and selfish ears, noise. But truth cannot be conquered. Love himself cannot die.
The resurrection of Christ is the victory of God's song, God's way over the violence and lies which ever threaten to cloud our vision, our hearing.
We join in the long line of believers, receiving God's spirit and beginning to sing – but so often we lose it, we forget the key, we forget the melody. We get lost in our pursuit of the security of wealth and we neglect to see the beauty of our dependence upon God. Sounding the noise of our own importance, we forget the one who taught us that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
God is here. God's song is playing among us, can we hear it?
God's way of life, the way of life at one with God's design for the universe, speaks to us through the life of Christ. The more we lose sight of Christ, the more we lose sight of the song which God would have us sing. The less we listen to God's song, the more we fall in love with the songs of wealth, security, fame, power, status, productivity, greatness, progress, the quest for more and new. When we stop to listen to God's song, we hear something very different.
This song, this way of life that we see in Christ, spoken of and lived out, we have learned to call “the kingdom.”
In today's gospel reading, Christ gives us a glimpse of what the kingdom is like. So let us turn off the noise of our own songs and stop and listen to his.
How might we live as members of God's way, of God's kingdom, as singers of God's song.
What is this kingdom like?
A mustard seed. A mustard seed?
"The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."
Smallness is not seen as valuable in our society. Smallness is weak. Smallness is inefficient. But the kingdom of God is like a seed. A very small seed.
Planting a seed is a mixture of emotions – hope and doubt come together in this act. So if we have the luxury, we plant as many as we can in hope that a few of them will sprout. But God's kingdom, the building of the people who will learn the song of God, God's way is not many seeds – safety in numbers – it's one seed.
One small seed full of potential for growth and full of potential for decay.
The seed is small, and the seed is uncertain.
The seed is also out of our control. Sure we TRY to control it. We make sure there's a good amount of compost and fertilizer in the bed, we make sure it's got enough (but not too much) water. But so much of the growth of that small seed is beyond our control. So many forces outside of us and the seed go into its growth or its decay.
The seed is small, the seed is uncertain, and the seed is out of our control.
But this is God's way.
Many of those expecting the promised one, the Messiah, in Christ's day, expected an overhaul of the Roman Empire – bring down Caesar! Huge displays of power and finally Israel is the conqueror, not the conquered!
But that song, the song of conquest, the song of Imperial might and overnight success – that song wasn't Christ's song. That song is not the song that we learn to sing as those who have become part of the kingdom.
Christ's song, is the song of a new humanity, the humanity that seeks to serve and not dominate, to love and not hate, to forgive and not resent, to heal and not break. This song, this new humanity, does not come into being by the violent overhaul of established systems, by manipulating communities to do what should be done, but by the patient love and serving of those who have learned a different time, a different song.
The seed is small, the seed is uncertain, and the seed is out of our control.
The church is small, the church's future is uncertain, and the church is out of our control.
Many tell us that if we just have the right programs, the right activities, if we're just nice enough and don't let our various extreme personalities get in the way, THEN the church will grow and prosper – everyone will like us.
But that's the story of a business, not a mustard seed. That's the way of corporations, not the kingdom of God.
The kingdom of God grows through faith that God will grow it.
The kingdom of God prospers through patience that God's time is not ours.
The kingdom of God continues through consciousness that God is in control, not us.
We may look at our church, at empty pews, at the lack of young people or young families and respond with a shame-driven, guilt-driven, finger-pointing zeal to rectify all the things that have stifled the kingdom. But that's not God's way.
Christ's ministry was not one of taking control and dominating circumstances, manipulating people in order to “grow the ministry.” That's the way that empires and corporations do business. We are part of a different time, a different structure, we sing a different song.
Ours is to pray. Ours is to be faithful to the way of life, the way of love, the song of Christ that has been entrusted to us. Ours is to rest in God's love and his hope, not the approval of others, the praise of the community, or the promise of productivity through programs.
God's way is like a mustard seed. Small, uncertain, and out of our control, that He might give the growth and we might participate in his story as he builds his church. Amen.
