Sermon from August 20, 2000
An Old Testament psalmist once asked God (Psa. 10:1):

Why, O LORD, do you stand far off?
Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

In another cri de coeur a psalmist cried out (Psa. 42:3):

My tears have been my food day and night,
while men say to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"

Never more intensely do we feel the force of those questions than when God in a great mystery makes His eternal purposes for humanity depend on the action of His flawed people in the midst of an uncertain world.

For example, those purposes teetered on ruin when the great Abraham, to save his own skin, allowed his wife, Sarah, to be taken into Pharaoh's harem. They teetered on ruin when Elijah fled for his life from Jezebel, when Israel went down into captivity in Babylon, and when Jesus perished in public humiliation outside Jerusalem.

When the Roman Empire fell, Christianity, which had become the official religion of the Empire, seemed to many to be about to collapse with it. As pagan tribes overran Western Europe and England, it seemed that Christianity had been snuffed out. Islam came, destroying the Church in North Africa, and threatening Europe in the Iberian Peninsula and the gates of Vienna. At the beginning of the Middle Ages a skepticism akin to that of our own age threatened to crush the Christian life out of Europe. Then came the giants. Darwin, Freud and Marx asked in their contemptuous styles, "Where is your God?" and the beast sat again in power in Berlin, Moscow, Beijing, Hanoi, Havana, Kampala. A darkness settled over the earth unlike anything since Roman emperors fed Christians to the lions.

Time after time, Christianity seemed to have died. Many said it had died. Time after time it came back to life. Rome did die, but the Church lived on. The barbarians came from the continent to destroy the Faith, but Patrick came from Ireland to convert the barbarians. Thomas Aquinas almost single-handedly turned away skepticism and introduced the High Middle Ages to Europe. Islam was driven from Spain and from Vienna, and Reformation occurred in Europe. Here at the dawn of a new millennium Freud is hard to find, Marx slinks away with his tail between his legs, and Darwin himself has the look of someone who has heard the rumor that his time is short, while half the earth professes allegiance to the One whom that unholy trio thought to dethrone.

What is this thing that dies again and again and comes back to life again and again? How do we account for the Church? We cherish the parables of Christ, because they offer us, if not a reason, at least a picture of the indestructibility of the Church. An example waits for us in Mark 4:26-34.

Let's put these verses in context. Matters had reached a crisis in the towns and hamlets of Galilee. Social pressure and official policy were forcing people to choose between Jesus and those who opposed Him openly. His family had said He was mentally unbalanced. Religious authorities had sought to discredit and marginalize Him by attributing His miraculous powers to the devil. "He is possessed by Beelzebub! By the prince of demons he is driving out demons." His authority not only did not go unchallenged; it was now denied altogether.

But to reject Jesus, as some Jewish officials had done, had national consequences. He had countered with warnings of blasphemy and with the possibility of a new family structure taking shape around Him. Then, Jesus, quoting Isaiah 6:11, warned of judgment to come and, as a symbol of divine judgment to come, began to speak unintelligible parables to people, who were losing the power to discern what God was doing in Israel.

But the parables also served a constructive purpose for those who stayed faithful to Jesus in the face of mounting hostility. They served as images of the future of the new thing begun by and centered in Jesus Himself. They also encouraged people whom the mounting opposition might intimidate. The parables said to them, "Whatever the opposition and whatever the future may hold, you have chosen well. Stay the course! Don't let public hostility or the worries of this life or the deceitfulness of wealth or the desire of anything else cause you to take your eye off this goal." Let us receive the two parables in our text today for our encouragement.

Jesus tells the first parable in verse 26-29. He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain – first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come." Stay with me for a minute.

When the Bible talks about the kingdom of God, two words ought to come at once to our minds. What are they? Love and authority. The kingdom of God means the exercise of God's authority over ever-increasing circles of human life in love. I know it can be difficult to learn definitions. It seems too much like school; but it is worth the effort, because definitions help us test reality. Here is an example of how that happens.

Let's substitute our definition into the biblical text each time the text mentions the kingdom of God. See if it makes better sense to you. For example, this first parable would read this way: "This is what the extension of God's authority over ever-increasing circles of human life in love is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain – first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come." Once we have that in mind we can say the following.

First, the extension of God's authority over ever-increasing circles of human life in love requires seed to be scattered on the ground. Do you remember from the parable at the beginning of chapter four what "seed" represents in Jesus' parables? It represents the word of God. God has made the extension of His love and authority depend on our preaching and teaching and sharing the word of God. That is why the Church will never rest until every human being hears the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That is why BVBC is a center for disseminating the word of God. We do it by preaching, Christian education classes, small groups, outreach efforts, VBS and Five-Day Clubs in parks. That is why we support 55-60 households in places as diverse as East Wilmington, Indonesia, Penn State and Ghana. In the Apostle Paul's daring language (1 Cor. 3:9), we are God's fellow workers in the task of bringing His kingdom to earth.

Jesus' parable gives a second insight into the kingdom of God. There is something mysterious about how God extends His authority over ever-increasing circles of human life in love. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain – first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.

Many years ago, I had the privilege of ministering to the play-by-play announcer for Syracuse University football games. His wife had come to our church, and I had learned that their relationship was sometimes stormy. What made it challenging for me was the fact that she had an Italian Catholic background, and he was Jewish. She had been attracted by the love other women in our congregation had for her and by the Word of God. Her husband did not seem to be especially interested in our church. I could understand that.

So, I was surprised one day to receive a call from him, asking to meet with me. I tried to prepare myself for the meeting, but he had not wanted to say much before we met. The day came, and he walked into my study and sat down. I was not prepared for what happened next. He said, "Before we talk about anything else, let me tell you what is on my mind. I want to tell you what I believe about God. I believe that one plus one plus one equals one, and the one in the middle died for me."

It was the most unexpected confession of faith in Jesus Christ I have ever heard. We may have talked for an hour, but those words burned their permanent way into my memory. How did that very public Jewish man read that dramatic conclusion about Jesus Christ? I don't know. It is the mystery of the kingdom and the power of the seed. The seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.

That mystery and power are at work in each of us here today. They are not coercive and are seldom dramatic. Usually, seeds work underground – silent, unobserved, relentless, mysterious. But ordinary seeds can crack concrete and put the foundation of your home at risk. The mysterious power of this seed changes human hearts, and all of us have this seed within us as a result of being here. So, listen to your heart. Listen to anything it says that prompts you to believe in Jesus Christ and follow Him.

God has made the extension of His love and authority depend on our preaching and teaching and sharing the word of God; and the word of God has within it a mysterious power to change human lives. This parable gives a third insight into the kingdom of God. "As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come." This has two meanings.

First, farmers all over the world hope for a harvest every year. The word of God has a harvest all over the world every year. The parable, however, also points to the last harvest of earth. That is what putting the sickle to it means. The day will come when the Church's prayer will be answered: "Thy kingdom come!" The last harvest will be gathered, and the kingdom will come.

The kingdom is coming. The human story is moving toward its culmination in the New Jerusalem. We are doing everything in our power here to make us and as many other people as possible prepared for that great day. Are you ready? Believe in Jesus Christ. Come, join us and learn the ways of the kingdom of God.

Let's look at Jesus' other parable here. Again he said, "What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? God's exercise of authority over ever-increasing circles of human life in love is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade."

Although much of what I said about the previous parable could be said about this one, this parable brings out something unique. We seldom notice how often God places Himself in the role of the Underdog. He says He is going to govern all human life in love without opposition, but He goes about it in such a way that His efforts appear negligible. Jesus was saying to those who were sticking with Him in the face of opposition, "Don't be put off by the humility of God. His ways in the world seem non-existent at times, but when He is finished, His love and authority will fill the earth."

Verses 33-34 finish off Jesus' teaching in parables in the Gospel of Mark. With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

When Mark says that Jesus told them many other parables, it would be understandable for readers to say, "Well, Mark, why didn't you tell us what they were?" Perhaps that question motivated Matthew and Luke to include in their Gospels many more parables. John, however, included none of Jesus' parables. The purpose of each Gospel writer governed how they used Jesus' parables.

In Mark's Gospel the parables of chapter four served as symbols of judgment, as encouragement to His followers to stay the course, and finally, as a kind of vision for the future of what He had started. That brings me to one last matter.

The Church and the kingdom of God are not identical. God's kingdom (His exercise of love and authority) has all created reality as its sphere of influence. The God of Jesus Christ is at work in places where the Church has not yet been. He exercises His sovereignty over the nations of the earth in ways as yet unknown to any of us. However, He has called the Church to an especially crucial task in the world.

The Church at present stands as a material witness to the reality of the kingdom of God and its progress in the old creation. You might compare the congregations of Christ, scattered all over the earth, as crocuses that anticipate the coming of the springtime of humanity. You might think of the Church as an alternative society, which lives in the midst of all other human societies as a witness to God's redemptive purpose for all humanity. You might also think of the Church as the husk that has within itself the tiny and mysterious seeds of power, which we scatter everywhere the Church grows.

The Church may or may not have great influence in the affairs of the old creation. Paradoxically, the less influence it seems to have the more powerfully it influences the life around it. The Church may look weak and small and ineffective, and so in a way it is; but looks are deceiving. it did not grow from a small Jewish sect of 120 people in Jerusalem to a worldwide phenomenon embracing nearly half of humanity by being only weak, small and ineffective.

Our lives have been caught up in a reality that overarches all human life, and yet it does not snuff out our personalities or our unique circumstances. The parables we read today picture for us this reality, which we almost cannot imagine in any other way. The parables point to Him who first told them and in whom and from whom is the power that endures from age to age until the restoration of all things.