Luke 13:18-19 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.’ I wonder what it was like for those first […]

Luke 13:18-19 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.’

I wonder what it was like for those first followers of Jesus. They must have sometimes wondered – what’s going to come of this?

The answer seems to be – “nothing much”!

Jesus declared: the kingdom of God is here.

But if someone asked – where?  The results looked miserable.

There are no dazzling parades.

No magnificent buildings.

No grand armies.

Most people reject Jesus or simply ignore him.

The capital city acts like he doesn’t exist.

The centres of culture of the day pay no attention to him.

– is this the kingdom of God?

It’s not much different today, is it? There seems to be a lot of evidence that the Good News is not very good news to many people. It hardly makes a splash! – does it? Like those first followers of Jesus, we need some encouragement.

And Jesus gives us this encouragement. Not something big, but something small.

Jesus paints this picture – someone reaches for a seed. It’s quite difficult to get hold of a single seed, they are so tiny. But, put it in the ground, the mustard seed grows into a shrub. That single small seed grows into a shrub and even birds can make their nests in it.

Jesus says, what looks small and insignificant, can have a big impact, a dynamic power that can change things, change people; do great things beyond everyone’s expectations. The Good News is the mustard seed! Paul says in Romans 1:16 – God’s Word – the Good News of Jesus is the power of God at work.

Here’s something to think about:

Could a small isolated village congregation generate a worldwide mission movement?

Munich is the capital of Bavaria, Germany and that’s where the headquarters of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Bavaria (ELCB) is. If you arrive in Munich at the airport, and want to book a train to Neuendettelsau, the person at the desk will more than likely have to look up where Neuendettelsau is. You have to get a train to Nuremberg and then change trains to Ansbach, but midway to Andsbach, you get off at – Wicklesgreuth – and then you wait for a small train on a side track to Neuendettelsau. Not exactly well known or at the centre of anything!

In the mid 1800’s, young Lutheran pastor Wilhelm Loehe, came to this small farming village – Neuendettelsau. On his first visit there, Loehe reportedly said: “not [even] dead would I like to be in that place!” But he did go to this small congregation in this insignificant village Neuendettelsau – and stayed 35 years until his death. Loehe put his trust in the God’s mustard seed – the Good News – he was convinced that faith finds its strength in the promises of God’s word – the Good News – the Mustard seed. And from this out of the way small village came a worldwide missionary movement that saw Lutheran churches grow around the world – including Papua New Guinea! And from there as well, a ministry of diakonia, a kind of Lutheran community care, also spread right through Germany and beyond.  Even today, Neuendettelsau remains a small village in Germany, who anyone making decisions today would never choose it for the headquarters of anything!  But it is today the headquarters of the mission department of the ELCB (not in Munich, not even in Nuremberg or Ansbach). And it’s still also a focal point of the diakonia movement, a centre of care for the sick and elderly and handicapped.  It’s just amazing – still today a small village yet essentially centred on international mission on the African and South American continents, Asia and the Pacific and church partnerships around the world and on care for others! Could a small, isolated village congregation generate a worldwide mission movement? Yes, and it all started from a preacher who trusted the tremendous possibilities and power of the good news, though it looks tiny, insignificant, unimportant, and weak! – the transforming dramatic power of a planted mustard seed.

Could rural village farmers host thousands of visitors and delegates for a nationwide synod?

A year ago, I witnessed the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea (ELCPNG) synod.

The Ialibu Lutheran mission station is at an altitude of 2000m and in sight of two distinctive and spectacular mountains – Mt Ialibu and Mt Giluwe. It is from there that the first missionaries – both overseas and Papua New Guineans – began their evangelism in this area in the mid to late 1950’s, with the first baptism in 1963 – so within living memory. Most of the congregation members of this district are rural village subsistence farmers, living at a high altitude. How would they host the synod? There are very few opportunities for growing cash crops, and little paid employment available. But they have sugar cane, green vegetables, and pigs. And something else – the good news – the district president there is always saying – my district has no businesses – the business of my district is the good news. So here’s another mustard seed parable.

The synod welcome song recalled the mustard seed –

They sang about how the Good News came to their forefathers and mothers Miti nanga miti (ane miti-e) – who received it declaring: this is the good news for me! And it changed their lives (peace!) And the song continues declaring – like our forefathers and mothers we too say Miti nanga miti (ane miti-e) – this is the good news for me! It changes our lives. The generation of today also declaring – this is the Good News for me (too) – this is my God, my church, my time!

Children, youth, and musicians composed and practised songs, tambourine patterns, and dances. There were many young leaders and there were many volunteers, young and old.

Mothers designed and made bilums and uniforms.

They planted gardens and raised pigs.

With the resources they had, and the funds they raised – they constructed permanent and semi-permanent delegate houses for sleeping, and for preparing and serving meals. They constructed a 2.8 km road. They extended power lines to the area. They supplied water. They built grandstands. They hired a huge tent. They bought audio visual equipment.  They built the synod hall.

The synod opening ceremony and worship service, “Wow, what a spectacular event. Honour and glory to almighty God.”

Delegates and visitors processed to the sounds of kundu drums and songs. Estimates are that between 5,000 -10,000 gathered to witness the event in person.

The spectacular welcome ceremony featured children and young people in their colourful costumes, dancing with tambourines. Women with their kundu drums and dressed in their theme colours – yellow and purple, and men in their traditional singsing attire. They presented the mission of God to the world with the wind and the fire of the Holy Spirit and God’s promise to be with his people – Immanuel – the name of their district – after all means that promise; God is with us! God’s mission to the world reached Papua New Guinea with the good news and penetrated to the highlands of Papua New Guinea to the 5 circuits of the ELC Immanuel District.

A converted Toyota Land Cruiser meandered along the road from the Highland’s Highway to the synod venue. It was another reminder to all, of the dedication of those to bring the good news across oceans and mountains to these mountain people high above the ocean waves. And that boat, a picture of the church in mission, appeared right until the end of the conference because the church is moving on to continue that task in the power of the Holy Spirit. The mustard seed still having its impact.

And at the closing ceremony they made this symbolic presentation of the sugar cane, green vegetables, and pigs.  Very basic things to the rural communities there (their mustard seed) – reminding all to see that Gods people, blessed by God, can have a tremendous impact for the good news. So that more people across PNG will come to see and say “Miti, Nanga miti.” The good news for me. And yes, that this good news for me – will be the good news to share with others.

Could one small seed grow into a large garden plant?

Just in case we forget the message – Jesus sometimes used a few other pictures you might remember:

A little bit of yeast in the dough.

A little bit of salt in the soup.

Lighting one candle in the darkness.

Our assumptions about power based on size and numbers aren’t in Jesus’ pictures here. Jesus is talking more about something dynamic, that is released when: the mustard seed is planted, the yeast gets into the dough, the salt into the soup, the light switched on in the darkness.

Jesus’ story of the mustard seed is not talking about great numbers (only one seed) and not about size (because it’s so small). As far as numbers go, Jesus followers here – you – remain a small group. I wonder what you think for your parish? Your congregation? Do you think: we don’t have much, we can’t do much.

But what do you have?….and especially – do you have a mustard seed? And what happens when the seed is planted, when it gets into the ground.

God’s Word – the Good News of Jesus is the power of God at work (Romans 1:16). Trust God, believe the Good News of Jesus – live in God’s forgiveness; grow in God’s love for you and for others and for the world. That was pastor Lohe and his congregation in a village where – even dead he didn’t want to be there – but there was that mustard seed the good news which transformed what they did have to reach out in branches where they’ve never been, to people they’ve never seen.

And that’s the village gardeners in the Ialibu area – what have we got – cabbages, sugar cane and pigs – and as their district leaders inspired them they saw the good news blessed what they do have and that was enough for them to  participate in what God is doing in their country too, far beyond their mountain lives and inspiring me and perhaps you, today too…

When the word of God the good news comes as a seed into your hearts it contains within it a tremendous power – of God’s grace, of God’s love. It wants to get out. It wants to grow and bear fruit. Once a seed has fallen into a heart, it wants to grow out of those hearts, your heart, and spread its branches over others – maybe your family, your work, your friends and associates, or perhaps, why not? to people you have never and will never know.

With the good news, do what God has called you to do: If you don’t plant a seed, I can guarantee that nothing will grow, nothing will happen. With that mustard seed planted, in you personally, in your congregation, in your parish let those roots go deep down and the branches spread out… Live that good news, if not by your words, then by your compassionate actions, and your generosity with what you have been blessed, and with your prayers. And like with the small and unlikely mustard seed, God can unleash a power which is eternal and true and unstoppable.

But are you saying: Who are we Lord? What can we do?

But like Neuendettelsau – the once “not dead would I like to be there in that village”,

and like the people in the mountains around Ialibu with only cabbages, sugar cane and pigs – what could they do?  But their planted seeds grew. God’s good news – this mustard seed – God’s love for this world came to you – with his grace, his love, his forgiveness, his blessing, and refuses to stay there! Whose lives will God’s love touch through you?

Amen

This sermon was shared by Pastor Greg Schiller for the Papua New Guinea Missionary Fellowship Reunion.