The Third Sunday after Trinity
Sermon
16 June 2024
The Reverend Dr James Gardom
Mark 4.26-34
The Kingdom of God – untended seed, mustard seed
How do we live with hope in a time and a world that often seems to offer no resting place for hope.
In today’s readings, Jesus tells parables. The reading includes a couple of Kingdom Parables, and a reminder that this is how Jesus taught. Parables are stories which invite us to see things in a different way. With the exception of the Parable of the Sower, they are generally not explained, and we are invited to think with them, to understand ourselves in a new way, to wonder where we are in them. Jesus’ disciples must be acutely aware of the crushing reality of the Roman Empire, and wondering what it can possibly mean when Jesus preaches the Kingdom of God. What is the kingdom of God like – how can the disciples think of this as a powerful reality, when at the moment it is a preacher and a few disciples in the middle of a field.
So, what is the kingdom of God like? It is like a field with things growing. You think you are doing all the work, but God gives more that you can imagine. And, what is the kingdom of God like? It is like a mustard seed. Almost insignificant but can become great. A couple of stories told 2000 years ago by a wandering preacher to some not very confident disciples, in a field in Galilee. It helped them to see a sea of doubt and fear as the domain of God’s power – that they must do their part, plant the wheat, be the mustard seed, and God will do God’s part. How do we live with hope in a time and a world that seems to offer no resting place for hope. We also tell each other stories which help us to see things in a different way. Let me tell you one such story. This is about a man and his son. I met the man when I was at the College of the Ascension, in Birmingham, training to go out to Zimbabwe for the second time.
So, this is the story of Dr Prashant’s ₹1000.
Dr Prashant was a smiling, gracious, very calm Indian Christian. He came to Birmingham from the Christian Counselling Centre in south India. At that time his speciality was helping different communities to understand each other. I think it was called intercommunal counselling. He always said his job was persuading cynical powerful men that they could be better than they thought they could. He told me quite movingly of the pleasure they found when they discovered that they were not quite as cynical as they thought they were, and they made peace, rejected a bribe, did a just act. For a little while they walked tall, and remembered what kind of person they had hoped to be when they were young.
The story takes place at the time of the Ethiopian famine in 1984. Dr Prashant’s son was very moved by the images of the famine that were beamed around the world. At that time, he had a holiday job, and had managed to save up ₹1000[i]. About £10.
One day, he came to his father, and asked whether the was any way that this money could be used to contribute, a little, to relieving the famine in Ethiopia. Foreign currency restrictions were a big deal in those days, and Dr Prashant knew from the beginning that this was going to be difficult, but he was so pleased with his son’s concern that he said he would try.
First of all he went to the local Bank. Was there any way that this money could be sent to Ethiopia. They were polite but regretful. There was no mechanism which would make this possible. Having failed at the bank, he went to the Travel Agent, who had more international connections. Was there any way that this money could be sent to Ethiopia. They also were polite but regretful. There was no mechanism which would make this possible. At that point Dr Prashant had more or less run out of ideas. How could this good thing, and this good will that his son had shown be made real.
In the end, without much hope, he wrote to an old primary school friend, who had made good, and become a businessman in Delhi. It was part of a general family update, but he mentioned how proud he was of his son and how frustrated not to be able to make this good thing happen. He heard nothing for a while, but in the background things were moving. The businessman spoke to a friend who happened to be in charge of the Reserve Bank of India. The friend spoke to Rajiv Ghandi, the Prime Minister, who happened to be moved and attracted by the story. He was also attracted by the publicity opportunity, and a few weeks later Rajiv Ghandi arrived by helicopter with a press corps. He told the world how impressed and moved he was by this Indian boy who wished to help Ethiopia.
As President of the Non-Aligned movement, he was happy to accept the ₹1000, and he would use it to launch the fund for the Non-Aligned movement to help Ethopia. The ₹1000 he would add ₹10M. Dr Prashant proudly showed me the newspaper cutting of the occasion when a mustard seed of ₹1000 had turned into tree of ₹10M.
In a time and a world that seems to offer no resting place for hope, we need to tell ourselves and tell each other stories, which help us to see things in a different way. Please make time to tell yourself and tell each other, stories. Stories of saints you have known, and how they have been faithful through hard times and been blessed. Stories of your own lives, when you have been tempted to give up hope, and found that God and God’s purposes were there, with us, in the darkness. Stories of St Bene’t’s, and how it has continued as a place of faith and love. Stories of fruitful fields and burgeoning mustard seeds.
None of these stories will be fully stories of the Kingdom of God. We never capture that. But all of them will be parables which help us to see things in a different way. When we tell each other stories, we can catch an echo of what God is doing in the world. When we catch an echo of what God is doing in the world, we can have a go a joining in.
[i] I am struggling to remember the exact amounts of money in this story, from 30 years ago.