“The Kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground”

We live in a culture of big stuff.

America has always wanted to be grander, prouder, stronger, wealthier than anyone else.

So we have built great buildings and bridges and corporations and armies.

But in one particular area of our lives we have been content, even eager, to be smaller.

And that is our area, our faith that connects us.

And it is not just those of us who worship here, in the sacred intimacy of this building that has provided sanctuary for the residents of the area for 175 years. For all of the publicity that goes to the large mega-churches of America, and all of the time and money and energy that goes into growing larger congregations, here’s a statistic that may surprise you. It is a statistic that is carefully avoided by Church denominational leadership types as they create their golden calves.

This morning, as we gather to worship, more than 55% of American Churches will have fewer people in worship than we have. It is, as Al Gore would say, an inconvenient truth to those people who run our denominations.

But it is a reflection of many, many Biblical truths, isn’t it?

Both of our morning lessons point us toward the small acts that lead to God’s blessings, the modest activities that can result in the spectacular results.

God speaks through the prophet Ezekiel of taking just a sprig, a tender growth of cedar, and planting it high on a mountaintop. God has a deep and abiding interest in the using the small and humble people and institutions – the Jews, Bethlehem, Clover Hill - and that smallness, that accessibility, is what attracts people to smaller and humbler Churches, isn’t it? Through Ezekiel, God speaks of bringing low the high and mighty, drying up the green trees.

Haven’t we seen that?

Time and time again we see great congregations and their leaders rise to fame and power and they become so impressed with themselves and their mighty buildings and wealth and influence. Until the inevitable happens, until the scandals emerge – monies go missing, clergy take advantage of children, sacred vows of ordination and marriage are tossed aside.

From Eden and that desire to be just like God, to Babel with its tower of arrogant pride to the latest mega-church scandal, the story is the same. God is continually sticking pins in our balloons of ego. The great cathedrals of Europe, tremendous human endeavors, sit virtually empty each week, attracting far more tourists than worshipers, while in the Southern Hemisphere congregations gather in shacks and tents and chapels in ever expanding numbers.

A Biblical faith is best rooted in places where the worship is of greater value than the worship facility.

A place where seeds are scattered.

“The Kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground”

It is an inconvenient truth, not only for denominational leaders but for all of us who refuse to accept our role in God’s kingdom.

And I will, as St. Paul does, name myself as a chief sinner here.

And if you want me to stand alone on it, I will, and you can go home and have roast preacher for lunch and talk about my great sin. For there have been times when I have looked around this room and seen it full and thought, “Oh we are successful!”.

And there have been times when I have looked at our Church finances and seen that we actually had a positive balance and didn’t have to choose who to pay and who not to and thought, “Oh we are successful”

And there have been times when all of our programs were clicking away, youth and choir and children and worship and mission and I have thought, “Oh we are successful”

And certainly in this anniversary year I have been highlighting all sorts of wondrous achievements and activities and I have thought, and said, “Look at how we are successful!”

Yet none of those things are indications of success, or of failure for that matter.

I doubt that I stand alone in my sin, I don’t want to accuse anyoneof joining me, you can accuse yourselves if needed. But I suspect that most of us measure success in the wrong ways, we forget that Jesus spoke of the widow’s pennies as the great gift, and of his being present whenever “two or more” of us gathered in his name.

You see, success is for God to measure and to provide, not us.

The Bible says little about success. It says much about faithfulness and patience, but little about success, whether it is numerical, fiscal, political or popular. And the Bible does speak, often and critically, of those who have experienced success in the things of the world, and not used it to benefit others.

“The Kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground”

Ezekiel’s parable of a great tree on a hill has a common theme with Jesus parable of the Mustard Seed, and perhaps this is an insight into what faithfulness seed scattering results in. Both stories tell of a tree, a plant that grows from little to provide shelter and home for God’s creatures.

It is the little things that we do, the faithful spreading of seeds, that God uses to provide long-lasting, deep and profound impact upon the world.

The important measurement of a faithful life is not that we are blessed by our gifts, but that others are blessed by our smallest of gestures, not that our homes are secure and prosperous, but that other homes are formed and protected and nourished by the seeds that we spread.

A long time ago Debi and I watched and learned from so many of you, and so many who are no longer with us, as we attempted to create a home, we learned how to raise children, to survive teenagers, and ultimately, perhaps the hardest lesson of all, to trust God enough to allow them to become who God wanted them to be, not who we wanted and to let them go into those adult lives, separate yet still connected to our lives. They have found their nests on other branches of this tree that God has brought into being through little things that we saw others do, seeds that others tossed into our soil.

It is in those little things that we discover the source of protection and nourishment and pleasure for us and for our families, the little things – the memories and dreams shared - that create a home.

And, as Jesus said, you are oblivious to the growth until you look back, you can’t watch each seed take root and grow, you can’t know which seed was the important one, you can just keep tossing them out there.

And let, encourage, others to toss their seeds back at you.

Because everyone who tossed a seed at us, everyone who nodded sympathetically at our frustrations and smiled at our joys, they became a part of our family and they still are.

There is a lot of talk in the world about families and how they are changing and how they are, according to some, weakening, and how some people get divorced too easily and others aren’t allowed to get married at all.

And often people will turn to the Church for insight.

So, in that light, we need to be clear in pointing out that when scripture talks about the family, it is not talking about the nuclear family, it doesn’t even talk much about marriage as we know it. No when scripture speaks of family it is speaking about what we would call the extended family.

God is concerned with using all of us, whether we are tied by blood, by faith, or by friendship, to shelter and support each other.

“The Kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground”

Our job is to scatter seeds.

God’s in charge of what the seeds become and when they bloom and who all finds shelter in our branches.

So if you want to measure, if you need to measure, greatness, here or in your family and your life, measure how freely you scatter the seeds, measure how often you smile at old friends or strangers, measure the shelter that you provide, not the power that you wield, measure the harvest of life and sanctuary that God has brought into your life.

Measure those things, focus upon them, scatter them with a reckless generosity, knowing and trusting that God will cause his Kingdom to flourish in visible and invisible ways, in ways that are right even when they are inconvenient.

George Gershwin in his opera “Porgy and Bess” reminds us that it is Summertime “and the living is easy”, or it will be soon as schools close and schedules shift and meals are outdoors and lightning bugs put on their shows. It is the season for the little things, the quiet moments, the whispered prayers, the shared secrets, the distant dreams.

Stop trying to weigh and measure and evaluate everything, there is plenty of time for that during the rest of the year. Let the big things worry about themselves for a season, now is for tossing seeds at each other and letting God produce the crops and allowing God to provide shelter in our branches and beneath our limbs.

“The Kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground”

Clover Hill Reformed Church 1834-2009 A 175 Day Scriptural Companion Dear Friends, As we progress through our Anniversary Year, I invite you to join together in a shared reading of scripture. I have selected 175 passages, from Genesis through Revelation, that have had special meaning in our Congregational life. Go Here