Churches & Mustard Bushes

 

Scripture

 Mark 4:30-32  (NRSV)

³⁰[Jesus] also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? ³¹It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; ³²yet 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.” (NRSV)

Devotion

Some plants just seem to take over everything.  The start out from the tiniest seed, and yet the next thing you know, you have a big, unkempt bush on your hands.  That is what a mustard bush does.  It starts small, but it grows into a large, sprawling, ungainly bush.  Mustard bushes don't look neat or pretty, but they are perfect for hosting all sorts of wildlife.  The more birds and small mammals shelter under its canopy, the more its seeds get spread to neighboring spots.  It doesn't take long long for mustard to take over an entire area.

Christians today often want Christ's church to be nice and neat...to stand out in its community by growing straight and tall like a redwood.  We want pictures of clean, happy, photogenic youth enjoying themselves on a church outing or nice news articles about our park festivals and pancake suppers.  We want our community work to be simple, straight-forward, and orderly and our preachers to always say just the right things to make everyone who hears them feel both happy and inspired.  We want, in other words, the Kingdom of God to be nice, neat, and picturesque...to grow where and how we want it to grow...and to be easily contained.

When Jesus compares the Kin-dom of God to a mustard seed, he shows us a Church that is much more messy than the one we like to imagine.  The "mustard bush" church is a scruffy-looking place where where the youth group and elderly alike get dirty while doing God's work.  It's a church that deals with complex needs and understands that the people it serves aren't always easy to get along with. A church where things often don't go quite as planned, and people aren't always happy.    

This form of Christ's Church may not grow as straight and tall as we would prefer, it does grow out into every aspect of our community.   It offers welcome, safety, and help for a variety of imperfect people.  The mustard bush Church is the place a refuge where the weak can gather strength, the weary can rest for a moment, the lost can find a home, the confused can seek answers, and the hurting can begin to heal.  The more people come take shelter under its bows--even if only for a moment--the more they take seeds of that Church with them as they go about their daily lives.  That is how God's kin-dom can spread to transform the world.

When I think of the Christ's kin-dom as a mustard bush slowly overtaking the area around, I remember the following:

•  The less than picture-perfect community garden and food pantry that managed to feed a campus of over 100 people.
• The youth group that got itself filthy mowing yards and fixing porches for the elderly.
  
•  The stranger with mental health issues who found my church's number in the phone book and called to ask for prayer.
• The child who ate three servings of free breakfast because there was no food in his home.
• The other child whose teachers banded together to buy him a pair of glasses so he could see to do his school work.  
• The person who stinks but who folks still hug as they write a check to get the water turned back on.
• The person who is angry that a group can't do everything they had asked for...but who still takes what they could offer.
  
• The people who stop by pastors' offices to as hard questions, push back, cry or even yell after a worship service is over.
• The college group that spends Fridays playing with kick-ball and tag with children in a lock-down facility.
• The person who fixed up a bus so she could take people who lived in food deserts to get groceries.
• The Sunday morning my church in Ohio found protestors picketing the entry to the sanctuary because our leaders dared to explictly welcome LGBTQ+ people and advocate for a proposed fair housing ordinance.
  
• The churches in Lexington, Kentucky, that take turns acting as emergency homeless shelters during the winter months.

None of these situations are tidy or particularly photogenic.  Some of them are downright uncomfortable.  Still, each one of them shows a Church that is hard at work spreading the Gospel.  The Kin-dom of God is growing in all of that messiness and unpredictability; I believe that that perfect Kin-dom will one day spread so much that it will cover the entire earth.

Let us commit ourselves to being mustard bush people who go out and spread God's kingdom in whatever ways best fit our communities' needs.  And when we see the messy, mustard-bush like work that others are doing, let us rejoice in all the ways they are offering rest, shade, and shelter to those who take refuge with them. 

 

Prayer

Jesus, thank you for all the "messy" ways you are moving throughout the world.  May your Holy Spirit work though us so that we may be joyful branches of the Mustard Bush that is your growing Kingdom.  And may the aid and shelter we offer others help your Good News spread throughout the world.  Amen.