By Revd George Mwaura

Ezekiel 17: 22–24 and Mark 4: 26–34

God of wonders, we thank you because you have said to us that, when we pray with faith the size of a mustard seed,
we can move mountains. Lord, we do have faith; please help our doubts not to override our faith in Jesus’ name.

Amen

He was just a child, so young and apparently insignificant that his own father did not consider him worthy even
to attend the sacrifice offered by the travelling prophet Samuel.
Sure, he was good-looking, tough as nails and had some talent.
But by and large everyone who knew him assumed he would spend his days as an adult the same way he had spent those of his boyhood:
that is, looking after sheep. But clearly God had other plans.

I am of course talking about the warrior king David, whose narrative serves as a good example
of the lesson Jesus taught when he told the parable of the mustard seed.
Jesus’ clever use of images of plants and trees in his parables is more significant than merely borrowing from the scenery around him.
He could have talked about carpentry and building, for instance, as we know he was a carpenter, but he chose plants.
You see the abiding image of the kingdom of God is growth and not construction.
Growth is silent and it continues day and night, largely without human input.
Jesus seems to be suggesting that the reign of God, when it comes, would appear first,
not as an overwhelming revolutionary movement to overthrow the Roman empire,
but as a tiny mustard seed which, when it grows, becomes the largest of all garden plants,
with such huge branches that the birds of the air can perch on it.
Please understand that there is no such thing as a mustard tree.
If you are thinking of a tree like the mighty horse chestnut growing from a tiny mustard seed, you are mistaken.
If Jesus had been teaching in England, he might have used the example of the giant chestnut tree
and talked about the miracle of the conkers. The principle would have been the same.
However, he was teaching in Palestine, and so he chose the mustard shrub, which was the largest shrub in that part of the world.
It was large enough for birds to nest in its branches.
But the point of the parable is the same: from a tiny seed, major growth can emerge.
And if you are familiar with the story of king David, then you know that this is true.

Another good example of that growth is the story of the early church.
It began only with Jesus, twelve disciples and an unknown number of women. Oh yes, we must not forget the women.
They were there right from the beginning to the end giving their support and sharing both their witness and resources.
And when Jesus was arrested, the men chickened and ran away leaving the women alone to bear witness.
But look at how much that tiny group has grown! Today, there are nearly three billion Christians in the world and still growing.
While it is true that churches in the West have shrunk and some have closed altogether,
there are places in the global South where the Gospel is exploding.
From the smallest of seeds, the mightiest of all plants has grown!

But the church itself is a seed. God planted us in the world to make a difference.
And even though we are not perfect, through the years the influence and impact we have had on our world cannot be disputed.
Many of the values of Western civilisation are rooted in Christianity.
For example, all the hospitals and colleges in America were originally Christian organisations.
The mental health institutions in Europe were started by Christians.
The civil rights movement had its origin in the Scriptures.
The much-celebrated period of Renaissance got its ideas from the reformation and the reformation in turn got its ideas from the Bible.
I could go on, but I think you get the point.
A tiny seed planted more than two thousand years ago is slowly changing and shaping the world,
although not as quickly as God would like, I dare add.

At times though, we Christians are a barrier rather than a vehicle to that growth.
Still, that seed is growing, and it will continue to grow until the day comes
when every knee shall bow, and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord. Amen?

There is, indeed, power in what we might call mustard-seed faith. As human beings we see the power of mustard-seed faith all the time.
When a new baby is born into a household, it represents hope for a new beginning.
Queen Victoria was so fascinated by the brilliance of the scholars who made up England’s Royal Society that on one occasion
she asked Prime Minister John Bright, ‘Where do all these clever men come from?’ Bright replied, ‘From babies, your Majesty, from babies!’
Every time a baby is born into the world a potential mustard seed of greatness is planted.
And so, children should be the primary seed that our church is sowing.
Please do not take this as an encouragement to have more babies!
I am using the word sowing here to mean nurturing.
If we do our job right, the children will be ambassadors of Christ
making the Kingdom of God ever more a reality in a world which desperately needs healing.

I must emphasise, though, that you do not have to be a biological parent to have an influence on children or youth.
Every teacher or adult who speaks a word of encouragement to a young person,
every church member who takes time off to be with Sunday-School children or their own grandchildren, great grandchildren
or even children of friends and neighbours, makes a difference on how effective we are in ministering to children and youth.
So many people ask: How can I serve the Lord?
I am too old to be in the church committees and my pension is not enough to sustain me, leave alone feeding the hungry!

Yes, you may not be able to do these things and perhaps you are not called to do them.
But every one of us can provide a proper environment for our children and our youth to grow in.
Our children are the mustard seeds that God has given us.
We are to love them, nurture them and help them be everything God intended them to be.

So really; the story of the mustard seed is the story of the church.
Someone has summed up mustard-seed faith like this:
The Son of Man grew up in a rural village. He did not begin his public ministry until he was thirty.
He taught for three years in neighbouring villages and occasionally ventured to Jerusalem.
He made a few converts, primarily among the poor and the marginalized;
and then, falling into the hands of his enemies, he died a shameful death on the cross.
Such was the humble beginning of this universal kingdom of God.
Tiny mustard seed sown in rural Galilee and buried at Jerusalem.
But God raised Jesus from the dead.
And those who had learned from him spread his story.
Today, more than two thousand years later, here we are, still retelling that story, sowing the seed again and again.
Chief among our duties is to ensure that our children and young people are well versed with this narrative
so that they might make it their own and pass it to their children and children’s children. What an honour!
I feel absolutely privileged to be a tiny pencil that God can use to continue writing this narrative.

What about you? I pray that the empowering God will grant each one of you strength and grace
to play your part in Jesus’ name.

Amen