Have you ever noticed that when it comes to cooking, there are two kinds of good cooks. The first is one who follows a cookery book. This kind of cock measures everything, even levels off the teaspoons with the back of a knife to get the amounts just right. The second kind is less careful, more creative. This kind of cook sees a recipe as just the framework for a dish, and feels free to adapt it, adding a pinch here, a dash there. You might think of them as cooking by the law ,or cooking by grace.

My grandmother was in the cooking by grace camp. She was a wonderful cook--she could roll out the dough for strudel so thin it would cover a table without having any tears in it. To this day I still believe that what we'll be eating in heaven is strudel with cream! After grandma died, her daughter and daughters in law and her grandchildren all wanted to copy down her recipes. The trouble was, half of them weren't written down. And the ones that were didn't have precise measurements--one called for "butter the size of an egg" and a dash of pepper.

Just a dash. Our gospel story is one of the parables of Jesus where he tells about the kingdom of God, and how little things matter. He likens the kingdom of God to something very small--a mustard seed. He had said "if you have faith even as a grain of mustard, you can remove mountains." And now he added a second parable, the mustard seed, though small, grows into a large tree that can shelter the birds of the air.

What does the parable have to say about the kingdom of God? And what relevance does it have our lives? Before we apply it to our lives, we need first to dispel a few misconceptions about Jesus' parables.

(Adapted from Craddock, et. al, p. 311) When we think of Jesus' parables, we think of stories like the lost coin; and the woman who swept her house until she found it. Parables seem at first glance to be simple stories Jesus used so that everyone could easily understand. But in the gospel reading for today, it says, everyone did not understand. So the parables aren't as straightforward as they seem

Parables are like poetry, in that they take good deal of effort to understand. They are meant to be meditated on, reflected on in light of our present situation, not just reduced to a message like the moral at the end of a children's story. In a way, rather than us reading the parables, the parables end up reading us, interpreting our lives in light of the gospel.

Jesus' parables presuppose an inner circle of listeners. Our scripture says that Jesus explained everything in private to his disciples. So our understanding of Jesus' parables is based on our relation to Jesus--we can't hope to grasp their message without seeking wisdom from God's Spirit.
This is why the study of theology at universities has been distinguished from the study of religion. The schools rightly recognise that theology is not a science; abstract knowledge about God is not the same as coming to know something of God's ways ourselves. So while the parables can be studied from a safe distance, they only open their full meaning when we approach them from within the circle of Christ's disciples.

One last thing to note about parables is a creative thought from theologian Sally McFague. She has said that JESUS HIMSELF is a parable of God. She's gotten in some hot water for this view of Jesus; because it is not a full view of Christ's life and work. He was more than a parable; he was the Son of God. But her image of Jesus as a parable of God can be helpful to us. Often we imagine God as far away, someone to be feared. If we think of Jesus as a parable of God, we can see that the love Jesus showed in giving of his life- in healing the sick, in talking to the confused and hurting, in challenging the complacent; in all these ways, Jesus showed us the very nature of God who loves us as we are, but loves us too much to leave us as we are. Jesus as a parable of God; it's a creative way of helping us reflect on the mystery of the incarnation.

Now that we see how the parables aren't as straightforward as they first appear, we can return to the parables in our gospel lesson. The first one tells of someone planting a seed, and going about their business day by day. The seed takes root and begins to grow. Weeks go by, as the earth produces of itself; first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain. Then the time for harvest has come.

What does it mean? Jesus is talking about the kingdom of God, which is not a place so much as- a reign or rule of God that takes place in time. By likening it to a seed that grows without human effort or knowledge, he reminds us that God's spirit will ultimately bring the kingdom. Perhaps we are the ones who will sow the seed. You might think--where are there places in your life where you've sowed the seeds of the kingdom?

It might be in raising children to know how to pray. And sometimes there is a long fallow period when the seeds lie dormant. But in God's time the seeds of faith come to life, sometimes after the rains or storms or even the bush fires that are needed for the seed to sprout. Sometimes the children who seem to have outgrown faith find that they have it to fall back on in life's difficult times. And the parable tells us that having sown the seed, we can trust to God to give the growth in his own time.

I would challenge each of us to think about ways we can be sowing seeds of the kingdom of God in our lives. They don't have to be huge decisions, large initiatives. More often they will be a word spoken in season to a friend or someone close to us. Sometimes they will consist of trying something new, something challenging.
This month, a number of teenagers are participating in the 40 hour famine through World Vision. It is the kind of program that plants seeds for the kingdom of God, in raising awareness of world hunger in those who participate. I took part in it when I was a student, and I'll never forget the experience. I'd never gone hungry before, never known the loss of energy that is the daily lot of so many people in our world. One part of the program remains in my mind.

It was a dinner, but a dinner with a difference. The food was divided between the students as food is divided between the developed world and the still developing countries. So out of 20 of us, two or three were seated at a comfortable table, eating a steak dinner with all the trimmings. Ten or so were sitting on the floor, eating lentil soup and wholemeal bread (not our favourite fare) . And the remaining students weren't given any food at all; they had to beg from the haves and the have nots. After a while, it was interesting to see that some of the ones who had steak were reluctant to share--"there isn't enough." I was one of the beggars, and got just enough to eat at the end of the dinner when the others were full.

It was the kind of experience that planted a seed of the kingdom in those of us who took part, a seed of empathy for those in need. (I will say the process couldn't fully duplicate the
experience of hunger. After the famine, all of us walked down the street to the nearest ice cream shop, an option we later realised wasn't open to those who aren't playing at hunger.)

So in response to the first parable, we can seek to plant a seed of some kind for God's kingdom in the week ahead. The second parable is of the mustard seed, the smallest of seeds yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes the greatest of shrubs, and puts forth branches, so that the birds of the air can nest in its shade.

It is a parable of encouragement, whenever we think we can't make much of a difference. It tells us that God can give the growth and bring something that flourishes out of small beginnings. In the week ahead, we can be attentive in prayer to the prompting of the spirit- the small things we think of to do- calling a friend, reaching out to someone who is lonely.
Writer Frederick Buechner puts it this way;
If we only had eyes to see and ears to hear, we would know that the kingdom of God is as close as breathing, and is crying out to be born in ourselves and in the world;
we would know that the kingdom of God is what we all of us hunger for above all other things even when we don't know its name, or realise that it's what we're starving to death for.

The kingdom of God is where our best dreams come from and our truest prayers. We glimpse it at those moments when we find ourselves being better than we are and wiser than we know, when in crisis a strength comes to us that is greater than our own strength.

The kingdom of God is where we belong.
It is home, and whether we realise it or not, I think we are all of us homesick for it.

Let us pray:
Lord Jesus, thank you for the glimpses of your kingdom in our lives. Guide us where we can plant a seed for your love and beauty and justice in our lives.
And lead us on through this pilgrim land until we are at last home in you.
In the name of Christ we pray. Amen.

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