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Asia Sunday 2009
SERMON – 10.15am, Emmanuel Church, Pokfulam, Hong Kong
Sunday 14th June 2009
Revd. Canon David Pickering
Mark 4. 27
The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.
Strange things happen when we are asleep.
We go to bed tired, and if we are lucky we wake up all fresh bright and breezy.
We grow – nails, hair – men shave?
Plants grow in the garden.
So Jesus knew what he was talking about text
What Jesus is telling us is that while we are asleep God does not stop working.
His creation goes on night and day.
Our Old Testament reading puts it in another way,
All the trees of the field shall know
that I am the LORD.
I bring low the high tree,
I make high the low tree;
I dry up the green tree
and make the dry tree flourish.
I the LORD have spoken;
I will accomplish it.
There's a wonderful description in I Corinthians 3.6.
There Paul says, "I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave growth." Paul had been the first to arrive in Corinth to preach the good news of Jesus. Paul planted.
Later Apollos arrived, continued the work of evangelism, and helped in the task of building up the Church there. Apollos watered. But only God can make the goodness grow in people's hearts and lives.
As the next verse reads, I Cor 3.7, So neither the one who plants, nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.
All that we might do in any situation is nothing compared with the work that God does through us, and even without us.
It's so easy to be carried away with our own self-importance.
"I'm doing a wonderful, good and loving thing here"
But that is nothing compared with what God is doing.
We are merely his instruments, the tools in his hand.
We can be involved in the most complicated, involved, technical and skilled operation, but it is the work of God that fulfils the task.
But there is a second point that arises out of our reading.
Jesus a second time says, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it?
31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;
32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade." So often we think God is calling us to big and mighty things for him.
We're told to think big.
But small is not only beautiful, it is also essential.
Benjamin Franklin once wrote A little neglect may breed mischief . . . .for want of a nail, the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; and for want of the horse the rider was lost. The rhyme tells how the kingdom was lost because of the lack of that horse made all the difference in the crucial battle. One missing nail and the whole kingdom was overthrown.
This is expresses the familiar saying, 'take care of the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.
We are warned not just to look to the big issues, but to keep an eye on the small things of life.
We live in a world that is fixated on size and success.
Business is all about targets of growth.
The national economy must reach out forever-greater heights
Huge multinational conglomerates rule much of our world.
Even in the churches we are becoming obsessed by size and numbers.
In the midst of all this Jesus encourages us to look for God at work in the little things.
Size can be very deceptive.
On a world map, where is Hong Kong.
It is no more than a pin prick on the south east corner of China.
Yet to us with its enormous buildings and crowds of people it probably feels very large.
Compare screen saver view to Mount de Lure, about 35 miles away, with the number of people who live in Tower 6.
There are crowded cities in France, but there are also vast open spaces.
There are also open spaces in Hong Kong and other parts of Asia, but one of the main features of Asia are the large cities in confined areas.
And this brings people closer together.
This is perhaps why we celebrate today as Asia Sunday.
It is the togetherness that we experience.
Despite the UK and France belonging to the EU, I'm not aware of there being a Europe Sunday, or even a Europe Day.
Asia Sunday encourages us to celebrate, despite our small confined space, our wide and varied life and culture.
Being so many people in a small place brings a wide range of races, cultures and ethnic backgrounds together.
As with Paul and Apollos some will plant with their nature, character, personality, skills and gifts. Others will water, some will fertilise, some weed, and so the agricultural metaphor could go on. But what is important, no matter, who we are, what we do, or what may be our contribution, it is God that gives the growth.
We have to make sure we do not thwart, hinder or frustrate his will and purpose.
Amen.
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