Seeing God in the Smallest Things
with Rev. Barbara Gorsky
June 16, 2024
But this I believe about our life of faith, we are called to plant many seeds, in a multiplicity of ways. All seeds are valuable, all seeds are needed, and there is no limit to the number of seeds we are to plant for there is much work to do in the building up the kingdom of God.
The Scripture
Ezekiel 17:22-24
22 “‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will take a shoot from the very top of a cedar and plant it; I will break off a tender sprig from its topmost shoots and plant it on a high and lofty mountain. 23 On the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it; it will produce branches and bear fruit and become a splendid cedar. Birds of every kind will nest in it; they will find shelter in the shade of its branches. 24 All the trees of the forest will know that I the Lord bring down the tall tree and make the low tree grow tall. I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.
“‘I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.’”
Mark 4:26-34
26 He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of itself first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle because the harvest has come.”
30 He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it; 34 he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
Read the Full Text
Reading books was a favorite activity for our family, we had endless shelves of books on various topics, but there was one book in particular that fascinated our whole family, it is titled, “The Way Things Work” by David Macaulay. Basically, it was a book about machines and how they work! The opening introduction in this book explains why it was so popular. It says this, “To any machine, work is a matter of principle, because everything a machine does is in accordance with a set of principles or scientific laws. To see the way a machine works, you can take the covers off and look inside, but to understand what goes on, you need to get to know the principles that govern its actions.”
It all makes sense, we can with certainty understand how things work. So satisfying! I had my own personal experience with the workings of a machine. When I was in 5th grade one of my science projects was to build a motor. What was that teaching thinking? Well, it was a daunting task for me, but the blessing for me was that my father was an engineer and so he was very helpful, truth be told. he was instrumental in the creation of this little motor. (Basically, he built the whole thing and I watched!) He did show me how to attach the battery to the wires so the motor would spin but I really didn’t understand how it worked. And I didn’t know what to do when got to school ready to show off my newly built motor and it wouldn’t work.
Finish reading
I think that understanding part was more important than I thought!
Our brains are always in quest of understanding our world and how things work, we like to figure out things…this is true too in our quest to understand how God works. The spiritual world works quite differently that the mechanical world…we can’t memorize a set of scientific laws or principles, and everything becomes perfectly clear, no there are many things we cannot understand about God and how God works in this world.
And yet our world is governed by this life giving presence of the living God; a life giving presence that is revealed in a multiplicity of ways. At a deep level, I believe it’s quite comforting to know that we really can’t put God in a little box, open the lid and see all the moving parts. We want and need a God who is beyond our own understanding, and this includes not understanding the mysterious ways that God works in our physical world.
In our passage this morning Jesus tells this story, “A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain.” He uses common everyday life experiences like planting seeds that grow in the dark of night, to explain the reality about who God is and how God is present in the world. We have our own seed experiences right here. Late spring, we plant our garden, we put small seeds into the ground, and we wait (and yes we do water a bit) but day by day plants rise up out of the soil and bear abundant vegetables, vegetables that become life giving nutrition for many who come to our Wednesday market. This is just one small glimpse into God’s reign here on earth and we see God in the smallest things.
No wonder Jesus uses seeds to describe God’s Kingdom! Remember the mustard seed? A mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants. How can it be that something so small can become so grand? Jesus is saying that God works differently, God works with a different set of principles and laws. If we are to join with God in making God’s kingdom a reality here at earth, we enter into this spiritual world holding on to the need to abundantly plant seeds and wait and see what grows. As Robert Louis Stevenson is quoted as saying, “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”
We here at First Pres are seed planters! I know you; I see you. Each of you plant many seeds by the gifts you bring to our church and the many ways you share your gifts. Remember last week we asked you to write down on a card the gift or gifts you possess. This dove image represents all the gifts you bring to our church, gardening, friendliness, hospitality, kindness, baking, cleaning, prayer, service, acceptance. The list goes on and on and on. Take a moment to look at this and take it in. Seeds are scattered all around. We see individual lives changing, we see healing come, we see relationships restored, we see beauty in our gardens, we see friendships formed, and in all of this we see God in the smallest things. Yes, a smile, a word of encouragement, a phone call, a helpful hand…God is here. I know you have not only been a spreader of seeds but also a receiver of seeds that have been thrown your way.
This image of a heart and hands are the gifts that you have seen in others. Look at the seeds you have received, music, prayer, energy, smiles, love, acceptance, caring, kindness, again the list goes on and on. God is seen in the smallest things!
Both parables instill in us a sense of believing we are called to spread seeds. And God is at work in and through us in the spreading of seeds. One of God’s principles must be that we are called to be generous with the seeds we scatter. I am thankful to be here with all of you who so freely scatter seeds!
I will always love learning about how things work and reading books will aways be central to my life. And I also don’t think I will ever try to make a motor again!
But this I believe about our life of faith, we are called to plant many seeds, in a multiplicity of ways. All seeds are valuable, all seeds are needed, and there is no limit to the number of seeds we are to plant for there is much work to do in the building up the kingdom of God. We often we will not know what our seeds will produce but we are to keep spreading our seeds for God is seen in the smallest things! Amen