So when Jesus speaks of sowing mustard seed, his Jewish audience must have cringed! “Mustard? Are you kidding me?! That stuff is out of control, it goes everywhere!! Nobody plants that stuff!” Really? Well, evidently God plants something like it when the Kingdom is sown. This likening the Kingdom of God to mustard would be like saying to us that the Kingdom of God is like bull thistles (and we all know how much fun they are!). It’s that pernicious … it’s a noxious weed. If you clear out a plot of land and leave it empty … the following year you will have a plot of mustard. It spreads everywhere and you cannot get rid of it nor can you contain it. It seems Father Junipero Serra, the Franciscan priest who founded the missions in California, sowed mustard seeds as he made his way up the coast … and farmers have lamented his actions ever since! The semi-arid landscape of California is very similar to that of Palestine – and mustard grows like wildfire. I’m a native Californian and growing up I learned about how we got so darned much mustard in our state. We have mustard in Maryland … but nothing like we have it in California. Mustard is an annual plant which comes up in late April and early May and is visible in fields because of its bright yellow flowers. In our journey together as priest and people, I found myself drawn towards the second parable in this reading: that of the mustard seed. Let’s not settle for the tame and gentle Jesus today – rather let’s allow him to be the subversive, unpredictable and transformative Son of God, shall we? So keeping that in mind, let’s take another more subversive look at the words of Jesus. As my friend Cam Overs said to me in a conversation this week, “If you want to play it safe, get out of the Jesus business because it’s never safe!” People who play it safe don’t get crucified. But if there’s one thing I’ve come to know in my faith journey, it’s this: Jesus isn’t safe. Again … that would be all well and fine … and terribly safe. Conventional wisdom might view the second parable of the mustard seed from the perspective of “from small things, big things come” and liken that to the life of faith. So it is with our images in these two parables from Mark.Ĭonventional wisdom could lead me to preach this from the perspective of trust – as in the Sower trusting that the seed would sprout and grow regardless of his involvement and so does God’s kingdom – and that would be well and fine. The parables of Jesus are so familiar and beloved that we can fall into a malaise and a comfort with them. The bad news about parables is … they are short, pithy, memorable stories which teach us about the Kingdom of God. The good news about parables is that they are short, pithy, memorable stories which teach us about the Kingdom of God.
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