Kingdom Growth
Readings: Mark 4. 26-34
If you’ve worked on a farm or are a keen gardener the imagery Jesus uses in this parable will be familiar. Even if you’re not it might be. It seems at the moment that when I mow the lawn, get it all nice and neat, that in no time at all, seemingly if I just blink, it’s sprouted up and become a meadow again. Growth, particularly at this time of year, just happens. And Jesus uses this image of growth, how plants and crops, and even trees grow with little intervention from us, as an image of what the Kingdom is like.
Now, it’s been a while since we’ve had a parable about the Kingdom, so a quick refresh on what the Kingdom is. The Kingdom of God, referred to as the Kingdom of Heaven in Matthew’s Gospel account, is, at its core, where God is in charge. The Kingdom is what things look like when God is in charge, when he’s ruling and reigning. And Jesus is always talking in the Gospels about how the Kingdom has come near, how God’s reign is at hand. And that’s true, the Kingdom has come. Wherever there are Christians, wherever there are people who have put their faith and trust in Jesus, there is an outpost of the Kingdom, of God’s rule and reign. But it’s also not fully here yet, we see that so much in our world is not as it should be, so whilst God’s Kingdom is here now, it’s not fully here yet, we’re still waiting for the day when his Kingdom comes fully, completely. The Kingdom of God is both now, and not yet.
And so Jesus here is talking about the growth of that Kingdom, how it will grow from a tiny seed, something small and insignificant, until the day it fills the whole earth, the whole creation. And what he points to with these two parables relates to what we were thinking about a fortnight ago; rest. Because what we find in these parables is that the Kingdom just grows, much like my lawn, it doesn’t so much matter what we do, the Kingdom grows by its very nature.
And that in many ways is challenging, it should be good news, God’s Kingdom is growing, he is growing his Kingdom. But it’s challenging because we often want to be in control, we want to be able to get it to grow the way we want, in the places we want. Because what we perhaps would prefer Jesus to say is about techniques to grow the Kingdom. I’d imagine if I’d just introduced my sermon as the one surefire method to bring people to faith, or 3 things which will double our congregation in 2 years, we’d all be locked in, listening carefully.
But what Jesus is telling us this morning is that it is God who grows the Kingdom, that it branches out and sprouts forth of its own accord, much like our gardens do. And that’s perhaps a little unsettling, we’re not in control, God is. We have a real hard time as humans, even as Christian’s in letting God be in control. It can be hard to let go and not want God to do everything our way and in our timing. We know best after all, don’t we? We can see what’s needed most, we see the full picture, don’t we? It’s hard to let go and let God be in control, it’s easy when he does as we expect and desire, much harder when he doesn’t.
Because that’s the dilemma swirling around in Jesus’ day. God’s people want the Messiah to come, they want the long promised new Golden Age, they want all to at last be as it should, as God has promised it would be. For the Kingdom to come in its fulness. But it hasn’t happened yet. And so they’re looking for ways to speed things along.
You have the Pharisees who’ve decided that God’s Kingdom has not yet come because the people are too sinful. They look back to the warnings of the prophet’s about the exile they were heading into because of their rebellion and rejection of God’s ways. They look at the now and how, whilst they’re back home it still feels like they’re in exile. And they put two and two together and decide that the reason God hasn’t brought in the Kingdom is because they still aren’t pure enough, still aren’t good enough. And so they’re demanding of the people a vigorous keeping of the law. And they’ve added loads of extra rules and regulations to keep everyone as far away from breaking the law as possible. Basically what they’re trying to do is bring in God’s kingdom through their righteousness, their goodness. They’re trying to legislate the Kingdom into coming.
Then you have the Zealots. These were born out of a combination of the rigours of the Pharisees and the militarism of the Maccabees (whose exploits you can read about in the apocrypha). One of Jesus’ apostles is identified as a Zealot, Simon (not the one later called Peter). They thought that the way to bring in the Kingdom was through violent revolt, through insurrection, rebelling against the Roman’s, driving them out and building it for themselves. And in doing so God’s Kingdom would come.
And finally you had Apocalypticism, a group concerned not so much with speeding up the coming of the Kingdom, but rather with predicting its coming, looking for signs and portents, hoping that by careful observation they could accurately predict the end.
We see examples of all of these in our day don’t we. People trying to legislate the Kingdom of God into existence, you see it a bit in America at present. People trying to get God to do stuff for them through their goodness ‘I do this for you God, you do this for me’. We see Christians who think the only way forwards is to tear down everything and start again, and if that means some violence and bloodshed so be it.
But what Jesus says cuts across the lot. You can’t speed the growth of the Kingdom by scrupulous righteousness, you can’t speed it up through violence and war, by taking matters into your own hands. And elsewhere Jesus points out that no-one knows the time when he will return. No, the Kingdom of God grows, because that is what it does. We wake and sleep and the Kingdom grows. We want to be in control, whether because it makes us feel more secure, or more useful, or means we can make a name for ourselves. God doesn’t work like that, it’s his Kingdom, he grows it.
And all this means that there isn’t a technique you can use that’s a surefire way to bring someone to faith, there isn’t a method you can use to double the congregation in 5 years. You can’t manufacture the growth of the Kingdom any more than a first century farmer could speed up the growth of his crop.
But. And there is a but. But we’re not off the hook entirely. Because whilst there is little we can do to hasten its growth, God does choose to partner with us in growing his Kingdom. It’s his Kingdom, he grows it, drives forwards its frontiers, but he calls us to work with him in doing so. The parable starts with a farmer scattering seed, that’s us. I’ve spoken on that before, we’re to scatter the seeds of our faith liberally. And whilst he doesn’t mention it in this parable, I don’t think it’s taking it too far to mention that preparing the ground, watering, weeding, all of this are things that help growth. In fact Jesus references just those things in the previous parable. There’s plenty we can do to create healthy spaces, healthy environments where faith can grow, where people can come to know Jesus for themselves. As Paul says, using a similar image, in his first letter to the Corinthians ‘I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the growth’.
If you think about it that’s actually quite freeing. We have things to do, a role and a responsibility, but it’s not all down to us, the lions share of the work is done by God.
But on the flip side whilst we may not be able to force Kingdom growth, we can do much to stop it. If our church becomes unhealthy, not focussed on Jesus, toxic towards outsiders, insular and preoccupied with our own survival. If we never scatter seed, never share our faith. If that’s us, we can be sure growth won’t come to our corner of the field. We’ll see God’s Kingdom continue to grow, but not here.
So, brothers and sisters, what are we to do? We’re to be faithful in sowing seed, and sowing it everywhere, and in all sorts of ways. We’re to ensure our church is healthy, that it’s Jesus focussed and outward looking. We’re to provide room for people to explore faith and grow in it. And we’re to pray. If it’s God who gives the growth, if the Kingdom growing is out of our hands, then we had best be speaking to, petitioning the one who does give the growth, that we would see his Kingdom growing here, see faith growing here.
Whilst we may not be able to manufacture growth, may not be able to bring about the end, God in his gracious mercy has called us to partner with him, so let us be faithful in the work he has called us to and entrust to him the rest.
Amen.