May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

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. (Mark 4:26-29)

In Christ, dear friends: Today we begin a 3-part series of worships on God's Kingdom. I pray that we can understand and appreciate more fully what this Kingdom is, how it is that we are in this Kingdom and what we can expect in this Kingdom. First off, let us all learn and remember that the Kingdom of God is a present reality. Some think it is not yet here. They think this way because they do not understand what the Kingdom is. They have in mind that the Kingdom is outward - Christians holding power, the 10 commandments respected and obeyed by all. That will only be in heaven. The Kingdom is not perceived outwardly. Consider Luke 17:20-21 - The kingdom of God is within you. The Kingdom of God is hidden, in the heart. It is Jesus conquering a persons mind and will, graciously taking it captive. It is Jesus convicting a conscience of its sin and convincing it of forgiveness in the blood of Jesus. It is the Holy Spirit making a believer want to serve God in all he does.

Today we listen to this Gospel reading with the central thought GOD'S LIVING SEED. Here Jesus speaks of how it is that you and I become a part of this wonderful Kingdom of God. I pray that in our time with this little, simple but wonderful parable of Jesus God will do great things for us. It is the desire of every Christian to crawl inside Jesus' parables, to understand them, take them to heart, and to find ourselves included among those who are blessed by God. To this end, may the Lord send us his Holy Spirit.

I do not know the time of the year that Jesus spoke this parable, this little simple earthly story with a heavenly meaning. There is no better time for us than right now when we have seeds, plants and growing on our minds. None of us are farmers. Still we are involved with agriculture in our little gardens, lawns and landscapes. If we do not have a green thumb, then just eating our foods makes us involved in seeds, plants and growing.

The living seed--the Word--comes from God. Except for the plants that God created whole and mature on the third day of creation, plants of all kinds come from a seed. This is what God created and established when he said: Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds. And it was so. (Genesis 1:11) We do not always think of this, but every seed that we plant in the ground had its beginning on that third day of God's creation. When you hold some flower seeds, an acorn, and apple in your hand, you hold a gift from God. What wonderful things are these seeds! These little odd, sometimes ugly little things have life inside them. Put one in the ground and a miracle happens--life. By these seeds, God gives us plants that feed, shade, and beautify our little corner of the world. Everything you see growing came from a seed! And the seed came from God.

There is an even more wonderful "seed" that has an even more wonderful life in it. God's Living Seed is his Word. In Mark 4 Jesus had just told the parable of the sower and the seed. He himself says the seed pictures the Word, the Holy Scriptures. Just as a seed has life hiding inside it, so the Word has life inside it. Jesus said once: These words I speak to you--they are spirit and they are life (John 6:63). God's Word carries his Son to us. Where the Word is there is Christ. The same Jesus who called Lazarus out from his grave and who said: I am the life--this Jesus is present wherever the seed of his Word is present. Because it carries and holds Jesus, this Living Seed, the Word of God, is packed with life. We do not always see it and think about it. But just as certainly as seed placed in the warm moist ground will sprout, so certainly will the Word of God cast upon the heart sprout into Life.

It is a shameful sin when we take for granted the wonder of nature and fail to give God due thanks for all the plant life we enjoy and depend on. It is all the more shameful when we do not appreciate the wonder of the Living Seed. And if God would cause us to remember this minute that each of us is a miracle of his Life-giving power, then God has done another miracle this day!

It is cast upon the human heart. God's power is obvious in his creating such a wonderful thing as seeds and the Living Seed. We cannot duplicate or even understand it. God's grace is obvious in what he does with this Living Seed. He scatters it in reckless love. In the parable of the sower / seed the seed is cast to unlikely places. No farmer would be so reckless. But Jesus is not teaching us how to plant earthly seeds. He is telling us what God is like with his Living Seed. It is the Lord of mercy and grace and patience that scatters the Living Seed on the earth into the human heart. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

It is being cast right this minute on our hearts. He would plant anew contrition for God knows that again this week we have doubted him, worried needlessly, hated, sought the trivial above the eternal, and demanded as if we were master and God our servant. It is cast right now. He would plant anew faith, to have you hear: You are forgiven. He would have us see him as our heavenly Father who has our good at heart and to have us trust him watchful rule over our lives. This is the quiet and personal working of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in your heart, what Jesus calls the kingdom of God. No one can see it. Sometimes we are not even aware of it ourselves. It does transcend all understanding. It happens. We have experienced it many the times. That's what makes us come back again and again to the Living Seed. Enjoy. Look for it! Rely on it!

It produces a wonderful harvest. There are stages of growth in our plants. Jesus speaks of them--the stalk, the green fruit and then the ripened fruit harvested. Each stage is enjoyable. It warms the heart to see the new growth of spring. For many God's earth never looks better than in the spring when everything is new, when the lawns are turning green, the leaves and buds coming out after a long winter. Mid-growing season also has its blessings. The first few green tomatoes make us long for the days of ripened fruit. And of course, the harvest days of late summer and fall have their rewards.