Ezekiel 17:22-24 (NRSV)
Thus says the Lord God:
from the lofty top of a cedar;
I will set it out.
I will break off a tender one
from the topmost of its young twigs;
I myself will plant it
on a high and lofty mountain.
On the mountain height of Israel
I will plant it,
in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit,
and become a noble cedar.
Under it every kind of bird will live;
in the shade of its branches will nest
winged creatures of every kind.
All the trees of the field shall know
that I am the Lord.
I bring low the high tree,
I make high the low tree;
I dry up the green tree
and make the dry tree flourish.
I the Lord have spoken;
I will accomplish it.
Mark 4:26-34 (NRSV)
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. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”
He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a 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.”
With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
~
"I believe that in this morning’s gospel lesson... Jesus tells a joke. But two thousand years later, did we laugh? It’s a classic case for those failed-joke-comebacks:
“I guess you just had to be there.” or
“It loses something in translation.” or
“We just don’t get it.”
"A joke, you say? How so? Well, the creators of our lectionary at least gave us half a chance by pairing this Parable of the Mustard Seed with the First Lesson from Ezekiel 17. Did you notice how Ezekiel compares the Kingdom of God to the twig of a cedar tree which God plants and it grows up to be a huge tree that all the birds want to come nest in? Well, keep that majestic cedar tree in mind, as many of Jesus’ audience no doubt had it in their minds, as you listen again to the parable: “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a 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.”
"Do you see how Jesus even uses some of the same words as Ezekiel? The birds of the air nesting in its branches? Yet he has changed Ezekiel’s mighty cedar tree to a scruffy little mustard bush. That must be a joke, don’t you think?
"And that’s only part of the joke! To get the other part I think you need to be farmers like many of Jesus’ original audience, not farming-impaired city-dwellers like most of us. Would you get the joke if I told it to you this way(?): the kingdom of God is like dandelion seed, which, when sown into your lawn…” Do you get it? Yes, mustard shrubs are weeds! Farmers generally spend a lot of effort trying to keep it off their soil, not sowing it on! Jesus had to have been smiling when he told this parable, don’t you think?"
- Paul Nuechterlein, from a sermon delivered at Emmaus Lutheran, Racine, WI, June 14-15, 1997 (https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-b/proper_6b_1997_ser/)
~
"It is a joke, of course, with a serious message behind it. But the vehicle of a joke is more gracious than that of a diatribe. These series of parables began with the Parable of Satan casting out Satan, last week’s text, which is closer to a diatribe, though in riddle form it tends to be ‘heard but not understood.’ The issue at stake is to either live by the power of Satan, which is the power of accusation followed by casting out, or to live by the power of the Holy Spirit, which is the power of forgiveness (or to use St. Paul’s word, reconciliation). The only unforgivable sin, then, is to not believe in the power of forgiveness; the only way to not be reconciled is to reject the offer of reconciliation.
"We are faced, then, with a choice of households, or kingdoms, to live in. This week’s parable of the mustard seed prepares us that this may seem, in the eyes of the world, like a crazy garden to live in if we choose God’s. We will seem like weeds to the world, very out of place as we try to live out of forgiveness in a world based on vengeance."
- Paul Nuechterlein, from 'Reflections and Questions' on this week's lectionary texts (link below)
~
"[In Mark] chapter 4, we have several explained parables, he's explaining parables to the disciples. And today's two parables are both parts of those. These are, at least as it appears, not spoken to the general public but spoken to the disciples. In other words, these are instructions to preachers about what they're preaching. I think that that's a point worth remembering: they're not general, they are for people whose job is the word.
"Having said that, as so often, we're reminded of the Lord's words, which don't appear in today's Gospel but in the passage just before it [vv 11-12], that he told those outside: “everything comes in parables in order that they may indeed look but not perceive, and may indeed listen but not understand, so they may not turn again and be forgiven.” This quote from Isaiah indicating God making something known which is also capable of producing confusion in the hearts of those listening. It's also capable of being understood the wrong way. And that's if you like the first lesson for a preacher like me is to what extent am I simply one of those who thinks I know but don't, thinks I'm passing on something good but I'm not. And there is, if you like, I think a very necessary sense of awe before the word lest we be mishandling it.
[...]
"I wonder whether [the Parable of the Growing Seed] isn't more directed to preachers than an allegory about God. It presupposes the allegory about God, which is that God knows exactly what he's doing, he's the one who produces the seed. We may think we're scattering it and, indeed, a random preacher, like I, is well aware that I'm scattering seed. And we don't know how it grows, I certainly don't. And yet we can sense harvest, consensus, things growing. [...] I've been trying to do something that may not be good but if any of the words that I have been scattering are part of what God accomplishes then there will be growth, and there will be a harvest.
[...]
"What we have [in the Parable of the Mustard Seed] is a small garden where the birds might be very inclined to eat the seed but if you plant it and it grows, it does become a shrub, and the birds, even the birds who would have been its enemy, find an ability to rest in it. And this I think is one of the wonderful things about the Gospel and preaching the Gospel, that the things we plant, that are treated with apparent hostility, we turn out to be making something friendly for even our apparent enemies. We give them a rest and a place to sit. They might not have appreciated in the first place, and that's part of the preaching of the word and that's part of allowing ourselves to grow and to see what is being brought into being without being concerned that it's something glorious or powerful or of good reputation. It may be a mustard bush."
- James Alison, from video "Homily for Sunday 11 in Ordinary Time, Year B" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YLih3aFABU)
[Source of reflections by Paul Nuechterlein and link to his 1997 sermon, and for discussion and reflections on all of the lectionary texts for this week, see: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-b/proper_6b/]
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