Our Gospel passage this morning is an interesting one. Biblical scholars feel that it’s sort of a collection of miscellaneous teachings and parables that had been attributed to Jesus. By the time Matthew wrote his gospel, these teachings had become part of the lore surrounding Jesus. Some of them may be authentic, and some of them not. But Matthew thought they had teaching value, so he included them in his Gospel.
Of course, the most familiar is the Parable of the Mustard Seed. If you attended any Sunday School as a child, you heard this parable. And it’s interesting that this parable would be so popular, since it’s so wrong. The mustard seed IS very small. But it doesn’t grow into a shrub, and especially ”the greatest of shrubs”. And certainly it doesn’t grow into a tree, and especially a tree that birds would nest in its branches. Every Biblical commentator seems to have some sort of an explanation; from the wrong seed, to the wrong tree, to a mixed simile, to you name it.
Well, I love the interpretation of this parable in the picture on our bulletin this morning. We see this great tree, with the little people under it, and he great birds with their nests, all through the tree. I think that picture is what most people envision when they hear this parable.
Now, I can’t explain away the problem of the tree for you. But even though it’s all out of whack, I think the parable says something to us. I never cease to be amazed at how the tiniest little thing can sometimes grow into something really, really big. And sometimes this is for the good, and sometimes it’s not for the good.
On the good side, we see inventors who just get a little vision of how something might be. And they begin working on it. And it grows into something so big that it’s beyond belief. Recently I’ve watched biographies on TV of some of the high-tech developers who developed huge things in our lives today, like Steve Jobs with Apple Computers, and Bill Gates with
Microsoft, and Mark Zuckerberg with Facebook. All three of these guys were in college and got this little idea of how something could be done – the mustard seed – and they dropped out of college, pursued their little ideas, and the
little seeds turned into the greatest of trees.
And this seems to be the pattern with all of the great inventors: Edison, Bell, Ford, Whitney. The great names in science and medicine: Curie, Salk, Jones. As best as I can tell, the great things that we enjoy in our lives today started as little seeds of ideas which someone was able to recognize, and grow into a great tree. Sometimes these things totally changed our entire society and culture. Ottis, with his idea of moving people and materials up and down through floors, enabled buildings to be built beyond 5 floors. Our cities would look totally differently if he hadn’t tinkered with a mustard seed of an idea. The Wright Brothers, bicycle builders who had a mustard seed of an idea that flight was possible. Can you imagine what this would be would today if airplanes had never been developed?
My guess is, that everywhere we look, a little idea started “the right person” obsessing over it, and led to changes in how we live our lives and how we see our world. And strangely, the stories of the growth of those ideas, those mustard seeds, seem as unrealistic as the mustard seed of our Gospel this morning.
Well, unfortunately, all Mustard Seeds don’t grow into wonderful trees like Facebook. Sometimes the Mustard Seed can grow into something very destructive. I’m thinking of things like rumors and gossip. A little seed, planted in the right place, can lead to incredible pain and hurt. And one of the hardest lessons of life is that perception always wins out over reality. And perception can be planted and fed. And it can grow to the point where reality is unrecognizable. This is what makes our political system so fragile. The seed of something like “Death Panels” can be planted, and it quickly becomes part of the perception, and grows into “the greatest of trees.” As we listen to the political rhetoric today, it’s almost impossible to determine fact from fiction, and that really threatens our entire way of life in this country.
I think we’ve all seen the damage that happens when a little seed is planted that someone is having an affair. It might start out as innocent fun, or a break from boredom, or a little jealousy, but it very quickly grows into the greatest of all trees, full of unfriendly birds that are eager and willing to spread the seeds. And it’s no secret that churches can be the greatest of trees for this type of thing. Fortunately, the people of Epiphany have chosen to live out their lives together with a minimum of that sort of thing. I think we have more respect for each other than to sow those sorts of seeds, and that makes me very proud of you. I’ve seen it the other way, and it’s not pretty. But it can happen in the workplace, or in families, or social clubs, or schools. And it’s amazing how fast those little hurtful seeds can grow.
So, I think our Parable of the Mustard Seed, even though factually wrong, holds an important teaching for us. Each of us is a planter of those little Mustard Seeds, and each of us supports their growth. Some should be encouraged and nurtured. Others should be uprooted and thrown away. And this is something over which each of us has a lot of control. So, let’s be aware of the power we have with the little Mustard Seeds of our lives. We can support and spread the good ones, and we can uproot and throw away the bad ones.
Looking at our bulletin cover this morning, I noticed something unique in this picture. The great tree full of nesting birds can appear as a beautiful tree of wonder full of life and color. Or, it can appear as a real scary thing, full of oversized fiery birds, bigger than even the men below. Like so much in life, it depends on our perception of what we see, and sometimes what we want to see. I wish I had little packets of Mustard Seeds to hand out this morning. But really, we all have Mustard Seeds with us, all the time. And we plant them, and water them, and watch them grow. Let’s make some special effort to help the good ones grow, and uproot the bad ones. Amen.
The Reverend Richard O. Bridgford, Rector
Church of the Epiphany, Norfolk, VA
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
