Called to Holiness #2

ON BEING HOLY WHILE HURTING

Do you find it annoying when you are having a bad day and someone comes to you and says, “Praise the Lord! Isn’t God good?”? You are struggling to find the positives in your life and this bubbly oblivious person wants to spoil your cloudy disposition.

            Peter wrote to a people going through a hard time. Christianity was a hard road for them. They were struggling with work, with family and with unbelieving neighbors. And Peter writes, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!” How insensitive Peter! How rude! These people need more than platitudes.

            But Peter wasn’t speaking clichés to them. He was serious about praising God in the midst of struggle. Think of it this way: Your job is not paying the bills. You wonder if your expenses exceed your income. The mortgage and property taxes are burying you. This is even causing family friction with your spouse and children because they all want a piece.   Then someone calls and says to you, “Praise God! Your great-aunt Harriet has died and left you 10 million dollars!” Not such a bad day anymore is it? Your sunken, heavy-laden spirit suddenly feels much lighter.

            What a difference it makes to hear some good news. What a difference a bit of hope makes to a gloomy soul.

            The reading of a will can be tedious. Lawyers make their jobs indispensible by using a language so boring it could put a rabid grizzly bear to sleep. But if you know that couched in that technical language is a promise of inheritance, you will listen eagerly. “I bequeath to my beloved (son, daughter, etc.) X amount of dollars…” You are all ears.

            In the same way, I am reading to you the last will and testament of Jesus Christ. I hope that I am not using a language that puts you to sleep. But even if I do, I want you to hear one thing: No matter what you are going through, we can find our hope in Christ who has saved us for eternity.

1. You stand to inherit a King’s ransom…

The people Peter wrote to were experiencing difficulty because of their faith. Believing in Jesus made life hard in the workplace and in society. Even families were divided between those who believed and those who rejected Christ. They suffered loss in many ways.

            Into this discouragement Peter spoke a word of hope, a reminder that this present struggle was not the end. He reminded them that God in his mercy had given them new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus. Because Christ died and rose again, they could face their current troubles knowing that down the road there is someone to hope in, someone who will make these trials fade with his joy.

            Hope is the stuff that keeps us going in life. I remember working at Hull’s Bookstore in Winnipeg and not enjoying the job. My only joy and hope was to plan a getaway on my rare weekend off with my best friends. Then I could work day-by-day, even if that weekend was weeks away. Having something to look forward lightens the load. These small hopes are just a taste of the great hope we have in Jesus. If you don’t have Jesus, these small hopes are all you have.

            Through Christ, Peter wrote, we have a living hope, and “…an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade.” This is a rock-solid inheritance. The way Peter describes it, our inheritance of salvation has a three-fold guarantee:

It will never perish – Our salvation is free from death and decay. You can inherit ten million dollars but its worthless if the market drops out. You could inherit a farm or land but it might suffer flood or drought or fire. But even our death cannot separate us from the eternal life Christ has won for us.

It will never spoil – Peter’s language here suggests that no immoral or impure thing can wreck our salvation. Statistics show that winning the lottery or inheriting great wealth can do more to damage family harmony than anything else. People who win a million dollars are usually bankrupt in a year, they say. Nothing can spoil our inheritance in Christ.

It will never fade – It is untouched by time. There is no expiry date on the gift of God which is eternal life.

            What God has set aside for us in Christ cannot be touched by death, cannot be spoiled by evil, nor impaired by time. “This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time,” (4b-5).

            I want to share with you one more thing about our inheritance, this great hope we have. Ray Stedman said it is a double inheritance: “Paul refers to "the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints." It is necessary to understand what that means. There is a double inheritance in the Christian life. We inherit Jesus. He is our inheritance. He is our resource from which we draw. If you receive an inheritance, you live on it; you use your inheritance to enrich yourself. So Jesus is our inheritance. We can enrich ourselves with Him at any moment. He is our power, our strength, our love, our life, our wisdom, our truth. He is what we live by. Christ is our life.

                But, and this is the wonderful thing: we are His inheritance. He draws on us. Our bodies and souls, our full humanity, are to be His to use to manifest the new creation in the midst of the destruction of the old. That is "His inheritance in the saints." That produces riches, not only in our lives, but in the lives of others as well, and the world in general--the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints.”[i]

                Our hope is not a dead hope; it is a living hope. We hope not in a dead Christ, but the living Lord. But why then, if we are shielded by God’s power, do we still struggle?

2. …But you will have to suffer a little while…

Trials and struggles are what deflate the hope we have in Christ. They suck the joy out of living. Our faith in Christ receives blow after blow from the disappointments of living in a hostile world.

            Peter wrote, “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials,” (6). Peter was not unaware of the realities of Christian struggle. And the struggles were not all to do with being a Christian. He did say “grief in all kinds of trials.” There is the pain of a rebellious child; the struggle with an incurable sickness; the anxiety of growing older; the unexplainable aches and pains; a job you don’t enjoy but need to support your family. There are all kinds of trials.

            For some the struggle is related to faith in God. Aren’t Christians immune to grief and trials I just mentioned? If I had more faith perhaps the troubles would be fewer. Maybe if I prayed more. This is wrong thinking. Jesus never promised that the Christian life would be easy.

            On the contrary, Jesus said, “In this world you will have trouble,” (Jn 16:33). Paul said, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” (Acts 14:22). Of us it says in Hebrews 12:6 & 8…And Peter writes in this letter 4:12. Trouble is part and parcel of living in a fallen world. Christians are not free of trouble. What we do have is hope, which is why Peter says, “In this you greatly rejoice…”

            The purpose of trouble in the Christian life is to refine our faith. God uses it to draw us closer to himself, to trust in him more, to believe in his goodness despite the pain. Peter said, “These have come so that your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed,” (7). He echoes the flow of thought in the OT with this sentiment. One OT quote sums up the message of the prophets, Zechariah 13:9. That is the product of our suffering, a life that declares, “The Lord is our God.”

            Near Cripple Creek, Colorado, gold and tellurium occur mixed as telluride ore. The refining methods of the early mining camps could not separate the two elements, so the ore was thrown into a scrap heap. One day a miner mistook a lump of ore for coal and tossed it into his stove. Later, while removing ashes from the stove, he found the bottom littered with beads of pure gold. The heat had burned away the tellurium, leaving the gold in a purified state. The discarded ore was reworked and yielded a fortune. God is refining us, taking out the refuse and yielding gold in our lives for his glory.

3. …So keep your eyes on the goal!

You stand to inherit a King’s ransom…the hope of eternal life through the finished work of Jesus on the Cross. But you will have to suffer a little while as you work out the meaning of faith and salvation on this planet. While you struggle and wrestle with faith in God, Peter said, keep your eyes on the goal. What is the goal?

            Jesus is the goal. “Though you have not seen him, you love him; though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls,” (8-9). We do not see Jesus with our physical eyes, yet we love him and believe in him. We see him in the daily encounters of life through faith. We see him in the mundane as an assurance that he is with us. When we experience joy, even of the slightest variety, we get a taste of his presence.

            Mike Mason was in a low mood one day. But he was meeting a good friend of his who always seemed to bring a light back into his dark places. As they enjoyed breakfast together, Mike and his friend talked about books, music, family, and about Jesus. Whatever bad mood Mike had begun the day with had dissipated with the good conversation.

            When it was time to leave the two men stood by their cars and said their goodbyes. Traffic was rushing by and it was really loud, very difficult to hear. So Mike’s friend raised a hand and Mike thought he heard him say, “Yabba-ka-doodles!”

            “What did you say?” Mike yelled back.

            His friend threw his head back and yelled, “YABBA-KA-DOODLES!” Mike knew his friend and also knew that he was not prone to speaking in tongues or using ecstatic utterances. Maybe, Mike thought, he was just being goofy. So he walked over to his friend’s car and said, “I don’t get it. What is Yabba-ka-doodles?”

            His friend looked puzzled and said, “Yabba-what?”

            Mike said, “You yelled Yabba-ka-doodles. What does it mean?”

            Mike’s friend replied, “I said, ‘I’m glad we could do this.’” After staring at each other for a brief moment, they both broke down laughing hysterically. There it was – joy!

            God gives us a wonderful gift when we are facing our low moments and he interjects a goofy moment. Is it not the presence of Christ in our lives that allows us to laugh when all hell is breaking loose? Is it not the hope of Christ’s Redemption that gives us joy when others know only tears? Christ is our goal – to be like him, to be with him, to behold him in glory – for his glory is our inheritance.

What is our living hope? According to Peter, it is the life of Christ in the heart of the believer; it is the safe-keeping of our salvation in God’s hands; it is the hope of the Second-Coming of Jesus Christ in power and honor and glory; it is the full realization of God’s glory when we die or when Jesus comes; and it is the blazing reality of that Day when we will be with Jesus forever and ever.

            Dietrich Bonhoeffer embodied this hope even when he faced the gallows. He had been sentenced to die by the Nazis for speaking out against the regime.

            On the day when the sentence was to be carried out, a Sunday, he led a service in the prison which housed men of various nationalities. One prisoner, an English army officer who was also facing the death sentence but was later set free, wrote these words describing the last day of Bonhoeffer's life:

            “Bonhoeffer always seemed to me to spread an atmosphere of happiness and joy over the least incident, and profound gratitude for the mere fact that he was alive... He was one of the very few persons I have ever met for whom God was real and always near... On Sunday, April 8, 1945, Pastor Bonhoeffer conducted a little service of worship and spoke to us in a way that went to the heart of all of us. He found just the right words to express the spirit of our imprisonment, and the thoughts and resolutions it had brought us. He had hardly ended his last prayer when the door opened and two civilians entered. They said, "Prisoner Bonhoeffer, come with us." That had only one meaning for all prisoners--the gallows. We said good-bye to him. He took me aside: "This is the end; but for me it is the beginning of life." The next day he was hanged in Flossenburg.”

            "This is the end, but for me it is the beginning of life." What was it that so possessed this man, that at the very moment of his death, he could say that? What was the hope that he possessed, and why was he able to cling to it?
            Living hope through the living Christ. That is what Peter spoke of in this passage we just studied today. No matter what we are facing in terms of trials or sufferings, we can know this hope. We may not be facing the gallows but we have our moments. And the same Jesus who gives hope to the dying gives powerful hope to the hurting as well.

            That is how holy people endure the hurts of life.

                                                            AMEN

Prayer from Psalm 33:13-22

“From heaven the LORD looks down and sees all mankind; from his dwelling place he watches all who live on earth – he who forms the hearts of all, who considers everything they do.

            No King is saved by the size of his army; no warrior escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save.

            But the eyes of the LORD are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine.

            We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O LORD, even as we put our hope in you,” (Psalm 33:13-22).

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[i] Ray Stedman, Riches in Christ

Called to Holiness #1

ON BEING HOLY IN AN UNHOLY LAND

Have you ever felt odd and out-of-place? Maybe you have been to a large gathering, like a banquet or a conference, and you felt like you just don’t fit in. You didn’t know who to talk to or about what. It is especially awkward when it appears that everyone has someone to talk to but you. Schmoozing is not your thing. All you want to do is get out of there and go home. 

            Odd; peculiar; strange; on the outside looking in. Do these words describe how you feel at school, at work, or in some social circles? Congratulations, that’s what a Christian is supposed to feel like.

            On the contrary side of things, if you begin to feel comfortable with our world, our society, or our culture as it is, then you may have grown too accustomed to this world.

            As we begin this series on the first letter by the Apostle Peter, we will quickly see that this powerful little letter says a lot about suffering for being different. And Peter does not want to change that oddity of being Christian; in fact, he encourages it.

            Peter’s readers were struggling with how their faith made them different in a land that accepted the status quo. It went a lot easier for you if you just conformed to the way things were. Don’t stick out. Don’t go against the flow. If everyone is doing it, it must be okay. The alternative was alienation from friends and society.

            However, being in relationship with Christ and under the renovation work of the Holy Spirit had life-changing implications. Peter’s letter was written to instruct and motivate Christians in their lifestyles and relationships by reminding them that it was to this purpose that they had been chosen in God.

            Being chosen by God through Christ will make you a foreigner to the world we live in. In the first two verses we will study two opposite but related terms: being a foreigner and being chosen.

1. We are aliens and strangers in this world

“Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To God’s elect, exiles scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia…” (1:1).

            Here Peter addresses his readers with a fitting label. The NASB uses the word “alien” instead of “God’s elect.” His readers are those “who reside as aliens;” they are strangers in the world, foreigners to the people they live with presently.

            That word “alien” has a different connotation for us in our context. We tend to think of “space invaders” or “Martians” or people from outer space when we think of “aliens.” Perhaps that is not a bad way to look at it.

            It is best to think of “alien” as being a foreigner though. If you have travelled abroad you know how it feels to enter an unfamiliar culture. Even traveling to eastern Canada can be a foreign experience. When we were in Quebec City this summer I tried to order our meals at McDonalds in French only to discover that the counter girl didn’t seem to speak English or French. Talk about a foreign experience.

            In the first century, being a foreigner or alien meant to be someone who did not hold citizenship in the place he resided. That meant that he did not enjoy the rights and privileges of the host country. But as a foreigner he was not expected to hold the values and customs of the host country.

            One of Peter’s favorite words in this letter is the Greek word, anastrophe. He uses it six times and it means “way of life” or “behavior.” When Peter uses it he instructs his readers that the Christian way of life, our conduct, our behavior, should stand out like a foreigner stands out in China. The KJV uses the word “peculiar” in 2:9. We are to be peculiar.

            Another sense of being an alien or a foreigner is that we are temporary residents. We are not settlers but pilgrims; we are just passing through, looking for our real home in heaven (see 1:17; 2:11-12, etc.). It follows naturally then that if we are aliens we should act like aliens.

            There is a richness to the term “alien” as well as the next term “exiles scattered…” The Jews knew what it meant to be foreigners and exiles in a very real way in the OT. When God disciplined his people Israel, he took away their king and their land; Assyria and then Babylon invaded Israel and took captives back to their capitals. For 70 years the Jews were aliens in a strange land (see Daniel 1).

            Peter draws a spiritual parallel here between the Jewish Diaspora, as it’s called, and the situation of his readers. He implies that they should understand themselves as Christians as like that of God’s OT people who were foreigners in the lands to which they were scattered. This applies to us also: think of God with his salt shaker spreading us out over the world. We are a scattered people without a home on earth.

            Peter’s readers are addressed as being in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia. Scholars believe that they were forcibly sent there after the month of July in 64 A.D. when Rome was burned. Historians now believe that Nero set the fire to make room for his new re-imagined city of Rome. But when the people became suspicious, Nero looked for a scapegoat to blame the fire on. These Christ-followers were a strange lot; they were into cannibalism, eating the flesh and blood of some poor victim. So it was easy to fix the blame on the Christians. They literally became exiles from Rome as a result.

            Peter took that experience and used it to remind the believers that this is part of what it means to be God’s people. We should never expect to be accepted by this unholy land. The other side of this lesson is that we be aware of the danger of assimilation to the unholy environment we live in and fall from our faith. It is a great temptation to accept the overwhelming influence of our society and say “what’s wrong with it? It wouldn’t hurt anyone.” Assimilation is a great danger like gangrene that deadens the faith of the church. It is this very disease that causes us to resemble the world and makes the world ask, “How are you different?”

2. We are a chosen people through God’s grace

We may be outcasts in the world, but we are chosen by God. In the Greek, the word “chosen” comes right after “Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.” You can do this in Greek, mix up the words in any order and still make sense. Peter throws “chosen” in at the beginning to emphasize this encouragement: You are chosen by God.

            “To God’s elect, strangers in the world…who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood,” (1:2).

a) We are chosen according to God’s foreknowledge – What does that mean? To be chosen is a very special feeling. Have you ever been the last one chosen for a soccer game on the school playground? You are the least talented player and no one wants you. Being the last pick you go to the team by default that gets last choice.

            Consider the opposite experience. Go back to the dawn of creation when the worlds were yet unfashioned. Go back beyond that time when the Universe was just a thought in God’s mind. If you can imagine such a time when there was no time in infinite space, go where your imagination is exhausted of its power. Sometime back then, God chose His people. The Triune God, all alone in His eternity, spoke this choice. “…in the beginning was the Word,” and in the beginning God’s people were one with the Word, and in this beginning God chose them into eternal life.[i]

            The Bible confirms this when Paul wrote, “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers,” (Rom 8:29).

            Does that mean that we didn’t get to choose God? We have no free will? No, it means we are dealing with a great mystery, a paradox. God does not sit weakly by hoping that some will believe in His Son. We believe, not by our own decision, but by God’s initiative. At the same time, by faith, we choose him. I take great joy in knowing that he chose me for salvation before I chose him.

b) We are chosen by the Spirit for holiness – The Holy Spirit is the agent of God’s choosing us. He convinces us that we are sinners and leads us to the place where we believe in Jesus as our Savior who forgives us our sins. Then the Holy Spirit strengthens us and enables us to walk in obedience to Christ.

            We again turn to Paul and read, “But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers, loved by the Lord, because from the beginning God chose you to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth,” (2 Thess 2:13).

            The Holy Spirit makes us holy. He sets us apart from the world. He is the one who makes us peculiar to the unbeliever. He empowers us to live lives that reflect the character of Jesus and the holiness of God. Through the Spirit, God takes hold of a person from the inside and transforms him or her so that we are taken out of the realm of the profane and placed in the sphere of the holy.

c) We are chosen to be obedient to Jesus – This is the aspect of being chosen that makes us radically different. That inner holiness becomes holiness in action. When others are living for the moment and what pleasure can best dull the pain of the moment, the follower of Jesus is seeking to be loving and gentle and to seek the other’s good.

            By following Jesus and seeking to be obedient to his teaching we become otherworldly. Jesus prayed that we would be odd. In John 17:13-16 Jesus prayed that we would have “the full measure of (his) joy within (us).” He also prayed, “I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world,” (14). Obedience to that word is the Christian’s way of bearing testimony to the world that he or she is one of God’s chosen ones.

            We are sprinkled with the blood of Christ through faith in his pardoning work. What an awesome picture this is for us. It reaches back into the Jewish history of the temple sacrifice when a lamb would be killed and its blood sprinkled on the altar for sins. If not for the love and mercy of God, our blood would have to flow. When John the Baptist saw Jesus coming towards him, he declared, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” We are sprinkled with this precious blood so that our sins are washed away.

            You and I are chosen for obedience based on this forgiveness. Now doesn’t that guilt-free life make us peculiar and holy?

We have begun a journey today. Pressed upon my heart was the desire for holiness, to discover what it means to be holy. Now we are in this together, this journey, and I hope that we will discover together what it means to be a holy church.

            Last weekend as some of us walked among the partiers at the Vikings football tailgate party, I wondered what place a Christian had among these folks. Yes, to be a witness. But in truth, I was merely an observer – I did not speak a word. What was said to me and my companions was this: “Hey guys, there’s free bloody Mary’s over there. Help yourself.”

            I shared this with no one till today, but what I saw was idolatry, drunkenness and godlessness. Can believers enjoy the party that is the NFL or the NHL or the world? I certainly do not want to suggest a legalistic view of life. But I wonder what makes us different? What makes us holy?

            As we study Peter, we will find that he does not call us to withdraw from society but will instruct us on how the believer engages society in a way that would be expected of those who are foreigners. And a foreigner will dwell respectfully in the culture of the host nation participating in that culture only to the extent that its values coincide with their own. When they interfere with our values and beliefs we must withdraw.

            Just as he who called you and chose you is holy, so be holy in all you do. Will you read 1 Peter and pray with me throughout the next several weeks? Pray that we may discover together what it means to be holy.

            “May God himself, the God of peace, make you holy through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it,” (1 Thess 5:23-24).

                                                AMEN

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[i] Adapted from Charles Spurgeon

Fall Introductory Sermon

THE MYSTERY OF THE MUSTARD SEED

What is the role of this church in the community of Kleefeld? When I considered this question as the introduction to a new “church year,” I thought of a tree. Immediately a parable came to mind, the Parable of the Mustard Seed, and I knew I had my text for this morning.

            Then something peculiar happened: Instead of me using the text for my theme, the text schooled me – it threw my whole idea upside down.

            Here is how the parable is commonly interpreted these days: The Kingdom of God or Heaven is like a mustard seed. It starts out small and insignificant, like a baby being born in a stable and becoming the Savior of the world, or eleven scared men hiding in a room in Jerusalem and suddenly being empowered to change the world. The kingdom starts out small but eventually spreads throughout the world.

            There’s nothing wrong with that concept. It’s an encouraging thought. But that’s not what this parable is saying. When I studied this text I found it to be quite controversial. Some writers agreed with what I just told you; others took a drastically different view, others like David Legge, S. Lewis Johnson and Ray Stedman. So I had to choose which interpretation I was going to teach this morning. Good hermeneutics (taught to me in SBC) led me to choose the controversial lesson.

            Good hermeneutics (interpretation tools) demand that we consider the whole chapter or context for this text. Jesus is sitting by a lake and a large crowd of people gather around him. So he begins to teach them using parables. Jesus tells them about the sower and the seed (13:3-9), the parable of the weeds (24-30 & 36-43) and then the mustard seed. The mustard seed parable is the first one that he does not explain. Having explained the other two Jesus left it to us to understand it with the principles he gave us in the first two. The symbols are consistent throughout the chapter and Scripture generally does not use a symbol in a conflicting way.

            In the parable of the Mustard Seed there are five symbols that are common to the other two parables: The sower, the field, the seed, the tree (not mentioned before), and the birds.

1. The Unnatural Growth of the Mustard Seed

Let’s look at these five symbols and consider the unnatural growth of the mustard seed in this parable.

a) The sower and b) the field – The first two symbols are easy. If we agree that the symbols are consistent in the Bible then we need only look at 13:37 and read that Jesus reveals himself as the sower, “the Son of Man.” Jesus is the farmer or sower who planted the good news. The field again is understood when we read 13:38, “the field is the world.” World can have different meanings depending on the context; here we know that “world” refers to “all people,” since the soils in the parable of the sower refers to “hearts.”

            Jesus plants a mustard seed in our parable. This is the third type of seed mentioned in this chapter. The use of different seeds is the Lord’s way of describing various aspects of his message. In one parable he sows wheat which, if well received, produces a harvest of faith. In the other parable, Jesus says that the seeds are the sons of the kingdom. But what is the mustard seed?

c) The seed – Jesus used a seed that would be familiar to the people listening – a mustard seed. What is significant about a mustard seed? What would they think about this seed?

            Mustard is a small seed but it is very pungent. It has a bite to it and can be irritating, disturbing or penetrating. Jesus said that the kingdom of heaven is like this seed. An old-fashioned home remedy for a bad cold or pneumonia was to smear a mustard pack on the chest and cover it with a cloth. This would burn into the skin and create a terrible itch. This is what went through the hearers’ minds when they thought about mustard. They caught the meaning Jesus intended that the kingdom of heaven was arousing and disturbing to people. Plant it in the community and it stirs things up negatively or positively.

            Now Jesus says that it is the smallest seed. That bothers some people, especially horticulturalists who know that mustard is not the smallest seed. Some say that if Jesus is God he should have known that. But Jesus is pretty keen about these things and what he was doing was using a common proverb of that culture that used mustard as a symbol for smallness. It’s like when we say “he’s as big as a house.” It’s an expression indicating size without being literal.

            Jesus wanted his hearers to know that the gospel is like a mustard seed. It is seemingly small. It does not look like much. It does not sound like much. We say, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.” It’s simple and the world does not get excited about it. It’s not an earth-shaking philosophy. It’s even despised. But if you believe it, this insignificant gospel will change your life. The gospel has literally brought down kingdoms when people believed.

d) The tree – Now things get strange. Jesus said that the mustard seed is the smallest seed, yet when it grows, it becomes the largest of garden plants, a tree even. Birds actually perch on its branches.

            Sometimes driving in Southern Manitoba you see a yellow field of flowers. That is a mustard field. Have you ever seen a mustard tree? No, probably not. But they must have them in Palestine, because Jesus talks about mustard trees. Actually, no. Apparently, Israeli tourism will take you to a “mustard tree” for the sake of showing you the object of Jesus’ parable. But it’s not a tree. Mustard trees don’t exist. Then why did Jesus say this?

            In each parable there is something a little off. Not every soil yields a harvest; weeds are planted among the wheat; and a mustard seed grows to be a tree? Jesus was teaching that this growth was unnatural growth. It is not what you would expect from a mustard seed. Something good can turn into something ungainly; something meant to be humble can become unnatural.

            What is the gospel supposed to produce in the human heart? If we follow the steps of Jesus who was meek and lowly, humble and gentle, we find that our hearts are transformed to be like his, humble, gentle and lowly. His life challenges our pride, our self-centeredness and our ego-centric lifestyle. Jesus said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all,” (Mark 9:35). That is the normal growth of the mustard seed.

            What is unnatural growth? Pride, ambition, the domination of others. In the OT a tree often stands for authority, power and dominion. Consider Daniel 4 where Nebuchadnezzar has a dream about a great tree that is cut down. He was that tree and God humbled him. The worst day in the history of the church was when Constantine legalized and made Christianity the state religion. In history, whenever the church gained the upper hand together with the state, trouble followed in the form of apostasy and heresy.

            Paul was speaking to the church when he said, “Be completely humble and gentle…” (Eph 4:2). The early Christians never went around promoting the church they belonged to. In the book of Acts you will never read a word about the church as part of the preaching of the gospel. The church doesn’t save; Jesus saves. The church does not transform lives; Jesus transforms lives. When the Christians talked to people, they talked about the Lord. When a church becomes a kingdom it resembles a proud tree. But where is the Lord in this?

e) The birds – What about the birds? In the first parable, Jesus said that some of the seed fell on the path (v. 4) and the birds came and at it up. Later, explaining this parable to his disciples, Jesus said it is Satan who snatches the seed away (v. 19). The birds then, are the agents of Satan.

            Some commentators say that the mustard seed grows to be a tree that has branches strong enough for birds to perch. And they say that these are song birds – robins, bluebirds and so on – and are symbols of beautiful things happening in the church, or Gentiles who come to the Lord. That doesn’t seem to fit the meaning of the symbols. These are not song birds, they are vultures and buzzards. Revelation 18:2 speaks of hateful birds that inhabit Babylon.

            If we follow what Jesus is saying it is not a pretty picture. The humble plant that was supposed to cause a stir has become a tree, admired and accepted. The birds, the agents of Satan, have nested in the plant that Jesus planted. It started out good but soon allowed false teaching in its midst; it grew popular and attractive; worse, it allowed its apparent influence to cloud its true purpose and it branched out in the garden, dominating the landscape. Another gospel has taken root, a more acceptable gospel.

2. The Parable of the Chortitza Oak

The Parable of the Mustard Seed reminded me of another tree in Mennonite folklore and history. I am calling this the Parable of the Chortitza Oak.

            A large and very old oak tree grew in what is now called Zaporozhye, Ukraine. It is estimated to be about 800 years old. The old oak was revered, even worshiped by the people of that land, for it was said to bring blessing to young couples seeking to marry. Even the Cossacks used this great old oak as a meeting place.

            Back in Prussia, or what is now Poland, Mennonite farmers were running out of land and sought a new place for the landless Mennonites. Katherine the Great invited them to settle a then empty land. So in 1789 a number of Mennonite families made the long trek from Prussia to Imperial Russia. When they arrived tired and hungry, they rested under the old oak. It was a shelter for them, and in time a landmark in their travels. Like the people of old, the Mennonites came to revere the old oak and saw in it a symbol of the growing and spreading Mennonite faith and culture.

            Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 90’s, the tree also began to show signs of dying. Today it is a lifeless, leafless relic of the past. It got too large, too old and maybe too revered. A wealthy admirer could not stand to see the old oak fall and rot, so he has propped up the tree and its branches with poles and ropes.

            Before the old oak died someone had the foresight to preserve some of its acorns. Several offspring of the grand old tree are now planted in Canada. One is in B.C., one is in Ontario, one is planted at Canadian Mennonite University and another is much closer – it is planted at the Mennonite Heritage Village Museum in Steinbach. (The irony here is that the "great tree" is reduced to its humble origins again; it starts out small once again through the seeds or saplings).

            If the Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Parable of the Chortitza Oak are connected it is in this one principle: We must be careful not to allow that which is born in humble circumstances to become more than it was meant to be. We are given a Great Commission by our Lord, but it is not to proclaim a church or a tradition. Jesus commands us to proclaim that He is Lord and Savior. Ours is not to worry about what other organizations are doing; our calling is to preach Jesus in word and deed.

So what is this church’s role in the community of Kleefeld?

            This church needs to be a wonderful stirring agent in the community without overshadowing it with overbearing prominence. We are to be pungent like a mustard seed, adding flavor and even being a little disturbing – not annoying or forceful. It is by our gentleness, meekness, lowliness and love that we seek to disturb our community.

            What else is small like a mustard seed? Salt! Salt is a pervasive preservative that gets into the meat to keep it from spoiling.

            What else is small? Light! Think “candle” in this regard; a tiny point of light in a dark place. Can you imagine people who are used to living in darkness all of a sudden exposed to light? But a candle is soft and mellow, a great introduction to the idea of light.

            Jesus said, “You are the salt of the earth…you are the light of the world,” (Matt 5:13, 14). You and I are to be like the mustard seed, salt and light, to influence our corner of the world for Jesus – not for anything else, no cause, no program, no organization – for Jesus!

            That is our role in the community of Kleefeld.

            As we begin this new “church year” let us commit ourselves anew to the Lord. You may want to do this in various ways. The insert in your bulletin asks you to covenant with us as a church to some personal and church-related commitments. You may want to check them all or just a few – that’s up to you. You may want to share this with a friend or spouse, or tuck it into your Bible to remind yourself later. But whatever you do, whatever you think, be sure to do this little act of covenanting with the Lord in mind. It is to him that you make this promise.

            God bless us all as we seek first the Kingdom.

                                                            AMEN

My Covenant

I plan to grow by ______________________ (increasing my Bible Study time, reading more scripture, praying, volunteering…)

I plan to help improve my church’s serve/effectiveness by:

____  Praying

                        ______  For my own growth

                        ______  For the pastors, minister, and deacons

                        ______  For the Spirit to grow our church

____  Serving

                        ______  by teaching

                        ______  by leading clubs

                        ______  by serving on a committee

                        ______  by helping with Missions Close to                            Home

____  Advocating

                        _____  for EMC Missions

                        _____  for AIM

                        _____  for Compassion Canada

                        _____  other  _____________

I plan to engage my community by ___________________ (getting involved with Honey Fest.; town council; getting to know my neighbor, etc.)

I covenant to support the church with my prayers, gifts, involvement, attendance, financial contributions and service for the building up of the church of Jesus Christ here and globally

           

            Signed _________________________________