The Parables of the Mustard Seed & the Yeast

[0:00] Good morning, everyone. It's lovely to be here again, and thank you for the warm welcome, both for me and to our little Amop Road posse.

[0:15] It's great to be with you. So we are looking at the parable of the mustard seed. Short disclaimer, I was going to be looking at the parable of the mustard seed and the yeast in the dough, but I got so distracted by the mustard seed that I'm not really talking that much about the yeast, so somebody else can look at that one another week.

[0:37] Our reading comes from Matthew chapter 13. I think it's going to be on the screen behind me. He told them another parable.

[0:51] The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.

[1:10] He told them still another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about 30 kilograms of flour until it walked all through the dough.

[1:21] Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. So it was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet.

[1:35] I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world. The kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.

[1:50] When I was younger, I really wanted to be an actor or a musician or a singer, something on stage and performance.

[2:03] So I became a minister. That was definitely not on the cards when I was younger. So around age 9 or 10, while I was still living in South Africa, one day I announced to my parents that I would one day perform a Celine Dion song on the stage of the Royal Albert Hall.

[2:24] I was a child of the 90s. Celine Dion was on in our house a lot. To their credit, they didn't laugh. However, one of my first roles that I can remember playing, acting, was that of tree.

[2:49] Didn't require much acting, as you can imagine. Just sort of standing there and being still. Today, we are thinking about trees.

[3:05] Trees have a significant and animated role in the biblical story. They are not passive. They were not just standing there in the Bible.

[3:18] They play an active role. Trees and shrubs and bushes are important throughout the Bible. In fact, after God and humans, trees are the next most frequently mentioned living thing in the Bible.

[3:40] Which is pretty impressive. I didn't know that. I learned that this week. And the biblical authors use design patterns, repeated and varied illustrations, images, and examples to help us see the parallels between humans and trees.

[4:00] Have a little think. Jesus said, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. The wisdom of the Bible is portrayed as a tree of life in Proverbs.

[4:14] We are told to be like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in season. In fact, every important character and every major event in the Bible has a tree marking the spot.

[4:36] Trees are created on the third day in Genesis 1. And the trees of the Garden of Eden are both beautiful, so lovely to look at, and also provide food and nourishment.

[4:49] There is also, obviously, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Then we have the burning bush, where Moses encounters God. Joseph, one of Jacob's 12 sons, we are simply told in Proverbs, is a fruitful vine.

[5:07] He didn't even say he's like a fruitful vine. He says he is a fruitful vine. And the same pattern holds true in the New Testament. Think about Zacchaeus climbing a sycamore tree.

[5:19] The blind man who says that he sees people walking as if there were trees. And the disciples gathering at the Mount of Olives. The Apostle Paul said that if we have been for a walk in the woods, then we are without an excuse for knowing God.

[5:39] He wasn't the only one who said that either. And Paul also wrote that Christians are like branches grafted into Israel's tree trunk, with roots that help us stand fast and firm no matter what trouble comes.

[5:59] Jesus talks about trees and vines and branches in his parables. Jesus died on a tree. The work of the Spirit is connected to leaf and fruit imagery, all connected to the Spirit.

[6:12] Then there is the final tree, the tree of life at the end of history in the New Jerusalem. So it all adds up to a lot of trees. It's no accident.

[6:25] Of course, this has something to do with the community of Jewish scribes and prophets who wrote the Hebrew scriptures, who, for the most part, were living in the hill country of Judea and Israel.

[6:37] But nonetheless, it is important and interesting for us to take note of how important trees were. Because the Bible uses trees to reveal spiritual truths about us as humans and about God and what God is like.

[6:55] So much so that when we read about trees, the biblical authors want us to think about humans. Humans are trees.

[7:11] Obviously, we live in an urban environment. We don't live in the hill country of Judea. And I'm pretty sure that most of us are not farmers. No farmers.

[7:22] Maybe some gardeners, I imagine. But not any farmers. Okay. And our landscape is really different to the biblical landscape. But South London is full of great parks and lots of open spaces with beautiful trees that are well-established with deep roots and big branches.

[7:41] So, I'd like you to pause for a moment. And I'd like you to think about a favorite tree. Maybe it's a tree that you walk past in the park.

[7:55] Or a tree that you see on the way to work. Or a tree in your garden. A favorite tree. Have a think about why you love that tree.

[8:08] What makes it so special to you? And once you've thought of a tree, I'd like you to turn to the person next to you and say, why that tree is so important to me.

[8:26] Why it's not. I'll give you a couple of minutes to do that. Talk to you later. Okay. Thank you.

[8:53] Can a few people just shout out why you love those trees? Can I hear about the trees that you love? Come on, you were all chatting a second ago.

[9:07] Yeah. Oh, wow. That's amazing. I didn't know that. I'll have to ask you afterwards where it is. Brilliant.

[9:18] Thank you. What are the trees? A mango tree. That's not in Dulwich Park, is it? That'd be nice, though.

[9:29] I'd like that. Avocado tree. Also probably not in Dulwich Park. You guys have got such exotic ideas. Oh, my goodness.

[9:39] Emily, did you have your hand up? Oh, amazing. Amazing. Hmm.

[9:50] Amazing. Thank you. Last shout. Say again. A breadfruit tree. Where can you find one of those in?

[10:03] Nine Dulwich Park, definitely. Peck and Rye? No? Say again. Where can you find one of those?

[10:14] I was thinking that's probably. Okay. Ah, very good.

[10:25] Thank you. Thank you for such exotic suggestions. I was just thinking of Peck and Rye, to be honest. I have a favorite tree, and it's in Peck and Rye. I always thought it was a cherry blossom, but I don't know if it actually is.

[10:36] But it's sort of like on the, I was going to say corner, sort of corner. And in autumn, its leaves change these amazing colors. And then in spring, just the blossom is incredible.

[10:49] And no matter what photo I take, it never does it any justice. It's just, oh, it's amazing. So that's probably my favorite tree. Thank you for sharing yours. Jesus used a number of different tree images.

[11:04] And one of them is in this parable that we read. And this is actually the Luke version that I'm going to read here. He said, The kingdom of God is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and put in his own garden.

[11:17] It grew and became a large tree. And the birds of the sky lodged in its branches. And this parable is in Matthew and Mark and Luke, with some slight differences.

[11:29] So for the mostly Jewish audience in Matthew and Mark's gospel, the mustard seeds are cultivated in fields, and they're sort of small bushes. While Luke tells the story for a green-fingered Gentile audience who were actually planting those mustard seeds in their own gardens and not in fields.

[11:52] So as you listen to this, as you hear these verses, and it's a familiar parable to lots of people, to most of us, I imagine, I wonder what kind of tree you are imagining.

[12:06] Do you imagine this grand tree, like in Luke's gospel, big branches spreading out those branches wide? Perhaps it even makes you think of that tree in Psalm 1, the tree that is planted by streams of water that flourishes.

[12:23] You imagine this old, maybe something like the tree that you're talking about, Emily, an old oak spreading out its branches. And that is a really inspiring picture.

[12:34] The kingdom of God, like a mighty tree, many birds taking refuge in it. I'm not sure what the birds might represent, but presumably a spacious abundance of God's grace and love.

[12:47] A kingdom of peace and shalom where there are no outsiders and there's lots of room for all sorts of different birds to find a home. Perhaps Jesus was looking forward to a time when the Christian community, in his imagination and with hope, would be a welcoming, safe, inclusive space.

[13:08] A community not only for each other, but also creating sanctuary for others to come into. A refuge, just like a large tree with its branches out, for birds to come and land on and nest in.

[13:23] So it could be this grand tree, or it could be like in Matthew and Mark's Gospels, it could be more like a sort of shrub sort of thing.

[13:36] You know, not quite as impressive as a tree. A bit sort of bushy, a little squatty tree. But, you know, birds can still find somewhere to land, maybe find some food to eat.

[13:49] Still good. There is one more possibility, which I think is way more juicy and interesting.

[14:01] Some scholars have pointed out that mustard seeds grow wild, and they are generally not domesticated or cultivated in a lot of places.

[14:16] And once mustard has taken root, it can be really tricky to get rid of. So, from these tiny seeds, little plants pop up all over the place, and they take root.

[14:37] And they take root in unlikely and challenging places. And they stick. They're really stubborn and difficult to get rid of. So maybe Jesus is suggesting that the kingdom of God, starting from this tiny seed, can spread out.

[14:58] It gets into all sorts of strange spaces and places, a bit like a weed, but a good news weed, and extends its tiny shoots and leaves, and roots of hope and love and peace and grace into the nooks and crannies of all sorts of communities and places and families and friendships.

[15:22] Maybe it's more like a great weed instead of a grand old oak tree. One of the more famous lines of poetry comes from Emily Dickinson, who says to her listener, tell all the truth, but tell it slant.

[15:49] Dickinson wasn't encouraging people to tell half-truths or, you know, partial truths or fake news, but rather highlighting that, as ordinary people, we often find the stark truth too dazzling, too confronting, perhaps too overwhelming.

[16:10] And so we have to find ways of telling stories, using riddles, jokes, or satire to really reveal the truth. I think that Jesus was using the parables as a way of telling the truth, but telling it slant.

[16:31] One of the reasons that Jesus talked about the kingdom of God to his disciples in parables could have been because he knew that actually it was a little bit too difficult, a bit too challenging to grasp the truth of what he was saying.

[16:44] Truth about how things work in God's kingdom, about what following him would really look like and what it would mean for their lives for them to join in as active participants in his redeeming work of the world.

[17:01] And I think the mustard seed and the yeast parables, even though the shortest, they pack a bit of a punch. Because these parables demonstrate that God's way in the world isn't as straightforward as people might want or people might imagine.

[17:21] Jesus' ministry in Galilee doesn't look like the sort of kingdom of God movement people were expecting. But it was, in fact, the seed time for God's long-promised and long-awaited harvest.

[17:35] People wouldn't be able to see how God's promised plant would grow from this seed. But it would. And a harvest would come.

[17:46] So one of the truths contained in this parable and the parable of the yeast and the dough is a warning about not looking down on small beginnings.

[17:59] The mustard seed doesn't look like much. You've probably got them in your kitchen. You know, the little tiny things. It's a smaller seed. But from fragile beginnings, God can make something amazing and beautiful and abundant and life-giving grow.

[18:18] So let's think about the mustard seeds a little bit. There's lots of interesting comment on mustard seeds. So one church father wrote that in this parable, Jesus chose the example of the mustard seed to suggest that the seed of the kingdom is the least of the seeds because the disciples were actually such a ragtag bunch of people full of faults, full of mistakes, just like us.

[18:45] Yet, from their lives and from their witness, the good news of Jesus was spread throughout the world. So this least impressive seed can give birth to the most impressive philosophy or dogma or religion as one of these church fathers suggested.

[19:07] Another possibility, and if you like to make curry, then you'll know this, to get mustard seeds to release their flavor and their aroma, you normally have to give them a little bash in the pestle and mortar, so you need to bruise the seeds or you need to heat them up in the oil, don't you, to like make their flavors sort of unlock.

[19:29] So Jesus might have been hinting at not only what the life of his followers might look like but what his own journey was going to be like. So in fact, Jesus is the mustard seed.

[19:42] He was bruised. He was broken. His life was a tiny seed ending at first glance in death and humiliation.

[20:00] A tiny, fragile seed. But when that seed was buried, when it was in the ground, it was not held there.

[20:14] He was resurrected by the power of God and burst into life. In resurrection, Jesus as the risen saviour is likened to a vast tree offering sanctuary, offering hope, offering shelter and home.

[20:33] Jesus is this vast tree. But I think Jesus was also saying to his disciples that similarly they should expect the same kind of challenges.

[20:46] They might sometimes feel bruised. They might sometimes feel broken. They would walk through dark valleys in their journey of discipleship.

[21:00] There is risk. There is vulnerability. Even danger if we are to take Jesus' words seriously. This short parable comes in Matthew chapter 13 and if you remember the Sermon on the Mount comes a few chapters earlier starting in chapter 5.

[21:22] And Jesus there articulates a vision of what living the way of the kingdom will be like. I'm going to read us some verses as a reminder. This is the message translation.

[21:34] Jesus says, you're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and his rule. You're blessed when you feel you've lost what is most dear to you.

[21:47] Only then can you be embraced by the one most dear to you. You're blessed when you're content with just who you are. No more, no less.

[21:59] That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought. you're blessed when you care. At that moment of being careful, you yourselves are cared for.

[22:19] You're blessed when you can get your inside world, your mind and heart put right. Then you can see God in the outside world. You're blessed when you can show people how to cooperate instead of compete or fight.

[22:33] That's when you discover who you really are and your place in God's family. So this is an upside-down way of doing things, this upside-down kingdom.

[22:46] It goes against the grain of society and culture. It's not our normal way of doing things. Of course, it should be difficult. If it's not difficult, we might be doing it wrong.

[23:04] Jesus is calling us to the way. He is inviting us to be seeds of the kingdom that will grow into trees of the kingdom.

[23:19] So we shouldn't be too quick to judge or dismiss that moment of calling, that small group of two or three people gathering, to pray or work on something, to start something new, the tiny beginnings of a project or a vision, a few committed people, because that can contain the seed of the kingdom of God.

[23:46] So let's think back a little bit to the trees. We've been with the mustard seeds for a while. Let's think about the trees. So this morning, what kind of tree are you feeling like?

[24:02] Are you that mighty tree that sounds like Luke is making us imagine, that big huge tree with its branches spread out for birds and other creatures to find respite in?

[24:15] Do you feel able to offer a spacious place where others might find safety? Or maybe you're feeling a bit more of the bush-y shrub desert plant thing.

[24:33] Not that impressive, but still important, and still large enough for nesting. Or maybe you are more of the uncultivated and wild growing weed.

[24:52] Perhaps you find God in all sorts of unexpected people and places. And you find ways of engaging with others in difficult circumstances and making surprising God-type connections.

[25:07] It might not look like much from the outside, but there is real life and hope and glimpses of the kingdom. If people throughout the Bible are likened to trees, then I think it's okay for us to imagine how we might feel, what kind of tree we might be feeling like as we read this parable.

[25:31] What kind of trees are we? Whether you're feeling like that grand tree or the unruly weed, God is working slowly and patiently to bring the trees of his kingdom to bear fruit.

[25:57] And this is slow work. Trees take time. They take time to grow. Humans take time to grow. Trees can bear fruit and be beautiful.

[26:11] People do. Quite a lot of the time we might not see the end result. This kind of slow and patient work makes me think of a visit that I made recently to the Welsh Valleys in my other role with urban expression, which is a mission agency that works in communities that experience marginalization and deprivation.

[26:37] Penn Rees is a council estate on a hilltop in the valleys. Council estate with an amazing view. I mean, I've never experienced anything like it.

[26:49] The community who live there struggle with multiple types of deprivation and life is really tough for many people. For the last 30 years, there's been a Christian presence on the estate in Penn Rees.

[27:03] the church on the estate is committed to a holistic gospel, good news for body and spirit and mind. I'm really not sure what the church, if they had to choose a tree to represent themselves, I'm really not sure what they would imagine.

[27:23] I think they would probably imagine more like a weed, but it's not the case. The things that they are committed to, the ways that they are engaged in that community is like a grand tree offering hope and sanctuary and home to lots of different people.

[27:45] A small group of committed folk have come alongside locals and they run all sorts of things. You would never imagine this group of five, ten people manage to do a food bank and a clothes bank and an evening cafe and a homework club.

[28:02] There's nothing on the estate. Anything that they do, that is basically the only thing. There's that and a kebab shop and a primary school. That's your lot for 250 homes.

[28:15] The church have a space that they use in the middle of the estate and that is their ongoing gift to the community. Various people have been involved in this work.

[28:29] And they might not see the end. They might not see what it looks like to keep on investing in this community and these children and these families. But that tree is growing.

[28:41] It is a glimpse of the kingdom of God, what it looks like to bring wholeness to a community. It is a beautiful tree with branches stretching out in the midst of a challenging context.

[29:02] One final thought. As we grow, as we deepen our roots and reach out our branches, we are not alone.

[29:16] Remember on the day of resurrection, Mary Magdalene supposed Jesus to be the gardener. she was exactly right.

[29:29] Jesus is now the gardener of resurrection, cultivating new life in all who believe. So whether we feel like we are those great trees in the fields or stubborn weeds pushing up through the cracks, Jesus is the great gardener and he will not abandon his work in us.

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