Subtlety and Smallness (Fourth Sunday after Pentecost)

Brandon Nappi and Ned Parker discuss gardening, the lectionary, and the impact of little things in reference to Mark 4:26-34. The text is appointed for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost in Year B of the Revised Common Lectionary.

More Yale Bible Study resources, including a transcript of this episode, at: https://YaleBibleStudy.org/podcast

Brandon Nappi is Executive Director of Leadership Programs and Lecturer in Homiletics at Yale Divinity School and Ned Parker is Associate Dean for Institutional Advancement at Andover-Newton Seminary at Yale and a Lecturer in Homiletics at Yale Divinity School.

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Transcript

Voiceover Voice:

So much of our sort of consumerist culture is based on size and glitz, and I’m just appreciating the subtlety.

Helena Martin:

This is Chapter, Verse, and Season: a lectionary podcast from Yale Bible Study.

Join us each week as two Yale Divinity School professors look at an upcoming text from the Revised Common Lectionary.

This episode, we have Brandon Nappi, Executive Director of Leadership Programs at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, and Ned Parker, Associate Dean for Institutional Advancement at Andover Newton Seminary at Yale. Both of them also hold the title Lecturer in Homiletics.

They’re discussing Mark 4:26-34, which is appointed for the Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 6, in Year B. Here’s the text.

[Mark 4:26-34]

He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle because the harvest has come.”

He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

Brandon Nappi:

So, I'm a gardener and we've got a gardening image, and so I always get excited when I know a little something about what Jesus is talking about. And most often I know so little. And so, I'm thinking about this whole, little things can have great power and effect. As I reflect on my ministry, it's not often been the big dramatic things that I thought were really important that people remember. It's the small encouragement, the little words, the humble things, and this really resonates as being true with me too. I remember someone smiled at me when I was walking down the street in Manhattan and I remember thinking, this is like a revelation. And so, there's something about the smallness of the mustard seed and yet the great power that it contains which really resonates sort of at a practical level with me and my life. And so much of our sort of consumerist culture is based on size and glitz and I'm just appreciating the subtlety and the smallness and yet the power of the image that Jesus offers.

Ned Parker:

First of all, I mean, I just want to commend you for making eye contact with someone in New York. I can't seem to find the bravery within to do that. So, commend you for that. Yeah, I'm also a gardener. I have four large, raised beds in my yard. And I think what strikes me about gardening and the smallness of things is how quickly small weeds can completely take over. I really appreciate being reminded of the, what I might call the ministry of encouragement, those small things that you do that have great effect. And as a pastor, as an ordained clergy person, also recognizing that there are those small things that folks have done in congregations that have had great impact on me in a negative way. Small comments, right? Small comments about things made and how those things stuck with me to the point where I couldn't write a sermon without those voices in my head. So, I think one of the things, thinking specifically about this passage, that stands out to me is how annoying it is to me. The mustard seed is like the poppy seed on a bagel that gets stuck in your teeth, and you just can't get it out and it's just hanging out there. So, I think it's really, it's striking to me. I think what I'm getting out of this conversation is how those little things can have great impact in both directions. And it always makes me mindful when I'm interacting with colleagues or students or lay people mindful of what I'm saying. How I'm looking, the eye contact I'm making and trying to remind myself I'm in a leadership position in this place. There are times I need to be careful. 

Brandon Nappi:

Yeah. I think what energizes me and what you just said is just your candor about bumping into certain readings in the lectionary. And, I mean, you didn't roll your eyes, but I felt an eye roll on the inside. And gosh, I mean, how many times have all of us as preachers cracked open that lectionary, I'm sure very early in the week, not on, you know, Saturday afternoon or Sunday morning, and thought, “oh, this again.” It's why after all these years, I remain a lectionary preacher, because it demands a kind of relationship, like any relationship, there can be some boredom, there can be some annoyance. I'm quite sure that my partner looks up at me in the morning and says, “oh, this guy again.” Like maybe something else would happen, you know, when I open my eyes. No, like I have to be in relationship to those pieces of scripture that I'm less energized by or just tired of or just don't feel like preaching on. And so, I thank you for saying it and naming it because I feel it all the time. I'll confess, I don't feel it about this passage, but gosh, there's a hundred others that I've had that experience with. So just thanks for the honesty.

Ned Parker:

Thank you. Thanks for taking my grumpiness with a grain of salt or a tiny mustard seed. Yeah, I mean, one of the projects I did in seminary as a student was to create this liturgical clock. And when I presented it to the professor, he said, “I like the drawing, it's really nice, but a clock is the wrong thing. It should be a corkscrew because we're always moving in a particular direction. It's more 3D.” So, every single time we come to this lectionary passage, this passage, we're a different person and it is different for us. And in that way, even a small passage like this one, like a mustard seed, is growing as we are growing. And there's something magnificent about that and the direction that the lectionary gives us because we are always growing into new people. So, we're different every time we come to it.

Brandon Nappi:

I don't think we went to seminary at the same place, but I heard the wonderful Letty Russell talk about this spiral, and this dynamic of moving through time. And one of the things that stood out to me, that I don't think I ever noticed in this particular passage, is the reference to the sower going to sleep and then rising the next day and seeing the germination happening. And I think our agency is really important, right? Life is a kind of participation with God. But then there's also a kind of time where we surrender and things are out of our hands. And part of the discernment in life, and it's often hard to discern this, is when is it time for me to take some action, do some things, really show my agency? And when is it time to let go and not push the river, as my spiritual director used to say to me. “Don't,” he had this beautiful deep voice, “don't push the river.” And so, I found that little reference to the sower needs to sow, but then the sower also needs to stop sowing and go to sleep and trust.

Helena Martin:

Thanks for listening. For a transcript of today’s episode and lots more, check out YaleBibleStudy.org.

Chapter, Verse, and Season is a production of the Center for Continuing Education at Yale Divinity School. It’s produced by: Creator and Managing Editor, Joel Baden; Production Manager, Kelly Morrissey; Associate Producer, Aidan Stoddart; and I’m your Host and Executive Producer, Helena Martin. And our theme music is by Calvin Linderman.

We’ll be back with another conversation from Chapter, Verse, and Season.