Small and Slow but Steady

Start with a c, s in a sermon series entitled stories of the Kingdom during which we are considering a number of The Parables of Jesus spend in prayer, may the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable. In your sight. Oh Lord, our strength and Our Redeemer. I'm in Where is God in the world today? People often? Ask that sort of question when they are looking at all the troubles in the world around us or troubles in their own lives. And I wonder why God is not doing something. The presence of God often is not obvious, but is rather in a certain sense, hidden from view, Jesus address this reality. They memorable way in his parable of the yeast or parable of the leaven one of the three Parables, we heard this morning. He said they came to of Heaven is like East, but a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was 11:00. People who want to do baking today have various options when it comes to what to use, as a leavening agent to stuff that will make your cake or cookies. Rise. Most people use baking soda a chemical leavening agent. You can also utilize yeast a living organism which you can get in various forms at the store. Or if you're like me and you wanted to make cookies you just get a box of that pre-made cookie dough with us or you know kind of throw in the oven. In ancient times, people had one approach. They kept a piece of leavened do in the house, do with yeast, actively growing in it to start a new load. They would break off a chunk of 11, do and mix it in with the new flower. The yeast from the 11 to chug with spread slowly through the rest until finally, when it was ready. The whole loaf would rise in this process. The yeast was entirely hidden from view. You never saw the yeast of self only its final effect. Jesus, accented, this feature, when in the parable he said that the woman mixed in the yeast or the 11, chunk with the rest of the flower. The original Greek, literally says that she hid the yeast in the three measures of flour. Jesus does Lyft about the hidden penis of the working of yeast. And suggested that this is a Picture for the working of God. The working of God often is hidden from our view. We know to the same idea last week, in the parable of the hidden treasure. Where Jesus said that they came of Heaven, is like treasure hidden in a field. We observe last week that the term Kingdom of Heaven or kingdom of God, refers to wherever god reigns. The kingdom is, does the Eternal realm of gods as well as all the ways in, which God Rings all the way in the here. And now, in both the parable of the hidden treasure, and the parable of the leaven, is that the working of God is not always visible. People can easily imagine that. Nothing is there. Nothing is happening, like the least. The spirit of God is hidden within the structure of what is before us. But like the East, God is working, and the working of God is real. And Powerful. Same time. It is also gradual stick a cake, or she the cookies in the oven and the first few minutes. Nothing happens. You can imagine that nothing's going to happen yet. In time, major transformation, marvelously unfolds. The gradual nature of bacon is, especially apparent there for following the ancient practice of star with a chunk of living bread, or waiting for the whole loaf, the 11:00 till you finally put that in the oven, the working of God also off and on fold in a very gradual process. What this calls for on The Human Side is patience. Today, we are increasingly school to think that patience is unnecessary. We just need the latest and fastest technology, but there's truth in the old proverb. Good things come to those who wait. That statement is itself not actually in the Bible, but the idea is very much present in the parable of the living. If you are waiting for something to bake, good things will come. If you wait, open the waffle iron too early and you've got a mess one needs patients. That is very true in our relationship with God. It's significant that the Bible often uses the phrase. Wait for the Lord that phrase is repeated frequently in the scriptures. Not because God is slow but because we are impatient. We need to calmly trust in the gradual working of God, Spirit, and the Wonders changes that God will bring about through time.

Find last week. We can observe about 11. Is that even though the yeast itself is very small actually invisible in the do the effect ultimately is quite large. What starts out as a small lump of dough becomes. Finally a much larger loaf of bread. Jesus, accented, the largeness of the effect of Leaven, in the latter part of the parable. When he said that the woman hit 11 in three measures of flower, that is a specific quantity in Hebrew 3, C is which Eagle one. He fought a quantity that is mentioned in several places in stories in the Old Testament, when Abraham and Sarah received. A visitation from the Lord, in the form of three Angelic. Visitors, Sarah prepared. Cakes for the Divine visitors using three measures of flour, when an angel appeared to Gideon Gideon responded by bringing an offering to the Lord of three measures of flour. When Hannah dedicated her son, Samuel to the service of the Lord and thankfulness for God's help. She brought a gift to the Temple of three measures of flour. That specific quantity appears repeatedly in stories in which God is working in some powerful way in people's lives. So Jesus and using this quantity in the parable was saying, this is a picture of how God will typically work in human life. And how much exactly is three measures it amounts to about 85 lb bags of flour. That is a lot of bread. And this is Jesus point a little bit of Leaven hidden and do all them. Italy has a huge impact and so it is with how God works in the world. God often starts in small ways to make a big difference. You can see this in the story of the early church, a tiny band of disciples invisible To The World At Large would have a gradual and yet extremely powerful effect. Yielding, ultimately a huge results with over 2 billion, Christians in the world today, or consider the ministry of dr. Martin Luther King jr. Starting out. A very small, your sort of way. And not noticed my many gradually growing ignored still by many and yet over time having a huge impact which continues to be part of our Legacy today. God uses. What is small axe? Within with his often little notice to accomplish the great work of God's kingdom? And so we should never despair. If we feel that we in our efforts in the world are small, or the working of God is scarcely to be seen. We can trust that God is at work, like the leaven in love. The parable this makes sense, but in the first century when people originally heard this Parable, initially, they would have been shocked in a way because to them Levin was typically considered a negative symbol. People had discovered that you can get a culture of yeast. Going from scratch by just allowing do to sit out wildest will land on it and in time, we'll start what we call sourdough strike people as suspicious in a way kind of disgusting and the whole process became in the first century. A symbol for corruption, people have the same at the time, A little leaven leavens the whole lump which was similar to our sane one rotten apple spoils the whole Darrell Paul quoted the same, A little leaven leavens, the whole lump twice in his letters. When he was warning, people against being influenced by false teachers and Jesus wants use Levin in the typically negative way. When he said, Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees to first century people Levin typically symbolized influence. Last week we noted that Jesus Parables were designed to shake people up to people to think in new ways to that and his Parables often had some sort of shock or surprise. The shock in the parable. The 11:00 was the Jesus Took a symbol the yeast, which people typically thought of as symbolizing something negative and you flipped it into a symbol of the working of God in doing. So, Jesus was saying, I'm going to give you a whole new picture of how God works and eat the idea that yeast could symbolize the working of God's kingdom presented A radically New Concept. In first-century Palestine when people thought about how God works. They like to think that God should work in a dramatic fashion people sometimes working today in the face of the Troubles of the rage. First century people expected that God would soon come blazing in to a warrior Messiah. Who would bring the evils of the Roman Empire to a crashing in? Put in the parable of the leaven. Jesus was saying that such thinking was all wrong. God, would start small and work slowly and gradually almost imperceptibly to bring about dramatic transformation over time. It is how God worked in the early disciples. How God continues to work in the world today. How God made very well work in and through our life.

Jesus makes a similar point and then other Parable. We heard this morning, the parable of the Mustard Seed. Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and sold in the field. It's the smallest of all seeds for when it is grown. It is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree. So the birds of the air come and make nest in its branches. Again, this Parable starts with a shock. In first-century Palestine when people thought about God kingdom, they were inclined to think. In grandiose terms, God's kingdom was conceived as glorious as people like to think that God's kingdom would soon, the spectacular rain. They would arrive with the, the wondrous coming of the Messiah. Put in the parable. Jesus said that God's kingdom is like a mustard seed. That is not glorious at all. It is Tiny. It's inferior. A mustard seed was the smallest seed that farmers in Jesus Day Ever planted. Jesus was saying the God's kingdom. Often will not look glorious at all. In fact, it will be scarcely noticed. That in fact is how God's Kingdom looks today. God is at work, in the lives of ordinary Christians and the church in ways that typically do not attract headlines. But in the parable, the seed grows just as 11 spreads unnoticed and finally has a Major Impact. So in the parable, The Mustard Seed, the Tiny Seed, grows into a large Plant, mustard can become 5 to 6 ft tall. Powering over other plants in the field. We are like the seed or like the lemon to our small lives. God can work powerfully.

So if you want to see where guys that work in the world right now, probably should start by looking at small things. Look at a Sunday school class, right? Teacher is working with a few children. It may not look like much but the spiritual growth has shown are gaining can make a huge difference in years ahead. Look at the ideas. People get sometimes about being in Ministry, in some way, a person may get a little nudge in some direction. It can develop in the future into something quite significant. Look at the history of our own congregation. This church started with a few people meeting in the cabin and 1815 for Bible study, simple worship and prayer. God, does major things with Small Beginnings.

The idea that God works in small perhaps unimpressive ways continues. When Jesus remarks at the end of the parable of the Mustard Seed becomes a tree. So the birds of the air coming they nest in its branches mustard. Does does not actually become a tree but Jesus is making a striking. Illusion here to an Old Testament. Symbol is found Book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel had envisioned a future Kingdom of Israel, as a Noble Cedar under whose branches. Every kind of bird will live in the state of his Francis will Nest. Winged creatures of. Every kind is Eco use the same image for the Empire of Assyria, which has been one of the greatest Empires the ancient world. As he said, consider Assyria a Cedar of Lebanon with bare branches in Forest. Shades is Bowser largest branch has long all the birds of the air made their nests in its bowels. By Jesus day, people had come to use this imagery of Ezekiel as a classic symbol for a great and impressive Kingdom and they love to think of God kingdom in these terms. God's kingdom would be like that. Great tree, the Noble Cedar in the massive branches of which all the birds with nest. Put in Jesus. Parable. The tree in which the birds come and make their nests is a mustard shrub. Let's face it. A mustard rub is not impressive. No matter how tall am I become next to neighboring Farm plants. It's just not anything, really special. It looks in fact, like a big weed precisely here. Jesus was making a decisive point. The kingdom of God, no matter how much it might grow will never look mighty or impressive in the world's eyes, but it is in the midst of an impressive. Things that God works with power. That is good news because it means that God can work with power in the midst of our ordinary lives.

Just one of the surprising twist that Jesus makes in the parable, which comes to in the version of the parable that we find the Gospel of Luke in the Matthew verse and we heard the mustard is planted in the field. But in the version Luke, which scholars believe is most likely the version of Jesus most often used. Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed of someone took and planted in a garden, different word Garden and we're not likely to see anything different or unusual here, but to ancient Israelites, when they first heard this version of the parable, it was struck them as shocking the reasons because there were Purity laws the nation Israel, which had to do with keeping everything in its proper place. Some of these religious rules, apply to the kitchen, where fro sample, you need, to keep your meat separate from your dairy products, and some of those rules applied to where you would plant certain crops. The basic rule. Was that the guy Garden is a place where you planted vegetables and the field is a place where you plant crops from which would harvest the seeds such as wheat or mustard. You do not plant mustard in a vegetable garden. Other might have been a practical reason for this mustard tends to spread like mad and could become a problem in the garden. But more than that was the ancient sense that everything needs to be in its proper place and mustard people thought does not belong in a garden. But in Jesus, parable The Mustard Seed represent in God's kingdom is planted in a garden. With this image, upsetting the rules of the time Jesus was saying that God was breaking through the barriers that people were inclined to set up and you can see exactly that principle in Jesus Ministry. In Jesus day, women were not to be a part of the work that men were doing, but Jesus included, women, quite prominently among his followers. The poor were shuttled to the margins, but Jesus brought the poor to the center of his work. Most of all Sinners were to be excluded from the company of the righteous, but Jesus welcomed Sinners, extending to them. God's grace. The mustard seed growing in the garden with us. A profound image for how Jesus would dismantle all our ways of dividing people, from one another, in God's kingdom, all are invited to grow in, God's love together.

The themes found of The Parables 11, The Mustard Seed appear again in 3rd probably her this morning. The parable of the seed growing secretly also called the parable of the patient farmer. Jesus said they came to God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground and was sleep and Rise night and day, and the seed would spread at Sprout and grow. He does not know how the Earth produces of itself first, the stock than the ear than a full grain in the year, but when the game is is right, at once, he goes in with a sickle, because the Harvest has come. As in his Parables, generally, Jesus here uses an image. That was common to the daily lives of his hearers image of planting a field of grain. There is, of course, human agency involved in planting see the farmer scatters the seed on the ground, but the actual growth of the crops occurs quite apart from the farmer. As Jesus notes, the farmer sleeves and the seed sprouts and grows. And the farmer does not even know exactly how that growth happens. We in our lives are like the farmer. We need to do our part to participate in the work of God's kingdom, but it is the mysterious working of God, that actually brings about the Harvest. We on our part. Need to trust in God's working to unfold in that process. We cannot hurry things along, but need to be patient as the farmer Waits. Then they are then the full head of grain. James, very likely had this Parable in mind, when he wrote The Passage, we heard earlier where he said, be patient, the farmer waits for the precious crop from the Earth, being patient with it until it receives an early and late rains. You also must be patient. All these Parables use Ancient imagery but they are most appropriate for our age when people so often are hurried and fretful anxious for results. Imagine that nothing good will ever come except by one's own doing and wondering why God does not act in more immediate or impressive ways. Jesus teaches us instead to trust in the gradual yet. Powerful working of God. Spirit often hidden to the unprecedented eyes of the world, and Jesus invites us to become part of God's work. Being patient having confidence that by God's grace the Harvest will come. Let us pray.

Lord, give us that trust in you and which we going to recognize that your spirit is indeed at work all around us and then our own lives even at times when we cannot quite perceive it. Or give us that patients to be receptive, to the gradual yet, powerful and folding of your work that Lord. We can know that indeed. Your help is coming that your grace can enable us to overcome every challenge that you are at work with power. Be the sword as we indeed. Would wait for the unfolding of your spirit in your working, as we then also would join with you. We thank you Lord, for that. Message that Andy, do you work a few small things off of what seemed to be an impressive Waze? And yet, indeed you are at work with power and we today small as our lives, maybe could be a part of your great purposes in our own time. We thank you for how you draw us together in the life of your church out together. We can grow in faith. Now together, we can make a difference in the world, powers are lured to be like the Levin. Those small though often invisible in the eyes of others presents that can indeed make a difference. And we pray the Lord. You would use us as we seek to be a part of how you are making a difference in our world. We thank you that we can reach out and Mission is a church. Would you reach out to persons and Times of Pickler need lifting up? Those facing surgery is. Especially for Joe and Senate also lifts you up those dealing with the various forms of illness and especially today for Carl Crawford. Praying. Also, for all those persons dealing in this time with covid. We thank you Lord that we can be at work in our society at large how we can continue to make a difference. We give thanks this morning for the legacy of Doctor, Martin Luther, King, Junior and give. Thanks for how we today is church and be a part of the ongoing work for racial Justice and we can seek to create kind of society of Lourdes in which you would have us live. Only President Powers as we reach the Lord into the World At Large, we thinking we can connect with other United. Methodist Church is congregations, Holy Night by the church and we thank you that as our whole Global Society faces. So many challenges we can to your church or God be a part of how you would impact the world of our day. Move us o God as we are receptive to the movement of your spirit and our time. As we look to you patiently with faith with confidence in the working of your grace. Listen to our trust our thankfulness and our praise the name of Jesus. Our lord and say we pray. Amen.