The Kingdom of God is Within You

A Homily Prepared For Sunday, June 16, 2024

The Collect

Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness, and minister your justice with compassion; for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.

The Gospel

Mark 4:26–34

26 And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground;

27 And should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.

28 For the earth bringeth forth fruit of herself; first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear.

29 But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come.

30 And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it?

31 It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth:

32 But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it.

33 And with many such parables spake he the word unto them, as they were able to hear it.

34 But without a parable spake he not unto them: and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples

Commentary on Today’s Gospel Selection;

“In chapter 4, Jesus gives four parables—the Sower (4:1-20), the Lamp under a Bushel (4:21-25), the Growing Seed (4:26-29), and the Mustard Seed (4:30-32)—and then explains his use of parables (4:33-34; see also 4:10-12). He speaks the four parables in the presence of the crowds, but explains them only to his disciples (4:10 ff.; 4:34).”

“Three of the four parables involve seeds and the growth of plants, but each makes its own distinctive point. Jesus specifically labels the third and fourth parables (the ones in our Gospel lesson) as kingdom parables (4:26, 30) and hints that all four parables have to do with the kingdom (4:10).” (Donovan)

Here we have two parables, verses 26-29 and 30 to 32, followed by a suggestion by Mark that the kingdom may be hidden from those unaware of its secret presence, but it is also destined to be revealed in its fullness and produce a harvest.

The first parable of the kingdom is again a story of sowing and harvesting. The sower sows and then sleeps and rises, night and day, as step by step the kingdom grows, invisibly at first and then in the form of a stalk, then a head, then the full grain in the head. So while this is about the natural progression of rising wheat, it is also, like the image in 4:29, an image of fruitfulness.

We know from the earlier parable that some seed will fall on deaf ears and into rocks and among thorns and will not be fruitful, but in this image as in the earlier one we are encouraged not to dwell too much on that. We cannot control what happens after the word is sown. We just sow it. Only that. The sower here does not even weed or water, just sows and waits in peaceful trust.

Then the one who is over all sends in the sickle when the time is right. The harvest is a traditional image for judgment. (See Joel 3:13, in particular, and Revelation 14:14-20.) In Mark, it is usually God or Jesus who sends. The implication is that they will manage the kingdom harvest. If there is room for us to plant the seeds of the word, for the rest, we, along with the sower of the parable, can leave that to God.

Like the first parable, the second parable illustrates the growth of the kingdom from something hidden and minute to something fully visible, but it also hints at more features of God’s reign. The mustard plant presents the contrast between the smallness of the present kingdom and the relative largeness of it in its fullness. This kingdom will grow generously and abundantly from the smallest of all seeds to the largest of all shrubs. Unlike the image of the shrub that magically becomes a tree in Matthew and Luke, Mark’s mustard plant stays a mustard plant.

The mustard plant, though a very big shrub, is not a giant thing like the cedar in Ezekiel 17:22-24, where, as here, birds nest in its shade. Jesus chooses a common plant to describe how the kingdom could be working its way into something amazingly large from the tiniest whisper of a beginning.

But he doesn’t use an amazingly large object to make the point. He uses the image of a bird nesting in the shade of a shrub. It is an image of expansive gentleness but not of overwhelming, unmissable glory. The kingdom of God is described not in grandiose terms but in terms of ordinary, quiet beauty as an inviting place to call home.

The passage as a whole emphasizes the hiddenness and smallness of the quiet beginnings of the kingdom and also underscores the sense in which the sower does not make the kingdom happen by force of will; indeed the sower of the parable doesn’t even water or weed! The sower just sows and then sleeps and rises night and day, and the earth produces of itself, and the mustard plant puts forth its large branches. The kingdom grows organically. And inevitably, as day follows night, God’s hidden, mysterious work in the world and in us will be fruitful.

A study of the Gospels, in particular those passages mentioning the Kingdom, one naturally questions, what exactly is this Kingdom Christ spoke of. In these verses we begin to see the possibility that the Kingdom is not necessarily comprised of grand and glorious edifices, as He used the analogy of a shrub verses that of towering Cedars as in Ezekiel 17:22-24.

In verse 29 he speaks of the harvest, an analogy of gathering, a concept that does not readily apply itself to the church in general; after all a farmer does not harvest the field or vineyard to take it away, but rather he gathers the fruit produced therein.

So in thee verses we begin to see that the Kingdom is not a geographical region or political subdivison as the Jewish people hoped the Messiah would establish, nor is the Kingdom a religious denomination, but rather we begin to see that this Kingdom Jesus spoke of is something that grows within each of us who have had ears open to hear.

The Kingdom of God is within us, all we have to do is to find it.

Benediction:

Jesus called us to be the salt and light of the world, so as to make his kingdom a reality among us and to bring it to those around us by our words and deeds. The way to do this is to live as he lived: for others, in love and service. Almighty God, we ask you to continue to bless us and prepare us for this task. We ask these things in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen