A few years ago, we planted a peach pit on the side of our house. We had taken it from a fresh Colorado peach and dried it out for a bit. Then, in the Fall, we put it in the ground. Now, about three years later, it has grown into a tree about 5 feet tall. I’ll be honest that when I put that pit in the ground, I didn’t really expect anything to grow. And when winter came and covered the ground in snow, I worried that the pit would not survive. But in the spring, a small sprout had burst through the ground. And by the end of that summer, it had grown to just over a foot tall. Seeds are amazing like that.

Jesus tells us a parable about an amazing seed like that. It is perhaps Jesus’ shortest parable. Jesus says to his disciples, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” A small mustard seed would grow into a tree large enough for birds to make nests in its branches. And Jesus says that the kingdom of heaven is like that. What does that mean? How is the kingdom of heaven like a seed? Jill Duffield, in Advent in Plain Sight, explains it this way: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, tiny, easily overlooked, yet capable in the right conditions of producing a sizable tree that provides shelter for the birds of the air. God works relentlessly, often unnoticed, to provide places of shelter and nurture for creatures big and small. God’s realm entails utilizing the common and the insignificant in life-giving ways that defy expectation and human imagination.”

Today is the fourth Sunday of Advent. And as you heard in the lighting of our Advent candle today, the theme for this Sunday is love. Love is one of the most talked about themes in movies and television, not just at Christmas time but all year long. Why do you think that is? It’s because we all want to be loved. As many of you know, I am a big fan of Hallmark Christmas movies. And perhaps that seems like an odd thing for a 45 year old male to enjoy. But do you know what draws me back to those movies every year? It’s not the predictable plots or the sub par acting or even watching for the always present empty coffee cups. What draws me to those movies is the message they proclaim. The message that the grouchiest grinch can be transformed by love, the busiest busybody can find time for love, the saddest hearts can be healed by love. No matter what the situation, love always prevails. And that reminds me of the love of God in Jesus Christ.

The passage we read this morning from the book of Job talks about trees in a bit different way from Jesus’ parable did. The author of Job writes, “For there is hope for a tree, if it is cut down, that it will sprout again, and that its shoots will not cease. Though its root grows old in the earth, and its stump dies in the ground, yet at the scent of water it will bud and put forth branches like a young plant.” Job is lamenting his situation in a prayer to God. And he talks about how a tree still has hope even if it is chopped down to the stump. But humans perish. Humans don’t have the chance to grow back if they are cut down. Job makes this claim in the midst of a time when he felt as though he had been cut down. His kids had all died, his property destroyed, and his livestock all perished. And it’s clear in this prayer of Job that he had lost hope of anything good ever happening to him again. Perhaps you’ve felt similarly. But perhaps humans are more like trees that Job recognized. Perhaps new life is out there for us as well.

Jill Duffield taught me a new word in her devotion about this passage from Job. She taught me the word “coppicing.” Maybe you all know this word already and it is simply new to me, but it was a new word to Rev. Duffield as well and I think it is worth mentioning in relation to Job’s words this morning. Coppicing is a form of land management where trees are cut down nearly to the ground with the knowledge that the remaining roots and stump will sprout new growth. A forest managed in this way is called a “copse.” Rev. Duffield doesn’t use this idea of coppicing to describe love or the kingdom of heaven or anything of that nature. In fact, she seems to take a similar view of human life to that of Job…that we are not like trees and our days are in fact numbered. And while I see her point, I actually believe that both are true.

Maybe our days are numbered, as Job says. Maybe God has granted us a certain lifespan that cannot be modified or expanded. But I do not believe that that fact leaves us without hope for new life. And, in fact, I believe the whole of what we as Christians celebrate in the person of Jesus Christ is the fact that Christ showed us that something more was possible. That love truly could conquer all…even death. In a blog post for the fourth Sunday of Advent, Piper Fordham wrote about 1 Corinthians 13 verses 7 and 8. She used this translation: “Love knows no limit to its endurance, no end to its trust, no fading of its hope; it can outlast anything. It is, in fact, the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.” And about this she writes, “It is hard to imagine that something as tender as love could have this much tenacity.”

That circles me back to the mustard seed. The kingdom of heaven, which stands at the center of God’s love, is such a small, tender little thing. It seemingly goes without notice and falls to the ground. But when it grows, it becomes a large tree, a place for birds to make their nests, a wonderful thing of beauty. That, for me, is a perfect image of love. Quite often we receive love, not in large chunks that are undeniable, but in small little seeds that eventually grow into something large and undeniable.

“There is an old Chinese tale about a woman whose only son died. In her grief, she went to the holy man and said, ‘What prayers, what magical incantations do you have to bring my son back to life?’ Instead of sending her away or reasoning with her, he said to her, ‘Fetch me a mustard seed from a home that has never known sorrow. We will use it to drive the sorrow out of your life.’ The woman went off at once in search of that magical mustard seed. She came first to a splendid mansion, knocked at the door, and said, ‘I am looking for a home that has never known sorrow. Is this such a place? It is very important to me.’ They told her, ‘You’ve certainly come to the wrong place,’ and began to describe all the tragic things that recently had befallen them. The woman said to herself, ‘Who is better able to help these poor, unfortunate people than I, who have had misfortune of my own?’ She stayed to comfort them, then went on in search of a home that had never known sorrow. But wherever she turned, in hovels and in other places, she found one tale after another of sadness and misfortune. She became so involved in ministering to other people’s grief that ultimately she forgot about her quest for the magical mustard seed, never realizing that it had, in fact, driven the sorrow out of her life.”

I believe that love is like that. It acts in small unseen ways that guide us toward healing and hope and joy and peace. Those small unseen acts of love are seeds being planted for the kingdom of God. And eventually they will grow into trees of life. I truly believe that this is the heart of evangelism. It is not about saving souls, though that is often a result. It is not about gaining new church members, though that may happen as well. Evangelism, in my mind, is about planting seeds of love. Those seeds may take years to grow and we may never even see the results. But it is the seeds of love that will create real and lasting change in our community and in the world. That is what the church should be.

Did you know that a certain type of date tree that existed in Israel in Jesus’ day went extinct? It didn’t exist for nearly 2000 years, until a doctor by the name of Sarah Sallon and a researcher named Elaine Solowey took some ancient seeds discovered in an archeological dig and coaxed them to life in 2005. In the first planting, they managed to grow one tree. But one tree alone could not produce dates. They needed a male tree and a female tree in order for pollination to occur. In 2020, after more seeds were discovered in Qumran, they managed to get six more trees to grow, two of which were female. Now they are going to be able to pollinate the trees and bring back a fruit that hasn’t been tasted in almost two millennia.

The seeds of love we plant today may not show immediate growth. In fact, we may not see that growth for decades or centuries or millennia. But when it takes root and grows, whenever and wherever that may be, it will grow into a huge tree that will provide shelter and care for all who draw near to it. So, let us be generous in sowing seeds of love. And let us not worry if sometimes the trees that sprout get chopped down to a stump, for even then God can grow something beautiful and amazing out of that remnant.

When we moved into our house in Gering, there were a couple of trees growing just outside our garden fence that did not seem to have been intentionally planted there, but had taken over the entire area. Every summer I would trim them down to just a stump and they would always grow back bigger and stronger than ever. In the summer of 2020, with the help of my neighbor, I finally decided it was time to dig the stumps out of the ground. After lots of sweat and tears, I got them dug out. I was so excited to get rid of them and have that space free of trees. That area looked so nice for the rest of the summer. Then when this past summer rolled around, I was excited to use that space to plant some flowers. But it wasn’t long before I noticed that little sprouts branches were growing up all around where those trees had one been. It seemed that what I had left of roots from those trees were now putting forth shoots of their own. That is tenacity. That is perseverance.

I believe God’s love is like that. No matter how much we may reject it or try to cut it down, it pursues us nonetheless. That’s why we need to plant those seeds of love, seeds of the love that comes from God. For it will be relentless in pursuing us and will find a way to grow, even in some of the harshest conditions. That is exactly what God did for us through that baby born in a manger. Jesus wasn’t born into ideal conditions, but into difficult ones. But he transformed the world by his love. May we plant that same love in our lives and see how God might use it to transform us anew. Thanks be to God for his tenacious love!