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How do we imagine God’s activity in our world?

In the 1956 Biblical epic film The Ten Commandments, Charleton Heston played Moses. At the time of its release, it was the most expensive film ever made. Box office numbers soared, and it was one of the highest grossing films made. Grandeous special effects such as the Burning Bush, the fiery hail from a cloudless sky, the Angel of Death, the Pillar of Fire, the giving of the Ten Commandments, and the parting of the Red Sea continue to be shown to this day! The parting of the Red Sea was considered the most difficult special effect ever performed up to that time. This effect took about six months of filming, and combined scenes shot on the shores of the Red Sea in Egypt, with scenes filmed at Paramount Studios in Hollywood.

How do we imagine God’s activity in our world today? Many of us think of God as gigantic—huge—bigger than life—more than imagination can contain. And we are not alone. The ancients compared God’s kingdom in their world to a great and mighty cedar of Lebanon. Ezekiel 17:22-23 reads:

Thus says the Lord God:

I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of a cedar;

I will set it out.

I will break off a tender one from the topmost of its young twigs;

I myself will plan it on a high and lofty mountain.

On the mountain height of Israel I will plant it,

In order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit,

And become a noble cedar.

Under it every kind of bird will live;

In the shade of its branches will nest winged creatures of every kind.

Other Hebrew Bible texts repeat this refrain: The mighty cedar will have birds nesting in its branches.

The mighty cedar of Lebanon is a phrase the Hebrew people knew. The cedar tree has been revered for its spiritual significance for thousands of years. Its wood was used for the doors of sacred temples and burned in cleansing ceremonies for purification. The tree was thought to house important gods and to be an entrance to higher realms.

How do we imagine God’s activity in the world today? Some would answer, “It’s like a mighty cedar tree—tall and strong, majestic and awe-inspiring, protective and
long-enduring.”

This was part of Jesus’ culture, of course. He would have known that the cedar tree was used to build the Ark of the Covenant, and the doors of Solomon’s temple. He would have experienced rituals with cedar boughs thought to bring healing, purification and spiritual protection. He would have been familiar with the phrase “all the birds of the air nested in
its branches.”

That’s why Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed can be so intriguing. “Jesus said therefore, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.”   Luke 13:18-19

Many sermons have been preached about how the mustard seed represents our faith. A little bit of faith can grow into something huge! I’ve preached that sermon myself. But Jesus said nothing about faith in this parable. He compared the Kin-dom of God to the
mustard seed.

This story is in all three of the synoptic gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke. It is also in the Gospel of Thomas. Each identifies the mustard seed as the smallest of all seeds on earth. It actually isn’t. A poppy seed, for example, is 6 times smaller. There’s another problem; mustard seeds don’t grow on trees—they grow into shrubs. The next problem is that a farmer who knew anything about mustard seeds wouldn’t plant it in the garden! Mustard plants are likely to take over other things and look like weeds. They are hard to get rid of, like crabgrass or dandelions. You don’t want a mustard seed falling into your garden! Pliny the Elder (23-79 CE) was a natural scientist in Jesus’ era. He wrote books about what the society knew about nature. Unfortunately, Pliny the Elder died investigating the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in 79 CE. Before he did, though, he wrote about the mustard seed “when it has once been sown it is scarcely possible to get the place free of it, as the seed when it falls germinates at once.”   Natural History, 29.54.170

So what is the kingdom of God like? Jesus seems to be making absurd comparisons in this parable. It’s like planting a mustard seed and ending up with a huge cedar. For a Kansan, the metaphor might better be that the Kin-dom of God is like zebra mussels—invasive and destructive and wildly uncontrollable! That’s how Jesus’ hearers would have responded…there is humor in this parable. God chooses what is weak to shame the strong. God chooses what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God uses a mustard shrub to outgrow the cedar tree.

That may be why Jesus ends this short parable with a reference everyone knew: “and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.” The phrase immediately brings to mind that Mighty Cedar of Lebanon.

It seems Jesus is not talking of faith at all. He is not asking us to plant a tiny bit of faith and let it germinate within us until it becomes huge. He is comparing the Mighty Cedar of Lebanon with a Mustard Plant to talk about the Kin-dom of God! What should an empire be like? Like the mighty cedar or a tiny mustard plant? “God’s empire is more pervasive than dominant,” writes theologian Brandon Scott. “It is like a pungent weed that takes over everything and in which the birds of the air can nest; it bears little, if any, resemblance to the mighty, majestic, and noble symbol of empire of Israel or Caesar.”

In this parable, Jesus took on the fundamental assumptions of his society—and nearly every human society since—about how God acts. How are we to imagine God’s activity? Does God grow large and mighty trees for everyone to see—great and majestic, towering over us with grandeur? Or does God operate more like a mustard plant—small and insidious, growing where it will and spreading on its own terms? How are we to imagine God’s activity?

Many people—among the poorest of the world—when they’ve been given a small loan and some education and support achieve great things through education, enterprises and independence. A small microloan enables a woman to make a living and feed her family. A small seed planted into something that spreads without abandon.

To continue the parable motif: The world values the mighty trees. We schedule vacations to go to the Redwood Forest. How many vacations have you planned to visit some small, scruffy unimpressive bush?

We build giant cathedrals and glorious statues to celebrate Jesus. We look for the reign of God to include golden streets and mansions. We crown Jesus and put angels and trumpets in the eastern sky. This is how we imagine God’s activity.
Jesus said, in contrast, that God’s activity in the world is more like a wild, unruly shrub.
Yet, birds still nest in its branches.

When you feel like a tiny seed in the world which is addicted to glamour and power, remember that God’s Kin-dom has few mighty cedars, but a lot of wild shrubs growing without abandon. When you see the beautiful successes of others, remember the small mustard seed thrown on soil and growing like a weed. Because that is what God’s activity looks like in the world.

It looks like you. It looks like you. You are the mustard seed.

 

Resources Used:
www.wikipedia.com/TheTenCommandments

“Evaluating Today’s Angel Craze” by Ron Rhodes. home@earthlink.net

Scott, Bernard Brandon. “Re-Imagine the World; An Introduction to the Parables of Jesus”. Polebridge Press. 2001

Steagald, Thomas R. “Feasting on the Gospels” pg. 379