The Silont and the Small
Mark 4; 26-34

June 27, 1971

John M. Buchanan

There thoy were: ‘twelve individuals against the whole world. Gradually,
they had come to sense that the venture they had joincd would not be casy.

They had begun on the basis that this Jesus was the fulfillment of their
nation's hopes and dreams. Just as he had reached into their lives and enlisted
them in his cause, so they expected that they, with him, would appeal success-
fully to the hearts and minds of their countrymen. It must have been dismaying
and disappointing and shattering to them to witness what was really happening.
Instead of successfully appealing to the hearts and minds of their countrymen,
they wore succeeding only in alienating them, particularly the ones who mattered
most. The scribes and phariscees and priests not oniy failed to welcome them
with open arms, but instead were indignant at their audacity, and suspicious
of their motives, and furious at their behavior. Not only were they not riding
the wave~-crest of popularity and success, instead they sensed a growing isolation.
find so I imagine them sitting up late in the evening talking about thoir
unexpected predicament, Today we would call it discussing the viability of
their project. What chances did it have for success? What realistic possi=
bilities wore there. The Long Range Planners. and Systems dnalysists among
thom would have measured the data and concluded very quickly that this venture
just didn't have a prayer and ought to be dropped.

I can imagine them talking like that, and I can imagine Jesus hearing their
concern, and understanding the very real and very human anxiety. I can imagine
him being sympathetic. {nd whenever this particular thing happoned, and it
must have happened often, he would respond gently, firmly, empathetically, in
a way that did not shame them, nor make them embarrassed at their ineptitude.

He would do it by returning to the heart of the message ~ the very cssonce of
the Good News - the basic philosophy of the eventure, if you will.

It was this: God has begun to do a now thing in the confines of human
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history. He has planted a seed — a very small seed. But because he has planted -
because it is his world in which he has planted it - it will grow, quietly,
inconspicuously. He has established his kingdom on earth: it is alroady in

our midst. It will never, henceforth, be overturned or turned back. It is

now part of the permanent furniture of human history. Your job is to know that
fact, derive hope from it, live out of it, and in your living affirm the reality
of this new thing everywhere you go: when you do this - the Kingdom that is

in our midst will be made clear for others to sce. You will bear in your being -
the very Kingdom of God.

That, I would suggest, is the distilled essence of the New Testament Lesson
which I read to you this morning. In this instance he used two very bricf -
parables, both of which have had great meaning for Christians down through tho
centuries. The ssed sown in the ground, mysteriously germinating and growing
and finally bearing fruit. Tho mustard seod — the traditional idiom for small-
ness - which slowly becomes a substantial tree of ton feet - again, a traditional
idiom for strength and permanence.

It worked. It did give them hope and courage and conviction in the face
of incredible odds. They kept the faith and lived it because they were con-
vinced that the seed was planted: that regardless of the relative success or
failure of their efforts, they were involved in the Ams thing God was doing.

In John Steinbeckts great novel, The Grapes of Wrath, the strange country

preacher, Casey, put it rather well. "One person, with their mind made up, can
shove a lot of folks around." That's descriptive of what happened as a result
of those twelve men,

It was a timely and relevant and essential word to the disciples as they
contemplated the future. It remains so for us. For we live in a time when
many people are ready to throw in the towel on the Christian venture. We live
in a time when the institutional church goes from crisis to crisis, when the
traditional piety of the American people which ones found a home in the church,

now is past - or is expressed quite apart from and sometimes in opposition to

the church. lc live in a time when the word seems to be that our venture is
dead. That we are barking up the wrong tree: ‘that we are irrelevant: that
our project is no longer viable. In one way or another every honest Christian
has thought those thoughts. It is one of the realities of churchmanship in
our timc. It is expressed, perhaps most graphically, in the continuing cxodus
‘from the ranks of the clergy, of some of the most creative and articulate mon
and women we have. Roman Catholic and Protestant alike. find as they exit,
they do so wistfully, with a lingering look over the shoulder, wishing that
they could stay, but having come to the agonizing decision that the project

is no longer viable.

| ind those who stay do so, I believe, because of a deep belicf that the
essence of these two little parables, is still very relevant, We are involved
in something far greater than our individual efforts. The Kingdom of God is
still in our midst, and even though we may not be winning the battle today, the
kingdom in our midst transcends us - and our work = and our hopes and will be
a reality in the life of mankind until that life is no more.

Now, that is all pretty theological and pretty personal and its sometimes
not too real as we sit in a sanctuary on a hot summer morning wishing we were
somewhere clsc, or when we struggle with the common everyday mechanics of
being ‘a church in Lafayette, Indiana. Yet it is a perspective we need and
I would invite you to think with me about the implications.

Jesus uscd a mustard secd to illustrate the reality of the Kingdom of
God. Small in its beginnings, one day it is great and big and strong. Christian
history, itself, is the best illustration that his dictum was true. Think
about the Christmas story. The Scottich poet George MacDonald said it beautifully:

"They all were looking for a king
fo slay their foes and lift them high: m
Thou cam'st, a little baby thing

That made a woman cry."

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Think about this church, here in this place. Jn idea in one man's mind:

a dream discussed by a committee: a concept shared with a handful of little
people. ind two decades later a strong and healthy entity that has life and a
history and permanence.

Think about Purdue University. in idea ~ a concept. ind as the President
of the United States recognized its retiring President he called attention to
the fact that 80,000 men and women bear the marks of that idea - graduates of
the last 25 years alone. That's a vivid example of the mistard seed principle.

The trouble with it is that we are very much inclined to be impressed with
bigness. Size impresses us and wo live in a nation and culture that worships
volume. We measure success in terms of profits: we define the good life in
terms of profits: we define the good life in terms of the size of a man's
bank account and mortgage. We live in a system so big that descriptive statistics
no longer make sense.

In things ecclesiastic we are inclined to use the same measuring stick.
The viability of a church is determined not on the basis of what it is doing,
but the gize of its congregation and current receipts. Presbyterians are
increasingly nervous over the fact that, as a denomination, we have been losing
members for several years. In spite of the fact that the church has done more
in terms of service, more in terms of expressing its faith in the difficult
confines of the world, than at any other time in its history.

In discussions of the Jngela Davis affair, the clinching argument is always
that this thing is going to cost us people and money. And it may. But in the
midst of it all - whether we agree with the action or disagree — isn't there
reason to thank God that we belong to a church that takes its commission
seriously to be in the world, as the Body of Christ: a church that will risk
its life in pursuit of what it perceives to be the will of God. We may not
always agree ~ but the fact that our church is that honest, and that courageous —
is the reason why I'm a Presbyterian and not something clse.

The Kingdom of God is something other than volume and size and bigness.

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Jesus said that the Kingdom is like a seed sown, which grows quietly, incon-
spicuously. That is, it is not the nature of the Christian venture to be
spectacular.

Bishop Gerald Kennedy tells the story of a cartoon published long ago on
the anniversovy of the birth of Abraham Lincoln. ‘Two Kentucky backWoodsmen
are standing at the edge of a forest in the winter. Trees are bare and the
ground is covered with snow. One asks the other, "Anything new?" The other

replies, "Nothing mich. Oh, there's a new baby over at Tom Lincoln's."

[p. 82 The Parables |

Like a sced planted in the ground the Christian venture has grown and
continues to grow. But like the process by which a seed is transformed into
a trec, the growth is many times imperceptible. We cannot see human growth
and perhaps one of the most common human experiences is the surprise and sense
of mysterious wonder when we encounter a child we have ngt seen for two year.
Less romantic, of course, but equally common is that mysterious experience of
putting on last year's pants and discovering that they no longer fit.

Personal growth, maturing, deepening in faith - follow the same pattern.

Not long ago The Christian Century published a serios of articles writton by

some of the leading theologians of our day entitled "How My Mind Has Changed."

i
To aman, they had grown and altered and deepened some convictions while dis-

carding others. To aman, they were embarrassed by books they had written
early in thoir careers. To a man, they hore witness to the fact that thoy
had grown.

That is how it is with personal Christian Faith - like a seed in the
growth process. ind there is nothing more difficult for us +o assimilate than
that understanding. We are impatient. We want eaickens We want answers to
questions, now. We want a faith that exudes confidence and assurance. ind in
the dark valley of doubt and grief we sometimes envy the confidence of other

people we know.

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I'm suspicious of the man with all the answers. I think that is the
tremendous appeal of the evangelistic approach to the Gospel. People comerge
from conversion expericnces with a full blown faith. Jmd there is not possi-
bility for growth, because a tree has been stuck in the ground instead of a
seed.

The Kingdom of God, and that includes whatever you and I carry around in
our hearts and call our faith, is a growing, living thing. It nover stops
growing and changing, and the moment it does, it is quite dead.

Finally, in these two parables Jesus was saying something about the loca~
tion of the Kingdom of God. is the seed is in the ground, so God's Kingdom
is in the common life of men. Not above, or beyond or apart but right in the
middle of humm life. That's one of the greatest affirmations in the New
Testament, and one of the best bits of news I know. It is also one of the
most difficult components of our faith to believe. The Kingdom of God has beon
portrayed vertically in terms of a place in the sky: it has been described
horizontally as a life style out off from the realities of the world. It is
still maintained, in the personal dimension, that the things of the Kingdom
are unsoiled by the ambiguities of the life you and I live. fnd citizens of
this Kingdom often come out looking like those three little monkeys who sce,
hear and touch not erik - a dull life indeed. ~

The word here, however, is that God's Kingdom is in the world we know:
that you and I live in that Kingdom, now: that it breaks through to us in
the fellowship of the Church: in the love and affection of friends: in moments
of awe and wonder and celebration.

It is here, even here, in our midst. "It is like the mstard seed, which
is smaller than any seed in the ground when it is sown. ,But once sown, it
springs up and grows taller than any other plant, and forms branches so large

that the birds can settle in its shade."

Amen «