There are a lot of Scriptures mentioned in this sermon. If you don't have time to look them up while listening, I would suggest writing them down and looking them up later. I do read the texts in the message other than the two written in the title line, which should be read in advance. To listen to the sermon, click here.
Wednesday, August 17, 2022
Sunday, August 7, 2022
Small Is Not Insignificant; Luke 13:18-21
As we wind down our 40 days of prayer this week, I hope that you are seeing that as you allow yourself to be filled with and led by the Holy Spirit, that you can impact the kingdom of God. And that a church, even if small, when led by the Spirit is not insignificant. This is what we see in today’s gospel.
These two parables are probably
familiar to most of us. In fact, we had
the Matthew version of these parables in our 40 days reading back on Day 24. On
that day, we were reminded not to despise small things. The message in Luke is the same, but the
context is different. The phrase
“Therefore he was saying” at the beginning of verse 18 would make it seem like
the synagogue service is continuing.
Jesus could have been continuing His comments on the day’s Scripture,
but more likely, He was using these parables to tell the congregation that what
had just happened was a sign of the inbreaking of the Kingdom of God. Jesus frequently proclaimed healings as signs
of the kingdom. In this case, only one
person was healed. It was a small thing
for Jesus, but It was huge for this woman.
And as we said last week, it was declaring victory over the devil,
marking the end of Satan’s kingdom. It
also had further repercussions than just the woman healed as a multitude of
people witnessed it. Small acts done for
the glory of God expand the kingdom and defeat darkness.
The Church may seem small and weak,
but God’s kingdom is pervasive and strong.
In these parables, God is presented as a male gardener and a female
baker. God is the initiator and the
kingdom works. We could say that the
Church is the mustard seed, and God’s people are yeast. Jesus doesn’t give a detailed explanation of
the parables. One of the differences
between Jesus telling the story in Luke versus the recordings in Mark and
Matthew is that Jesus doesn’t exaggerate as to the size of the mustard
seed. He doesn’t say it is the smallest
of seeds, and it isn’t. It’s a fairly
small seed that grows into more of a shrubbery that might get 10 ft. tall,
which isn’t huge, considering other varieties of trees, even for the area in
which Jesus lived. In this telling in
Luke, the emphasis isn’t so much the size of the seed, but the fact that the
birds can rest in its branches. Craig
Keener interprets the branches as God’s extending authority. Still this type of seed wasn’t one that you
would generally plant in a garden. If we
see garden here in the English sense, like in the cultivated areas of the
grounds, then planting this shrubbery might make a lot of sense. But Mark and Matthew use the word “field”
instead of “garden”. Field is definitely
the food growing area. Normally you
wouldn’t want to attract birds to your food area. Birds are generally considered a nuisance in
a field. But if it’s on the edge of the
field, it might not be a bad idea after all. The birds love to eat the mustard
seed, and hopefully they would stay away from the other crops. I don’t know, but Jesus is certainly talking
about a positive thing when he says the birds can roost in the mustard
tree. They can find food and
shelter. The birds are outsiders. Most scholars think the birds represent other
nations. After all, God’s original
promise to Abraham was that God would bless all the nations through
Abraham. God’s kingdom is attractive to
outsiders. We find rest and nurture in
the kingdom of God. How might we create
a more welcoming and nurturing environment?
A seed looks very different from the
tree, but the potential for the tree is in the seed. The seed casing must fall away for the tree
to emerge. What needs to fall away? William Barclay points out that the kingdom
works from the inside but the power comes from the outside. We have to be careful to avoid change for
change’s sake-to simply make visible changes without intention. Superficial
change will do little to advance the kingdom of God. It is changing with the purpose of promoting
human flourishing, God’s shalom—wholeness and perfection, that will enable the
kingdom of God to expand. Just as the tree looks very different from the seed,
sometimes kingdom expansion takes a different form than we expect. Sometimes it is indeed radical change
happens. But it happens little by little
as the tree shoot is nurtured. At some
points it grows more quickly and sometimes it grows more slowly.
In the second parable, we again see
Jesus taking something normally seen as negative--leaven and presenting it as
something good—the kingdom of God.
Leaven was normally used as a metaphor for sin. The amount of bread this woman is making
would feed about 100 people. God is up to no small thing in growing the
kingdom. It is the maximum amount of
dough a woman could knead at one time. The Kingdom little by little is changing
the world in big ways and affects everything. It happens in a hidden way. I’ve listened to several speakers lately, both
in person at the Wilberforce weekend I attended in May and on some recent
podcasts, regarding the effects Christianity has made on the world. Even paganism has been changed. Our unalienable rights, that are so called
self-evident, are not really so. They
never existed in much of the ancient world and don’t exist in much of the
modern world. These rights are seen
because they are in the Bible, and were lived out and taught by Jesus. As Christianity spread, the way of seeing the
world changed. It is comforting to me to
know that the kingdom of God is continually expanding in our world in ways we
don’t always see. Lives are transformed
one by one. Small pockets of believers
persevere in the darkest places, and the Holy Spirit is doing amazing things
through and among them. How does leaven
work? It is the by-products of the yeast
as the metabolize sugar that causes the yeast to rise. It is persistent faithfulness on the part of
God’s people that causes the kingdom to expand.
In both of these parables, we see
that big development and big impact comes from small beginnings, particularly
when it comes to the kingdom of God. It
might not seem like much is happening at first, but it is in the process of
taking over, bringing forth good things.
Sometimes the kingdom grows visibly, like the mustard seed into a
tree. Sometimes it grows invisibly, like
yeast working within the dough, and you only see the end results.
Jesus also told us that through
parable that if we are not faithful in the little things, then how can we be
trusted to be faithful in the big things.
The apostle Paul reminds us that God uses the weak things of the world
to shame the strong. Every successful
venture began small. Even this church
began small. Now it’s time to see what
God wants to do next for the good of God’s kingdom in and through this
congregation. I love the ways we have
been faithful lately with little things that are helping to promote the kingdom
of God in our community. Let’s keep on
keeping on even while we wait to be entrusted with bigger things, even when we
can’t see the kingdom growing. If we are
faithful, we will not become insignificant.
One of the questions that churches are encouraged to ponder is, “Who
would miss your church if it ceased to exist?
How would you be missed?” Someone
created an affirmation of faith based on the kingdom parables of Jesus. The part that is relevant to us today reads
thusly: “We believe the love-kingdom is
like a mustard seed; sown in apparent insignificance, growing into
magnificence for the flourishing of the world.
We believe the love-kingdom is like yeast; inserted in humble
insignificance into the dough of life, expanding into enough bread for the
world.” Friends, can we say we believe
this? God’s kingdom is a kingdom of
love—a kin-dom as has become popular to call it. One thing we must keep in mind is that the
kingdom of God is much bigger than the local church. The kingdom of God is the rule of God
exercising the Lord’s authority in the world.
I have to confess that years ago, I worked with a colleague in ministry. The ministry started to bear fruit and people
were coming to know Jesus as Lord and Savior.
Yet I was a little bummed because the people to whom we were ministering
chose to join my colleague’s congregation and not mine. That was me being sinful. Scripture tells us to rejoice with those who
rejoice. Who cares where people were going
to church, so long as it was a church that is preaching and teaching the
gospel! People were being transformed
and becoming faithful disciples of Jesus!
That’s kingdom expansion and the best thing of all! May we not devolve into petty envy of our brothers
and sisters in Christ, but may we rejoice wherever we see the kingdom
expanding! And I still love cooperative
ministry when God’s people can come together in the unity for which Jesus
prayed to exhibit the kingdom of heaven to the world. Our Book of Order lists 6 Great Ends of the
church the last of which is “The exhibition of the kingdom of God to the
world.” It is honestly a summation of
the other 5. Let us not only exhibit the
kingdom of heaven to the world, but may God use us to expand God’s kingdom in
Havelock and even to the ends of the earth.
Monday, August 1, 2022
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)