From the mustard seed to the cosmos, the complexity of everything that surrounds us is unveiled today in its simplicity through the parables. A person scattering seeds with wild abandon. Who is it? God? Jesus? Us? It is as if we grasp it all… but yet not. There is a grand Truth here that we understand, but don’t quite get. Here in this space faith, science, technology, and Word intersect. Merge. Stretch.
It is as if Jesus was calling on us to see things differently. This isn’t so dissimilar from what the world of science is revealing to us. In his chapter on The Architecture of the Cosmos, physicist Carlo Rovelli writes that, “Scientific thought is fed by the capacity to ‘see’ things differently than they have previously been seen.”[1] In many ways, through the parables he shared, this is what Jesus is calling on us to do as well.
After all, the author of the book of Mark has just written to us about the tiny mustard seed. Mustard. This is a surprising, weedy plant that spreads everywhere. Can you imagine the gasps of “What? Really? That’s it?” that emerged from the people standing around Jesus as he tells this story that God’s kin-dom being like a mustard seed? A weed? Wouldn’t we rather have the Good News of our faith to be strong? Maybe like the mighty redwood tree, which grows over 350 feet tall[2]. Or more like a tree from the Middle East, the cedar, the symbol of Lebanon, which in Jesus’ time and beyond has been seen as an icon of strength and holiness. The psalmist writes, “The righteous flourish like the palm tree, and grow like a cedar in Lebanon (Psalm 92:12). Why isn’t the kin-dom of God like a cedar?
But no. The kin-dom of heaven is simply like a random act. The haphazard scattering of seeds. And new creation happens. A Jesus movement that starts small, but grows into a wild bush providing shelter and protection to others in their time of need. And that weed can be US, a Holy-Scattered-About seed that has great potential. Visiting members and friends of the church at home. In nursing homes. Hospitals. Hospice. Making food. Sending cards.
It is as if we need to have ears to hear things differently. To act differently. To see things through a lens other than they have previously been seen. In our current understanding of physics, Rovelli notes that quantum mechanics suggests that “everything that exists is never stable and is nothing but a jump from one interaction to another… experiments with particles have taught us that the world is a continuous, restless swarming of things, a continuous coming to light and disappearance…”[3] and that “…it is not possible to predict where an electron will reappear but only to calculate the probability that it will pop up here or there.”[4] Rovelli describes the environment in which we live as “A world of happenings, not of things.”[5]
A world of happenings, not of things. Shifting from science to faith we might say that it is not possible to predict where the Spirit will reappear, but only to calculate the probability that it will pop up here or there.
It is as if the kin-dom of heaven is, in its complexity, simply like the haphazard scattering of seeds. Random acts. That sprout and grow. Like a Jesus movement that starts small but grows into a wild bush providing lunches to the youth in Allied Drive in the weeks in-between school sessions. For youth that rely on school lunch programs, days when there is no school can mean no lunch. This past week, Memorial UCC worked with Allied Partners and provided around 55 lunches for youth in the Allied Drive neighborhood.
Or the kin-dom of heaven might be like the scattering of seeds that occurred as four of the youth from Memorial UCC participated in Summer Servants over the past week. Meadow, Indy, Evan, and Brandon took part in this local immersion experience, visiting and working with Beacon House (a day center for people experiencing homelessness), the Good Neighbor Personal Essentials Pantry, YWCA, Goodman Youth Gardens, and other places around Dane County. We sleep and rise night and day, and seeds sprout and grow, we know not how.
It is as if Jesus tells us through these parables that we live in a world of happenings, not of things. Here, Holy Stories and happenings intertwine. We, as individuals and as a faith community who are Holy-Scattered-About, have… in our interactions… our relationships… is great potential.
It is as if Jesus taught in parables. If you have ears to hear, listen. Listen, really listen, to this retelling of the scattering of the seeds and the eruption of the mustard plant. For, this is what happened to me this week. See if this has ever happened to you:
At the end of a long day and week… when you are exhausted and pop onto the computer one last time for the night… when you know you really should just turn off the lights and go to bed…
…and there in the digital sphere you notice that the bible is one of the top 5 topics trending on social media in the United States… the BIBLE… as in #Bible… and that 13 Romans (as in Romans, the book in the bible, chapter 13) is one of the top 10 topics on Twitter (June 14, 10:20 pm, https://trends24.in/united-states/)… and suddenly you realize that what you see before you is what is called a Twitter Storm … and you know that the sermon you have carefully crafted needs to be rewritten. You just know down deep inside that all of the bible study, all of the reflection, and all of the writing you had been doing during the week has suddenly imploded.
This is what happens when you read that a prominent government official has said, in response to migrant children being taken from their parents that, “I would cite you to the Apostle Paul and his clear and wise command in Romans 13, to obey the laws of government because God has ordained the government for his purposes,” and history begins to flash before your eyes. The Spirit stirs. Jesus’ words echo across the computer screen, “May anyone with ears to hear, listen.”
So, hear this, my parable:
The kin-dom of God is as if someone would post a tweet on social media. One small post of less than 280 words in a sea of “500 million tweets per day,”[6] with hashtags and emojis, and the post was liked and reweeted hundreds and thousands of times, and the post began to trend on Twitter, she does not know how. Social media connects us across the country, around the global, first a post, then a retweet – a share – and then a viral message. But when the hashtag becomes a tool of social transformation… like the hashtags NeverAgain, Enough, BlackLivesMatter, MeToo, Pride, Flint, PuertoRico… like the hashtag Bible… 13 Romans… this is where faith, science, technology, and Word intersect. Merge. Stretch.
It is as if the kin-dom of heaven is, in its complexity, simply like the haphazard scattering of seeds. Random tweets. That sprout and grow, like a storm. Like a Jesus movement that begins small but grows into a wild bush pushing back on bad theology.
Romans 13 has been used throughout our country’s history to support a range of political, social, and religious views. At the time of the Revolution, loyalists to the King of Great Britain focused on the first verse, “let every person be subject to the governing authorities… those authorities that exist have been instituted by God” (Romans 13:1, NRSV).[7] Many years later, as debates around slavery grew, Lincoln Mullan, an assistant professor of history at George Mason University notes that, “Romans 13 erupted into the public debate in 1850 with the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act. That law gave teeth to a provision in the Constitution by requiring that state officials and even ‘all good citizens’ aid in returning people who had escaped slavery to bondage.”[8]
Yet, may anyone with ears to hear, listen. For in Romans 13 Paul also writes, “
“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. The commandments, “you shall not commit adultery; you shall not murder, you shall not steal; you shall not covet”, and any other commandment, are summed up in this word, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor…” (Romans 13:8-10a, NRSV)
“Love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor…”
This week, the national officers of the United Church of Christ released a pastoral letter which reads in part:
“…God hears the cries of God’s people. The plight of black and brown migrant families whose children are ripped from their care cannot be the policy of a civilized land. We’ve been here before. Our nation’s history bears witness to a legacy of lost love. We separated the children of Native people from their families. We separated the children of enslaved people from their families. We separated the children of Japanese people from their families. Many of these families were never made whole again. This legacy of white supremacist ideology is idolatrous and leaves an indelible mark of evil that can only be redeemed by a conscious act of spiritual repentance and repair… The United Church of Christ strongly condemns the dismantling of families, the criminalization of the quest for freedom, and the caging of those whose only crime is to seek shelter from harm. How we treat those who seek shelter in our midst is a direct reflection of how we treat God.”[9]
People of God, this is a world of happenings, not of things.
Interactions. Relationships.
Here, Holy Stories and happenings intertwine.
Here we, as individuals and as a faith community who are Holy-Scattered-About, have… in our interactions…our relationships… great potential.
May anyone with ears to hear, listen.
And may we be Holy-Scattered-About.
For the kin-dom of heaven… is… as… if…
~Pastor Kris
Reflection on Mark 4:26-34… and Romans 13… offered on June 17, 2018
[1] Rovelli, Carlo, Simon Carnell, and Erica Segre. Seven Brief Lessons on Physics. New York: Riverhead Books, 2016. 24.
[2] Etheme.com. “The Largest Trees In North America Are In Northern California. Have You Seen Them In Person?” Tentree. Accessed June 13, 2018. https://www.tentree.com/blogs/posts/the-largest-trees-in-north-america-are-in-northern-california-have-you-seen-them-in-person.
[3] Rovelli, Carlo, Simon Carnell, and Erica Segre. Seven Brief Lessons on Physics. New York: Riverhead Books, 2016. 32-33.
[4] Rovelli, Carlo, Simon Carnell, and Erica Segre. Seven Brief Lessons on Physics. New York: Riverhead Books, 2016. 18.
[5] Rovelli, Carlo, Simon Carnell, and Erica Segre. Seven Brief Lessons on Physics. New York: Riverhead Books, 2016. 33.
[6] “Twitter Usage Statistics.” Google Search Statistics – Internet Live Stats. Accessed June 13, 2018. http://www.internetlivestats.com/twitter-statistics/.
[7] Mullen, Lincoln. “The Fight to Define Romans 13.” The Atlantic. June 15, 2018. Accessed June 15, 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/romans-13/562916/.
[8] Mullen, Lincoln. “The Fight to Define Romans 13.” The Atlantic. June 15, 2018. Accessed June 15, 2018. https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/06/romans-13/562916/.
[9] “UCC Leaders: Keep Families Together!” United Church of Christ. Accessed June 15, 2018. http://www.ucc.org/news_ucc_leaders_keep_families_together_06152018.