Ok, so the sermon title is a reading book from elementary school, for those who were in school in the 1970s. The sermon is not about learning to read though. I must admit, however, that the game of comparison begins in earnest from the very beginning of our educational lives.
It has been said that the real original sin is comparison. Looking at what you don't have that someone else does and comparing your 'have not' with their 'have.' Which makes me wonder if perhaps the act of comparison itself is the root of all other sins. Whether we like it or not, perception plays a BIG role in how we see or don't see each other, how we love or don't love each other, and how we think we measure up or don't measure up to everyone else. That is partly the context of all these parable messages we've looked at for the last few weeks... How we act as a good seed surrounded by bad soil. How we interact or not with weeds and those who consider us to be weeds... a million different perceptions, all accurate and all grossly inaccurate at the same time.
Life is full of perceptions. A friend told me she went to see a baseball game the other night because a youth she knows asked her to come watch him play. She didn't know anything about his baseball playing and had no preconceived notions at all about what he might be doing... playing, sitting the bench, whatever. Turns out he was the pitcher. She said she was immediately impressed... I mean, he's the team leader after all. His mom had a totally different perception because she was stressed that he was leading a losing effort. My friend saw this young man as a rock star. Others there saw him as a struggling player. Preconceived ideas. Comparisons. The world views change constantly.
So, we have, in this parable a mustard seed. An insignificant mustard seed. Small, so small... so very small that you almost can't see it. I have a mustard seed necklace that I got as a kid and the seed is in a glass ball which kind of magnifies it so you can see it. Anyway, in the parable, there is this mustard seed... and the story goes that it grows into the 'greatest of shrubs' and becomes a tree and the birds nest in its branches. This tiny seed becomes a big tree. There are other pieces to this scripture.. about a woman with yeast and flour and a man finding a pearl in a big field and buying the field.... the point is pretty obvious... you can have little things that make a big, big difference in your life. Like a pebble in your shoe, as another kind of example.
So what do we make of this lesson? Of the mustard seed analogy? Do we need to grow into big trees that birds nest in? And who perceives us as a big tree or not? Or is there some intrinsic value to just being a small seed? Or a small tree? And what role does comparison (compari-'sin') play in our determining whether large or small is best and of more value?
What if my friend had gone to watch the game and her young friend playing ball had played two innings in right field and sat the bench the rest of the game? Would she feel differently about him than she did after her surprise that he was the team leader, the pitcher? Is he a bigger tree because of his role, or is it perception and comparison that makes it so? And how or why is one greater than the other?
We have a choice of following our ego or thanksgiving. Following ego leads to comparison, guilt, separation from God, etc. If we choose instead thanksgiving, we are, in a sense, tossing the ego away. Beginning each moment with a thanksgiving to the Divine for all of it... the good and the bad and everything in between. Being truly thankful instead of being truly desperate and envious for something more.
So, then, the mustard seed need not struggle to see if it can grow into the 'greatest of bushes,' rather the mustard seed is thankful for the natural growth process of being a seed. The choice not to try to control an outcome by comparison, but to let the outcome unfold on its own.
Maybe, then, the 'tree' that gets created from the mustard seed is not large to all who see it. For the birds who nest in it, though, it is a sanctuary.
How do perceptions, comparisons, etc. affect the way we respond as Christians? How have these vices prevented us from being Christ in the world? Email me or comment below.
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