The Kingdom of God as a Mustard Seed

              I was reading this week that the Presbyterian Church in Pittsburgh has been losing members.  There is nothing particularly new in this, the Episcopal Church           has also lost many members, most recently within the schism that we had with the representatives of Robert Duncan’s Anglican split. And the Roman Catholic Church is closing and merging parishes all over the place.  Christianity has had many of these kinds of events, but the church goes on.  It always will.  That is something that nobody can ever change.  Polls say that the “nones” are gaining in numbers.  Those are the people who say that they belong to no religion at all.  Polls are always interesting.  They take a very short view of the world.  It is tempting to take such a view of church history; that is to look only at our own time, but the reality is that the church that Our Lord planted with his disciples has had many ups and downs over the years.  Over the long haul, we are safe in the hands of the Holy Spirit, who directs our course, and always will.

            To look at Church History is illuminating.  The apostles built the church over the first few centuries by welcoming people into house churches, generally small, about thirty or forty people.  Slowly, through martyrdom and oppression, those numbers grew until in 325 AD, the emperor Constantine recognized Christianity as a legitimate religion and from that moment, the cross marched at the head of the Armies of Rome.  That was not really a good thing.  The faith began to be imposed by force, not by love. Much the way ISIS is imposing faith at the moment in the Middle East.  Many splits occurred in Christian religion, most notably the Reformation by Martin Luther and the many offshoots of that that has given Christianity the plethora of denominations that we have today.  This is not a history to be celebrated.  When I look at the political history of our faith, sometimes I am ashamed of what we have done in the name of the Lord.  Certainly the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition are instances of this, as are many of the ways that our faith has tried to conform to our culture. 

            The truth of what Jesus taught is certainly beautiful.  We are to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul and mind, and we are also to love our neighbor as a person like ourselves.  That is the heart of the faith.  We stand and say the creed every Sunday, but the creed isn’t our religion, the creed is simply a statement of the things that we believe.  The real crux of our faith is really simple: It is Love.  How we act out our faith is what we have to say to the world.  Our words are one thing; our actions are another.  The essence of our religion is to follow Jesus, not just to believe a number of theological principles.  Following Jesus means the care of the people around us and above all things, taking care of those in need. 

            I love the parable that Jesus offered to his disciples to explain the Kingdom of God:

          With what can we compare the kingdom of God,

        or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed,

             which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all

             the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes

             the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that

             the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.

           Notice two things about this parable: first, it happens naturally, it begins with a simple seed that grows into a large shrub, has large branches where the birds of the air can safely make their nests in its shade.  Second, it is really inconspicuous. It doesn’t draw attention to itself, except by its utility.  The birds of the air find it because it is useful.  It is what they need.  That is the essence of the Kingdom of God that is represented in the church.  When people don’t seem to need the church, it is probably because it isn’t very useful.  It is operating only to make itself larger.  That is where we go wrong so very often.  

             I don't think that our religion needs to be very complicated.  I saw this week that a mission that was serving the homeless burned in Washington, PA.  Almost immediately the community pitched in to take care of their need.  Our mission is simple.  We don't need to go around telling people what they have to believe; we need to go around seeing what people need and caring for them. When we do that, we will grow.  When we fail to do that, or when we tell people what it is that they have to believe, then we will get smaller.  May God keep us on the right track, following our Lord in all that he did for others.  When we do that, we will succeed beyond our wildest dreams.