How?

Then Jesus said, “This is what God’s kingdom is like. It’s as though someone scatters seed on the ground, then sleeps and wakes night and day. The seed sprouts and grows, but the farmer doesn’t know how. The earth produces crops all by itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full head of grain. Whenever the crop is ready, the farmer goes out to cut the grain because it’s harvesttime.” He continued, “What’s a good image for God’s kingdom? What parable can I use to explain it? Consider a mustard seed. When scattered on the ground, it’s the smallest of all the seeds on the earth; but when it’s planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all vegetable plants. It produces such large branches that the birds in the sky are able to nest in its shade.” With many such parables he continued to give them the word, as much as they were able to hear. He spoke to them only in parables, then explained everything to his disciples when he was alone with them. (Mark 4:26-34, CEB)

The farmer plants the seeds and then they grow. The farmer doesn’t know how.

The earth does its thing and makes the plant grow from the seed. The farmer can do more than what is said in the reading here which is sleep, but even then it might not have a good effect on the seed. I know many farmers who make sure they work the soil before planting and then weed and water and nourish the seeds but sometimes it helps and sometimes it doesn’t. Now there is a science to farming which I really know nothing about and a farmer could tell me more about, but the text while about seeds and growth is really about the kingdom of God.

We really do not know how the kingdom of God works, or how it comes about, but here the author of Mark tells us that it will come because that is what God wants. The seed will take hold and the kingdom will grow, and then the harvest and the kingdom will be fulfilled.

We do not have to get it or understand it. We just need to trust in the promise that it is coming.

We will all get shade in the kingdom.

Loving People. Loving God.