Focus: God uses our small and insignificant acts of kingdom living to do more than we could ever imagine. Function: Be faithful in planting seeds of kindness, justice, love, care and concern.

The issue of choice constantly confronts the people of God. How do we discriminate and make choices and decisions in our every day life and in our congregation, that are faithful in being disciples of Jesus Christ? What standard can realistically be applied to evaluate this or that choice?

The powers of this world, our culture has a ready made answer for how we should choose. It's basically a bottom-line mentality seeking quantifiable and immediate results.

All four scripture readings today warn about judging using the world's standards. The experience of Samuel, as he searches for a successor to King Saul, shows us how easy outward appearances can deceive. Jesse's oldest son, Eliab, seems the perfect choice, until God advises Samuel that God judges a person's heart, not their outward appearance. Psalm 20 reminds us that military might is not worthy of pride for it will collapse and fall--which history shows us has been the case with every empire. Rather the psalmist writes, our pride resides in the Lord.

Both New Testament readings strike a similar chord. Paul, writing to an over confident Corinthian church, exhorts them to walk by faith not by human sight or values. Living so that “worldly standards have ceased to count in our estimate of anyone.” Now that we partake in the death of Jesus we are all new creations. All the old ways of viewing one another have passed away.

Finally in the gospel lesson, Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to the small and inconspicuous mustard seed.

In our American society we are infected, stricken by, the sin of size-ism. Now size-ism maybe a new word for you, it's a first cousin to the words like racism, or sexism, but just think for a minute how our society is enamored and obsessed with size--with bigness to be more exact. The biggest house, the biggest church, the biggest fast food value meal. We give blue ribbons for the biggest vegetables and livestock. Our country is number one in the world because we have the biggest military and the biggest gross national product.

Our language illustrates our prejudice in favor of the big over the small. Typical synonyms for big are: great, grand, generous, imposing, tremendous, stupendous, mighty, full-grown. Typical synonyms for small are: runt, shrimp, peewee, small fry, piddling, dinky, pint-sized, undersized, meager, petty, puny.

Throughout our American culture we are constantly bombarded with the message that, except for becoming over weight, bigger is better, and smaller is at best not good enough and at worst failure. So we shouldn't be surprised that this preference, this desire to be big has infected our churches. I mean, let's be honest here: What church doesn't want to grow in size? What church doesn't want to bring more disciples to Jesus Christ? What church doesn't want more members contributing their time, talent and treasure so we can do more and more, bigger and bigger ministry?

But in contrast to our culture, scripture favors the small, the insignificant. In Genesis alone God found it necessary to start over 3x with smaller communities first with Noah's family, then when God scattered all the people banded together to erect the tower of Babel, and finally when Jacob divided Israel into 12 tribes. Smaller communities. Then the Old Testament records the history of the 12 tribes, the chosen people, as a continuous cycle of growing large and prosperous, becoming unfaithful and self-destructive with a small faithful remnant left to begin the cycle anew. Deuteronomy records Moses saying “It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you— for you were the fewest of all people.

The widow's mite, the tiny mustard seed, the pearl of great price, the lost coin and the one sheep, are all used by Jesus in parables to illustrate how we and God relate to one another. Repeatedly God affirms the few, the small and the insignificant, who live by faithfulness to God's commandment to Love God and their neighbor as them self.

One of my colleagues at the recent Festival of homiletics in Atlanta talked about visiting Ebenezer Baptist church, the congregation where Martin Luther king Jr had served as pastor. When he got there he was sure he was in the wrong place. The sanctuary could hold less than 200 people and the fellowship hall was smaller than the fellowship hall in his own small congregation. He was humbled and struck by how such a small church, in a depressed area of the city, could have such an impact on an entire nation. Surely, he said, Ebenezer Baptist church was a mustard seed that grew into a mighty bush.

Although he might have added, that congregation never built a Family Life Center, or enlarged the sanctuary to accommodate more members.

Can you remember in your life an experience of seemingly small and insignificant proportions that literally changed your life? Or the direction you were heading in life? Words of encouragement to try something? Meeting some one new? Reading a book? Participating in something new and afterwards you were not the same person you were before, for your eyes were now open to a new way?

What is small and seemingly insignificant now, can ultimately, in God's time, become something far more important and grander than we can imagine.

Some years ago reporters were interviewing Boris Yelsin and asked him what gave him the courage to stand firm during the fall of communism in the former USSR. Yelsin thought for a minute and then said it was the example of an ordinary guy, an electrician from Poland named Lech Walsea, who had started the downfall of communism in his own country. When on a different occasion Walsea was interviewed by other reporters asking what inspired him to confront the powers of evil in his country, Walsea credited Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Years earlier when Dr. King had been asked who had inspired him, he answered it was the courage of one ordinary African American woman, a seamstress named Rosa Parks, who broke the law by refusing to give up her seat and move to the back of the bus.

There you have it! The fall of the mighty Union of Soviet Socialist Republic all because of one small and seemingly insignificant action by an African American seamstress!

That's how the seeds we plant of faith or justice or hope or love work. You plant them, not knowing what if anything will come of them—you are only trying to be faithful in living out your faith-- and sometimes, sometimes, their impact far outstrips what we human beings could ever imagine. Your tiny seed of an action takes on a life of its own as God gives it growth.

In the thousands of meals at the Night Shelter many of you have helped prepare and serve over these many, many years, I would bet innumerable seeds of care and love were planted that blossomed into helping people get back on their feet. And the same can be said for our outreach efforts in Operation In As Much. Here at First Moravian, we have done lots and lots of scattering seeds of faith, love, justice and hope over our history—packing Christmas shoe boxes for refugees and poor children abroad, making health and hygiene kits, knitting prayer shaws, sewing baby bibs and blankets, serving meals on wheels the fifth Tuesday of every month. Sunday and Vacation Bible School teachers planting seeds of learning that nurture our faith journeys. Gemeinschaft groups. And I haven't even touched on the seeds of care and concern you have shared with me that other members of this church family have given you in times of distress.

These experiences, these actions, of planting small, seemingly insignificant seeds of ministry are signs of the kingdom of God-- what Jesus is talking about in today's gospel lesson,

Today is father's day and an opportunity to consider how fathers, and parents and grandparents in general, have the responsibility to plant seeds in their children. And also to reflect on our collective responsibility to plant seeds in the children and youth under our care. Every time a child is baptized in this congregation we publicly say out loud we accept our responsibility to love and nurture them in Christ and we sing of pledging our love to the child. Do you plant seeds of encouragement and hope in First Moravian's children? Seeds like, “Good Job!” “Thank you!” “You can do this!” “Gee, I am so glad to see you here today!” Or do you tend to plant mainly seeds of negativity and disapproval? Seeds of teasing or sarcasm? Barely disguised tolerance? Or do you walk by without noticing and greeting our children and youth at all? Even the smallest of interactions we have with the children and youth here have a tremendous impact on how they view their church family and whether or not it is a place where they feel what we have all promised to give them, love and nurture. Or whether we are just another bunch of hypocrites singing and talking one thing, but failing to walk the talk.

Look at the packet of seeds the children passed out to you. These seeds have potential and are in perfect condition for planting. You have a couple choices about what to do now. If you leave the seeds in the packets in your pocket or purse nothing will happen. You could open them up and let air into the packages to start the aging and dying process. Or you can open them, plant the seeds and nurture them along so that they may reach their highest potential, whatever that is. You really have no idea what might come up if you plant the seeds in your packet. Just as in the real world, only God knows what to expect once you plant your seeds of ministry as you live your life.

These seeds represent the opportunities God gives us daily, even hourly here at First Moravian. We have seeds of opportunity filled with potential, waiting to be planted and allowed to unleash the dawning of a new creation. We don't know what the new life will look like or its ultimate potential. All we can control is our action of being faithful planters of seeds of kindness, encouragement, generosity, fairness and hope, trusting God who provides us with possibilities and opportunities. The question is – will we plant these seeds?

Top