Washington National Cathedral, Tuesday, 29 October 2024, Luke 13: 18-21
Collect
Almighty and everlasting God, increase in us the gifts of faith, hope, and charity; and, that we may obtain what you promise, make us love what you command; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Then Jesus asked,
What is the kingdom of God like? What shall I compare it to? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the birds perched in its branches.
Again, he asked,
What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough.
Friends, whatever God’s Kingdom may one day become, it starts out as the smallest of things. And you and I, as followers of Jesus are supposed to be Kingdom builders. So never underestimate what God can do if we are willing to plant our little seeds along the way. Never underestimate the effect of a kind word or a listening ear. Never take for granted what a little hospitality can do when it is offered to a stranger. Those Sunday School lessons that you may be teaching that the kids don’t seem to be hearing, they may plant a seed in those young minds that will take root and grow in ways you cannot now foresee. The hospital visit you make, the Bible study you volunteer to lead, the mission trip you sign up for, the altar flowers you spend hours arranging, the work you put into ensuring that the parish supper is a success, the church pledge you stretch to fulfill — all of these efforts are little seeds planted along the way, sometimes invisible yes, but seeds of hope, seeds of the Kingdom. Seeds that can grow and bloom through the power of the Holy Spirit in ways we cannot imagine.
When Mother Teresa first started her ministry she told her superiors, “I have three pennies and a dream from God to build an orphanage.” Her superiors reminded her that she would need a whole lot more than three pennies to start an orphanage. “I know,” she said, smiling, “But with God and three pennies I can do anything.”*
God bless you all for all the ways you are planting seeds for the Kingdom. Our country needs people willing to plant little seeds of hope, love, meaning and truth now more than ever. It may sometimes feel like our small efforts are futile, a drop in the ocean, actions that have little consequence. Does it really matter if we welcome one stranger? Does it make any kind of a difference that we made it possible for one family to have a Thanksgiving dinner? Can the little bit of time I take praying for others in my life really benefit them at all? Yes, all these small expressions of love matter. They matter because we are not alone. They matter because whenever we do these things we are in fact partnering with the Holy Spirit who is alive and working among us. It only takes a little bit of yeast to leaven a whole loaf. And we are called to be that yeast, we are called to plant those tiny mustard seeds that grow to be immense shrubs.
God’s Kingdom will be fulfilled when Christ returns. But in the meantime, he has left us with the work of Kingdom building, and I can’t help but believe that he knew what he was doing.
Amen.
The Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, Dean, Washington National Cathedral
* Christian Globe Networks, Inc., Christianglobe Illustrations, by King Duncan