This weekend we hear the parable of the mustard seed during the Sunday Eucharist.  Jesus uses the image of a tiny, insignificant seed to show how – after it it is planted in fertile soil — it becomes a large bush, providing shelter for birds.  This is a parable because this is the image He uses to describe “the kingdom of heaven” and additionally, for our purposes, the church. 

I was asked to preach at the May 18 Jubilee Mass for priests celebrating major anniversaries of ordination.  On that day, we were celebrating the feast of Saint Mathias, the apostle chosen to replace Judas Iscariot.  I described how after the resurrection, Jesus did not leave explicit instructions about replacing apostles, conducting liturgical celebrations, or establishing churches throughout the world.  He left his disciples with simple admonitions, such as not to carry a walking stick, to put no gold, silver, or copper in their belts, and not to pack an extra tunic.  They had to rely on the inspiration and the gifts of the Holy Spirit and to remember the teachings of Jesus. 

Remarkably, twenty-one centuries later, we still struggle with church governance, liturgical celebrations, and growing the church among hostile and indifferent people.  Somehow, the church began its work in those primitive days and has spread to where 1.2 billion people in the world are Christians and can be found on every continent and in every country.  The parable of the mustard seed tells us how this has happened, even though we face the same struggles the original apostles faced. 

In Greek, the word for seed is “kerygma.” The Gospel, the teachings of Jesus Christ, is the kerygma.  As you can see, the seed is tiny, seemingly insignificant and incapable of being much of anything.  This simple kerygma, however, makes all the difference.  The kerygma found fertile soil in the clueless men and women who witnessed the death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus.  Like us, they never understood it, but they did believe it.  Our belief adds to the continuing growth from that kerygma, as it always has done since those first believers.  I am certain we will find no act of greater consequence than our act of worship.  In this moment, which often eludes us as it is taking place, we are at the foot of the cross and the empty tomb where it all began.  The kerygma is an unstoppable force, and as Jesus once told Peter, “Upon this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”