When Jesus was asked about the Kingdom of God, he tells a story, in one of his stories he describes a mustard plant. In this story he explains that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard plant, one of the smallest of seeds, but once it grows it spreads into a tree that allows the birds of the air to nest and rest on. An interesting description for the Kingdom of God. Looking at the church these days, I wonder if the institutional church has forgotten this story, we seem to think we are to establish our presence and make our points on top of a soap box, or pulpit, we have set up shop, claimed territory and built our sanctuaries. We have over and over again built our trees expecting birds to nest and find their rest, but I wonder if this what Jesus intended to build was something much different, something less visible, something more like a mustard plant.
Alex and I found ourselves in the park on Sunday, as we walked towards a group gathering we soon learned that there was a “no on prop 8” rally going on. Congressman and women, the Long Beach mayor, along with hundreds and hundreds of men and women against this prop most likely due to their lifestyle and sexual preferences. We watched as hundreds of men and women held hands, signs and raised their voices in their desperate efforts to hold on to an equal right. As we stood in the center of this rally both of us felt an unusual sadness, a deep burden; some type of grief. We were filled with compassion for our new neighbors. They longed to claim their right to love, to love whom ever they wanted and to have the same freedoms that any heterosexual would take for granted at any marriage ceremony they have attended or participated in. What was so significant about this event? Well, we listened to a reverend come up and give a speech on God that was so far from truth, so false and so pathetic that all I could do was cringe with my theological frustrations and irrefutable evidence for fallacy, yet I wasn’t angry, just sad. Then as we walked out of the park and noticed the few “yes on 8 signs” and the angry man holding the sign yelling his judgmental views and convictions on and at people, it was at this point that I felt anger. Anger? Anger for the judgment and form of communication that this protester chose to demonstrate his understanding biblical truths. It was at this point that this parable came back to my mind, the “mustard plant.”
I stood in the middle of a crowd that desperately desired to hold on to a legal right to get married. A group of gay and lesbians protesting their rights, along two pictures of the church; one completely accepting and lacking truth, one completely rejecting and lacking in grace and then, there was, a young couple full of compassion. Standing in the middle of the crowd I prayed that there would be seeds planted, small unnoticeable seeds that would one day grow. As we learn to love people for who they are and not what they should be, we plant seeds that when the time comes will become a tree, a mustard tree and the birds will find their place and they too will find their rest. Until then.
