Proper 12 (A) + Kin-dom seed + 7.26.20

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Melissa Campbell-Langdell
All Santos, Oxnard
(Ps 105:1–11, 45b; Romans 8:26–39; St Matthew 13:31–33, 44–52)

The Kin-dom of Heaven is like an immigrant from Burma who comes to the US with ten dollars in his pocket and builds a life.
The Kin-dom of Heaven is like a pandemic baker carefully cultivating the sourdough starter and mixing just a little into the batch so it will rise.
In the Christian Century Magazine in May, Debra Dean Murphy spoke of a “communion of the helpless” and how it feels to pray in the face of a pandemic. When things feel too big, we may feel we are simply offering our prayers without any sense of efficacy. But she continues to say that “there is no place from which the love of God is absent,”[1] even in a pandemic.
There is no place where the love of God is absent. And today’s gospel reminds us that there is nothing too small to make a huge difference in the world.
A small mustard seed grows into a big bush, or apparently a tree in some places. A little yeast leavens the whole batch – we saw that firsthand when Pastor Alene made cinnamon bread the other day! The yeast was going to town with the sugar!
When I met with my small group during the Un Tal Jesus bible study this week, we talked about how many immigrants come to this country with nothing, and they make a life, just like the parishioner I referred to moments ago. We reminded ourselves that we are not helpless, no matter what the world might say. Whether we are immigrants, the elderly, people of color, women, queer folks or people with a disability. We are the yeast. We are the mustard seed. And together, something big can grow!
In the reading from Romans today, we hear: “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38-39).”
No pandemic, no racial inequity, no power in this world can separate us from the love of God.
That is why we have to be the seed, the yeast, the little bit of good and hope that changes the world. That is why we pray together on Sundays, and during the week- on WhatsApp, Facebook and Zoom and on the telephone. Our prayer is not the prayer of the helpless. We pray to be the seed that spreads hope.
On a social media post this week I saw an activist counseling others to keep posts positive and hopeful because the “powers that be” want people to lose hope. And that is so true. The forces of evil will try to trick you at this time into believing that things are hopeless, that you are helpless.
But you are not. You are the yeast. You are the seed. You are the salt and the light.
Now, yeast works with patience and time. With allowing it to work. Many times you have to let the dough rise for a long time. So we must try on that extra bit of patience. With ourselves and others. (For me, that’s the hardest.) We must give ourselves permission to rest, which is ironically hard at this time. From the news cycle. From anything that is sapping our energy. We must spend time in nature; however that may be accessible for us. Even a window or a patio can become a way to see the natural world, if we cannot take a hike or go to the beach. We must give our spirits time to breathe.
And then just keep sprinkling in hope and letting it sit. Know that God is activating the good below the surface. We are waiting and watching, and it may seem that all sleeps but something good is being cultivated.
If, like the sourdough starter, we keep feeding it, nurturing it, sending it some daily love.
We will get through this. We will see something of the kin-dom of God in this dark time.
If we have eyes to see
And ears to hear
And remain faithful, trusting in that love that carries us underneath it all!

[1] Debra Dean Murphy, “When we can’t pray,” Christian Century Magazine, May 20, 2020, p. 59.

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