Thursday, March 20, 2014

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Mark 4:  21-34

This section of Mark follows the parable of the sower and offers us several more parables—a lamp on a lampstand, scattered seed that seems to grow without attention, and a mustard plant that grows from smallest seed to towering shrub—to illuminate the Kingdom of God that is both present and future.  “What will the Reign of God be like?” It will be like setting a lamp on a lampstand rather than under a bed or basket—it will bring light and will disclose what to now has been hidden and secret.    So if you want to understand, ‘Hear!’, ‘Pay Attention!’ ‘Listen up!’ ‘Open your ears!’ is Jesus’ insistent reminder throughout the parables.  Good advice, since none of the images offered in the parables are straightforward.  None of them leave us with an ‘Ah ha’ moment when we say to ourselves, “Now I get it!”

 The Parable of the Growing  Seed  (Mark 4:26-29) offers a  somewhat baffling image of God’s Reign.  Seed is scattered, seemingly at random, the sower seems benignly negligent, sleeping and rising, while the good earth produces the grain until it is ready for harvest.  While not describing good farming practice, it reminds us that there are many, many things we cannot control, and perhaps when we let go of our treasured ways of doing things, God is able to ‘work’ in ways beyond our imagination.  

The Mustard Seed parable (Mark 4: 30-32) offers a paradoxical image.  Small seed grows to tall shrub, providing shady homes for birds.  But the Mustard shrub, while providing spice and some medicinal benefits, was, for first century farmers, invasive and pesky, with a tendency to take over where it was not wanted (like the violets in my backyard).  Is Jesus suggesting to his hearers that there is an unpredictable wildness to God’s Kingdom?  

The invitation to ‘Pay Attention’ comes also with an assurance —the more one pays careful attention, the more insight and understanding is received, and “still more will be given to you” (v24).

-Marianne Mellinger