First Lutheran Church, Detroit Lakes, MN
Pentecost 9 | 07.30.2023 | Matthew 13:31-32
The parable of the mustard seed…is for the birds.
The parable of the mustard seed…How many of you had heard of it before today?
So, many of you had heard of it; the next question…How many of you remembered its main lesson?
To be sure, friends, I’m not testing you or trying to get any of you to feel bad about not remembering something in the Bible. I forget stories and basic details of the Bible all the time.
At any rate, some of you had heard of the parable of the mustard seed, the next question…How many of you remembered its main lesson?
I would be willing to bet that most of you remembered it this way, because it’s often remembered this way: that…
the mustard seed is really small, but it grows into a big tree…
…and therefore in faith, even something with small, modest beginnings can end up big and grand![1]
The mustard seed parable is often remembered that way. And that would be a main point of the parable. It’s a common and proper takeaway. In fact, one scholar on Jesus’ parables writes that “the Mustard seed is often called a ‘parable of growth’…[with] small beginnings and big endings.”[2]
Another scholar adds: “The reign of God may seem like sheer weakness, no more than an insignificant mustard seed. But take heart…Don’t be deceived by its modest beginnings. Its final summation, [its endings] will be great.”[3]
So, it is TRUE – the assertion seems to be that in God’s kingdom something small and humble can turn to something grand.
But what is fascinating to me is that as famous as this parable is and as short as it is, there is one critical piece of it that is constantly overlooked, under-remembered, and under-emphasized. It is the parable’s conclusion in its last line:
…[the mustard seed grows to be] the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree [that’s where most of the memories end…, but it continues…] [it] becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches…
The mustard seed parable…is for the birds.
For some reason, though, I forgot it. Multiple biblical scholars I consulted didn’t or barely mention it. That last line is so often excluded from basic summaries and memories of the parable.
I wonder why…maybe it’s because we’re so quick individualizeand personalize our faith. Maybe we hear of the ‘becoming’of the seed into a great tree, and it’s easy to view ourselves as the mustard seed, and we hope for our own personal growth – growth in faith, growth in achievement, growth in joy, etc. I don’t know why this is so often forgotten or underemphasized.
And again, that isn’t a totally incorrect reading or application of the parable. This is a parable about ‘becoming,’ and about what God can grow in God’s kingdom…BUT…
…GROWTH FOR WHAT!?
That might be the most important question of the parable! Growth for what? The parable tells us: [the seed] becomes a great tree so that […SO THAT…] birds of the air [can] make nests in its branches (13:32).
My friends, Jesus IS teaching us that the kingdom of heaven here on earth IS when surprising new life and growth happens…AND that growth – the growth of our faith, the growth of discipleship, the growth of the church, the growth of our life, whatever the growth is – it has a purpose, and according to the last line in the mustard seed parable, that purpose is serving others in God’s creation.
The mustard seed didn’t grow into something powerful and beautiful unto itself…its growth served beyond itself…for the birds.
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, where something seemingly tiny and meek can still grow into something that takes care of others. That is God’s vision for you and for me, and for the church.
With God, we can grow and have new life, and not just for our own personal sake, or only for our own enjoyment and fulfilment…but our becoming and our growth is ultimately meant for others.
This calls us to task a little bit, but it’s also hopeful: no matter how small or insignificant we may think we are or an action of ours can be, we always have the possibility of growth and new life, and we always have the capacity to enact God’s greatness in serving others. We all have purpose and possibility.
With the whole of the parable in mind, now, I want to lift a mustard seed here at FLC that we have seen grow into a great tree, and such growth has served others beyond ourselves:
Noisy offering. Our youngest members [or youngest at heart]and our smallest coins.
How could such small seeds have any impact?
Every worship service for the last 12 months we have asked for your loose change if and when you’re able to give it – change from your car’s center console, change found in the deep of your purse, change from laundry rooms & mason jars, change from your couch cushions, change that was a small sacrifice for you, or change that maybe was a level of money you didn’t even notice…
Pennies. Dimes. Quarters. Small bills. (SECOND SERVICE ONLYà) Small seeds motivated and collected by the smallest among us toddlers, preschoolers, and elementary students!
Add it all up over 12 months: those mustard seeds became well over $6,000 in change that was sent beyond these walls to organizations doing huge things for this community and for this world.
$6,000 for feeding starving children, for Lutheran Disaster Response, for Lutheran Social Service, for Lutheran World Relief, for the Fuller Center for Housing in Detroit Lakes, for food/resources/& shelter for the poor and desperate at our doors, for ELCA Seminaries, for Global Health, for the local food shelf, for VBS & Mission Trips, for the Boys & Girls Club of DL…All from pocket change for all kinds of birds.
Jesus says THAT is what the kingdom of heaven is like. Amen.
[1] David Lose, “Parabolic Promises,” In the Meantime, https://www.davidlose.net/2017/07/pentecost-8-a-parabolic-promises/.
[2] Arland J. Hultgren, The Parables of Jesus: A Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2000), 395.
[3] Walter Brueggemann, Charles B. Cousar, Beverly R. Gaventa, Jr., James D. Newsome, Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the NRSV—Year A (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995), 423.
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