Small Beginnings Which Produce Large Results
Preaching
The Parables Of Jesus And Their Flip Side
Cycles A, B, and C
Object:
There is a small Franconian village in the rolling hills of Bavaria, Germany, which never ceases to amaze all who learn of its fantastic history.
In the mid-1800s, a young parish pastor came to this simple farming village named Neuendettelsau. Wilhelm Loehe is now known around the world for the work he was able to commence in his little "silent wilderness," as he called it. Pilgrims come yet today to visit from Brazil, the U.S., New Guinea, and other distant lands.
Considered by some as one of the finest preachers of the nineteenth century, Loehe understood the possibilities of beginning small, setting loose the power of God's kingdom in his little Franconian village. Whole families relocated from across Germany to be in his church and hear his kingdom-centered preaching.
Over one thousand missionaries have gone out from Neuendettelsau to distant countries of the world. A deaconess movement began that produced thousands of white-capped angels of mercy. Homes were built in the little village, now with 7,000 people, for orphans, ill, emotionally disturbed, physically handicapped, and the elderly. A Lutheran seminary was established as well. It's now called the Augustana Hochschule.
All this began in a very small way in a tiny village by a preacher who had been dismissed from his first two internships -- but who knew the gospel's promise of tremendous possibilities from small beginnings.
Although he himself never visited here in the United States, Loehe and his disciples of Neuendettelsau are the founders of the Missouri Synod (along with C.W.F. Walther). They started seminaries in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Dubuque, Iowa; and my alma mater, Trinity Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. Missions to Native Americans were begun in Michigan and a whole synod developed in Iowa.
Jesus promised his followers it could be like that in the kingdom of God. Small beginnings, with some leaven of faith and those willing to sacrifice and pay a price, will produce amazing results.
The Gospel writer Matthew often arranged Jesus' teachings by similar subjects. That's what we are looking at in his thirteenth chapter. Jesus told of a mustard seed which is quite small and yet grows into a great tree. Then he told about what he had seen his mother often do -- put a little lump of yeast in the bread dough and soon it would influence the whole of the flour. Next comes the story of Jesus using a simple metaphor of a treasure hidden in a field and how a man spent a lot to get that treasure by buying the field.
Put together, or taken individually, these stories teach a great lesson to us disciples who so often count the cost, the possibilities of failure, the meager size of the project compared with the problems to be addressed, and we never get started in the first place. But Jesus said -- don't underestimate how a little beginning can grow and grow into spectacular results.
When I was a young high school student, I worked in a bakery at a time when that kind of work had to be done at night so our rolls and bread would be fresh for the daytime. We bakers were also on the Greenville, Ohio, informal volunteer fire department -- that mainly meant we would follow the fire trucks on their runs. Several times after the yeast had been placed in the dough, we would leave in a hurry to watch or help on the fire truck stationed nearby. If it took very long to put out the fire, we would return to the bakery to find our little batch of dough had expanded many times and was all over the bench and the floor around it. At the time we added yeast to the dough it seemed such an insignificant little bit of something -- but oh, how it grew!
Jesus promises that kind of result in his kingdom. "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough" (Matthew 13:33). Or he said, "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed: when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree..." (Matthew 13:32).
It's an important understanding for us who want to be faithful disciples: The coming of God's kingdom causes a transformation in our individual lives as dramatic as yeast in dough, and in the lives of communities like little Neuendettelsau, Germany. And it most often starts with tiny, insignificant, what the world would call unimportant, beginnings.
So when the refugees are starving by the millions, we don't hesitate to give our little ten dollar contribution to World Hunger. When so many youth in our culture are abused, we can offer to be foster parents or big brothers or sisters for one. And when drug addiction and alcohol abuse is rampant in our community, we support and volunteer to help at the church's new teen center. And when the community asks for volunteers, or collections like United Way are taken, or when all the other well-intentioned efforts at making things better are attempted, we report for duty no matter how small our contribution. For in the working of the kingdom, God can do great things with what others would consider inconsequential, not big enough to make a difference.
Sometimes such little things as a thank you note or some flowers or a phone call of appreciation or support balloons into large acts of kindness which are then often practiced by others more skeptical as well.
Christianity can and does bring about big changes in lives. Consider the constant seeking of peace. Consider the mean marriages changed into loving partnerships. Think of the addictions overcome.
Then there are the transformations of hateful people into kind ones and greedy folks into ones who graciously share. And whole communities can be changed with Christian leaven, changed to love people of different skin color, culture, and ethnic heritage than our own. The homeless and battered and abused can be sheltered from the cold. The hungry can be fed.
And it's not because we began a little bit of the kingdom here with great big designs. It's just that we took what little we could do and trusted that these simple parables of Jesus were correct descriptions of how it is in the kingdom -- little does grow into much and sometimes almost unseen and usually unheralded.
That's the way it was in little Neuendettelsau, Germany, when Johann Conrad Wilhelm Loehe arrived to begin his ministry. The tiny community was changed beyond even Loehe's wildest dreams. Individual lives were never the same again. That's always the way it's been in the kingdom: small, unpromising beginnings become dramatic, large results.
Look at how God worked it out to provide our forgiveness, salvation, a spiritual help here, and eternal life beyond the grave. It was an unpromising beginning in a limestone cave in Bethlehem, a ridiculed new kind of ministry, a resented-by-the-religious relationship with the church, and finally, a disgraceful crucifixion as a common criminal. But look how the world and our own lives have been changed because of those inauspicious beginnings.
The third parable is equally clear. This man who found a treasure and bought the field had his priorities right. He spent a lot to buy the field so now he obtained his treasure. This says to us that sacrifice is appropriate in certain cases of kingdom work. In a day of "get what's coming to you," and "don't let anyone take advantage of you," we have here a lesson in kingdom priorities which says that for some things it's still worth paying a big price.
We all should think about the causes and creature comforts for which we would sacrifice our lives -- a bigger home, more and bigger cars, a second place to live, a boat, camper, golf clubs. This list could go on and on.
Because of this parable, we must search our souls about what price we and our family ought to pay in order to have what our culture says we should have to be happy. Often we are much older before we realize that real joy does not come from possessing things but in quality relationships with others.
Let's not forget that while Jesus told these as parables for his disciples, we are also disciples and we, too, must find ways to plant seed, even if it's very small. And we, too, must mix in and be the leaven for the whole loaves. God has called us to be workers in the kingdom too.
On the other hand, Jesus teaches here that there are treasures on earth for which we ought to sacrifice. It's not a popular idea right now. But it's a kingdom truth. For God's church, our individual ministries, and our priceless families, we ought to be willing to pay the price even when it means real sacrifice on our part.
Jesus told it in parable style: "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it... in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that field" (Matthew 13:44).
In many instances we who sacrifice are the ones who really benefit. To tithe, to give extra time to serve in our church, to help someone else, all benefits the other person. But in the kingdom as it starts small and grows and grows, we also benefit from doing the sacrificial giving of our money, our time, and our abilities for others. Sharing our whole self is very much called for in God's kingdom, which we pray might be here, just like in heaven.
There is a flip side to this parable that perhaps we don't often consider. In Neuendettelsau, where Loehe preached his whole ministry and such great kingdom work developed which still continues, there is a dark side as well.
During World War II, when Hitler's Nazis had control of Franconia, nearly 1,400 physically- and mentally-challenged children were bussed from the village's institutions to Germany's horrible gas chambers with the cooperation of the institution's director and some staff. That which had begun as kingdom work was turned into evil work.
In a nearby village where attempts were made to do the same thing, the director and staff courageously refused to cooperate. But in Loehe's little village, those special ones in the kingdom were sent to their premature deaths to the shame of all.
So here we discover the other side of these brief parables. Small beginnings like a mustard seed, the introduction of the minute into the whole like the yeast, and the paying of a sacrificial price for our treasure cannot be only for the coming of God's kingdom. It can also be, in similar fashion, for the coming of evil into the world and our lives.
Oh, how small and seemingly inconsequential a flirtation, then a promiscuous touch in the wrong place can be; but soon it might develop into adultery. How easily we can allow our language to be perverted into blasphemy against God. And in the congregation here, first a few negative comments about a brother or sister in Christ, then partaking in spreading rumors, and finally, full blown disruptive dissension which eats away at any maturing of the congregational kingdom work.
There is a power which naturally works against the power of God and God's kingdom. We can name the destructive power original sin, human nature, the demonic, or other such names. But it is always present, trying to grow -- like this small mustard seed -- into full bloom.
It wants, by its very nature, to influence the whole congregation of disciples like the leaven also! And sometimes, it seems to me, our tendency is to sacrifice a lot for its infection into our congregation. Sometimes it seems as though we will spend more of our energy in spreading gossip and bad news than in witnessing to the good news of the gospel. Sometimes it seems like our very human nature is to help the evil grow and delight in it more than the good and wholesome.
-- Instead of loving our neighbor, we sow suspicion and hatred.
-- Instead of praying for our enemies, we plot ways to get even.
-- Instead of going the extra mile, we don't help at all.
-- Instead of turning the other cheek, we strike back in revenge.
-- Instead of loving the unlovely, we insist they must deserve our love.
It's a flip side not often spoken from pulpits these days and yet it is so real and we sacrifice our lives for it. It influences the whole congregation and community and though it starts small, it grows large.
It's been over fifty years now since those children were bussed to the gas chambers. In a town where a great preacher had a great vision of what God's kingdom could be, those buses remind us that all the good done in that village of mercy can also be perverted into an ugly demonic evil! Let it be our warning as well.
And might we have a vision here, like that of a Franconian preacher named Loehe, as we are warned and encouraged by these three wonderful kingdom parables of Jesus.
In the mid-1800s, a young parish pastor came to this simple farming village named Neuendettelsau. Wilhelm Loehe is now known around the world for the work he was able to commence in his little "silent wilderness," as he called it. Pilgrims come yet today to visit from Brazil, the U.S., New Guinea, and other distant lands.
Considered by some as one of the finest preachers of the nineteenth century, Loehe understood the possibilities of beginning small, setting loose the power of God's kingdom in his little Franconian village. Whole families relocated from across Germany to be in his church and hear his kingdom-centered preaching.
Over one thousand missionaries have gone out from Neuendettelsau to distant countries of the world. A deaconess movement began that produced thousands of white-capped angels of mercy. Homes were built in the little village, now with 7,000 people, for orphans, ill, emotionally disturbed, physically handicapped, and the elderly. A Lutheran seminary was established as well. It's now called the Augustana Hochschule.
All this began in a very small way in a tiny village by a preacher who had been dismissed from his first two internships -- but who knew the gospel's promise of tremendous possibilities from small beginnings.
Although he himself never visited here in the United States, Loehe and his disciples of Neuendettelsau are the founders of the Missouri Synod (along with C.W.F. Walther). They started seminaries in Fort Wayne, Indiana; Dubuque, Iowa; and my alma mater, Trinity Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. Missions to Native Americans were begun in Michigan and a whole synod developed in Iowa.
Jesus promised his followers it could be like that in the kingdom of God. Small beginnings, with some leaven of faith and those willing to sacrifice and pay a price, will produce amazing results.
The Gospel writer Matthew often arranged Jesus' teachings by similar subjects. That's what we are looking at in his thirteenth chapter. Jesus told of a mustard seed which is quite small and yet grows into a great tree. Then he told about what he had seen his mother often do -- put a little lump of yeast in the bread dough and soon it would influence the whole of the flour. Next comes the story of Jesus using a simple metaphor of a treasure hidden in a field and how a man spent a lot to get that treasure by buying the field.
Put together, or taken individually, these stories teach a great lesson to us disciples who so often count the cost, the possibilities of failure, the meager size of the project compared with the problems to be addressed, and we never get started in the first place. But Jesus said -- don't underestimate how a little beginning can grow and grow into spectacular results.
When I was a young high school student, I worked in a bakery at a time when that kind of work had to be done at night so our rolls and bread would be fresh for the daytime. We bakers were also on the Greenville, Ohio, informal volunteer fire department -- that mainly meant we would follow the fire trucks on their runs. Several times after the yeast had been placed in the dough, we would leave in a hurry to watch or help on the fire truck stationed nearby. If it took very long to put out the fire, we would return to the bakery to find our little batch of dough had expanded many times and was all over the bench and the floor around it. At the time we added yeast to the dough it seemed such an insignificant little bit of something -- but oh, how it grew!
Jesus promises that kind of result in his kingdom. "The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough" (Matthew 13:33). Or he said, "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed: when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree..." (Matthew 13:32).
It's an important understanding for us who want to be faithful disciples: The coming of God's kingdom causes a transformation in our individual lives as dramatic as yeast in dough, and in the lives of communities like little Neuendettelsau, Germany. And it most often starts with tiny, insignificant, what the world would call unimportant, beginnings.
So when the refugees are starving by the millions, we don't hesitate to give our little ten dollar contribution to World Hunger. When so many youth in our culture are abused, we can offer to be foster parents or big brothers or sisters for one. And when drug addiction and alcohol abuse is rampant in our community, we support and volunteer to help at the church's new teen center. And when the community asks for volunteers, or collections like United Way are taken, or when all the other well-intentioned efforts at making things better are attempted, we report for duty no matter how small our contribution. For in the working of the kingdom, God can do great things with what others would consider inconsequential, not big enough to make a difference.
Sometimes such little things as a thank you note or some flowers or a phone call of appreciation or support balloons into large acts of kindness which are then often practiced by others more skeptical as well.
Christianity can and does bring about big changes in lives. Consider the constant seeking of peace. Consider the mean marriages changed into loving partnerships. Think of the addictions overcome.
Then there are the transformations of hateful people into kind ones and greedy folks into ones who graciously share. And whole communities can be changed with Christian leaven, changed to love people of different skin color, culture, and ethnic heritage than our own. The homeless and battered and abused can be sheltered from the cold. The hungry can be fed.
And it's not because we began a little bit of the kingdom here with great big designs. It's just that we took what little we could do and trusted that these simple parables of Jesus were correct descriptions of how it is in the kingdom -- little does grow into much and sometimes almost unseen and usually unheralded.
That's the way it was in little Neuendettelsau, Germany, when Johann Conrad Wilhelm Loehe arrived to begin his ministry. The tiny community was changed beyond even Loehe's wildest dreams. Individual lives were never the same again. That's always the way it's been in the kingdom: small, unpromising beginnings become dramatic, large results.
Look at how God worked it out to provide our forgiveness, salvation, a spiritual help here, and eternal life beyond the grave. It was an unpromising beginning in a limestone cave in Bethlehem, a ridiculed new kind of ministry, a resented-by-the-religious relationship with the church, and finally, a disgraceful crucifixion as a common criminal. But look how the world and our own lives have been changed because of those inauspicious beginnings.
The third parable is equally clear. This man who found a treasure and bought the field had his priorities right. He spent a lot to buy the field so now he obtained his treasure. This says to us that sacrifice is appropriate in certain cases of kingdom work. In a day of "get what's coming to you," and "don't let anyone take advantage of you," we have here a lesson in kingdom priorities which says that for some things it's still worth paying a big price.
We all should think about the causes and creature comforts for which we would sacrifice our lives -- a bigger home, more and bigger cars, a second place to live, a boat, camper, golf clubs. This list could go on and on.
Because of this parable, we must search our souls about what price we and our family ought to pay in order to have what our culture says we should have to be happy. Often we are much older before we realize that real joy does not come from possessing things but in quality relationships with others.
Let's not forget that while Jesus told these as parables for his disciples, we are also disciples and we, too, must find ways to plant seed, even if it's very small. And we, too, must mix in and be the leaven for the whole loaves. God has called us to be workers in the kingdom too.
On the other hand, Jesus teaches here that there are treasures on earth for which we ought to sacrifice. It's not a popular idea right now. But it's a kingdom truth. For God's church, our individual ministries, and our priceless families, we ought to be willing to pay the price even when it means real sacrifice on our part.
Jesus told it in parable style: "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it... in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that field" (Matthew 13:44).
In many instances we who sacrifice are the ones who really benefit. To tithe, to give extra time to serve in our church, to help someone else, all benefits the other person. But in the kingdom as it starts small and grows and grows, we also benefit from doing the sacrificial giving of our money, our time, and our abilities for others. Sharing our whole self is very much called for in God's kingdom, which we pray might be here, just like in heaven.
There is a flip side to this parable that perhaps we don't often consider. In Neuendettelsau, where Loehe preached his whole ministry and such great kingdom work developed which still continues, there is a dark side as well.
During World War II, when Hitler's Nazis had control of Franconia, nearly 1,400 physically- and mentally-challenged children were bussed from the village's institutions to Germany's horrible gas chambers with the cooperation of the institution's director and some staff. That which had begun as kingdom work was turned into evil work.
In a nearby village where attempts were made to do the same thing, the director and staff courageously refused to cooperate. But in Loehe's little village, those special ones in the kingdom were sent to their premature deaths to the shame of all.
So here we discover the other side of these brief parables. Small beginnings like a mustard seed, the introduction of the minute into the whole like the yeast, and the paying of a sacrificial price for our treasure cannot be only for the coming of God's kingdom. It can also be, in similar fashion, for the coming of evil into the world and our lives.
Oh, how small and seemingly inconsequential a flirtation, then a promiscuous touch in the wrong place can be; but soon it might develop into adultery. How easily we can allow our language to be perverted into blasphemy against God. And in the congregation here, first a few negative comments about a brother or sister in Christ, then partaking in spreading rumors, and finally, full blown disruptive dissension which eats away at any maturing of the congregational kingdom work.
There is a power which naturally works against the power of God and God's kingdom. We can name the destructive power original sin, human nature, the demonic, or other such names. But it is always present, trying to grow -- like this small mustard seed -- into full bloom.
It wants, by its very nature, to influence the whole congregation of disciples like the leaven also! And sometimes, it seems to me, our tendency is to sacrifice a lot for its infection into our congregation. Sometimes it seems as though we will spend more of our energy in spreading gossip and bad news than in witnessing to the good news of the gospel. Sometimes it seems like our very human nature is to help the evil grow and delight in it more than the good and wholesome.
-- Instead of loving our neighbor, we sow suspicion and hatred.
-- Instead of praying for our enemies, we plot ways to get even.
-- Instead of going the extra mile, we don't help at all.
-- Instead of turning the other cheek, we strike back in revenge.
-- Instead of loving the unlovely, we insist they must deserve our love.
It's a flip side not often spoken from pulpits these days and yet it is so real and we sacrifice our lives for it. It influences the whole congregation and community and though it starts small, it grows large.
It's been over fifty years now since those children were bussed to the gas chambers. In a town where a great preacher had a great vision of what God's kingdom could be, those buses remind us that all the good done in that village of mercy can also be perverted into an ugly demonic evil! Let it be our warning as well.
And might we have a vision here, like that of a Franconian preacher named Loehe, as we are warned and encouraged by these three wonderful kingdom parables of Jesus.
