6B Parables and Seeds Scattered, Mark 4:26-34 June 13, 2021, St. Mark’s Episcopal Church Little Rock
“Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.”
This seemingly innocent English nursery rhyme has been given many hidden political and historical interpretations. Ordinary poems have often disguised a point of view allowing people to speak out against an issue/ but not be immediately arrested or killed because of this belief. Is the rhyme about Mary, the mother of Jesus, Mary Stuart killed by her cousin Elizabeth, or Bloody Mary, Elizabeth I’s sister? My favorite interpretation is that this is Jesus’ Mary. The cockle shells are the badges worn by pilgrims who take the Camino Walk to the Shrine of St. James in Spain./ The bells are the Sanctus bells we hear at the Eucharist telling us something holy is happening. The sanctus bells we hear today rest on a cushion made in memory of Cindy Miller which will soon be blessed.
“Mary, Mary, quite contrary,
How does your garden grow?
With silver bells, and cockle shells,
And pretty maids all in a row.”
A crowd follows Jesus to the seashore. The gathering is so large that Jesus gets into a boat, sits down, and begins to preach in parables. If people are looking for a lesson in theology this particular morning,/ they are disappointed. But the farmers and gardeners are excited as they hear the kingdom of God is about seeds, crops, and plants. However, this gardener scatters seeds all over the ground, not deeply in parallel rows or in fitted holes in socially distanced rows. Our gardener and farmer sleep and get up each day,/ but not much happens except this feverish activity. Eventually, out of the darkness,/ rising from the ground,/ the seeds sprout and become plants. No one knows how this happens,/ but at varying times,/ depending on the seeds,/ we see stalks of wheat, corn, an iris, a daffodil, a tulip, a pumpkin, or a watermelon appears./ Jesus seems to say the kingdom of God mysteriously occurs in ordinary things/ in ordinary places in our ordinary lives./
When Jesus is alone with his disciples, he retells the parables and explains the stories in more detail.
Why this hiddenness and secrecy? Why does Jesus only speak in parables to the crowds? Well, previously, the scribes from Jerusalem declare Jesus as a Satan follower. Jesus’ disciples say he now speaks in these parables to keep out of prison,/ at least for a while. Talking about seeds and dirt should not get him arrested for preaching heresy and treason.1
So, what is Jesus really telling us?/ The seeds in the parable go into the ground and become plants in some mysterious way, unknown to most of us except maybe the botanists! It all happens in the dark. Remember that creation itself occurs in the dark. Jesus’ life story teaches us the miracle of heavenly things happening in darkness in the most significant events of his life: his birth, his arrest, his death, and of course, his resurrection, all in darkness. No one is present to see his resurrection. It happens in the darkness of the tomb, now empty,// as do so many of our own resurrections occur in the dark tombs of our lives.2 /
Amy Jill Levine calls parables Jesus’ short stories. Like a favorite short story or poem, we find different meanings previously missed each time we read it, usually because of our life experiences since our last read.3/
So, let’s dig deeper into the story itself. Herbert O’Driscoll asks us to consider that we are the ground,/ and the seeds are sown within us. The seeds are words and actions from our experiences with family, friends, or enemies. Perhaps they are words we hear at this church. Words spoken or sung each Sunday. Words placed there at our baptism, or Vacation Bible School or Camp Mitchell. Actions of love come to us from so many possibilities. Sometimes they are stories told us by friends sharing their Christian journey and faith. These seeds are sown within us in some mysterious way and are also miraculously nurtured within us,/ sometimes for years.4
I would like to share one story of a seed planted here at St. Mark’s many years ago.
My husband is cleaning out our basement and intermittently brings up treasures to decide if I want to give them away, throw away, or keep them. Recently he brought up a book, The Edge of Adventure, by Bruce Larson and Keith Miller. Many may remember Keith Miller, who visited Little Rock several times and wrote about the 12 steps of recovery for everyday living for ordinary people. I remember we studied The Edge of Adventure in a weekly book group led by Dean McMillin at St. Mark’s at the old gift shop called the Bookmark,/ where the youth recently met and will soon be the outreach center. When I read a book, I usually write on the title page the date I begin reading it. There were two dates, 1981 and 1984.
The plot thickens. Pay close attention. Inside The Edge of Adventure is this newsletter, The Postmark. It was what our online Friday Remarks has become. (Now, don’t get Postmark, Remarks, Bookmark and St. Mark’s confused.) The Postmark is dated September 5, 1984. Inside are predominately outreach opportunities, reminding us that St. Mark’s has always been a church reaching beyond our walls. Outreach describes this church from its roots. The other pillar of St. Mark’s besides music and liturgy has been children and adult formation. On the front cover of the newsletter is the list of formation opportunities in the Forum for September, October, and November 1984. On November 18, 1984, in italics is Alcohol Awareness Sunday – a special program in Forum.
I remember this Forum! People in recovery from all walks of life and religions share stories in the old parish hall about their addiction and what life is like now in recovery. I know one of the women speaking! She is an active member of this church! I identify with her story! I have known for some time that I have a problem. I say in my mind that I am going to meet with her. I write her a letter, even put a stamp on it, /but I never mail it. I often see her at St. Mark’s services and functions but never say anything about my addiction to alcohol. It is not until 1990/, six years later, that I walk into a 12-step recovery room and seek help. Six years later!/
One more mind-boggling thing, or maybe it is Spirit-filled. My sobriety date is November 18th, the exact month and day of this Forum, just six years earlier, November 18th.
Does this tell you anything or make the hair on the back of your neck stand up? It does for me. I can barely talk about this parable. The God of our understanding, the Holy Spirit, through so many other people, plants in the innermost ground of our being, tiny seeds like the mustard seed./ These seeds are nurtured particularly by decaying parts of ourselves. The seeds grow and sprout just when they are ready to become edible flowers and plants that produce fruit for ourselves and other people. This fruit of the Spirit allows us and others to become the persons God created us to be. God never, ever, ever gives up on us, even when we stray way off the garden path or out of the field. The seeds are scattered everywhere. /
I have heard some of your stories. I know many of you also have experienced God planting seeds within you when you never realized it. God just waits for us, often in what seems like the darkness of our darkest times. The Spirit waits for us until we are ready,/ now and throughout all eternity,/ to experience this resurrection in our lives.//
Mary,/ who we think you are,/ this is one more story,/ one more parable,/ one more poem/ about how your garden grows,/ and grows,/ and grows/ to produce the fruit of the Spirit. Cockle shells and Sanctus bells ringing all over this place. Amen.
1 Barbara Brown Taylor in The Seeds of Heaven (Westminster John Knox Press 2004) p. 24.
2 Sue Monk Kidd in When the Heart Waits, Spiritual Direction for Life’s Sacred Questions (HarperSanFrancisco 1990).
3 Amy Jill Levine in Short Stories by Jesus, The Enigmatic Parables of A Controversial Rabbi (HarperOne 2014).
4 Herbert O’Driscoll in The Word for Today, Reflections on the Readings of the Revised Common Lectionary, Year B Vol. 3, p. 29.