1 Cor 3:5-9, Matthew
13:31-32 “God’s
Garden”
Feb. 4, 20067 By
Rev. Kathy McDowell
When we have faith in
God’s possibilities, GOD gives the growth.
I am so glad to be with you today. Although this is my first Sunday with you officially as your pastor, I feel like I have already begun to get to know you, as I have been talking and visiting and meeting with some of you, praying for us, trying to learn more about you and your church. And what I learned almost immediately is that you want to grow here at Peachtree Corners Christian Church. So we are going to be talking about growing for the next several Sundays.
What does it mean for a church to grow? A growing church is not just about numbers. A growing church means inside that church there are minds growing in understanding the scriptures. Inside that church there are hearts growing in love for God and each other. Inside that church there are hands growing in service to others.
Today’s scriptures teach us about growing inside and out.
Listen to some of those verses again:
From the Gospel: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree,
From Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, . . .
All these wonderful images of growing, thriving, multiplying green spaces.
And a third scripture which we didin’t actually read today, but you have printed on a little envelop that you picked up before worship. For truly I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed . . .nothing will be impossible for you. I’ll talk more about that scripture in a few minutes.
God’s idea of gardening may be a little different than ours.
We think it is all up to us. OR
We tend to set our sights too small.
I have brought a friend today to help explain what I mean. Let me introduce you to Lazarus.
First of all, in the interest of full disclosure you need to know that I don’t have a particularly green thumb. In fact, I have never named a plant, except for this one. And I have named it Lazarus because it keeps coming back to life. No matter what I do.
The first story I have to tell you about this plant is that Lazarus here has this remarkable way of letting me know when it’s time for a drink of water. It just droops over. Then I water it and you can actually see and hear this plant come back to life. There were times when I really neglected Lazarus and thought “O Great, I’ve done it now, killed Lazarus.” But there is something about this plant that I can’t even comprehend. What can I say. I water it and God gives the growth. It’s not all up to me.
The second story I have to tell you about Lazarus is that I have had it on my desk for several years. And it was really really small at first. About 3 inches or so. It grew a little over the last couple of years. But about a month ago, I looked at it and decided it needed a new pot. So I bought a bigger pot at home and some new potting soil and repotted Lazarus. A couple of days later, I happened to look at Lazarus and it was taller, and bushy even. I couldn’t believe it. Look how big it is now. I thought this was a small plant. But this plant is over a foot tall now. My vision for this plant was way too small.
Today’s scriptures teach us the very same things.
In the letter to the Corinthians, Paul is dealing with a church that has been - lets call it fractious. Paul recognizes that it’s inconceivable to be a believer outside of a community of faith. You can have Christian principles, Christian ideals. But it takes being in a church to really grow your Christian commitment. In today’s letter, the Corinthians are not really acting like followers of jc. They are bickering over who is in charge. Paul gets right to the point pretty quickly. He tells them that they are all servants, the greek word is diakanos, the word that our diaconate comes from. Everyone is to do his or her part. But it’s God who gives the growth. It is not all up to us.
Our second scripture is about mustard seeds. Now there are some things you need to know about mustard. In today’s scripture we hear “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.
But you need to know that mustard is not a tree. It is an annual plant, a garden herb. It produces a plant that is anywhere between 2 and 6 feet tall, or once in a while, maybe, 9 or 10 feet tall. But it does not produce a tree of any kind.
So what’s going on here? Was Jesus just one of those people who doesn’t have a green thumb?
What’s going on here is that Jesus is talking to a bunch of
people who were soaked in the scriptures. They knew that when Jesus was talking
about a little old seed that everybody knew grew into a little garden plant and
instead it became a tree where birds could nest … well they knew he was talking
about what it was going to be like when God’s kingdom finally came. There are all kinds of scriptures in the OT
in Daniel, in Ezekial - and the people who heard this parable knew them - where
the coming
This parable is no guarantee of the church’s success. But it is a guarantee that the Kingdom of heaven will achieve the final victory - sometimes because, but often despite what we do here on earth.
Today’s scripture is not about trees. Or mustard plants. It is about a deep and abiding faith in God’s power and God’s possibilities.
But the absurdity of it all also reminds us that we don’t always know what God is up to. When we strive to grow here at PCCC we don’t know exactly what that might look like, who might hear and respond to the gospel here. Who is looking for a place where they can grow their minds, their hearts, their hands for God.
For you see, God is a God of big possibilities. A Disciples pastor in
Augustine of Hippo, an early bishop of the church who lived in the 4th century said this: Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward for this faith is to see what you believe.
God’s possibilities are almost always bigger than we are. To be growing in love for God and each means we yield to God’s will and ways - a will and ways that we don’t always understand. I use that word yield - yielded to God with intention, because it is a helpful image. What do we do at a yield sign? Explain. When we yield to God, we get in line with God’s will. We are always asking ourselves, is this what you would have me do, Lord. This is not just a Sunday a.m. relationship. It’s a relationship that takes over your life. Like mustard seed sown in a field.
I can’t make that point enough. Church is not just for Sunday a.m.
This is something we have to get across. If Jesus is our way, our truth, our life, let’s not just settle for the way, the truth and the life, on Sundays. God wants so much more for us than that!
(Invite everyone to take their mustard seed packet and take out a seed or two and look at it in the palm of their hand.)
Can you believe that from this little seed grows a 6 foot plant? It’s God who has packed all kinds of green growing possibilities into a tiny little seed like this! It’s a tiny piece of hope in the shape of a seed.
It’s that way with our lives here inside and outside of this church. God has all kinds of big possibilities for us, possibilities that are just waiting to take root and grow. We need to have faith in that - even a glimmer of faith, faith as small as a mustard seed is enough, we’re promised.
Because the kingdom of heaven is a place where God is the gardener. God wants his garden - that’s us - to grow, to thrive, to multiply, to explode beyond every barrier and excuse and fence and fear that we put up. God wants his garden - that’s us - to grow beyond our wildest imaginings. Because that is just the kind of God we have.
Go ahead and put your seed back in the little envelope and take it home with you as a reminder of who God is. Be careful where you drop these mustard seeds -- there’s no telling what’s going to grow.
Or maybe we don’t need to be so careful. Maybe we need to scatter them everywhere, fling them near and far, and just let God’s possibilities take root and grow inside and outside this church.
Can I have an amen?!