The Power of Small Things

Mark 4:26-32

Great movements are launched by a single idea. “All men are created equal and endowed with certain inalienable rights; life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” That’s the idea that undergirds our nation. John Wesley, when he put together his society of Christians who were desiring to become disciples, came up with three simple rules: do no harm, do good, and keep the ordinances of God. When the time was right for God to save us, He sent Jesus. And the seed of the gospel is this: “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.” When Jesus was asked to summarize the Law of God by giving the greatest commandment, Jesus gave two: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength; and you shall love your neighbor as your self.”
All these movements, as well as the Law of God, and the gospel message, have at its heart an idea, a seed, that is easy to say, easy to remember, easy to understand, yet very powerful; powerful enough to change the world, to transform a life. This is why Jesus says the kingdom of God is like a seed.
An ancient disciple wrote about this parable of Jesus by saying the seed that is planted is the simple doctrine of the gospel, that by believing in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, one is saved. Yet, the branches that grow from this seed, all the other doctrines, the understanding of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that Jesus was fully human and fully divine, two natures in one person, that Mary gave birth to God, victory over death and sin by grace, the church as the body of Christ, and all the others, these branches become like a great tree, where wise disciples of Christ can build nests in and find comfort in its shade. The small seed of the gospel grows to such a size that the believer can live in and find shelter under this gospel. This is the kingdom of God, a single idea that has the power to transform the world, that has the power to transform a life.
Great people, great projects, great nations, a great church, all start with a small seed, proper tending, some luck, and time. This congregation began as a small seed, a group of German Methodists who believed this community needed a Methodist church. But just thinking it wasn’t enough. This small group had to invite others to join them. There had to be a lot of prayer. There had to be great sacrifice and calls for help in order to have the money and resources necessary to construct the building and pay the preacher. There had to be a long term commitment to the vision of having a Methodist church in Mt. Healthy. And we are heirs to that vision, that seed, that was planted and nurtured, some 140 years ago. It is this same vision that we are stewards of. We are charged with nurturing this tree, the United Methodist church of Mt. Healthy. We share the vision that has been nurtured all these years, the simple idea that Mt. Healthy needs a Methodist church. It is an idea that is true. Mt. Healthy needs us, and God needs us, to be a witness of the gospel and to provide hope and healing for the brokenhearted of this community. For the sake of those who started this congregation, for the sake of the people who live here, and for God’s sake, who gave the vision and provided the resources that made it happen and continues to make it happen, we support this church, by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our service.
One of the great things about Annual Conference is that you get to hear some great stories. One of the stories shared was by Mike Slaughter, who is the pastor of Ginghamsburg United Methodist Church. It is a congregation located just north of Dayton, near Tipp City, and is a leading congregation, not just for United Methodists, but for evangelical Protestant churches across the nation. And it all began when Mike, who served as a youth director in North College Hill by the way, was appointed to Ginghamsburg 31 years ago. That’s right; a United Methodist pastor beginning his 31st year at the same appointment. When he got to Ginghamsburg, there were 90 worshippers. By the next year, there were 60. But that was part of the price that was paid for the vision he received of a church that would have 2000 in worship on a given Sunday and would be multi-cultural in an area that had the Ku Klux Clan burning crosses when he first came. It was a huge vision, crazy even, considering his present reality of less than 100 in a lily-white, racist community. But the vision God gave him 30 years ago has come to pass.
Mike shared another story with us. One day, back in 1998, he was reading the paper and saw an ad for a BMW Sedan. On the other page of the paper was an article about the genocide going on in the Sudan. And it hit him. He knew more about the sedan than he knew about the Sudan. And as he learned more about the Sudan, and the humanitarian crisis taking place there as the result of yet another genocide, just like Bosnia, just like the Holocaust, just like so many other campaigns of slaughter, this Slaughter, Mike Slaughter, did not want his kids to know that this genocide took place and their dad did nothing about it.
So, Mike was convicted that the church needed to respond to what was happening in Darfur. Six years after his initial conviction about Darfur, Ginghamsburg church launched a campaign centered around a simple idea: Christmas is not your birthday. Mike challenged the members of the church to give as much as spent on their families for Christmas to the church for Darfur. So, if a family spent $1000.00 on themselves for Christmas, they were to give $1,000.00 to the Darfur campaign. The church responded, having raised around 4 million dollars over the past four years. This is an amount that, through United Methodist Committee on Relief, has built over 100 schools and provided education for thousands of children that otherwise would not have gotten any education at all. It is an amazing testimony to the power of a single idea, properly nurtured over time.
What seed, what idea, what vision, is being planted in you? What simple idea do you possess that, if nurtured and given time, could change the world? We all can be blessed with these visions. Scripture tells us that in these days, the days of the Lord’s reign, the Holy Spirit will come down on all people, and young people will have visions, and old people will dream dreams. Have you received a vision? What have you dreamed lately?
These seeds of faith, these visions and dreams, they don’t grow and bear fruit all on their own. The conditions have to be favorable. The seedling has to be taken care of. But if we set the stage, then the Spirit will cause things to happen, the vision to grow. This is synergy, the co-operation between us and God to make God’s dream and our dream come to pass. The vision that Mike received about responding to Darfur did not come to fruition on its own. A partnership had to be established with UMCOR so that the work could be done on the ground. A campaign had to be organized and resourced, along with promotional pieces and video clips, in order to communicate in a compelling way the simple idea that Christmas is not your birthday. The leadership team had to buy in to this plan. There was a lot of work that had to be done before the campaign could even be launched. And then, as the money came rolling in, it had to get into the hands of the right people in order to actually construct all those schools. And who would teach the kids? How would the books and lessons get there? So, we see that a vision alone, although critical, is not sufficient. It is just like the gospel message. The gospel, to be effective, must be received and nurtured; there must be repentance, complete surrender to the lordship of Jesus Christ, dying to self-will, transformation of the heart, holiness in living, all these things. However, we see again and again, that if the seed is received, and the hard work is done in order to cultivate and nurture that divine seed, God will make the seed grow, and it could produce fruit beyond our wildest imaginations. But it cannot be underestimated, the truth that for the seed to grow there must be planning and perseverance. This is true for big projects like the Sudan project. This is true for planting and growing a church, like our forebears did here in Mt. Healthy. It is true for the growth of a movement that the Wesleys launched 250 years ago. It is true for the experience of the kingdom of God within you. You have received the seed of the gospel, the pearl of great price. What is your plan to nurture that seedling? Are you paying the price? Are you persevering?
The truth is that our lives are mostly made up of small choices, small acts, repeated over and over, that accrue over time, shaping a life. Each day, we make a hundred choices. We perform a hundred small acts. Only occasionally do we find ourselves having to make a big decision or perform a major act. Most of our days, though, are comprised of small choices and small acts, that are like the drip-drip of water that, over time, has the power to carve stone. Our small choices, our small acts, can contribute or hinder the growth of that seed, whether it be a vision for your life, a vision for a community or a church, or the world, or the vision that is the kingdom of God within you; small choices and small acts that, over time, make a difference. And each day is a new day. As you look over the state of the garden that is your life, where should you begin? What choice do you need to make today? What action can you take that can contribute to what God wants to do in your life, to manifest the kingdom of God, to be the body of Christ in this world that God loves so much?