Like a Mustard Seed

'Who're Kansas State? The Wildcats?'

'Oh what happened to New England...did they get a safety?'

Both of these statements were uttered by my wife last weekend, and both of them were exactly right. The athletics mascot for Kansas State University is the wildcat, and New England were awarded a safety (the closest thing in American Football to an own goal) in their weekend win over the New York Jets.

How did Rachel know those things? We don't follow Kansas State, they're hardly ever on TV, and we've never been to Manhattan, Kansas, where the school is located. She just knew who they were. The Patriots/Jets game was on in the background in a restaurant, and i've never gone over the finer points of the some of the NFL's more obscure rules with her. She just knew it's hard to get to 16 without a two point play in there somewhere.

I asked Rachel how that happened, and she said after a while things just sink in. And i suppose they do. We still have some ground to cover i suspect. She's probably a bit shaky on the genesis of the Wycome/Colchester rivalry, and might have some trouble in picking out Dave Carroll in a crowd, but after three years of marriage, we're getting there.

Jesus says this is what the Kingdom of God is like. Mark 4 represents a shift in Jesus ministry. No longer teaching plainly in the synagogues, but parabolically in the countryside. This is judgement on those who see but don't perceive and hear but don't understand. Suddenly, for those on the outside, everything is in a parable. Why is this rebel rabbi giving farming advice, and poor farming advice at that? Why isn't he condemning Rome and setting up in Jerusalem? Everything in a parable.

He tells us that the Kingdom of God, and in particular our growth in it is like a mustard seed. The smallest of the seeds producing a plant out of all proportion to it's size. It starts small, but when it's grown it's the largest of all the plants. Just like the Kingdom. Who would have thought that this ragtag bunch of men from the wrong part of the country would change the world? And yet they did. Who would think that 10,20,30 minutes alone in the Bible each day would change our hearts? And yet is does. This is the Gospel way isn't it? From small and insignificant comes the big and glorious.

We should read the Bible persistently and confidently, knowing that by it we're being changed. As quickly as we like? Probably not. But Christian growth isn't downloadable. It comes slowly, first the blade, then the ear,  then the full grain. But come it does. Isn't that encouraging? Just because we don't see something doesn't mean it's not there. Not in the Kingdom anyway.

Martin Luther knew it, he went and preached and then came home to his friends, trusting in the work of the Word. Isaiah knew it, and told us that the Word would not return void. We need to know it too, and keep those mustard seeds being planted in our hearts.