Reformation Lutheran Church A Congregation of the ELCA

Friday, March 7

Read Mark 4:30-34

It is early in his ministry, and Jesus is trying to describe the Kingdom of God in ways the disciples might understand. He offers several parables to illustrate his point. But why does he choose a tiny mustard seed to illustrate the Kingdom rather than a great oak tree?

With What Can We Compare The Kingdom of God?

When I was a little girl, I had a mustard seed necklace. The necklace had a clear round ball, like a marble, hanging from a chain. Inside the ball was a tiny seed, supposedly a mustard seed. This necklace, along with many other items (glow-in-the-dark crosses, Bibles, various religious books and art) could be purchased right there in the basement of my childhood Lutheran church. I admired the merchandise every Sunday, and I really wanted one of those mustard seed necklaces.

I was ecstatic when I finally received one. But then I wondered, what was the point of putting a tiny mustard seed into a necklace, and why was that necklace being sold right alongside Bibles and the picture of Jesus knocking on a door?

“The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed,” Jesus says. According to Jesus, a mustard seed is the smallest of all the seeds, but it grows to be the greatest of shrubs and finally becomes a tree that has room for as many birds as want to nest there. Isn’t the point, then, that the Kingdom of God can also start from the smallest of beginnings?

A group of only 12 men — undistinguished in the eyes of society — came together to form the small beginning of the communion of saints we now call the church.

Today, we make the smallest of beginnings — the kind smile, the open heart, the dollar cheerfully given, food and shelter shared. These small acts can lead another to a life of faith.

A small seed can grow to be a great and welcoming tree. A kind gesture tendered in the name of Christ can lead someone into the Kingdom.

Great things can come from small beginnings.

Jill Flickinger
Friend of Reformation


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