It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth (Mark 4:31)

It rained yesterday. For some reason it felt really strange going to the shops yesterday in my raincoat not feeling warm after all the sunny weather. I was expecting it, though, because I have an app on my phone that gives me a weather forecast which includes the chances of rain. Notice I say “chances” and not “certainty”. Weather forecasts are never certain and the further into the future we attempt to predict the weather, the less accurate the forecasts become. Weather systems are chaotic. It just takes a tiny difference in pressure or temperature somewhere in the world and that difference gets magnified over and over again until you get a completely different outcome from the one you expected. This is known as the ‘butterfly effect’ from the idea that a butterfly flapping its wings could make the difference between predicting a calm day and actually experiencing hurricane a few months down the line.

When Jesus was teaching his parables two thousand years ago there were things that human beings didn’t know. He talks of someone sowing seeds and not knowing how they sprout and grow. These days, of course, biochemists do know how that process happens. We still can’t predict the weather, though and that’s because we can’t know if a tiny difference in pressure or temperature will have a tiny effect or it will produce a huge effect.

So what has all of this to do with the Kingdom of Heaven? Jesus likens the Kingdom of Heaven to a mustard seed. Although it is very tiny - the smallest of all the seeds according to Jesus - it grows into a huge shrub. We’re not sure what plant this is. The best bet seems to be the black mustard which does, indeed, spring from a tiny seed and which has, when it is fully grown, broad leaves under which birds might get some shade. Whether this is the plant that Jesus meant or not, I’m going to run with it.

I’m looking around this church and I’m thinking, maybe there was a time when these pews were full every Sunday. Maybe there was a time when the Christian faith filled the hearts and minds of everyone in this country. Maybe there was a time when the pronouncements of the Church could shake governments or rewrite history. Start from that picture and you can get the idea that Christianity has declined a long way. You can bemoan the lack of bottoms on pews. You can bewail the falling away of society from the ideals of Christianity. You can long for the days when the Church wrote the rules. You can get the idea that the Kingdom of Heaven seems a long way off.

And there are those who would agree with you. There are those who confidently predict the end of religion in the West - and by “the West” they generally mean parts of the world that have embraced science, technology and education. Do you ever detect a degree of smugness and, perhaps, racism in all that? There are those who extrapolate the decline in church attendance off into the future and reckon that Christianity will be stamped out in a generation or so. There are those who embrace the idea of “the death of God” and insist that the modern world has no place for ideas like the Kingdom of Heaven.

Then again, as any weather forecaster will tell you, extrapolating trends into the future decades ahead is a mug’s game. You can’t allow for the butterfly’s wing. You can’t factor in the mustard seed - the tiniest of seeds that can grow into the largest of shrubs. And here’s a thing about the black mustard - once it takes root it’s incredibly difficult to get rid of. It’s a strong, resilient plant that seeds readily. You might hack it back, but it will come back. You might uproot it, but its seeds - tiny and unnoticed - will already be germinating in the soil. That’s what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. Yes there may be times when it seems to be in retreat, but it will grow back and be stronger.

For what is the Kingdom of Heaven? It is an idea. It is the idea that there is a God and that God loves us as a father loves his children. It is the idea that every human being is a child of that God - unique and precious in his eyes. It is the idea that everyone belongs in the love of God - that all the birds of the air can find a place to nest in the shade. There is nothing smaller, more insubstantial, than idea. And there is nothing harder to kill.

Maybe church attendances are falling. Then again, did people attend because they were committed to Christianity or because it was the done thing to do? Maybe people don’t know the catechism - but did it always shape people’s lives? Maybe the Church has little power in the political world - but is that what it’s for? Have we lost sight of the point of the parable of the mustard seed? Size isn’t everything.

We plant seeds every day. We can’t help it. They may be small but they make a difference. We live ever more in a connected world. A word here. A gesture there. An act of kindness, an expression of generosity, the suggestion to someone that they are unique and precious and loved by God - they all make a difference. A willingness to put your hand in your pocket for people who are easily forgotten in a world that clamours for wealth and power; a voice raised for peace when angry words are thrown between people and between nations; a quiet word, “you’re in my prayers” - each is a seed -  a mustard seed, perhaps, tiny and almost invisible, but one that can grow in someone’s heart.

That is what the Church is - not this building or its pews or the corridors of power. The Church is the sower of seeds. And the Church is you. It’s me. It’s all those who love God and live in the love of God and who embrace the love of God in Christ and want to share that love with those we meet. Who want to share the idea that the love of God is for all of humanity, without regard to wealth or race or sexuality or whatever - that all the birds of the air can find shelter in the Kingdom of Heaven

Today, tomorrow, the next day - who knows? - you may get a chance to share the love of God with someone who has never really heard, never really understood, what the Christian faith is about. Maybe you forgive them when they think they’ve done something you can’t forgive. Maybe you respond to the lassie on the checkout’s “How are you?” with “Fine thanks. And how are you?”. Maybe you write to your MP reminding him that the refugees that are being doled out between the countries of southern Europe are children of God and that we have space in Scotland - lots of it.

Will any of that make a difference? I don’t know. Nobody knows. Who knows which mustard seeds will germinate or grow? Who knows which flap of a butterfly’s wing will forge a hurricane? Only God. Then again, as Paul says, “We live by faith, not by sight.” And maybe that’s what we’ve missed. The Church isn’t this building or any other. It isn’t an institution or a power in the land. It’s humble servants of God, living by faith and sowing seeds - whispering to those who will listen of the love of God. A love that transcends all the barriers that we divide humanity by. A love which is the Kingdom of Heaven

Lord, may we sow seeds. May we let the people we meet know that they matter. May we insist that the people the world so easily forgets matter. May we whisper to the world your word of love: the Word that is Christ Jesus, or Lord.

Preached at Gretna Old parish church