“Harvest in Provence”, Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890.

Mark 4:26-34
For Sunday, June 17, 2012
Proper 6 

The kingdom of God is like a lumbering corporation.  This is why our churches need to be large to be successful.  We need Senior Pastors, Executive Pastors, Senior Associate Pastors, Associate Pastors, and a legion of staff if we are to do God’s work effectively.

Is this really the way it has to be?  Is this the way God wants it to be?  Jesus said this:

This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.

Could it be that the kingdom of God really is like a mustard seed versus a lumbering corporation?   Which better follows the function of the gospel, a corporate hierarchy, or a bag of mustard seeds?  Could it just be that our churches work despite our hierarchies rather than because of them?  Are there mustard seeds under foot?

Point to Ponder:
If the kingdom of God really is like a mustard seed versus a lumbering corporation what difference would this make for your church?

Image credit:
Gogh, Vincent van, 1853-1890. Harvest in Provence, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. http://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55315 [retrieved June 12, 2012].