From a Tiny Seed
June 17, 2012
A sermon by
The Rev. Dr. Laura Barnes Coney
Danville Congregational Church
United Church of Christ
Ezekiel 17:22-24
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Thus says the Lord God: I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top
of a cedar; I will set it out.
I will break off a tender one
from the topmost of its young twigs; I myself will plant it on a high and lofty moun23
tain. On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it, in order that it
may produce boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar.
Under it every kind of bird will live; in the shade of its branches will nest
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winged creatures of every kind. All the trees of the field shall know
that I am the Lord. I bring low the high tree, I make high the low tree; I
dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. I the Lord have
spoken; I will accomplish it.
Mark 4:26-34
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He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter
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seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the
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seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the
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head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle,
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because the harvest has come.’ He also said, ‘With what can we
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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 small32
est 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
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the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’ With many such
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parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he
did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything
in private to his disciples.
This past Thursday I had the privilege of attending the graduation celebration for all the children who live in Contra
Costa Interfaith Housing’s (CCIH)1 Pleasant Hill location. I
was there with DCC members Doug Leich, Carol Gilliland,
Linda Worsham and Howard & Priscilla Spinner, who all
volunteer there.
CCIH is a non-profit organization - which our church supports in a big way – that provides permanent, supportive,
affordable housing to formerly homeless families. This ministry is especially critical in this area as Contra Costa County
has the eleventh highest homeless population in the country.2
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http://www.ccinterfaithhousing.org/
http://www.ccinterfaithhousing.org/video.cfm
CCIH is unique in that this is permanent (not transitional)
housing for what is, unfortunately, the fastest growing sector of the homeless population in our county – families with
children. CCIH offers on- site services that include full time
licensed mental health care providers... a 4 day a week
homework club for children... and other educational programs for the residents which support healthy lifestyles and
offer training in successful parenting skills. At the celebration there were several children who were the first of their
families to graduate from high school. Some will seek to
continue their education in community college. CCIH is a
place where lives are being changed, where tiny seeds of
hope are being planted and are given a chance to flourish.
It is a place where mothers and fathers who formerly had
little or no hope, are finding a way up and out of the vicious
cycle of poverty and despair. One resident shared his gratitude that he was able to be a parent again, to provide a home
for his children and a safe place to grow up.
It reminded me that today would be Father’s Day and that
we all have a lot to thank our fathers and parents for... so...
Happy Father’s Day to all of you! Thanks to all who are fathers or who serve as fathers to our children. (If you are a
father, please stand so that we might thank you!)
Thank you for your time, your love and all that you teach
our children. My father lives in Dallas, in the home where I
grew up. I have already been to visit him twice this year, and
yet I still miss him every day. My dad has been with me
through “thick and thin” for over 55 years now – which
means he knows me pretty well!
He probably did not anticipate that his “baby girl” would end
up in a pulpit somewhere in California. I have been living in
the Bay Area since 1989 and he still tries to convince me to
move back. We may disagree on the best place to live, but I
know that my dad loves me unconditionally. I cannot seem
to do anything, or make a mistake large enough, that will
change that – and I am so grateful. God loves us like that, all
of us.
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My father sowed several tiny seeds of faith in me so many
years ago. As a little girl, I always knew that church was really important. We went on Sundays for worship and on
Wednesdays for prayer services. On Saturday nights, Dad
would retire to his study to prepare his Bible lesson for the
next day. He taught in the college department of my home
church for over twenty years. His example of study and his
love for serving the church planted similar seeds within me.
He also used to sit me in his lap as baby and play the piano.
He would play and sing to me and I eventually learned to
sing with him... we often sang old hymns like “Blessed Assurance” and “Rock of Ages”. I stand here today, called by
this body to serve you as a pastor who loves to sing, hopefully bearing the fruit of those tiny seeds planted years ago...
thank you, Dad. May we all reflect on the seeds planted within us years ago by our fathers and grandfathers.
Today’s scripture readings from the psalms, from the Hebrew prophetic writings and the gospels are all about tiny
seeds that grow into mighty trees. In Ezekiel 17, there is an
image of an enormous cedar tree, bursting with life – full of
green boughs, fruit and birds. In Mark 4 there are two seed
stories – one a lesser known parable about the seed that is
planted and secretly grows all on its own (note that this parable has no parallel story in the other three gospels) and one
is the parable of the mustard seed (which does appear in all
three synoptic gospels - Matt 13:31-32; Luke 13:18-19). In all
of these passages, we are reminded that great things can
come from a tiny seed - a reminder that with God - all things
are possible! (Matt 19:26).
Jesus often talked about the impossible becoming possible.
When asked how that would happen, Jesus would answer the
question with a story... we call them parables.
What is a parable exactly? The Aramaic word is (mas ah)
and it translates as “riddle” or “story with a lesson”. Like
Ezekiel before him, Jesus uses an image from the everyday
lives of his listeners to open up the mysteries of God and the
kingdom of heaven. Markan scholar, Pheme Perkins, points
out that the parables of Jesus always combine elements of
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clarity along with a hidden meaning.3 A parable has multiple
layers, which are to be discovered again and again by its listeners. Each time they are heard, the parable itself has not
changed...but we have... and so the layers continue to be uncovered. What is being uncovered for us today?
Jesus taught by parable, and then would discuss their meaning with his disciples later on. It is our work to reflect on
these stories, without the benefit of interpretation in most
cases. We get to wrestle with the parable each time and decide what it means for us, and for our community of faith.
Then, we take action by applying that meaning to our lives
today. Together we explore the mystery that is God’s kingdom here on Earth and determine a course of action based
on what we learn as a community of faith.
For example... in October of 2005, we had an all-church retreat at a lovely place called Camp Okizu. Do some of you
remember it? We were connected to this amazing place
through Chris and Tom Sonnemann. Many of us spent the
weekend playing, worshipping and growing together outdoors. It was during that retreat that I first introduced Godly
Play to many of you.
I shared the Parable of the Mustard Seed story, first with a
group of adults and then with our children. We reflected on
the images that the parable evoked – an image of a tiny seed
– a large bush where many birds built nests... a place to call
home... Janis Jang shared this with me recently, and I have
her permission to share it with you:
I remember when you introduced Godly Play at a church retreat with this parable. We were mesmerized. It brought
back life and hope to teaching in the classroom. It reminded
me of how I used to teach before all these tests. Through the
story, I saw that there was still wonder and creativity in
learning. I am grateful for that! (Janis Jang, June 12, 2012
via Facebook).
Perkins, Pheme. “The Gospel of Mark.” New Interpreters Bible. Vol VIII.
Abingdon Press. 1995. p. 568.
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From that sharing of a simple story, the idea of Godly Play
has grown into a full program here at our church. We have
seven credentialed teachers and over forty who have shared
a Godly Play story with our children since we first began.
Godly Play started as a tiny seed of an idea planted among
us and which has grown into a full-blown program for children and youth... and adults.
Our scriptures today from Psalm 92, Ezekiel and from the
gospel of Mark describe mighty trees that grow from tiny
seeds. The psalmist shares that we will grow green and
strong even in our old age (I really liked that image...) In Ezekiel the mighty cedar grows from a tender young twig. In
Mark, seeds are planted and grow - they are harvested or
they offer shelter.
This chapter from Ezekiel is considered by some scholars to
be a messianic allegory4. Ezekiel was a sixth-century Hebrew
prophet who spoke to a “helpless and hopeless people”5 who
were living in exile. He was called by God to speak to people
who wanted to return to their homeland and see their temple rebuilt. This passage includes the promise of restoration... a tiny sprig grows into a mighty cedar. It is a story
from which those living in exile could glean the hope that
they would be able to come home, to nest in the mighty
boughs of a great cedar... a promise that there will be a
place, someday, where they can find rest and shelter.
Jesus also shares stories of hope with the hopeless who were
being oppressed by the Roman government. He shares these
stories about seeds – one of which grows into a mighty bush.
He tells them a story and gives those who listen, HOPE.
Jesus was quite the storyteller, in fact, at the end of this passage for today we are told that Jesus “only spoke to them in
parables”. Jesus would spend time with those “who had ears
to hear” (Mark 4:23) explaining to them, for these parables
were not easily understood.
allegory - a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a
hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one
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The New Oxford Annotated Bible. New Revised Standard Version. Oxford University Press. New York. 1991. P. 1057.
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According to Fred Craddock, professor of Preaching at Candler School of Theology... “to be understood, a parable requires the listener to pay attention with our entire being –
not just our ears and our minds, but our hearts and souls as
well.” 6
So what are we hearing today that resonates deep within our
souls? Perhaps your father planted seeds in you as a child
that have been nourished... or maybe ignored?
What might be growing within us as a community of faith
that needs to be nurtured?
What has grown so large around us that we don’t even see it
anymore?
Where do we feel at home and free from the exile of modern
life?
Jesus used parables to describe the Kingdom of Heaven – a
subject that is very mysterious and difficult for us to completely understand with our intellect alone...
So we come to church. We sit in worship and listen to these
sacred parables over and over. We encounter them with new
life experiences and we wrestle with new seeds of meaning.
We take this out into our daily lives and we are changed.
We hear the story of the mustard seed and commit to becoming a Godly Play teacher, forever changing the course of
not only our own life, but also those with whom we share
this story.
We volunteer to tutor the children of CCIH – teaching them
to read, to write, how to do arithmetic – and the seeds of
knowledge and of possibility are planted.
Craddock, Fred B. “Proper 6 [11]”. Preaching Through the Christian
Year – B. Trinity Press International. Valley Forge, PA. 1993. p. 310-311.
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We parent our children, we are fathers, and mothers, who by
our daily example plant seeds within them that might flourish and grow.
And, we do all of this within a community of faith. We do
this with the help of the teachings of Jesus and with the
grace of God, and we grow.
Have a blessed celebration today of those who parent you
and remember that we are all children of the Most High God.
Amen
Bibliography
Craddock, Fred B. “Proper 6 [11]”. Preaching Through the
Christian Year – B. Trinity Press International. Valley Forge,
PA. 1993. p. 310-311.
Perkins, Pheme. “The Gospel of Mark.” New Interpreters Bible. Vol VIII. Abingdon Press. 1995. p. 568.
The New Oxford Annotated Bible. New Revised Standard Version. Oxford University Press. New York. 1991. P. 1057.
For more information about the ministry at Contra Costa Interfaith Housing: www.ccinterfaithhousing.org/
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