At the beginning of gardening season this summer, Jeff noticed some squash plants starting to grow in our compost pile. He took a hand shovel and dug them up and transplanted them. Over the course of the summer, these volunteer squash plants produced at least twenty zucchini hybrids and sixteen pumpkins and gourds. My backyard chickens loved the zucchini hybrids, and we had so many pumpkins and gourds we didn’t need to buy any to use as fall decorations. Even if we’d only grown one pumpkin or one zucchini from the plants, the harvest still would have been a surprise to us. We hadn’t intended to grow the plants at all, and yet they grew, abounded, and produced so much squash and pumpkins we hardly knew what to do with them all.

In fact, the plants produced so much they started to pile up in our house. We were feeding the zucchinis to our chickens because we were already getting enough zucchinis for ourselves out of the garden, but we could only give them so many at a time. It got to the point that we would laugh and hold up the zucchini harvest for everyone in the house to see. “Look, everyone! I found another one!” The abundance was so overwhelming it was humorous, and it was a lot of work to use them up instead of letting them all go to waste.

For the month of November, we are doing a sermon series we are calling An Abundant Harvest. We hope that this series will inspire all of us to look back at God’s faithfulness to the people in the Bible so that we can better notice God’s faithfulness to us right now in the present. This morning, we are taking a look at Psalm 107 and at the parable of the mustard seed as we think about how surprising the harvest can be.

In Matthew 13, Jesus tells a series of agricultural parables. He tells a story about weeds and wheat and about the importance of letting them both grow until those doing the harvesting are able to tell the two apart. He also tells a story about a sower who scattered seeds wherever he went. Depending on what kind of soil the seeds fell on, some struggled and withered and some grew and produced an astounding harvest. In our short passage from Matthew for this morning, Jesus tells a parable about a mustard seed–a tiny seed that grows large enough to create a habitat for birds. In this parable, Jesus teaches us that just because something starts out small, doesn’t mean it stays small.

So many of the pivotal, life-changing moments in our lives start out with something small. When I started playing the clarinet in 5th grade, I had no idea I was opening the door to a passion that would lead me to study music in college. When Jeff and I visited a seminary to see if it was a good fit for him, I had no idea that my statement, “I wish I could go here too” would lead me to enroll, eventually become a minister, and serve in church ministry for 16 years. Sometimes the smallest of seeds in our lives ends up growing into something far larger, far more abundant than anything we could have imagined. What small moments have changed your life?

In the parable, the mustard seed and its growth teaches us something about the kingdom of God. What begins as something so small–perhaps a tiny seed of faith, or the faithful actions of someone in your life–grows and produces a surprise harvest, a whole tree that provides a home and shelter for so many others. This parable is memorable because I think we’ve all marveled at something that started out small and grew surprisingly big. But, it is also memorable because it gives us hope that the small bits of faith we have might be transformed into something beautiful through the power of God.

Psalm 107 is a psalm of celebration, and what it celebrates is just that: the way God takes something small, or something lifeless, and transforms it into something incredible. The psalm begins “O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, those he redeemed from trouble.” I love the way the NIV translation puts verse 2:, “Let the redeemed of the LORD tell their story.”  For the rest of the psalm, the psalm writer lists the many ways God has redeemed the people. 

As it says in the Message paraphrase, “Oh, thank God—he’s so good! His love never runs out. All of you set free by God, tell the world! …Some of you wandered for years in the desert,

looking but not finding a good place to live, Half-starved and parched with thirst, staggering and stumbling, on the brink of exhaustion. Then, in your desperate condition, you called out to God.

He got you out in the nick of time; …Some of you were locked in a dark cell, cruelly confined behind bars, Punished for defying God’s Word, for turning your back on the High God’s counsel—A hard sentence, and your hearts so heavy, and not a soul in sight to help. Then you called out to God in your desperate condition; he got you out in the nick of time. Some of you were sick because you’d lived a bad life, your bodies feeling the effects of your sin; You couldn’t stand the sight of food, so miserable you thought you’d be better off dead. Then you called out to God in your desperate condition; he got you out in the nick of time…”

The psalm continues with more situations and ways the people struggled, and then pause to remember the way God intervened. God didn’t leave them in despair. God didn’t leave them in desolation. God got them out in the nick of time, and God restored them. God took what seemed like barren, infertile soil, and created a surprise, abundant harvest–so surprising even the other nations of the world took notice.

Today we are observing All Saints Sunday and we are gathering together around the Lord’s table. I am looking around this sanctuary at the many blankets and quilts you’ve all brought with you, each one with a unique story. Perhaps the blanket you are holding was made for you before you were born, or maybe you made it yourself and felt the joy of making something with your own two hands. Maybe the quilt you have was made by someone who is no longer living, but having the quilt near you is almost like having them sit next to you this morning. Each story represented by each blanket or each quilt in this room (even all the blankets or quilts we left at home) are stories of relationships that have transformed us, experiences that have shaped up, and memories that we carry with us to this day.  These memories are always with us, but we carry them with us today in a tangible way–a way that we can see and touch–to remind us that we are not alone in our journey of life. God has given us dear ones who have helped us to grow, and God has given us of himself by sending us Jesus who takes our desolate hearts and works a miracle of abundance.

` When we gather at the Lord’s table together, we celebrate this surprise harvest of abundance. In this simple meal with small pieces of bread and tiny cups, God transforms these simple elements into something that nourishes us for the world to come. Around this table, we bring our pasts, our sins, our hurts, and the parts of our pasts that have blessed us. Around this table, we bring ourselves as we are today, trusting that God welcomes us as we are. And we bring our futures, which are unknown to us, but are not unknown to God. Several years ago, I came across a simple quote that I just love. I don’t know who originally said it, but it captures this so well. It says, “Dear past, thank you for the lessons. Dear future, I am ready.” 

In this meal, we celebrate with the great cloud of witnesses and we worship God together. At this table, God scatters seeds of love lavishly, and we are amazed as we watch them grow. John Wesley says this in his Notes on the Bible: “But we know, in general, that when he, the Son of God, shall appear, we shall be like him–The glory of God penetrating our inmost substance. For we shall see him as he is–Manifestly, without a veil. And that sight will transform us into the same likeness.”

Here in this place, the parched soil of our hearts is renewed. Here in this place, the parts of ourselves we thought would always be a wasteland are transformed into an abundant harvest of blessing. Here in this place, we feast together, and we are surprised at the way God uses this simple meal to transform us from individual people with separate lives and separate stories into the beautiful family of God. Amen.