Readings: Ezekiel 17:22-24,
Mark 4:26-34
Let us pray: We have listened to your word through
Scripture, Loving God. May we hear and
respond to your word through open hearts and enquiring minds, with imagination
and in faith. In Jesus name. Amen.
They say that when
you come back from a good holiday, which we have, you have, for a while at
least, a greater clarity of thought, a fresh perspective, a new energy. Well, yes all of the above along with aching
body parts from gardening, a little bit more weight from eating too much good
food, a heap of photos and towards the end a sense of missing people and
looking forward to reconnecting.
However part of
that ability to reflect and take a step back has me wanting to share with you a
story I heard on that holiday; a rather sad story, a story that is, in the end,
a proclaiming of God’s grace in the face of tragedy.
It seems
appropriate for today - for the parables we heard today are all about grace are
they not?
There are three
major statements about grace in the Gospel reading, it seems to me.
The first is that
we might plant but God will grow, that we can leave the nourishing to God.
This seems to be saying that much of our anxiety and micromanagement as
a people of God is because we don’t quite trust God’s grace to nurture, that
without our input, our continually standing over the growing seed, it will curl
up and die – we miss the point of this parable . Jesus is telling us to leave the nourishing
to him and go on with planting other seeds. The kingdom of God is dependent on our
initiative and God’s grace, this parable tells us. We need to stop fussing on progress and get
on with planting.
Then that we may
see the growth but not understand how it happens.
The kingdom of God is silently but powerfully coming to be. A simple story of a seed has meanings far
beyond our comprehension. Grace revealed
and veiled at the same time. There are
so many layers in this small story – the kingdom of God is like a seed…. We need
to allow the mystery of God into our imaginations so that possibilities abound,
even if we don’t know how or why or when.
And that is really hard for some of us to do, we who are so used to
measuring success and tweaking the progress and expecting particular outcomes. Is this why we hold on to ways that we think
are proven to work when we need to be releasing the strings and simply trusting
in God’s grace to grow us in whatever shape might be most needed at this time?
Thirdly that we
might plant something small but in the power of God there is a fantastically
disproportionate growth.
We have just planted a rata tree in our garden – we don’t expect to see
it as a huge mature tree. But Jesus is
telling us, don’t be so sure. There is a
power in this grace that eludes our expectations, a nourishing that has a
dynamic all of its own. And that tree,
when it grows, provides rest and haven for all the creatures of the earth. The kingdom of God is like this…..it is
formed from the smallest of seeds, you and me, acts of kindness and justice,
words of encouragement and welcome and, in the power of love, changes the
world.
Grace: nourishing,
mysterious, dynamic grace.
So is this a
simple parable about the beauty of small and the miracle of growth, or is it a
challenging message to us to stop being so anxious about, so energised by protecting
that which is already in God’s hands and to get on with initiating new things
for the kingdom.
But – we shouldn’t
come down too hard on ourselves here – because the disciples didn’t get it
either! Despite being taken aside and
told the story behind the parable – they still didn’t get the immensity of the
God’s grace, that they could trust in God, that the way of panic and fear was
not productive, nor brought growth. Why
do I say that: well you see, the story that immediately follows this one in Mark
is about their panic on the sea in the storm while Jesus was with them
asleep. They panicked – Jesus was
calm. Jesus lived God’s grace in perfect
trust, the disciples had some way to go.
Grace. I want to
tell you a story of some people who I think we could say discovered or
re-discovered the meaning of grace in the midst of heartbreak.
On our way to the
West Coast we stopped at the library I used to work at in Amberley, and in the
midst of catching up with friends I met the mother of the story that I now
share.
This family is a
Christian family, home schooled – they did it well and you can’t always say
that. They have seven children, and they
all turned out to be bright, thinking, independent children. But just last December their youngest
daughter, aged 14, was diagnosed with a rare terminal illness – and a horrible
one at that – MLD, Meta Chromatic leukodystrophy – a rare genetic disorder
where the brain and central nervous system degenerates over time. Loss of sensation, incontinence, seizures, paralysis,
inability to speak, blindness, and deafness, finally completely
unresponsive. The girl who read Lord of
the Rings at 10 can now read only a few sentences, who had a fantastic
vocabulary, struggles with simple words.
She thought she simply wasn’t as bright as the others but her mother
knew something wasn’t right. Eventually
a diagnosis was reached and they told their daughter the news. The family wept many tears as you can
imagine – but it is how they have come to know God’s grace in this that has
staggered me.
The mother
described to me how, in a moment of absolute clarity of the grace of God, she
was able to let go the future uncertainties and allow the whole mess to rest in
God’s care. “ It’s still very difficult,
I don’t know how we are going to cope, but we will.”
Since then she
greets each morning not with tears but with a sense of the joy of the precious
time they have together. She said her
daughter was so joyous, so accepting, so trusting, how could she not be?
This young girl
has since raised $900 doing the 40 hr famine, is preparing to shift home as her
father approaches retirement, is aware that her illness is advanced yet chooses
to allow the growing of the rest of her life to others, to God, to medical
skill, to the love of family, to what will be - and I will leave you with her
words, her experience of God’s nourishing, mysterious and dynamic grace in
their lives:
“I think I am very
lucky, I have a lovely life. I get to
live with the people I love.”
God’s grace. Thanks be to God. Amen.
Margaret Garland
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