"What You Don’t Understand Is What You Know"
Second Sunday after Pentecost
June 14, 2009
Mark 4.26-34
Do you know what November 26 of this year is? You might be able to
guess. If I tell you that it’s the last Thursday in November you’ll
know that it’s Thanksgiving. But how about November 22? It’s a Sunday,
and therefore is a specific day in the Church Year. If you don’t know
the Church Year well, you probably won’t know that it’s the Last
Sunday of the Church Year and will mark the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after
Pentecost. That’s five months from now and twenty-three Sundays from
now. The season of Pentecost is a long one compared to the others,
which usually last a few weeks. But whereas there’s usually a lot of
action in the other seasons because they’re concentrating on the life
of Christ, the Pentecost season can seem like it’s going nowhere with
each Sunday simply growing in number after the festival Pentecost: the
Second Sunday after Pentecost, the Third Sunday after Pentecost, and
so on, all the way down to the Twenty-Fifth Sunday after Pentecost on
November 22.
But there’s a reason for that. It’s because it is the season of
growth. That’s why the color has now turned to green and will stay
that way, with the exception of a couple festival days, until we
change it for the season of Advent. Green is the color of growth. When
there is abundant growth a lush green usually marks that.
But if the season of Pentecost seems like it’s going nowhere slowly so
does actual growth itself. A seed planted in the ground doesn’t sprout
the next day. For a long time it seems like nothing is happening. But
growth is occurring. Early into this Pentecost season it’s good for us
to know that this is what this season is all about. It may not seem
like much is happening, but in hearing the Gospel week in and week out
you are growing.
The Gospel reading today orients us on this path of growing. It does
it with two parables, one which we know well, the Parable of the
Mustard Seed. Jesus is specific in how this growth takes place. The
Old Testament reading and the Epistle also lend assistance to the
process by which we grow as Christians.
Simply put, it is by faith. It is not by sight, as the Epistle reading
says. It is not by power or strength as the Old Testament reading
alludes to with its symbolic language. It is not by understanding as
Jesus makes clear in the Gospel reading. It is, simply, by faith.
This doesn’t mean it’s simple. It doesn’t mean, either, that no
understanding is involved. It means that the Triune God is the one who
brings about the growth. When the seed is sown, it grows. The man who
planted the seed didn’t understand how the seed grew into a plant, but
it grew. You don’t understand how you grow in faith, but you do. You
do because God creates the faith. He causes the growth. The man didn’t
understand how the growth was taking place but he knew there was
growth.
We don’t usually think about the process of growth. We see the flowers
and plants and trees and their beauty. It’s remarkable, isn’t it, that
these beautiful things come from tiny seeds? But it doesn’t seem all
that remarkable when they’re actually growing. If you look at the
place in the ground where the seed was planted you’ll get bored
quickly if you’re waiting to see an actual sign of growth. It’s over
the long term that you see the results. When you plant the seed, in
addition to watering and ensuring sunshine, you have to take it on
faith that the seed will grow into a plant and that the plant will
keep growing.
How does one grow in the faith? How do you and I grow as Christians?
How do we grow in sanctification, more and more living as God would
have us live? What does God say? “I bring low the high tree, and make
high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree
flourish. I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.” Most of us
aren’t biologists or botanists. If we want a garden we’ll plant the
seeds and tend the garden, but we won’t concern ourselves with how in
the world those seeds and plants are growing. We simply want to enjoy
the fruits of the garden. When it comes to our growth as Christians,
God is clear that He is the one who brings it about. He causes the
growth and sustains the growth.
If you are dried up spiritually God will cause you to flourish. If you
are down in the dumps God will lift you up. This is what God says: “I
am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it.” If you don’t understand
how He does it, well, He doesn’t say anything about you understanding
it, does He? He simply says, I will bring it about. I will do it. I am
the Lord. He is the one who plants the seed of the Gospel and causes
you to grow and flourish.
God says that He brings low the high tree and dries up the green tree.
Those who put their faith in how much they do for their Lord and
Savior raise themselves up and come to the point, perhaps without
realizing it, where they don’t need Him. So He brings them down. So
many times we hear the Scriptures and when they don’t comport with the
reality of our reason or even common sense we try to explain them
away, or even dismiss them. God goes to work to dry up this ungodly
reason.
The growth He brings is not through our understanding or through how
good we are, but through the humble ways of the Gospel. He doesn’t
tell us to chuck our minds and reason, but to let His Word stand as
the final say. The mustard seed isn’t much, but grows into something
beyond what you’d expect. The Gospel, also, doesn’t seem like much,
but produces things greater than we could ever imagine.
Do you think about your Baptism much? That’s because you think that
not much can really come of it. But if you walk by faith, rather than
sight, you will see that the waters of Baptism actually bring new life
and life that never ends. This is something you can never understand,
but you do know, because the Holy Spirit has given you the faith to
know it and believe it. Does it seem that simple bread and wine
sitting on this altar isn’t much? Yes. But though you can never
understand how Jesus Christ delivers to you His very Body and Blood in
and with that bread and wine you know He does.
Faith is not understanding. Faith is not what you do. Faith is not
sight. It is not reason, explanation, or anything that can be
quantified. It is, simply, faith. It is what trusts solely in the one
man who was born of Mary and suffered in the place of the world. The
one man who conquered the grave by raising Himself from it. The one
man who ascended into heaven and even now brings Himself to you in His
Gospel and His Sacraments. Why? So that you may be forgiven. So that
you may grow. So that you may be sustained in faith. So that you may
know that He is the one who sustains you in your growth.
He doesn’t insist that you understand but invites you to hear. What
you hear, then, is not what you understand but is what you know. You
are forgiven. You grow in faith. He creates it and causes you to bear
fruit. He gives you life in which you will continue to grow and life
in which you will live forever. Amen.
SDG
--
Pastor Paul L. Willweber
Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS]
San Diego, California
princeofpeacesd.net
three-taverns.net
It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything
except where the marks of the Church are concerned.
[Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian]
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