Mark 4.26-32: The Growth of the Kingdom. Creationtide 20 Sept 2026

Just checking: Does anyone here watch the BBC programme `Garden Rescue’? It’s a programme where people have a sad-looking garden, that they would like to be transformed. They contact the expert gardening team led by presenters like Charlie Dimmock. I like it a lot, so much so that I even record it so that I don’t miss any of the episodes.

As much as I like Garden Rescue, what I enjoy even more and what never ceases to amaze me, is watching gardens that seemed hopelessly dead and grey and sometimes covered in frost or snow in winter come back to life in Spring and Summer. It’s also how this happens, slowly but surely. First, you see one or two small green leaves shoot out of a stem, and as the days go by, they increasingly grow in number and size. Before long all the greenery starts popping up all over the place. Even the lawn that seemed dull and lifeless and I was beginning to wonder if I would need to re-seed it this year, starts sprouting shoots all over the place.

This contrast between instant transformation and slow, almost invisible growth, takes us straight into Jesus’ two parables that we have before us today. Both ask us to look again at what we might otherwise overlook, the small, the ordinary and the apparently insignificant.

In both parables, Jesus is showing us something about the way God’s kingdom grows quietly, patiently and often in ways we cannot see. So, he recommends that we look very carefully at the small things of life, because it is in the little things that we can see God’s kingdom.

In the first parable the kingdom is like seed scattered on the ground and appears to do nothing at first. But eventually, if the farmer is patient – and doesn’t go digging it up every few days, like I used to do as a little girl, when I wanted to see if my seed was really growing; if the farmer is patient, the seed grows into a substantial harvest.

In the second parable the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, one of the smallest seeds they would have known, which disappears into the ground but, given time and patience, it grows from something tiny into a large, flourishing plant, with branches where birds can find shelter.

The contrast is between the seed’s unimpressive beginning, and the abundance of its eventual growth. Unremarkable beginnings can turn into significant achievements, if we exercise patience, and trust God.

So, these parables are not simply about gardening. They are about how God’s kingdom grows, and about whether we are attentive enough to recognise it.

Jesus’ hearers knew what an earthly kingdom looked like. Caesar ruled from distant Rome through governors, surrounded by wealth, ceremony and military force. A kingdom was expected to be large, visible and powerful.

So, when Jesus said that the kingdom of God was like seed scattered on the ground, or like a mustard seed disappearing into the soil, that would have sounded surprisingly unimpressive. They might have expected trumpets, armies, thunder and glory to be associated with the Kingdom of God. Jesus instead pointed them towards something hidden, something ordinary and quietly alive.

So, Jesus’ parables of the kingdom come as something of a surprise. The kingdom about which Jesus speaks, sort of sneaks up on you, like a thief in the night; it lies dormant in the ground, waiting to produce a tiny sprout; it hides in ordinary working people, farmers, widows, shepherds, fishermen, housewives, in you, and me, as we go about our everyday business.

God’s reign is everywhere, but to find it, you have to look very carefully, and very closely at little things.

We live in a world that is fixated on size and success.

We are often encouraged to measure everything by size and visible success: economic growth, organisational growth, church growth. Even the church can become anxious about numbers.

But Jesus reminds us that God’s work cannot always be measured immediately, and that smallness is not the same as failure.

His words encourage us to look for God at work in the little things: small acts of love and generosity, that grow into warmth and community; the everyday kindness of people, who serve others. The foodbanks of this world. Small groups of faithful people whose prayers spread over the neighbourhood. Sunshine and rainbows, buttercups and sparrows, small signs of God’s creative will.

For me, this parable also makes me think of the current state of our world, and many issues that are on our TV screens on a daily basis. The political upheaval across the world and natural disasters, that seem to be coming thick and fast, one after another. It’s easy to feel hopeless, and that whatever I, as an individual do, will not even make a dent on these huge problems. I think it’s important to do something, I really do; whatever God puts in your hand, whatever gift he has given you. If it’s to be a politician, go for it. Another option is to join organisations like Community Organising, so you can add your input in a meaningful way and help drive change. And if you feel led to pray, trust that your prayers will make a difference. Remember you are not the only one praying.

And when we think about the effects of Climate Change, you may think ‘these problems are too big, what difference can one person make?’ or ‘isn’t it too late?’ You can make a difference, yes, you can make a difference. And, no, it’s never too late. What’s important is to start somewhere, to do something. Like the farmer who sowed seed, if he hadn’t, he would have had no crop.

We don’t plant a seed because we can guarantee exactly what will happen. We plant it, because life begins with such acts of trust. Caring for creation is similar: we do what is within our reach, trusting that our small actions join the work God is already doing. I’ll say that again… we do what is within our reach, trusting that our small actions join the work God is already doing.

Take gardening for example. I think a lot of us here can do a bit of gardening. And you never know, you may just discover a bit of Alan Titchmarsh or Charlie Dimmock in you that you never knew was there!

It’s possible to do a bit of gardening even in very small spaces like boxes on windowsills. Some people in my street, and I know other streets and boroughs, adopt a tree and plant flowers around it. And St. Edmund has quite a bit of gardening space too! Even small actions matter, towards looking after the environment.

My point is, let’s do something, let’s start somewhere.

The mustard seed reminds us that smallness does not mean insignificance. A prayer, an act of kindness, a decision to care for a neglected patch of earth, a community choosing to work together—these may seem small, but they can become places of life and shelter.

And growth takes patience. It also takes commitment: we have to plant, tend and nurture what has been entrusted to us. The kingdom of God is still coming in all its fullness, but in Jesus it has already begun among us. So let us learn to notice the signs of God’s reign, to nurture them patiently, and to trust that God is at work even when we cannot yet see the harvest. Amen.

Hilda Gilbert
20 September 2026

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