Mark 4:26-34 (NRSV)
Read Mark 4:26-34 on biblegateway.com
Verse 26He also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, Verse 27and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. Verse 28The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. Verse 29But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come."
Verse 30He also said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? Verse 31It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; Verse 32yet 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."
Verse 33With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; Verse 34he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
Devotion
Plants and their growth are surely mysterious and miraculous. I remember as a child watching nature programming showing in time-lapse photography growing plants that seemed to come out of nowhere. The seeds are buried and abandoned in the earth. Then at just the right time life bursts forth and the plant pushes out of the earth—oxygen, beauty, potential for more life—food for a hungry world.
Faith and its growth are surely miraculous and mysterious as well. Seeds are scattered and seemingly buried—Word and sacrament, prayers, testimony, family traditions, church community traditions. Sometimes the soil seems deep, dead or inhospitable. But after the appointed time—maybe like the three days after that dark Friday, maybe according to a much different time frame after a baptism or other faith initiation—life bursts forth. That new life brings grain or fruit or testimony offering abundant life to others.
Prayer
God, give us patience and hope. Your Word does what it is sent forth to do. Your seeds bring about faith and life as well. Thank you for folding us into the mystery and the miracle of your planting. Amen.