Sermon for June 16, 2023
Pentecost 4 B
Mark 4:26-34; Ezekiel 17:22-24
Rev. Karl-John N. Stone
Last Sunday here at House of Prayer, we tried an experiment during our outdoor service. It was “Wild Church”, and those of you who were able to be here invited nature to contribute to our worship experience. The week before that, as we were preparing for Wild Church, Todd Vance explained that you might want to bring binoculars to look up, or a magnifying glass to look down, because we were going to be looking for signs of God’s presence in the natural world around our church. Some sat in the shade of the spruce trees and noticed the nature that was right beside them. Others wandered around the pond and looked down to find tall grass, flowers, and bullfrogs. Others walked around the perimeter of our grounds, and looked up at the tree branches, leaves, and sky, and saw places they never realized were part of our church. Abby Mitman even got to use both the binoculars and the magnifying glass.
It’s been observed that “what you look for you tend to find”—and we were looking to read what St. Augustine called “the First Book of God”—meaning that from the beginning of the universe, the Holy Spirit was already writing the story of God in the natural world of God’s creation. God continues to use nature to speak to us even today. We also see it in the Bible. The Holy Spirit spoke through the prophets in the Old Testament, and Jesus spoke in parables, and they often used metaphors inspired by nature to explain the ways of God.
In today’s reading from the prophet Ezekiel we hear about the “noble cedar” tree. At the beginning of chapter 17 Ezekiel tells us that what he’s about to say is “a riddle and allegory”; all of the symbolism basically has to do with Israel being unfaithful to God, defeated, and sent into exile. By the time we get to verses 22-24 we hear how God will solve this riddle through his own faithfulness to the people. “Thus say the Lord God: I will take a sprig from the lofty top of a cedar…[and] I myself will plant it on a mountain height…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.” God is promising to restore the people, to bring them home from exile, and give them new life. And the result shall benefit not only the people of Israel, but the whole world: “Every kind of bird” will live in the shade of the tall cedar tree; “every kind” of winged creature will make a nest in its branches. God is saying: when you look up into the branches of the noble cedar, take it as a sign that all who are weary or vulnerable shall find a home of welcome and sanctuary with me.
Then in today’s gospel reading in Mark chapter 4, Jesus tells two parables. The first is simply about the kingdom of God being like someone who scatters seed on the ground. You scatter the seed, you go about your life, you go to sleep each night and you rise each morning. And in this parable, anyway, that’s all the effort the seed-sower makes. No fertilizing, no watering, no weeding—and still, the seeds grow—with no effort on your part. It’s a gift of God’s grace. And then when they’re ripe you can harvest the grains—and use them to feed and nourish people. The gift of grace is life giving!
Next, Jesus tells the Parable of the Mustard Seed. The kingdom of God is “like a mustard seed”. Such a tiny little seed. Plant it, and it won’t grow into a noble cedar, just a humble shrub. However, that scraggly shrub is the greatest of all shrubs, because it grows large branches; in that way it’s just like the noble cedar, because the birds can make nests in the branches. God is saying: when you look down, at the humble mustard shrub, take it as a sign that God is spreading his branches and offering a home of welcome and sanctuary for all.
This is God’s calling for the Church. We even see it reflected in the name that was chosen for our congregation: House of Prayer—a name inspired by Isaiah 56:7 – “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” This is the same basic message as when Ezekiel says: “under the noble cedar, every kind of bird will live”; and the same basic message when Jesus says “the small mustard seed grows into a shrub with large branches, and the birds can make their nest in its shade”. By speaking through these examples from nature, God gives us an important mission: to be a place of where people can find welcome, a home, a sanctuary—whether they go to our church or not; whether they are Christians or not—because we are all neighbors, we are all part of one human family; God loves all, and growing in faith in a relationship with God is available to all.
The reality of human sin intrudes on our calling sometimes. You may remember a particularly tragic example that occurred nine years ago, June 17, 2015 at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. It’s also known as Mother Emanuel Church, for its honored place in the Black community, and it is one of the oldest churches in America. You can look up their history on their church website (https://motheremanuel.com/our-story). Their roots go back to 1791, when enslaved and free African Americans gathered to worship. They met with much oppression and racism over the decades, and had to meet in secret for 30 years until the end of the Civil War. Still, God was faithful to them, and they thrived, producing many notable Christian leaders. They took to heart the message we heard in today’s readings from Ezekiel and the gospel of Mark, making their church a home of welcome and sanctuary, for members, visitors, guests, and friends. Even for strangers.
One of those strangers arrived for bible study on that June evening 9 years ago. They didn’t know it, but the young man who joined them was a self-professed white supremacist, who wanted to start a race war. The people at Mother Emanuel welcomed him, talked with him, studied the bible with him for an hour, and then when they bowed their heads to pray he pulled out a gun. Nine of them were martyred that night. Compounding the tragedy for us as Lutherans, two of the nine were pastors who had graduated from a Lutheran seminary; and the young man who committed these murders was a member of a Lutheran church. It is hard to understand how someone could be filled with such hatred and fear, especially for people who welcomed him as a brother in Christ. But what you look for you tend to find, and this young man was not looking for God, or hope, or love, or grace. He was looking for something else entirely. I don’t know how active he ever was in church, but I’m sure the people of his church feel absolutely terrible about it, and perhaps they have wondered “how could we have better helped him know the love of God? Was there something we could have done before it was too late?”
If you want to see what the cross of Christ looks like, look to Mother Emanuel church and the Emanuel Nine martyrs, and to all who have suffered for being faithful to the way of Jesus and to the welcoming grace of a loving God. As we look to Christ on the cross, we can look up, as to the noble cedar, and ask God: why do sin and evil continue to plague the world in such awful ways? And while we offer our lament and questions, we can also look down, as to the humble mustard shrub, and search for where God is planting seeds of hope. Even in the midst of sin and evil God is present, providing welcome and sanctuary for people in their time of need; God is always planting seeds of hope among us.
What you look for, you tend to find. Because God has spread branches of welcome and sanctuary for us and for all people, we can look for wherever God’s grace and love are growing into new life, and then scatter God’s grace and love like seeds. Amen.