We are impatient people. We don’t like to wait. We want what we want and we want it now. We’re a fast-food, high speed, immediate gratification culture. And we’re not impressed with the small and mundane. Super-sized and extraordinary, that’s what we want. And this can be a problem for our faith, because faith, because God’s kingdom slowly grows from what seem to be tiny and unimpressive things.
Jesus’ two parables this morning begin with tiny and unimpressive things: seeds. Seeds are boring. Seeds are mundane. Of course, we know seeds are important. Without them we wouldn’t have beautiful flowers in our gardens or fruits or vegetables to eat. Farmers’ livelihoods rely on seeds. But to look at a handful of seeds is unimpressive. We don’t put much value on seeds. You can go to Lowe’s and buy a package of vegetable or flower seeds for $2.50 or less.
Seeds seem insignificant. And they’re slow. I’ve never been one for gardening and one of the reasons is because it takes too long. For example, like most children, my school had a science fair every year, and like most children, my science fair project often involved growing lima beans in cups filled with different soils. This project took forever. You couldn’t do it in a day or even a week. For 2-3 weeks, every day, I had to observe and measure. It was tedious and boring. But that’s the nature of growth. Growth takes time.
No matter what it is, seeds growing into plants, or babies growing into children, then teenagers, then young adults, and then older adults, it takes time. It takes time to grow physically; to grow in maturity; grow in expertise and knowledge. It takes time to grow in faith. But growth is certain.
In Jesus’ first parable He talked about a man who scattered seed, who then waited patiently for it to grow. And it did, not because of anything he did, but because that’s what the seed does. From the seed, the earth produced by itself. And after the seed was fully grown into ripe grain, the man harvested it. That was the purpose of the seed, to produce grain to eat and to plant again to produce more growth. It took time, but the seed did what it was supposed to do.
This is exactly how it works with the growth of faith and the growth of God’s kingdom. It takes time, but it will grow.
How many of you would dare to say that your faith hasn’t grown? Our faith is always growing. It never stays the same. For those who were raised in the church, the faith you have today isn’t the same faith that you had as children. Yes, it’s the same confession. Yes, Christ continues to be the object of that faith. But how your faith informs your lives and how you think about the world around you, it’s different from when you were a child. And the same is said for those who were called to the faith later on in life. You didn’t go through instruction and then all of the sudden know everything. No, your faith continues to grow.
This growing in faith is certain. It will happen, because that’s what God promises. He promises to produce growth through seeds that seem to be insignificant and unimpressive.
The seeds that grow faith, the seeds that grow God’s kingdom, are nothing else than His Word: His Word heard and His Word seen in the Sacraments. God promises that His Word will produce. Through the prophet Isaiah He says: For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” (Is 55:10-11). And again Jesus, in His famous parable about the sower who scatters seeds on all kinds of soil, He explained that the seed was God’s Word, and that seed produced growth.
Growth comes from God’s Word, but for us, this seems unimpressive. Hearing the pastor read Scripture aloud, well, there’s nothing exciting about that. We think listening to a sermon preached can be boring (not mine or Pastor Peters’ of course). But seriously, how many times have we made jokes about a sermon being too long? We say it’s a joke, but behind every joke is a little bit of truth. We’re willing to listen for 10-12 minutes...maybe 15, but if the sermon goes longer, we dread it. If we truly believed that God, through His Word read and proclaimed in the sermon was growing our faith, shouldn’t we be excited to hear? Shouldn’t we be glad to hear? And the same is true for His Sacraments.
Too often we think too little about God’s Sacraments. They don’t seem impressive. A little water poured over our head...that’s common place, happens every day in the shower. There’s nothing awe inspiring about hearing Christ’s Absolution spoken by the pastor. For most of us, we don’t feel an emotional charge hearing our sins are forgiven. And the Bread and Wine of Christ’s Supper, that doesn’t seem to be a big deal either, just a little bite and a little sip.
This is how we view God’s gifts. This is how we view the seeds by which God gives and grows saving faith. And it’s sinful. We need to repent of our oh-hum attitude that we have before God. We need to repent of our boredom when it comes to His Means of Grace. We need to realize that it’s by these very things that we’re saved; by these very things we receive Christ’s gifts of forgiveness, life, and salvation that were won on His tree.
The cross of Christ is the tree under which God gathers all He’s people, from every nation, just as the prophecy of Ezekiel and the parable of Christ says. The cross of Christ is the tree of life by which we have life. The cross of Christ covers all of God’s kingdom, a kingdom that is ever growing.
In the Lord’s Prayer, we pray that God’s kingdom will come. This isn’t a prayer of uncertainty. God’s kingdom will certainly come, because He’s the one who grows it. “God’s kingdom comes when [He] gives us His Holy Spirit, so that by His grace we believe His Holy Word.” (Martin Luther, Small Catechism). With every person baptized: infant, child, or adult; God increases His kingdom. And He keeps and sustains His kingdom by His Word. This is sure and certain, but we must be faithfully patient to see it fulfilled.
It often doesn’t look like God’s kingdom has come in Christ, and it doesn’t look like it’s growing either. Every year reports come out saying more and more people are leaving the Church. Pews remain empty in churches everywhere. And seeing this, we can become greatly discouraged. We can begin to doubt the seeds of God’s Word and Sacrament. But these aren’t the problem. God’s Word and Sacraments have never been the problem. And we mustn’t think that we can better grow God’s Church by changing them. It’s God’s kingdom, not ours, and He has promised to grow it. He has promised to care for it. And with faith, that’s what we believe.
Seeds are tiny and unimpressive, and it takes forever for them to produce. We wait, wondering if anything will ever grow, and they do. The largest plant can come from the smallest seed. And the same is true for God’s kingdom. Grown from seemingly tiny and unimpressive Word and Sacraments, we wonder if God’s kingdom will ever come to fulfillment. It will. That’s God’s promise. He will do it. And in His kingdom, you and all His saints will have a place under Christ’s tree of life. In Jesus’ name…Amen.
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