Four years ago, April and I purchased a couple of mulberry plants from one of the nurseries in town. We planted them in a spot that we thought would be good and watered them faithfully. We thought we were doing everything right, but it didn’t work. Both plants died. April was disappointed because she had really wanted to grow mulberries. I don’t think I’d ever had a mulberry, so my disappointment was considerably less. That same summer, April discovered some tree saplings growing up against our garden fence that she really thought looked like mulberry saplings. She took pictures of them and posted them in some plant identification groups on Facebook and her suspicions found support. I was less confident. These particular saplings she found were in a very unfortunate location, practically growing through our garden fence. Left to my own devices, I probably would have cut them down or dug them up, but April wouldn’t let me.

So we let them grow. And the next summer I adjusted the garden fence to make room for these growing trees that I was deeply afraid were something we really didn’t want. The following summer, they had gotten pretty big, big enough that were going to be much more difficult to dig up if they turned out to not be mulberry trees. Last summer, they had gotten so large that the branches were beginning to hang over part of the garden. I was really growing nervous, but in June of last year, we picked our first few mulberries from those trees. And this year, they are just loaded with them. These saplings that likely came from seeds dropped by birds have grown into wonderful, fruit-bearing trees. And so the moral of this story is that April…got really lucky on that one. I’m just kidding. The truth is that she was right. She noticed something in those saplings that she felt needed to be nourished and protected. And her attention to that and stubborn spirit has led to something amazing and delicious. And I can’t wait to make a mulberry pie!

In our passage from Mark chapter 4, Jesus tells two parables about what the kingdom of God is like. In both of them, Jesus uses seeds and sprouts and stalks and trees. As people who subsisted off the land much more than we do, his audience would have understood these comparisons quite easily. Our modern, DoorDash, grocery store, HelloFresh society doesn’t understand these connections that Jesus makes quite as well. So we have to rely on the research of others to help us determine what Jesus is really talking about in these parables. How is the kingdom of God like someone scattering seed on the ground? How is it like the mustard seed? Those are the questions we have to ask in order to understand what Jesus is saying here.

Jesus says to those listening to him, “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. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.” This first parable in our reading does not appear in any of the other gospels. One commentator I read said that it only appears in Mark because it is boring. I don’t think it’s boring at all. I think it’s kind of like those mulberries. Sometimes we can plant a bunch of seeds in nice rows in a place we think is perfect for them to grow, but it’s the seeds we accidentally drop in the yard or in the middle of a different crop that spring up first. I think the point of the parable is that God’s kingdom will grow where it will grow. That might be within the church where we trust it has been planted or it might be in the middle of a crowded baseball stadium or in a war torn Gaza or on a road to Damascus in the heart of a murderer. God’s kingdom will grow where it will grow. And we may not see that growth until the fruit becomes visible.

Jesus follows that with another parable about seeds and growth. This time Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a mustard seed. He says, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 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.” Something I didn’t know about mustard before I began studying this passage is that mustard is like a weed. It was not something that people would have planted. It would be like intentionally planting bindweed or crabgrass or thistle. Except mustard seed grows into a large tree. So, how is the kingdom of God like a noxious weed?

The kingdom of God is like a noxious weed because it comes in and it takes over, little by little. And some people won’t like that. They will try to push it out, yank it up by the roots. But just like the bindweed in my yard, you cannot get rid of the kingdom of God. It will not go away. It just keeps coming back and growing more and taking over more area. But unlike weeds, as the kingdom of God grows and expands, the love and protection and provision and joy of the Lord expand with it. It grows into a tree where birds can find shade and make their nests.

I’m reminded of the cedar tree that Ezekiel talks about in the passage we read this morning. In this passage, God takes a fresh sprig from a mighty cedar tree and plants it on a mountain top. God cares for it and it grows to become a noble cedar. And here again, birds nest in its shade. This passage in Ezekiel is part of a larger allegory that God is telling to the people. It is all a reference to what has been happening in Israel with the invasion of Babylon and the removal of Judah’s king. It earlier in the chapter talks about an eagle swooping down to take the top off of a cedar and carry it away. This was representative of Babylon taking away Judah’s king. Then in the passage we read, we see some redemption by God. God now takes the top of a cedar and plants it somewhere else…in this case on the very top of a mountain. There God nurtures the sprig until it grows to be a tree.

God is telling God’s people that redemption will come. God’s kingdom is always at work beneath the surface, just waiting to sprout and grow big and tall and make a space for all the birds to nest in its branches. I read this week about a church in Dallas, Texas, that each year hosts a memorial service for all the people in the community who died that year but did not have a memorial service or an opportunity for expressing  sorrow and mourning. It is a way of bringing everyone to nest in the tree of God’s kingdom. No one is left out. God’s kingdom has room for all. And it is there to provide protection and nurture, not judgment and violence.

So what does all of this mean for us? I think it means two things. First, God’s kingdom breaks in where it wants and not necessarily where WE want. That doesn’t mean that we don’t keep scattering seed in the places where we want the kingdom to grow. It just means that ultimately its growth is not up to us. Five or six years ago now, April and I collected some milkweed seeds and planted them outside of our back fence in the flowers beds that are right by the alley behind our house. We scattered them across a pretty large area. We watched and waited for them to come up, but they never did. That next year, we had a few growing INSIDE our fence in a completely different part of the yard. We had not planted any seed there, but some milkweed grew there anyway. We left them there because we knew that Monarch butterflies like to lay their eggs on the milkweed leaves. The following year, we had milkweed springing up in that same spot against the fence and many more growing up in the yard spanning out from that original spot.

Once again, April convinced me to let them stay, despite making it so that I had to mow around them. That year we noticed the Monarchs at the milkweed and we collected something like 20 to 25 monarch eggs, which we put in a butterfly net while they grew to be caterpillars and then bigger caterpillars and then formed a chrysalis which they came out of as a beautiful Monarch butterfly. Then we’d release them when they were ready. It was amazing! Once again April got lucky. No. She was once again right. God’s kingdom breaks in where it wants, but also God’s kingdom slowly takes over and creates a space that is available for all. The milkweed spread and multiplied to the point that we had to expand the flower bed to accommodate it all. And that’s how it can be with God’s kingdom. If just a little bit gets in, it can quickly multiply and then we need to adjust and make our container for it bigger.

Where have we seen God’s kingdom come in? Was it where we expected it to be? What would it look like for God’s kingdom to fully take over in this church? In this community? In our world? Someday we will experience that completely. In the meantime, we may sometimes get annoyed with God’s stubbornness in encouraging us to do things a certain way. And we may not be able to see the vision of what God’s kingdom will look like when it has fully come. But if we wait patiently with our eyes on what we see God doing, the kingdom will come on earth as it is in heaven. And God’s vision will become clearer. And when that happens we need to be ready to expand the container so that more and more can come in and grow and be sheltered in the shade of God’s branches. May God help us to be open to the coming of God’s kingdom…in our lives, in our love, in our grace, and in our world. The Lord has spoken…and he will accomplish it…for our blessing and for God’s glory and honor. Amen!