Mustard

The blessings of the world through God’s people are not
A violent, quick revolution that takes power

It starts small
It faces set backs
But it
Will
Permeate
The world
With love.

Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.

Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.

Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. (mat. 13)

About this parable Gerhard Lohfink writes, “Jesus is very aware of the ‘impossibility’ of the cause of God in the world… he depicts not only the unstoppable growth of the reign of God, but also the frightening smallness and hiddennes of its beginning…”

I don’t think Jesus ever said that only he sowed the Word of God. (he IS the Word of God) He was constantly sending people away, telling them to sow the seed of the Kingdom too.

As Claiborne says, its like Jesus keeps saying, “In a distracting, violent, and tempting world, keep sowing the seed of love. Sow it everywhere, even when Herod ['the world' or 'the government'] cuts it down, and even when the world’s riches try to choke it. You never know when it will spring up and make great fruit!”

We must not become discouraged easily.

The disciples just couldn’t get their mind around the way Jesus was saying God’s kingdom should come. They thought it should come quickly, in grand production, in a way the world would be attracted to, through fear and bells and whistles.

But what does Jesus compare the kingdom to?

A. tiny. mustard. seed.

And yeast.

Hmm.

The heart of Jesus’ political imagination:

The kingdom starts small and permeates and transforms the larger world.

Not a political party. Not a political issue. Not through a nation or a few nations. Not a huge church with lots of rich members. Not T.V’s, power points, great music, great books, and captivating talkers. Not through a charismatic leader.

Not. What. You. Would. Think.

Mustard seed

Yeast and mustard where both known for their infectious spreading qualities, but they were not likely metaphors for the greatest of all Kingdoms.

Mustard seeds grew like ca-razy. All over. A wild bush. Took over gardens.

A metaphor about the kingdom being like a giant redwood (the greatest of all trees) would have been received much better by first-century Jews.

“What Jesus had in mind was not a frontal attack on the empires of this world. His revolution was a subtle contagion—one little life, one little hospitality house at a time.”

A persecutor of the early Christians said this: “They form a profane conspiracy infecting the Roman empire and just like a rank growth of weeds….it should at all costs be exterminated, root and branch.”

BUT ironically, when a mustard is crushed, its potency is released.

“Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.”

Amen, let us be crushed.

“If the world hates you, keep in mind that is hated me first.”-Jesus

Hmmm, if the world does not hate us, are we really a part of another kingdom?

That is always a good question to ask ourselves, but sometimes I think it can be confusing.
So I have to remind myself who ‘the world’ is, because its not like the whole world is trying to kill me or something. To me, it means that if people who are not following Jesus look at the things I do and say things like,

“Okay, don’t you think you’re going a little overboard?” “Are you part of a cult?” “That’s so great that you’re spending time with those kind of people, but I just couldn’t do that.” “I think that is absolutely stupid and I just can’t believe you’re going to do that.” “Do you expect to make it anywhere in life that way?” “Aren’t you afraid you’re going to get sued?” “You will probably get killed! That is so dangerous!” “That is uncivilized and just stupid.” "But they deserve this!! We must teach them a lesson!"

Those things are definitely said to me on a routine basis, but I’m just starting to dig into this upside-down kingdom so I’m expecting MUCH more than that to come.

Early Christians were NOT TRYING TO OVERTHROW OR EVEN REFORM THE EMPIRE, or government, or leaders of society....whatever you want to call it.

But they were also not going along with it either.

They didn’t try to change the leadership or government-- they made a whole other world, a whole other Rome. Forget reforming that which we can all admit is crap, lets believe and be apart of another world and offer it to the dissatisfied people.

We need people who believe so much in another world that they cannot help but enact it.
That’s what a true believer is—a convert. Their minds and imaginations are renewed, made different—and they can not do the things the rest of the world is doing anymore. They think about things so much differently that the world thinks things like, 'that's crazy' a.k.a. 'thats upside-down.' Even the subtle things that no one seems to talk about changes for the convert, not just those "big moral" things. Everything changes.

God bless America….hmmmm….

“So often we do things that make sense to us and ask God to bless our actions and come alongside our plans, rather than looking at the things God promises to bless and acting alongside of them.”

And what does God promise to bless?
When we are with the poor
The merciful
The hungry
The persecuted
The peacemakers.

What if we stop doing things just because they definitely work in our head and then praying that God will make good things come from it and instead just start doing the things God already promised us that good things will come from—even when those things seem completely unreasonable and upside-down in our minds???

Technology has advanced and grown incredibly, people are growing exponentially, more and better weapons, more and better business…..yet our spirituality and morality has not advanced. Out hearts are the same as thousands of years ago.

Can we handle the power?