The Weedy Kingdom

Ezekiel 17:22-24; Mark 4:26-34

“Watch out for the mint,” she told me. “Once it’s in your garden, it has a way of taking over.”

“With what can we compare the Kingdom of God or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

Let’s get a few botanical facts straight. First of all, the mustard seed is not the smallest of all seeds. The seeds of basil, petunias and begonias are all smaller. In fact, the smallest seed on earth belongs to a tropical orchid. Nor does mustard have the greatest seed to plant size ratio. That would be the sequoia. Beginning as a seed the size of a flake of oatmeal, the sequoia grows into the largest organism on earth; trees that can grow to the height of a 26 story building, and so wide that it would take 20 adults with outstretched arms to circle its trunk. The oldest living sequoias are up to 2200 years old. I love to imagine one of those oatmeal sized seeds falling to the ground in the forests of California just as a young woman was giving birth to her first born son in a stable half way around the world. I imagine the seed becoming a small sprout as the magi began their journey west. The tiny sapling reaching for the sun as Mary’s son hung on a cross and then rose from the dead, and the tree growing ever taller, ever wider, ever stronger, to stand as a testament that history is real, that the ancient is now. Looking up at the majestic, massive sequoias as they point to heaven, one cannot help but see the hand of God – to see God’s creative and sustaining work throughout history in front of their very eyes. Yes, the Sequoia seed would have been an excellent parable for Jesus to use when talking about the Kingdom of God.

Of course, assuming Jesus had never been to the redwood forests of California, he might instead have illustrated his point with the sequoias of his place – the Cedars of Lebanon. While not as tall or as mighty as sequoias, the cedar trees that grow on the mountains of Lebanon are impressive in their own right, growing up to 130 feet tall and eight feet wide. They, too, have a large seed to size ratio. Their impressive size, majestic beauty, and unmoving stability made them a common image of power in the ancient world, including in the Hebrew scriptures. In today’s reading from Ezekiel, the prophet paints the picture of God taking a small sprig from the top of a cedar tree and planting this tender shoot high on a lofty mountain. There, despite the wind and rain and snow, God makes the tender sapling grow into a great and majestic cedar, towering above all the other trees of the land. Whenever one sees this towering tree, they will see evidence of God’s work in the world. Only God has the power to turn a small sprig into a towering tree. In the same way, according to the prophet, God will plant the tender shoot of the remnant of Israel in the soil of the promised land. There they will grow into a great and mighty nation to be evidence to the nations of God’s presence and power in the world. Sequoias, cedars, powerful nations. These are the places we think to look to see the power of God. Yet these are not the images Jesus uses to talk about the Kingdom of God. With what can we compare the Kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a mustard seed.

Here’s the thing about mustard seeds, especially mustard seeds in the middle east at the time of Jesus; they might not have been the smallest of all seeds in literal size, but at that time and in that place they might well have been the most insignificant of all the seeds that could be sown upon the ground. Unlike the cedars of Lebanon, which most people had likely never seen, the mustard plant was an herb as common as dandelions are for us. And like the poor dandelion, its commonality and invasive nature had moved mustard from the category of “herb” soundly into the category of “weed.” I can hear a friendly neighbor telling a new gardener at the dawn of the first century, “watch out for the mustard, once it’s in your garden, it has a way of taking over.” In fact, mustard’s ability to take over by self sowing led to a rabbinical law prohibiting growing mustard in gardens. Many a good religious gardener spent hours in the field with shovel and hoe trying to dig out and destroy the mustard plants that had sprung up seemingly overnight; yet one mustard seed results in hundreds more and those small seeds found their way into the good soil of the garden and the cracks in the road and despite attempts to destroy them, they just kept on growing and growing and growing, each shrub growing large enough that the birds could build their nests in the shade of its branches; it seems even weedy mustard has a purpose in the Kingdom of God, providing a shady place of grace for the birds of the air.

Where are we to look for evidence of God’s rule among us, to see the power and presence of God? Well, it seems we needn’t book our flight to the great Redwood forests of California. We need look no further than the mustard shrubs or mint or dandelions growing right in our own backyards. Right there, right under our very noses, in the most common, ordinary stuff of life is the kingdom of God. The power of God is not only evident in the mighty sequoia and the towering cedar; it is also seen in the shade that weedy mustard gives to a sparrow. The presence and rule of God are found not only in the harvest of timber and tomatoes, but also in the plants that we dare to call weeds. Indeed each and every time a seed falls into the earth and sprouts new life, it is a sign of God’s rule among us. Each and every time a weed pops up in the cracks in the sidewalk, it is a miracle, an image of God’s new creation breaking into this world; if only we would have eyes to see.

If we are looking for the evidence of God’s presence in the world, if we want a sign that God is indeed the ruler of the earth, we do not have to climb a mountaintop, we needn’t look to the mighty and powerful of world. No, Jesus says, the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed; the smallest, most insignificant, most ignored of all the seeds that are sown on the earth. That is where God is at work, in the places we rarely think to look; among the common, the ordinary, among the ones that we might think to call the least. And whether we notice it or not, the Kingdom of God is indeed taking root and growing in this world. While we search after power and majesty and might, the little Kingdom seeds are falling into every field and every garden and every crack in the hardness of our human hearts and are sprouting and growing; growing large enough to give a little bit of shade, a gift of grace.

A word of warning: Watch out for the Kingdom of God; once it makes its way into the world, it has a way of taking over. Thanks be to God. Amen.