From the Smallest Seed Grows the Greatest Kingdom, by Lauren Rice

The lights went dark on Sunday night at Denver Community Church as the last chord of the guitar faded away from the worship song. As one light on the stage warmed, a empty clay pot sat lonely. The young pastor, dressed casually in kakis and a button up collared shirt walked on stage with a large bag of soil. In complete silence, with all eyes on him in full attention, the pastor poured the soil in the pot, dropped a seed in the soil, watered it, then stood and waited. He sat, starred and waited, then watered it again, then waited. What seemed like minutes past in silence, the pastor just looking at the pot sitting unchanged on the ground. The audience did not move. With a confused look on his face, the pastor picked up the bag of soil and looked at the back as if he was reading the directions. He then put the bag down, sat in a chair and watched the pot again. Time went by in still silence. Then, on the projection screen above the stage showed the Bible verse Mark 4:26-27.

“The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then and the full grain. But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come…The kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown in the ground is the smallest of all seeds on earth, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches…”

The silence was finally broken. Sitting on the chair, looking directly at the pot, the pastor began to speak. Forceful yet hushed he said, “Faith is in waiting”. The pastor used the next 35 minutes speaking passionately and teaching the already believing audience. Because those in the room were believers, the pastors lesson gained instant validation as he unpacked a parable of the Bible. The Pastor on this night was a teacher, historian, philosopher, theologian, speaker, friend and family member as he unpacked God’s word for the young Denver audience to understand.

While many church services rely heavily on the ethos of the pastor and pathos of the situation, this service leaned heavily on logos. The pastor took the audience through a rational argument full of historical and literature references as well as personal stories.

The Pastors argument hinged on making the audience believe that the kingdom of Heaven was like a mustard seed, the smallest of seeds. At first thought, this seems like a paradox, comparing the smallest seed to the greatest kingdom, the Kingdom of Heaven.

He began by referencing the great cedars of Lebanon. These giant cedars became the symbol of a great nation and spectacular kingdom. Not even the Great Red Wood Forest in California could compare to the majesty of these cedars. However, the pastor quickly drew the audience’s attention to Isaiah 10:34, which says, “He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an axe, and Lebanon with its majestic trees will fall”. The greatest trees in the world do not symbolize the greatest kingdom, rather the smallest seed does. While the cedars are majestic, if they are cut down once, they are done, gone, will remain a stump, and cannot regrow.

However a mustard seed, although small, is enduring. He told a personal gardening story of his when he tried to plant mustard seed just to see what would happen. What happened was that he cannot get rid of the plant and it is currently taking over his garden, no matter how hard he tries to get rid of it. For whenever the plant is uprooted, little seeds fall from the leaves and replant. So when mustard seed is uprooted, it only comes back stronger. He directed the audience to the history of the church. Whenever a group tried to eradicate the Christianity, it only grew stronger, and spread further.

With the audience taking in every word, the pastor sat back down on the stool and looked at the pot of soil again. He said, “The key is to plant the seed”. Using examples from his own life, he spoke about forgiveness, faith and ideas. He said that out of fear of being hurt, we don’t plant the seed in our heart. The process is slow, much like the growth of a plant. We told the audience that we could sit in the building all night and we would see no difference in the pot, we would not see any growth of the seed he just panted, however it is growing, just slowly. And while it is scary and it does not come without pain to plant a seed, once it is planted, it can never leave you, for the Kingdom of Heaven is within your heart and the Great Creator will help you carry it through.

To finish off, the Pastor told the audience that on the side of the room, there were pots of soil and seeds. He encouraged the audience that if they would like, they too could plant a seed at that very moment, as a reminder and a first step to whatever goal they were trying to achieve, whether it be to overcome addiction, grant forgiveness or begin a project.

Sunday night, the young yet diverse audience of Denver Community Church heard a message broad enough to encompass everyone and yet specific enough to provide hope, faith and a possible solution to whatever problems may be in their lives. Through history, personal stories and the parable of the mustard seed from the Bible, the pastor used logos instead of the typical appeal to pathos in order to deliver his message.

Works Cited

"Plant the Seed." Church Service. Denver Community Church, Denver. 13 Feb. 2011. Lecture.