In the animal kingdom and also to a large extent amongst humanity too, being small is a hazardous thing. The smallest, weakest member of a newborn litter of puppies or kittens for example is known as a ‘runt.’ The runt of a litter is often pushed out of the way by the bigger stronger babies and it is often undernourished and seldom survives. In a report published by the New York Times this month, 66,000 small businesses in America have gone into liquidation because of the COVID 19 crisis whereas larger firms are surviving.
The good news, however, in today’s gospel reading and in many places throughout the bible is that in God’s economy ‘the smaller the better!’ A Giant is slain and an army routed by one small boy and a pebble (1 Sam 17), a vast community of Jewish exiles are saved from annihilation by the faith of one young woman, Esther and over 5000 people are fed from just 5 loaves and two small fish. In God’s eyes, ‘the smaller the better’ because with something small God can do something BIG.
How do you like your Brattie? Mit oder ohne Senf? Mustard is a spicy condiment used all over the world to accompany food, but do you know where it comes from?
Believe it or not the mustard plant belongs to the same botanical family group as cabbages, Brassicae. As you will see later when I give you all a mustard seed, it is tiny. Yet according to Jesus “when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” (Matt 13:32)
Have you ever seen a cabbage the size of a tree? Perhaps not, but I have actually seen a cabbage the size of a huge shrub in one of the gardens at the Detmold open air museum. It was at least 1 meter ½ tall, maybe more. When I first saw it I thought it was some kind of gorse bush or broom tree with small bright yellow flowers, but when I looked closer I saw the unmistakable blue green stems and leaves of the cabbage family. The main stem, though still blue green in colour was as thick as my forearm. It was massive. As it was growing in the garden of a reconstructed 18th Century priest’s house, it is possible that the shrub I saw was in fact a mustard plant. Unfortunately the garden was closed to the public so I could not get any closer.
According to a botanical compendium of plants in Israel, the black mustard (Brassica Nigra) or the white mustard (Sinapis arvense or Sinapsis alba) are the most likely contenders for the plant referred to by Jesus in His parable. Mustard plants in the region of the Jordan River have been found to grow as tall as 3m high, their herbaceous stems having become woody. Although a mustard plant cannot become a tree per se, it grows to an enormous size, easily big enough for birds to perch in. This is extraordinary when you consider the size of this tiny seed. A wonderful picture of encouragement of God’s ability to use something small to do something BIG.
Jesus then uses a different illustration, but to give the same message, the parable of the yeast. Yeast is another extraordinary plant. It is a single-cell organism part of the family of fungi, called (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) which means ‘Sugar eating fungus.’ They are so tiny that it takes 20,000,000,000 (twenty billion) yeast cells to weigh just one gram, but when in contact with sugar, warmth and moisture in a flour mix it goes crazy and by the process we call fermentation produces carbon dioxide which makes baked goods rise. Whilst one can buy commercially grown yeast in solid or powder form it is likely that in Jesus’s day, bakers would use sourdough produced from natural yeast. Commercial yeast acts within 10 minutes in the right conditions whereas sourdough starter can take up to 24 hours. The result is the same. These tiny fungi plants take over and affect the entire batch of dough causing it to rise. This was another picture of God using something small to do something BIG.
Jesus said that the Kingdom of God starts tiny as a mustard seed or like yeast, but the effect that it can have is and will be huge. We are called to be like that mustard seed and like that yeast. We may be small in size as a church, but we can have a huge influence in our places of work, or school, our homes and our community. Like the sourdough of the bible, the Holy Spirit infuses us with power and we in turn can affect those around us. It may take years, but if we are faithful it will happen.
God can take little you to do something BIG
Amen