The Kingdom of God is Invasive

Mark 4:26-34  6-16-24

 So today, Ezekiel says:

Mustard Seed
Jen Norton

²²Thus says the Lord God: 
 I myself will take a sprig
  from the lofty top of a cedar;
  I will set it out. . .
   in order 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.

 It uses the metaphor of the cedar trees of Lebanon

to talk about how God will grow the nation.

God would take the little twig and from it,

and it would grow into a big and impressive tree.

Like the Sequoia or Redwood here in the US.

 

Actually throughout Ezekiel and in other books,

the writers compare the kingdoms of Judah,

Assyria, and Babylon to the great cedars of Lebanon --

strong and impressive.

 

Jesus and everyone listening to him

would have known this imagery

from the book of Ezekiel.

 

So when Jesus started out saying:

“To what should we compare the kingdom of God?”

I’m sure they expected something

tall and equally majestic,

maybe something even bigger than a giant tree.

 

 But then Jesus says: “The kingdom of God can be

compared to . . . a mustard seed”

I’m sure there was some scoffing.

You could almost hear the crowd going, “what?”.

Huh? They must have thought he was crazy.

 

Some preachers today want to believe that mustard

trees are tall and sturdy like the cedars of Lebanon,

So then the moral of the parable is

from the tiny seed, the big impressive tree grows.

But that’s not what people would have thought

hearing this parable in Jesus time.

 

The mustard tree is more like a bush.

It’s scrubby and short.

It can grow big and wild,

but no one really wants that to happen.

 

Mustard plants were the invasive plant

of the middle east, the kudzu vine, or poison ivy, or bamboo,

something you really don’t want growing in your yard,

because it is bound to take over.

It was actually so invasive that there was a Jewish law that you

couldn’t plant it in your own fields

because it could infest your neighbor’s field.

It also grows so densely that it chokes other plants out.

Once it starts growing, it easily gets out of control

and goes everywhere.

 

So the kingdom of God is not like a majestic cedar,

a mighty oak, a towering sequoia.

No, it’s like mustard seed? Not a bad plant,

but a plant that just creeps and without anyone

even realizing it, it just takes over.

  

The kingdom of God is not like other kingdoms.

It’s power is not in its physical strength,

or military, or financial strength.

 

It’s power is in its ability to sneak in

and change the human heart.

To choke out the forces of evil,

apathy, hate, violence, and fear

and replace it with God’s values,

of compassion, mercy, love, and forgiveness.

 

Now I have to admit, sometimes as I preach

about parables like this, and about Jesus,

how his death and resurrection

has transformed the world, sometimes I wonder.

We’ve been at this for 2000 years.

Where is  Christ’s effect on humanity?

Where has Christ’s effect on history been?

Jesus said that the Kingdom of God is here.

So when is the Kingdom of God going to take over?

Because I think it seems like

things are getting worse, not better.

I think that’s the prevailing mood.

Things are worse than they were before.

More divided, more violent, more poverty,

more hunger, more everything, more bad.

 

But remember what Jesus said, the Kingdom of God is sneaky.

It’s not just going to come in a dramatic,

swooping change that everyone would notice,

it’s a mustard seed. A small seed that just shows up

and before you know it, your whole yard is filled.

It’s a quiet invasion.

  

There was an article in Forbes magazine

a few of years ago, it was called

“Why the world is getting better

and why hardly anyone knows it”

 

It said that every country that was surveyed –

Sweden, the UK,  and the US, overwhelmingly –

said that the world was getting worse.

I think that’s what most people would say.

That the golden years were behind us.

People are worse off, the injustice is deeper,

the violence is increasing.

It seems like the devil is surely winning this battle.

 

But, the article said, that our limited viewpoint

was misleading, if you pull back and look

at the world over a longer stretch of time,

on “virtually all of the key dimensions of human material well-being—

poverty, literacy, health, freedom, and education—

the world is an extraordinarily better place

than it was just a couple of centuries ago.”

 

A far lower percentage of people in the world

are living in extreme poverty,

more people than ever are able to read,

in 1800, almost 43% of children died before they were 5.

Now it’s down to only 4.2% of children.

In 1800 less than 1% of people in the world lived in a democracy,

a place where they could vote and have a say in their country’s politics.

Now that is up to 55% of the world.

100  years ago, women didn’t have the right to vote

in the US or in the UK.

 

Even in terms of violence, a statistic that we would

think is obviously worse than ever now.

Another article in  the Wall Street Journal says:

that Violence has been in decline for thousands of years,

and today we may be living in the most peaceable

era in the existence of our species.

ooh. It doesn’t feel like it at all. But it’s happening.

 

It’s slow progress, but that mustard seed is growing,

slowly it’s taking over. And I believe it’s because people

are growing in their compassion and empathy for others.

The devil is losing and Jesus plan of healing the world

is taking time, there is a lot to do, but it’s happening.

 

The article suggested that the access to media

might be to blame. Because now we can hear about

horrible stuff happening everywhere,

not just in our own neighborhood or town.

And I think that’s probably true.

 

I also think that maybe it doesn’t seem like things are getting better,

because we are more sensitive to things than ever before,

even if they don’t affect us personally.

The kingdom of God has grown in the world in that

sneaky, invasive way and many people have grown

more compassionate.

 

So now, even if they’re half way around the world,

we care about victims of violence,

we care about those in poverty,

we want to see all people educated,

we care that others are healthy and free.

God’s ways and vision are becoming our ways and visions.

And the younger generations seem outdoing

older generations in the caring and compassion department.

 

And, since we care, because we hold God’s vision,

we’re more frustrated that things

aren’t good and just and fair for all people.

Maybe that’s why it seems worse than ever,

because the mustard seed in our heart wants us to see

a world that is just and safe for all people.

 

And that’s how the mustard seed works.

Once the seed is planted, it slowly creeps in

changing hearts and minds.

Before we know it, we’re  sensitive to every injustice,

to every person who is hungry or poor,

every violent act. Our collective hearts are broken.

And then the mustard seed turns

that heartbreak into action.

People start asking, what can I do?

How can I change this? Where can I volunteer?

Where can I send money? How can we change policy?

What can we do? until all of us;

Christians, Jews, and Muslims, atheist and

agonistic are all moved by our compassion.

We can see that invasive mustard plant is creeping in,

in the people of the World Central Kitchen,

who have been keeping people fed in places

of war like Palestine and Ukraine.

It’s in people who work for the Innocence Project

getting those who are wrongly imprisoned freed.

it’s in the volunteers who work at shelters,

it’s people who volunteer in food pantries,

for Volunteers in Medicine, Habitat for Humanity,

Deep Well, Backpack Buddies, it’s in justice work,

it’s in protests, it’s in financial gifts, it’s in letters to congress

it’s in our prayers, our voices, our tears and discomfort.

As terrible as it may seem now,

we know that once that once that we feel

that compassion for others that we don’t know

get into our hearts, that God’s will

is bound to be done eventually.

 

Because that’s how the kingdom of God works.

It’s like a mustard plant, a weed

that invades and slowly takes over.

 

I believe, eventually, one day, so many people

will care about the things that God cares about,

that the world will be remade in God’s image

until one day, God’s will will be done,

and before we know it, the kingdom of

will be here on earth as it is in heaven.

 

It will take a long time.

I know it won’t all happen in our lifetime,

but we can live in hope because we know

that mustard plant is taking over,

we know that God is changing this world from

the inside out starting with the human heart.

 

The kingdom of God is like this:

Jesus is that one little seed,

the seed gets scattered.

and it grows and grows and grows in the heart of humanity.

Without our knowledge, without our permission,

without our even noticing it.

Just one morning it’s there.

We don’t know how it grows, but one day,

God’s kingdom will take over and

we will reap the harvest that God has created.

Blaspheming Against the Spirit

Mark 3 from Bible Art

Mark 3:20-35

June 9, 2024

 

This is a confusing scripture.

A lot of the lines in this story are 

taken out of their context

and have developed lives of their own.

So it’s hard to figure out what’s 

actually happening and

of course, Jesus speaks 

in metaphors which doesn’t help.

I think there are two parts in it that particularly throw things off.

First, I think Jesus relationship with this family is confusing.

We might have this idyllic idea of how Jesus got along

with his family and especially his mother.

 

Those images are mostly from Jesus birth stories in

Matthew and Luke and some later things in John.

But remember Mark was the first gospel that was written down,

and Mark doesn’t say anything about Jesus birth or much

at all to say about Jesus family.

 

Actually, this story is the most that we hear

about Jesus family in this gospel and it’s not very favorable.

They don’t seem supportive of him, they don’t understand him,

they actually seem a little embarrassed by him.

And, you know what, there’s no way to explain it away.

 

Mark’s gospel does not have high regard for Jesus birth family,

including Mary, who only gets named in passing elsewhere.

And this story shows that Jesus doesn’t seem to have

a warm fuzzy feeling for them too much either.

If we can handle that and not get hung up on trying

try to twist it around so that Jesus does get on well with his family,

like so preachers have tried to do,

it’s easier to decipher the rest of it.

 

And the other thing is right in the middle there’s

that  whole concerning piece about  the

“unforgivable sin” of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit.

 

As a pastor, I have had people come to me worrying

about this one specific passage.

Just recently, I had someone talk to me at length about it on Social Media.

They were worried because when they were younger

they said they didn’t believe in God and they said something

crude about Jesus.

 

They were worried that, even though they believed

now and were concerned enough to ask a pastor

about it, that God wouldn’t forgive them for that.

They were worried that they were going to hell.

Other people have worried because their children or grandchildren

are atheists  or reject God or Jesus or the church

and they worry about their salvation because of this verse.

 

For the record, I think the short answer is “no”

in spite of this one passage, I think that more of the gospels tell us

that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

And not blasphemy or any of those other things

that some people think are unforgiveable,

and especially an something we said years ago.

 

Nothing can separate us, or anyone, from God’s love

and I think that this story actually supports just that,

if you understand it in context and don’t just pluck it out of the story

like most people do. I’ll explain that now.

 

So like we heard last week,

Jesus had a public protest when he  healed

someone in the synagogue on the Sabbath,

and the Pharisees decided for the first time

that they wanted to destroy him.

This is important context to remember.

 

After that, Jesus  appointed his apostles

and he they were traveling around the area

preaching and healing and he’s getting well known

among the people, and he stops back in his home town.

Jesus is home for the first time since he’s become someone.

 

And while he’s here in his hometown,

things don’t sound like they’re going too well.

It’s so crowded the disciples and Jesus can’t even eat.

So lots of people want to see and hear Jesus,

but it’s not a good reception, the people of Nazareth

are actually saying that Jesus is out of his mind.

And the scribes, the other religious leaders, have followed him there,

harassing him there and trying undermine him.

They say that he must consorting with demons.

 

And so Jesus’ family are trying to get him back in the house.

Basically, they’re like

“Jesus, stop attracting attention, stop  making the neighbors talk,

stop embarrassing us, you’ll  get us all in trouble,

I’ll  make you your favorite meal if you come inside.”

 

His family can see the pattern already in process,

Jesus is being labeled as crazy or bad or evil,

he’ll probably be rejected by the community

or even cast out of the community,

and his family would be rejected

for being associated with him.

 

It had been done many times before,

so they knew what it looked like.

It happened then and it happens now.

That’s what humans do to one another.

 

We love to put people into categories of good and bad,

holy and unholy, with us and against us,

we all do it in our heads, we all don’t all act on it, but we all do it.

We do it with other drivers on the road,

we do it with people we see on the news,

we do it with people of other races and cultures,

we do it with people who have different “lifestyles” than us,

we do it with celebrities, and

we do it with politicians – a lot.

  

Political campaigns know this human tendency to divide and hate

and the capitalize on it.

You notice, they never just say that a candidate doesn’t have good

policies, or they don’t share the same priorities.

They have to be evil, horrible, the worst ever,

they hate America, they want to destroy it,

and if you support THEM, you’re the worst too.

 

And this has been taken all too often to scary ends, villainizing people,

dehumanizing them and attempting to destroy “them”

 – all of them, genocide in other words.

It all starts with this process of labeling and dividing people.

This process is divisive and destructive to humanity.

 

And this process of labeling and expelling people is Satan at work.

 

The word Satan in Hebrew means “accuser”.

Satan is at work when we  judge others,

When we make someone into the other and cast them out.

This is Satan’s work. To accuse.

 

So the scribes accuse Jesus of being Satan,

saying that since he has the power over demons,

that he must be the chief of demons.

They’re trying to demonize Jesus they accuse him.

 

So Jesus calls the scribes over,

Jesus invites them to join the conversation circle,

and he asks them, “How can Satan cast out Satan”?

 

Of course the accuser in all of us tries to cast out Satan all the time.

But Jesus tells them, this method of being a society cannot last long.

This is where Jesus uses one of those popular lines

A kingdom divided against itself cannot last. that kingdom cannot stand.

And Jesus is right. He’s talking about Satan’s kingdom, but still.

Jesus is saying that a nation, house, or institution

that is always trying to accuse others and weed out

the bad can not last long, Because:  

 

1. We will destroy each other if we keep up this way.

Which is just what the accuser wants. And

2. Satan’s kingdom won’t be able to stand because

Jesus is reordering the very social fabric of hate that Satan has created.

Jesus is here to make sure that Satan’s kingdom of

hate and suspicion and fear does not stand.

 

Jesus reorders things by putting himself into the position of the condemned,

God’s own son became the outcast the one who was

scapegoated, called unclean and unholy, and hung on a cross beside

two thieves, to show that no one is outside of God’s love.

 

To further this, Jesus compares himself to a thief.

He says that no one can enter the strong man’s house and plunder

his property before tying the strong man up.

Satan is the strong man. Jesus intends to bind Satan

and he will take the strongman’s property – which is All of US.

Jesus is going to release the strongman’s captives using  the Holy Spirit’s tools:

love, compassion, mercy, grace, and forgiveness.

 

Which brings us to the Holy Spirit again.

Someone, I think Ann asked me a couple of weeks ago

about the title of “Advocate”. That is one of the names

that Jesus gives to himself and the Holy Spirit.

 

An Advocate is someone who pleads the cause of another.

Another name for a lawyer is Advocate, likewise in Isaiah,

the Messiah has the name “wonderful counselor”.

If Satan is the Accuser in this courtroom of the world.

then the Holy Spirit is the “advocate”, or the defense lawyer,

the one that protects us from the accuser.

And this lawyer is here to free us from this hellscape prison

that Satan has tried to hold us in,

the one of accusation and division and hate.

 

And this is where we get to the line in question:

“Truly I tell you, people will be forgiven for their sins and

whatever blasphemies they utter;  but whoever blasphemes 

against the Holy Spirit can never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”

 

Jesus is not just talking in general, to the poor guy who once

said something rude about God or Jesus the Spirit.

It says that Jesus was talking to the religious leaders

who were trying to accuse him and do Satan’s work.

Remember, Jesus has the toughest things to say to

the religious leaders to shake them out of their privilege.

 

Blaspheming the Holy Spirit is not just saying a bad word,

it’s about denying the power of the

Spirit and the power of God.

It’s about believing that our sins

are stronger than God’s love and mercy.

It’s about saying that some people are beyond God’s reach.

It’s about rejecting the power of God’s forgiveness.

 

The ones that are determined to accuse and condemn

when they have no right to do it,

who want to stand in God’s place,

those are the ones that stand with Satan’s world view,

those are the ones that blaspheme the

Holy Spirit and offend God.

 

But watch out!

Everyone is caught in this conundrum.

If we accuse those who we think are accusers,

and want to banish them out of our society, then who is the accuser?

A house divided cannot stand.

As long as we keep labeling people bad, or unholy, or unforgiveable,

unlovable or beyond the Spirit’s grasp, we are caught in Satan’s own trap.

 

Satan’s end game is a divided humanity.

As long as we keep dividing ourselves

into us and them, no matter who it is, Satan wins.

  

At the end of Jesus discussion with the scribes,

the story continues: “A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him,

‘Your mother and your brothers and sisters are outside, asking for you.’”

They were still trying to get him inside away from everyone.

 

And Jesus replied, looking at those who sat around him,

and he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!”

Including those religious scribes who Jesus had called over to him

Here is Jesus family.

 

We are all brothers and sisters in Christ.

Whether we like it or not.

Even those we disagree with most.

Even the blasphemers and the sinners

 

Jesus has come to us,

and the Strong Man will not have his way.

One day Satan will not rule this world

with his lies and accusations.

One day, God’s love will win.