We are given such hope-filled parables today. These short, seed-related parables are filled with  hope and revolve around faith: faith in God; hope and faith in Jesus; hope and faith in our effectuating the existence of the kingdom; hope and faith in our being a community that is the Body of Christ in the world today.

I have never seen a mustard shrub, a mustard tree, a mustard bush or for that matter a mustard seed in real life. I have never searched them out either. I only have seen photographs and art work representing what this "greatest of all shrubs" really looks like. The same is true for a mustard seed, "which is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth." Not to be too literal, but to understand what Jesus is talking about, and why these images he uses would have been so powerful for the people to whom he was originally speaking, we need to know a few historical things about the culture in which Jesus was operating when he first told these parables. A phrase common among the Jewish people of Jesus' time was "Oh, Johosophat over there has the faith of a mustard seed," which translated would mean Johosophat had the least possible amount of faith a person could have.

Mustard trees, shrubs, bushes do grow (or so the pictures show me) into quite impressive specimens. They can grow to well in excess of ten feet tall and thirty feet wide, with large wide branches and big leaves, providing substantial shade, as well as little black seeds that birds love to eat. It would have been a common sight for the people of Jesus' time to see large swarms of birds hovering around and in large mustard shrubs. So Jesus is taking something that would be somewhat of a slur.... Oh Johosophat has so little faith it is the size of a mustard seed....Jesus is taking that phrase and turning it on its head by saying the kingdom of God is like unto that tiny mustard seed, for from that seed a great thing can evolve. From humble roots a vast enterprise can be born. Such hopeful promise we are given today about a small amount of faith producing an enormous yield.

The pairing of our Gospel reading from Mark with our Hebrew Testament reading from Samuel and our Epistle reading from Second Corinthians are fascinating to contemplate.  God tells Samuel to give up on King Saul, get over it and go out and find a new king. Samuel protests saying he's afraid he's going to get killed by Saul and oh, by the way, where am I supposed to find another king? God says he will lead Samuel to the right place and to the right person and Samuel goes.  Samuel is unsure and fearful, but his faith and trust in God allows him to be led by God on an unknown path where he finds the surprising choice of the youngest son of Jesse in Bethlehem, where he anoints David king.

And in Second Corinthians we hear Paul tell the people in Corinth that it is right to be confident in what we do because "we walk by faith, not by sight." And a little later "For the love of Christ urges us on....So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!"  We walk by faith, much like Samuel walked in faith to find a new king, much like faith the size of a mustard seed can blossom into the largest of all shrubs providing a home. Walking by faith is a step of hope, no matter how small that step.... or how seemingly large it may be.

In these two Marcan parables there is a typical Marcan theme poking around for us to think about: one talking about the kingdom that will come juxtaposed against the belief that the kingdom is already present.  And within that juxtaposition of the kingdom yet to come and the kingdom in our midst, there is such great hope. Yet how do we bring this hope of the kingdom, both its future and its present, into our reality here in Washington, DC? In particular here, in DC, where hope can be thought of as a nasty four letter word....where do we find that hope?

There are times it may seem difficult to find that hope. Look at the shooting at the Holocaust Museum this past Wednesday where an 88 year old, self-proclaimed white supremacist used a shotgun to murder a black security guard. Where is the hope there? Also in the news this week was Jeremiah Wright, President Obama's former pastor, who made terrible anti-Semitic remarks, blaming "them Jews" for not letting him speak with the President. Besides not understanding how this gentleman can be considered a Christian, I do not understand where one finds hope in that statement and the convoluted sociological structure from which that mess comes.

And we also have in this political town all those talking heads on television, on the radio, on the internet, who can, by their bloviating, take all the hope out of the air. These individuals claim no one is listening to them. They claim that no one is paying attention to their ideas, when in fact people have listened and decided to go in another direction. The last election made that quite clear. So many of these commentators are really just frustrated school yard bullies who are sore-losers. They do not want to be listened to but they are so pharasitically narcissistic that they believe that they, and they alone, know the correct way to do things. They don't want to be listened to, they want their way and no other. That is not a conversation, that is being dictated to. That kind of attitude and approach can just suck hope right out of the equation.

So how do we find hope when we are faced with this kind of environment that surrounds us? It is not an easy task and yet grasping on to hope, letting our faith soar, is fully within reach for each and every one of us. An unfortunate fact of life is that we will always have evil people who say hateful things with us, just as we will always have bullies. To counter them we need to focus on our faith-based hope. We can have hope and faith that the Holy Spirit will guide us (or perhaps shove us) in the right direction. We can have hope that our faith will make us Christ's Body in the world today. We can have hope that our faith will allow us to recognize God's love for each and every one us, no matter how small that seed of faith may be.

If that is too esoteric, all we have to do is look around us here at St. Thomas'. The hope that is alive and growing in this spiritual place is palpable. There are new initiatives springing forward all around us, bearing fruit in ways that we may never fully understand. Take for example the team of people who are volunteering their time at different service organizations in our Formation through Outreach program. They journal about their individual experiences and then share their spiritual journey among the group of people who are participating. That is taking a mustard size seed of hope and walking by faith in Christ, not knowing where the journey is leading, but going nonetheless, as we heard from in Paul's Second letter to the Corinthians as well in Samuel's response to God's call to find a new king.

We need look no further than our existing committee work. Think about our Inclusion team, our Formation committee, our Outreach committee, the work of the Pastoral Care Committee, the efforts of the Parish Life groups, our greeters, lectors, altar servers, choir, ushers all of these are signs of hope and faith and joy.  Another example of how we can look at life with hope-filled faith is paying attention to our Taizé homilists who share a bit of their spiritual journey with us each Sunday evening. Many of these personal journeys are so filled with hope, even in times of sorrow, that the faith we all share is deepened by their sharing and telling of those journeys.

And we have the hope of a new, glorious and sun-drenched nave where the world can see how we worship: where we can come out of the closet after forty years of hiding in the upstairs room. The Building Committee's formation, the outside fundraising committee's strong and diligent work, the internal fundraising committee's beginning work are all palpable examples of our faith providing tangible hope for the future of St. Thomas'

When we feel our hope being drained away by neighborhood events or those television pharasitical nay-saying narcissists who only want their way, remember the faith of Christ standing up to those who opposed his message of openness and inclusion and hospitality. When we are feeling challenged in our faith, remember the guiding love of the Holy Spirit that is so palpable in this place. And always remember God's ever-present love for each and every one of us. For we are the kingdom now and we will be the kingdom in the future. We are living in that Marcan juxtaposition: in that tension between the future and the now. We are that mustard plant with the swarms of birds all around us, feeding on our seeds of hope and faith.  We are truly that tiny mustard seed from which a vast yield is being born. Take that image with you, that image of hope and life and faith and love and let if fill your heart and soul....and spread it to all those around us.