An older man in his early sixties of age has been working for his company for over 25 years. He attended college and later went back for a master’s degree so he could better serve his employer. He has earned his own office due to his hard work. While he is not a regular church worshiper, he does practice the Christian work ethic he learned earlier in life regarding working hard today for a better future. He is honest and will help people who in are need. He tries to model this work ethic for his family and friends. As his hard work and efforts seems to be paying off in successful and stable life, change, and tragedy suddenly occurs!
His employer sold the company to an international conglomerate who shifted all employee positions from offices to small cubicles with no privacy. His age makes him a very difficult candidate for the area employment market, which is seeking younger workers — recent graduates from college with high energy levels and new ideas. His wife of many years died as a result of a car accident on the horrific storms of wintry icy roads in his state. He was raising his granddaughter because his adult daughter was perpetually in and out of both personal relationships and employers. As he talked to his Christian friend, he pleaded, “If God’s kingdom is coming and is so mysterious, please don’t send me to hell if I don’t guess right.” How do the seeds of the kingdom of God provide comfort and good news to people whom we know who simply always have bad luck, despite their own honest hard work and sincere efforts to get ahead in life?
Mark 4 is one of the longer set of teachings which Jesus provided in the gospel, beside the Mark 13 apocalyptic discourse. The theme is how the kingdom of God arrived and works to transform the world even now. The assumption is that this is God’s world, which God created and continues to create. Mark is the first synoptic gospel to be written, usually dated around 65-70 CE. Later gospel writers Matthew and Luke used portions of Mark’s gospel along with a separate unidentified source known as “Q.” Mark wrote to a persecuted community of faith who were under the heavy handed violent yoke of the ruling empire of Rome.
The Jerusalem temple had been or would soon be destroyed by Roman troops in the midst of a Judean revolt against the imperial hardships of living under the Roman yoke.
After baptism, wilderness temptation, and a series of healings, Jesus shared parables related to seeds as they relate to the kingdom of God. This text follows the parable of the sower who sows seeds which falls on varying types of soil with mixed results. Jesus’ point in today’s text is God’s kingdom is still arriving even though we wonder how and when. “He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how” Mark 4:26-27 (RSV). If the reader is discouraged by the previous parable that has only one of four groups of planted seeds producing fruit, this text is good news. The sower in this parable is fairly random in planting of seeds. The sower does get time to sleep and rest. Then in some mysterious way, the seeds sprout and grow. The sower does not know how.
The good news for churches and communities of faith such as ours is that somehow and in some way, God’s kingdom is growing in our midst, regardless of our efforts. God’s kingdom continues to take shape. Later in the text, the kingdom of God is similar to a mustard seed, “It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade” Mark 4:31-32 (RSV). The good news of the kingdom of God arrives in a mysterious way despite our efforts. This is both God’s grace and the nature of how seeds die and new life grows in their place.
Historically, I would commend to you the book titled, “The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire,” by Alan Kreider. Before the conversion of Roman Emperor Constantine in the fourth Century CE, the Christian church was an outlawed, persecuted religion that had to compete with a number of other Greco-Roman belief systems. Like today, Christianity was simply one among many belief systems which were also quite tolerant. Their worshipers enjoyed many imperial benefits. Yet, Christianity grew by 40% per decade (Alan Kreider, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016), 8). Patience and practicing one’s faith were the secrets to this slow fermenting growth, rather than missionary programs and outreach efforts.
To worship him is to glorify God and practice one’s faith as learned in church catechumate, what we might call Christian education today. Christianity is a way of life, not a result of philosophical debates on the public square. Early church fathers such as Justin, Clement, Origen, Tertullian, and Cyprian taught patience, endurance, avoiding vengeance and walking in the footsteps of Jesus as taught in the wisdom and writings of their time. What we call the Old Testament, or Hebrew scriptures were well on the way to being established teachings then. This would include the wisdom books of Psalms and Proverbs. If one really believed that Jesus’ death and resurrection has conquered the grave, there is little to fear from the Roman Empire patience, following Jesus’ teachings and footsteps is both life giving, empowering and the best defense against any type of persecution (Alan Kreider, The Patient Ferment, 13-35).
The early church grew like fermentation similar to a substance that slowly breaks down and emerges into alcohol as organic and chemical changes occur in the organism. Besides alcoholic beverages, pickled cucumbers ferment into another color and taste of food. It takes time and patience. New life will come. This is what the early church realized even before the church became the state religion under Roman Emperor Constantine. It was the habits and discipleship lifestyle which attracted new converts to the church. These were times when people were disposable according to how young and attractive or productive in the imperial economy with its Greco-Roman religious leaders who endorsed values which make humans disposable commodities based on their economic and labor viability. It would be similar to an aging television newscaster being released from their work contract to be replaced by younger looking reporters. It was a religion of worshiping youth and beauty. Such people were welcomed in the church with their lifetime of wisdom and experience in the world.
Mark’s audience needed to hear that God’s kingdom would come and is in our midst — with or without aggressive human efforts. This is the good news of the text today. The kingdom is a mystery. As many traditional church congregations today wonder about their future, the good news of Mark 4 is God’s kingdom will arrive. Just as sure as mustard seeds grown to become great bushes, and other seeds are planted and grow while the sower is asleep, the mystery of the kingdom is present here today in our community.
In response the man in the opening illustration, as he takes his granddaughter to summer church camp, has her do house chores and does other actions which model his work ethic (despite his employer’s treatment at work), he is indeed planting seeds with his granddaughter. Also as her friends who visit them see and experience his sincere nurture, care and work ethic. God knows what is truly in his heart. Our task as Christians is to be in conversation with such people and model our discipleship as we have been taught in church for others to see and experience. It takes time to “ferment,” but the mystery of the kingdom of God is that it is slowly arriving within this season of the church, called Pentecost.
Amen.
1. John R. Donahue, S.J. and Daniel J. Harrington, S.J., Sacra Pagina: The Gospel of Mark, (Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press, 2002).
2. Alan Kreider, The Patient Ferment of the Early Church: The Improbable Rise of Christianity in the Roman Empire, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2016).
3. Francis J. Maloney, The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary, (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 2002).