The Mighty Mustard Seed

Preached at Faith Episcopal Church on July 24, 2005

A story of early California, when it was only a wilderness, with a great many trees, beautiful plains, all kinds of wild animals and birds; many many Indians, and no white men at all.

Father Junipero Serra had come from Spain to Mexico to spread the gospel, and hearing about this beautiful, vast country to the north, decided to explore it. With a few faithful followers and Indian guides, he traveled north through the land that is now California. As he traveled he scattered mustard seeds brought from Spain to his left and to his right,

The following year, as they returned south they followed ‘a ribbon of gold’ and following that path again Father Serra went on to establish his ‘Rosary of Missions’ from San Diego to Sonoma.

As a new Californian, I really love this story – especially when the wild mustard blooms turn the hillsides and valleys that beautiful golden yellow. Just as in our gospel story today, those plants become huge, towering over Max and me as we walk to the beach. Orange County life is far removed from Jesus’ day and his favorite metaphors so it’s good for us to live in the midst of one of them – to see it spring up around us.

I had fun this week pursuing mustard seeds. A Google search will turn up all sorts of things. – the legend of Fr. Serra scattering the seeds, a site to buy those little mustard seed pendants, a number of ministry organizations from Canada to Jamaica that work to make a difference in the lives of people who struggle. There’s the Mustard Seed Foundation that makes grants all over the world – many of them are exactly what the name might imply – seed money for small revolving loan funds and start up businesses. Some of the seed money grants for women really excite me. I once took an anthropology course on Women in Developing Countries. When women are lifted out of poverty they change their communities. The seeds sprout and spread because the first thing they do with it is improve the diet and health of their families. The next thing they do is to improve their communities with things like opening schools. The Mustard Seed Foundation was a good discovery.

The next thing that Google turned up for me was the health benefits of mustard seeds. The mustard plant is related to broccoli and cabbage and we all know how important it is to eat those vegetables. There are over forty different varieties. Enzymes in mustard seeds have been shown to inhibit growth of existing cancer cells and to discourage the formation of new ones. Go mustard seeds! And it doesn’t end there. It appears that mustard seeds are an excellent source of selenium of magnesium which help reduce the severity of asthma and some symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis. Magnesium is a help in lowering blood pressure, help with bad sleep patterns, reduces the frequency of migraines and even prevent heart attacks linked to diabetic heart disease. We will be serving mustard at the coffee hour!

The French eat of a lot of mustard, after all, Dijon is a city in France! I grew up eating American mustard so I was not prepared for the real deal. I innocently bought a very generic store brand mustard. I was using it in a sauce for some chicken. Let me tell, that mustard was out to get me – even the tiniest little bit left me feeling as if my sinuses had been scoured with bleach! It was shocking –that mustard should be listed as a controlled substance! Maybe mustard isn’t just that friendly little seed. It’s strong stuff and needs to be respected.

Jesus’ audience was fisherman and farmers. They knew all about mustard. They knew that it was a dangerous weed that was highly competitive with wheat. Left unchecked, a few mustard plants will reduce the wheat yield by 35%. It is a plant of amazing fecundity. Each mustard plant is capable of producing 1.5 million seeds. When the seeds mature, the whole plant breaks off at ground level and it turns into a tumbleweed, scattering seeds for miles. A mustard plant was not a happy image for a Galilean farm community. It was an invasive weed that drew birds that ate the carefully sown good seed. And Jesus said that’s what the kingdom of Heaven is like.

Renown Jesus scholar Dominic Crossan puts it this way. “The point is not just that the mustard plant starts as a proverbially small seed and grows into a shrub of three or four feet, or even higher, it is that it tends to take over where it is not wanted, that it tends to get out of control, and that it tends to attract birds within cultivated areas where they are not particularly desired. And that, said Jesus, was what the Kingdom was like: not like the mighty cedar of Lebanon and not quite like a common weed, like a pungent shrub with dangerous takeover properties. Something you would want in only small and carefully controlled doses – if you could control it.” (The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediteranean Jewish Peasant.)

When the Gospel’s were written, the young faith was already beginning to spread like mustard. The prolific plant is a good metaphor for the power of Christian proselytizing – the sharing of the good news. The tumbleweed message of Jesus spread throughout the middle east, europe, and eventually the world. Christianity was really the first evangelistic religion. Prior to Christianity, people didn’t really think of religion as something that might be chosen, you simply were whatever faith your community espoused. Jesus brought choice into the faith equation. Some Jews chose to follow the new sect, some pagans chose to become followers of the Way. There were plenty of documented examples of families being split. Then there were the Reformation stories of communities and nations split over choices within Christianity. Trying to control the weed, once it gets going is nearly impossible.

Then you add a new proselytizing religion into the mix, a new sort of mustard and things get really out of control. Islam and Christianity both claim to be the only way, to know the only truth, the control the only gate to heaven. It’s a good time to remember that there’s not just one kind of mustard – and that God loves wondrous variety.

I don’t believe that Jesus ever intended his followers to become warlike in his name, or to persecute people who believed differently. I think he intended people to know the love of God that resides in each and everyone of us. Jesus said, know that it’s there, have faith in its power, even if it is tiny. When it sprouts, it can bring a kind of healing and peace unlike any you have ever known. It’s like joy bubbling up inside of you. Outrageous love for everyone, even the most unlikely. It shows in your face, in your walk, in your laughter, in your compassion. It is contagious and others will be drawn to it. They will want to know what makes you so contented; they will want what you have.

So close your eyes, and picture a point of light, as tiny a mustard seed. It is somewhere between your diaphram and your heart. Can you see it? Take a deep breath and watch and feel it begin to sprout. It sends little shoots in all directions, lighting up your being from within. Feel it filling your center down to your feet and up to your head. Then feel it escaping the boundaries of your flesh and radiating out into the world. That is love and once it gets started it will take over and fill empty places, crowd out hatred and judgment and it will leave no room for fear. Let this weed of love grow in you and beyond you. Be the kingdom of heaven.