I live in the town of Westford, about 30 miles northwest of here, in the countryside of Massachusetts.  Our yard is surrounded by tall, majestic oak trees and in the summer it is great. They provide a lot of shade, but in the month of May, as the trees and all the other flora wake up from their winter rest; they spread a cloud of pollen that lands like a fine green dust on everything.   I read that: “pollen grains are microscopic - usually about 15 to 100 microns - and just a pinch of pollen powder contains thousands and thousands of grains.”  That’s really small (and not a good thing for people allergic to oak pollen)!  

After the pollen release there is a chain of small but very important events, with the wind, the flowers, bees perhaps, acorns, animals and the soil,  turning these tiny things into more tall and majestic trees; trees that, as Mark puts it,  “put forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade”.  It takes a lot of small gestures; small events, actions and time to make something so small grow into something tall and sustained over time.

Ezekiel’s words tell of cedar trees.  They evoke the image of the legendary forests of giant cedars in Lebanon; imagine the equivalent of the giant sequoia or red wood trees of California; majestic, ancient, powerful. The prophetic message tells us that the Lord will take a tender sprig from the topmost of the young twigs of a cedar; an almost insignificant cutting from a forest of huge trees.  Yet, the Lord will take that sprig and plant it and it will grow up to shelter every bird and winged creature.  Even though the other tall trees will dry up, the Lord with nurture this tree.    

  Now, most of the book of Ezekiel reads like a horror story.  They are the words of a man in pain and anguish mirroring the pain and anguish of Israelites after the siege and sacking of Jerusalem.  The holy things, the sacred holy places, the Temple of Solomon were destroyed at the hands of the Babylonian Empire.  The leaders, the priests (including Ezekiel) and elites of the people were marched a few thousand miles from Jerusalem to the rivers of Babylon and held hostage to ensure the loyalty of the people left in the land of Judah.   

But even in his pain and exile, Ezekiel kept his faith in God.  And the Lord answered with the metaphor of a sprig of cedar.  Ezekiel is given a message of hope, comfort and assurance of the love of God. 

For the people of that time, the sprig symbolized the people of Israel amidst the mighty Empire symbolized by the tall cedar trees.   The Israelites may be weak, small and barely a people amidst the great Babylonian empire, but they will once again be replanted in their homeland of Israel and their holy City of Jerusalem.  The people will see the great Babylonian empire fall and the low tree of the people of Israel grow and be sustained for generations.  There, they will care for all the people and the creatures; providing shelter and hope through the word of God.  

Not long afterwards (but not in Ezekiel’s lifetime), the Babylonian empire did fall and the deported Israelites were allowed to return to Jerusalem and Judah.  The Jewish community grew and was sustained by their faith.  The book of Ezekiel became part of their cannon of Holy Scripture.  Then six hundred years later, a young man called Jesus of Nazareth grew up in this faith community.   We can hear the words and imagery of Ezekiel echoed in Jesus’ parable of the mustard seed.    The smallest seed grows up to become the mightiest of shrubs providing shelter and comfort for all, even the smallest creatures.  So it is with the Kingdom of God.   Small things will come together in mysterious ways to create a grand environment of growth, comfort and grace – secure in God’s love.  

Jesus did not part the Red Sea like Moses, or defeat many armies like Joshua.  There were no grand gestures on the scale of an emperor or mighty king.   The life of Jesus retold in the Gospels is a series of small and spontaneous acts of grace, kindness and expressions of God’s love.  Even the stories of the miracles have an intimate, personal nature. Each parable told, each lesson shared, each act of grace given, planted and nurtured the seeds of faith in each person he encountered.  And like Ezekiel before them, they believed and cherished the gift of faith, spreading the Word of God, planting and replanting through the millennia and now it is here for us to grow and replant.    

There is a lot of work to do. 

Ezekiel was deported to a place not far from Al Najaf and Al Nassariah in modern day Iraq. Place names, like so many others heard in the daily news, we have come to associate with death and destruction.  We now share some of the same pain he felt.  The countryside where Jesus told his parables is again wracked by violence.  In this country too there are major issues of poverty, hunger and crime.  

I am reminded of Bob Dylan’s words:

… how many ears must one man have
Before he can hear people cry?
… how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died?

Amidst all these and the other big problems like natural disasters what can we do?  What must we do? 

We can remember the lesson of the cedar sprig and the mustard seed and start with the small things.  In each encounter with our brothers and sisters, with those around us in the streets and in our workplaces, in our homes and in our schools, with our families and among strangers; we must be kind and gracious, provide a helping hand, spontaneous in our generosity and share our gifts.  We must act out our faith as Jesus showed us.  

We can honor the people that have helped us thus far; those who have planted and nurtured the seeds of faith in our hearts.  Perhaps that was person was our father, who we remember on this father’s day.   Perhaps that person was someone like Peter Southwell-Sander whose life we will celebrate in a memorial service later this afternoon.  In each warm welcome he offered to people entering this church; Peter sowed the seeds of God’s love for all.

When Dylan writes:

The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind.

I think he is right.  The answer is found in the many small grains of God’s grace that each one of us can put out into the world around us, blowing in the wind and coming to rest among the others of God’s family, where they can grow.