Jan 24 2019 Mark 4:21-34

The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.

This reading goes on to talk about the mighty mustard seed, the one of the smallest seeds that grows into the greatest shrubs. And this morning, I’m more interested in this introduction, often glossed over for the more exciting bits.

When my son was taking a math test in high school, he was required to show his work as part of the successful answer was not just the answer itself, but the problem set up, and demonstration of the work. He’d always had a really good understanding of math, eventually getting a theoretical math degree from college. But showing his work? He wasn’t so sure about that. So on the answer sheet, he wrote out problem and wrote out the answer. In between he drew a dark shaded box, in which he wrote “Magic happens here”.

There’s wisdom in that phrase, “magic happens here”. Well, maybe not magic.

Making Mark’s story all about us, we scatter seed, leave it, it sprouts, and return and don’t know how. Lots to unpack there. First, we are required to scatter the seed. It doesn’t say that God scatters the seed, or someone else scatters the seed. We scatter the seed. Our active contribution is required in this kingdom of God.

We sleep and rise, night and day. We are not called to watch the seed night and day. We leave it. Oh, how I wish I were better at leaving the seeds I’ve sowed, and not watched or worried about them night and day!

The seed sprouts and grows. Amazing! Without our constant observation and worry, the seed sprouts. In fact, something happens out of our careful observation and worry. Magic happens here.

Finally, we return and don’t know how it sprouted. We are called to return to the fruits of what we’ve sown, acknowledging the mystery of what happened despite our absence.

What I hear from this is that there is we are instrumental in planting the seeds of the kingdom of God. We are not needed 100% of the time, nor are we called to fret and worry when we’ve done our part. But we are called to return, and reap the resulting harvest.

Sometimes the harvest isn’t what we’d planned, maybe smaller or weaker or less fruit-bearing. But in all cases we are called to leave it for God’s work, and return to join in our part of God’s kingdom making. And leave some of it in God’s capable hands.