11th Sunday of Ordinary Time, B June 13, 2021
Fr. Albert St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette
I first arrived in Jeanerette in February, about the time that those little yellow flowers take over just about every open space they can find. Each year since, I’ve looked forward to that time of year, especially since the yellow ones are then followed by white ones, then pink and blue and now we’re seeing the purple ones. As a community so rooted in farming, the spontaneity and variety of these flowers are an important reminder that we’re not in control and, even if we were, God’s ways are not our ways and his plans are always more beautiful.
That’s part of what Jesus is getting at in this parable about the farmer who plants seeds and waits. For all our technology and knowledge of crops, we can’t actually make the sugarcane grow, only provide the best conditions. Life and growth are beyond us. We cannot take what is non-living and make it alive. We can only nurture life and wait for its growth. Life is a mystery.
The Kingdom of God, that is also a mystery. When we hear those words, “Kingdom of God,” what do we picture? A particular country or form of government? Heaven? The Church? Well, evidently Scripture thinks of a tree, at least in today’s readings. The prophet Ezekiel gives us a prophecy of God planting a mighty Lebanon Cedar on a high mountain and birds nesting in it’s branches. To the ancient Jews, this was a promise of future glory – symbolized by the majestic tree – and ruling over all nations – the birds who nest in it.
Under King David, the Jews had a glorious kingdom, but it fell apart thanks to sin. So, the tree of his kingdom was cut down. Like Ezekiel, Isaiah had a prophecy involving a tree. He spoke of a shoot springing up from the stump of Jesse. Jesse was David’s father, so this was a promise of renewing David’s kingdom. Along comes Jesus, descended from David. He is the shoot, the promise of the new tree.
The Jews of his day knew the promises so when Jesus spoke of the “kingdom,” they were getting excited. But Jesus spoke in parables. Parables aren’t just relatable stories. They always have a twist, something unusual or unexpected. The reason is that parables don’t just convey information. They’re designed to draw listeners into deeper reflection, from being passive into active thought. Jesus’ goal is not memorization of facts about the kingdom of God, but for us to become a new kind of person. He seeks to draw us into a heavenly worldview. This requires thought, reflection, and a lot of upended expectations.
In the first parable, the odd part is the farmer’s behavior. The ancient people didn’t just throw seed around and wait. They knew how to plant in rows and water their crops. But the idea is to put the focus on the mystery of life and growth beyond our control, to teach us to watch for what God is doing and then harvest that fruit. For all our efforts to make a better Church or bring more people to conversion, it is ultimately dependent on God’s grace. Hard work will go nowhere without grace and sometimes, just to prove a point, God brings about sudden conversions of people we weren’t even trying to reach.
In the second parable, Jesus is playing on the expectation of that glorious cedar tree full of birds. Only, instead of a great tree he picks a shrub. A mustard plant was basically a weed and got maybe 8 feet tall, but the respectable Lebanon cedar goes over 100. Though both are full of birds, it’s not exactly an exciting comparison, especially after these people had an expectation of something more glorious, something more obviously dignified. There are two ideas here. First is that the kingdom will start small and get big later: from 12 Apostles to over a billion Catholics. Second is to not be fooled by humble appearances. Though a mere shrub, it houses many birds just as the great tree would.
Yet, converting these parables into simple lessons is not enough, not if we bypass the challenge they’re meant to present. Jesus explains things to his disciples in private later. But, what makes a disciple? It is someone who is already active, already engaged with the process of being transformed. It is someone who already puts Jesus and the kingdom at the heart of everything in their lives and doesn’t just confine him to 1 hour on the weekend.
What’s the point? The point is that understanding the kingdom of God is a process, not a list of ideas and teachings. Jesus deliberately upsets expectations for his hearers by using parables here. In other places, he does some obnoxious things like flipping tables or purposely healing people on the sabbath just to contradict people and make them think, to at least get them to stop being passive observers. Don’t get me wrong, we do have to receive the truth from Jesus. We receive communion, we do not seize it for ourselves. We have to hear the Gospel and be taught the truth, we won’t figure it out on our own. This is an active receptivity, which is not the same thing passively observing.
The point is that Jesus is going to upend your expectations on purpose to move you out of being passive. In practical terms, this comes from looking at the world and seeing the mess. Political manipulation, heinous crimes, and unjust laws. It is corruption in the Church and declining numbers in everything from Baptism to Funerals. It is unanswered prayers and difficult experiences, even when we’re being faithful. We want Jesus, but we also want to be well-to-do, liked, and generally successful. We serve a man crucified on the tree of the cross, yet we somehow keep expecting the Church to be like that glorious tree, the Lebanon cedar on a mountain. Hidden and mysterious growth like scattered seeds… small seeds that become large but humble plants…
The kingdom of God is not worldly victory and political dominance. When you suffer, when your expectations are not met, when you see the mess in the world and are distraught, do not be afraid. Instead, let these draw you into more active engagement with the Truth. Wrestle with God in prayer, be willing to evaluate old assumption and question your own expectations, beg for the faith to see. The Kingdom of God is there and it is growing. If we cannot see it, it is not the kingdom that needs to change, but our way of looking because ultimately, we walk by faith, not by sight.