11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, June 17 2018
Ezek 17:22-24; 2 Cor 5:6-10; Mark 4:26-34
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(Adapted from reflection by same name, June 17 2012)
For many years, I understood today’s gospel passage and the first reading as being about the growth of God’s kingdom, or of the church. The church started out very small—an itinerant Galilean rabbi and some fishermen who admired and followed him. And that is certainly a reasonable way to understand this parable. But today I would like to suggest another way to hear this particular parable.
Actually, there are two parables in today’s gospel passage, both about seeds. In both, a tiny seed is planted. I have a garden. I plant seeds in my garden. And then I sleep and go to work and read, and one day I go out and a new plant has appeared. A few weeks later there is a sturdy little plant, and then suddenly there are tomatoes, or beans, or an avalanche of zucchini. I haven’t made the plants grow. In fact, there is no way I could possibly make the plants grow. They grow because of God’s gift of life.
The first reading is a prophecy of Ezekiel, who lived at a very dark time in the history of Judah. The kingdom was destroyed, the kingly succession extinguished, the temple destroyed, and all the leaders marched off to Babylon, almost a thousand miles away. Ezekiel’s prophecy comes right after a passage in which he describes mighty eagles plucking branches from the top of a cedar tree, which represent Israel, and trying to root the cuttings. The eagles represent Babylon and Egypt, the two superpowers of the day. Ezekiel predicts that the cuttings will not grow. Then in today’s reading, he says that God himself will pluck off a tender cedar shoot and plant it in Israel, and it will grow.
Ezekiel’s point is that even superpowers can’t build a nation, but God can give it life to grow. God is full of surprises, and his surprises give us hope. Indeed, Ezekiel’s prophecy came true. After seventy years in Babylon, the Israelites returned and rebuilt their land and their temple.
It was the same with my children. You all have probably had the same experience as I did. If they didn’t want to grow up and do the right thing, there is no way on earth that we could have made them do it. But they do want to do the right thing, and they have grown up, and it seems wondrous that it all happened beyond our control. We did our part, and the magic happened. God was directing the growth all along.
The Gospel says that the kingdom of heaven is like the seed in the garden. The seeds are so small. You would think the seed of a large tree would be very big, but a tiny acorn can grow into a huge tree. One zucchini seed yields more zucchini than you can give away in a whole summer, and the gardener has only a small role in making that happen.
When I was young, I thought this role of God meant that God would take care of everything all by himself. It took me a while me to realize that the gardener’s role is crucial too. If I’m tired or lazy and don’t get around to planting the seed, nothing but weeds will grow. If I don’t keep after the weeds, they will flourish. There is a saying that has been attributed to Ignatius of Loyola and to Saint Augustine. Whoever said it, it’s well put: “Pray as if everything depended on God and work as if everything depended on you.”
Most of us never have the opportunity to perform grand actions—to save babies from burning buildings or change the course of history. We play out our lives on a smaller stage. Jesus tells us in this gospel passage that our small actions are in fact very important. It makes a difference whether we plant a seed or not. The seed will grow by itself, but first we have to plant it.
It makes a difference whether we hold the door for someone, sit with somebody who is alone, or are patient with someone who repeats herself endlessly. These tiny events are the stuff of life. Jesus tells us that our little actions do count. They are the seeds of the kingdom, and this very day the kingdom is breaking into our lives.