The Growth That Matters

Dr. James Mayfield
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

June 15, 2003

Text: Mark 4:26-32

We pray: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Will this ever be the way it is? Will Israelis and Palestinians ever be able to stop killing one another and begin living together in cooperative harmony? Will this planet ever be a planet where no one suffers because of poverty, or the lack of clean drinking water, or the absence of basic nutrition? Will even our nation ever be free from child abuse? Will I ever be the person God wants me to be doing all I know I ought to do? Will I ever get beyond being merely a part time follower of Christ?

How easy it is to be discouraged. I am confident first century Christians at times were also discouraged with the way the world was and with themselves. Like us they prayed: "...thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven ...," and then, like us, wondered if this would ever happen in them and their world?

I suspect it was to speak to their discouragement that the writer of the Gospel of Mark chose to record parables such as the two we read. One parable compared the kingdom of God, (or to say that another way, the reign of God) with seed that is scattered, takes root, grows, and produces grain which is worthy of harvest. The other parable declared that God's reign (the kingdom of God) is like the smallest of seed that grows up to become a shrub large enough for birds to nest in. What was Jesus trying to teach us?

Whatever else he was telling us, he was stating very clearly that God's reign, God's kingdom, does not come into our lives or into the world around us in full blown maturity, quickly and readily producing the fruit of the Spirit. God's reign is like seed that is sown, seed as tiny as mustard seed, and it takes the mystery of God's nurturing to bring it to maturity.

Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking conversion and joining the church is the goal. Conversion and joining the church is like the decision to go to college; it is not the education. It is merely the beginning of a long process.

Lovett Weems, the preacher at the ordination service this year, said the real test of a congregation is not revealed in how many people join the church but in how the lives of the people who have joined the church have changed after five years. Are the members growing in faith? Are the members producing the fruit of the Gospel? The sign of faithfulness is less clearly revealed in the number of members who sit in pews on Sunday than in the number who serve Christ in all they do throughout the week.

To be in the kingdom of God, takes more than the decision to begin. To live under the reign of God is to be involved in the ongoing process of living day by day, growing in grace and maturing in faith until, in time, the fruit of our living is worthy of harvest.

But all too much of the time, we who claim to be Christians opt out of the process choosing to "do our own thing" rather than striving to do God's will. If we who claim Christ as Lord fail so often to follow him, is it any wonder the world is so far from being as God intends?

When we are discouraged because the world is so far from being as God intends and we are so far from being as God intends, we need to pay attention to parables such as the ones we read today. The kingdom of God, the reign of God in our lives, is similar to the parable of planted seed, in that it has to grow and develop before it is able to produce fruit worthy of harvest.

Remember the disciples of Jesus. They followed Jesus throughout his ministry, but the New Testament is very clear in showing us that they had a long way to go in their faith development. The reign of God, even in their lives, was like seed that was planted and had to mature to the point of bearing fruit. Their faith journey was not a short, overnight trip. Time and again they misunderstood and their faith fell short. When Jesus was arrested they either ran off or they denied they knew him.

Like them, our faith journey is seldom one of never failing faithfulness. But, if like those disciples, we keep coming back to be in dialogue with Christ, if we stay on the journey even after we have fallen down or taken detours, or gotten stuck, then, like those disciples we will move on to be like the seed that grew to become plants producing grain worthy of harvest.

The has been the story of this congregation. Across almost six decades this congregation has at times been amazingly faithful and at other times has fallen down, taken detours, or gotten stuck in pride or prejudice. Yet across the years, day after day, week after week, month after month the people who are this church kept coming back to be in dialogue with Christ.

When I came here as pastor, the seed had been planted, and some fruit was being produced, but there was still a way to go. I remember visiting an adult Sunday school class and when it appeared I was going to ask someone to pray, the look on the faces of many of the members was like that of a deer, caught in the headlights. Slowly, almost without our noticing it, God has been at work among this congregation and growth has taken place so that now lay prayer ministry is an active and vital part of this congregation's life.

The first year I was here, I suggested we offer long term, in depth Bible study, the response of those who were polite was a yawn and the response of the less than polite was an incredulous: "You've got to be kidding." Now I do not know how many of our members have completed at least one of the 32 session Disciple Bible Study courses, but I am sure it well over 200.

It took four and a half years of inviting to enlist the first two men from this congregation to go on an Emmaus Walk. I do not know how many women and men have gone since then, but I suspect it is more than 250.

The first summer I was here, the congregation felt good about itself because that year the congregation had repaired one home for the poor, And it was something to celebrate. An outreach ministry was being done. Across the years, God's grace has been at work among this congregation and now hands on outreach ministries have been added one after another after another -- ministries here in Austin, ministries to refugees, ministries in New Mexico, Honduras and Russia.

At the first board meeting I attended I remember hearing complaints about doing the bare minimum in financially supporting ministries beyond ourselves. Somehow, someway the Spirit of God has been at work among this congregation and now this congregation has the goal of striving to move toward the day when we will invest one dollar in ministry to persons outside the congregation for each dollar we invest in ministry to persons within the congregation.

I am not trying to brag about what this congregation has done and is doing (although that is worth celebrating) but rather to point out, that what has happened in the life of this congregation illustrates the truth proclaimed in the parables we read. God's reign is like seed that is planted. It does not immediately reach maturity in us as individuals or in us as a congregation. But as long as we stay in dialogue with Christ, the mystery of God's nurturing grace is at work within us and among us so that we, like the seed planted in the parable, develop and grow, producing grain worthy of harvest.

We as individuals and as a congregation have not yet arrived at the final destination. We still have much growing to do. But God is not through with us yet -- as individuals or as a congregation. As much as we have done, we have only scratched the surface of what needs to be done and of what God sees we can do as individuals and as a congregation. For example, as a congregation we have not even begun to talk about implications of the Gospel for policies of our city, state or national government. We have barely begun to reach out to our brothers and sisters who live on the other side of I-35. And as individuals, who of us can claim that our all we say and do is a reflection of God's will being done of earth as it is in heaven?

And yet we have begun -to be sure, imperfectly, with wrong turns and stubborn refusal to go certain directions. But, like the disciples described in Mark, we have at least begun, and we keep coming back to be in dialogue with Christ. So, rather than being discouraged because we have not yet attained the fullness of faith, I think it is appropriate for us to take heart that God is not through with us yet. The reign of God, is like seed, even the tiniest of seed, and by the mystery of God's grace that seed is nurtured within us as persons and as a congregation until we someday discover our living is producing fruit worthy of harvest.

God, may your kingdom, your reign, grow to complete maturity within us so that all we say and do will be an expression of your will. Amen.

Pastoral prayer:

Let us thank God for our blessings.

God, we pray for all those who have the responsibility of being fathers. Give them the ability to love their children with love that can be tender when in needs to be and tough when it has to be. Give them wisdom to know when to talk and when to listen. Help them relax so that they will have the patience parenting requires. Save them from being so task oriented that they drain joy even from play. Rescue them from the drive to be competitive so that by example they can teach compassion and cooperation. Open their eyes to the humor in their lives and give them the ability to laugh, and give them the grace to cry when tears are called for. Give them the wisdom to see what is truly important so they will be able to make the best use of the limited time they have been given. And God, when they make a mess of things, when they say and do the wrong things, help them forgive themselves and enable them to learn from their past. Show them how to be the parents you want them to be. And what we pray for fathers, we also pray for mothers - especially those mothers who must also fill the role of fathering their children. All this we pray in the name of the one who in teaching us to live, taught us to pray: "Our Father …"