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BY DAVID THAYER

'With what can we compare the Kingdom of God?.It is like a mustard seed?.' -- Mark 4:30-31

Jesus had an affinity for the small, and for the overlooked, and for the underachiever. We have an affinity for the big, for the stars, for the successful.

When Jesus compared the Kingdom of God (think about that phrase for a second ? Kingdom of God ? we assume Jesus is talking big, glittery, and triumphant) to a measly, noxious weed that grows up to be a shrub, that can hardly even support its own branches let alone a nest for a bird, what is he getting at?

Jesus always had a way of blowing our minds with his juxtapositions of expectations. The Kingdom is grand, isn?t it? And the Kingdom is huge, victorious, a real winner, isn?t it?

This is how, so often, the Gospel is sold to the masses these days ? join up with Jesus and you will be a winner, a success in your business, marriage, and raising your kids. What more do you want from Jesus than that?

We want our local church to grow and not be a shrub but a mega church.

Notice the 'production' and the 'marketing' of the church these days ? not only on TV but in local churches as well, all wanting to appear to be successful, well healed, saying 'join our team and win with Jesus!'

In one of the local churches in my neighborhood they have as its motto ? 'we are not your grandmother?s church.' What is wrong with grandma? Didn?t one of the Commandments say, 'Honor your parents?'

New and improved is what appeals. We don?t want grandma or grandpa up there in the pulpit struggling with the deep aching questions of life, but young, vibrant, three-piece suited preachers with a success oriented message.

Also, in that marketed church, the old deep theological hymns have been replaced with a peppy, pounding, hand clapping variety, done by professional singers, rather than by well-meaning but obviously volunteer choirs, that easily attracts folks wanting nothing more in a hymn than to feel good, rather than to think deep.

Yet, with Jesus all of our expectations are not where he is at all. He is in another world. Jesus is not there to meet what we think our needs are, but to give us needs we would never have had if we hadn?t bumped up against Jesus.

So what does it mean for us to know that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed?

Would it mean for us to realize that maybe, just maybe, the Kingdom will be found, not when you are on top of the world, a real winner, but when you are at the end of your rope and a real loser? Wouldn?t you finally be more apt to realize how much we really do need each other and God in this world? Wouldn?t your eyes be more open to other losers in the world, those the world overlooks and neglects?

Those on top really don?t ever realize that, because they think they can solve all their problems with their checkbooks, riding through life with insulated lives behind the steering wheel of the latest craze. Would it mean for us to know that whatever size our church winds up after all of our annual conference?s emphasis on church growth is tried, that a big successful church is not as important as a faithful mustard seed church?

We must be faithful to Jesus? saving and disturbing love. We must realize that whoever we are as a church, and whatever our size, whether we be one person or a small remnant or a large church, we are called to be faithful with who we are and what we have right now and not expect someone else to show up through our doors and make the Kingdom happen for us.

We are part of the Kingdom of God, regardless of numbers and statistical reports, right now, so let?s be the Kingdom.

Certainly I pray that our church will grow in membership and what pastor wouldn?t want his or her church to grow, after all he wants to continue to be paid, and finance committees want to keep the lights on, and annual conferences have bills to pay and a denomination to run.

Certainly it is nice to have folks come to listen to the message we share as United Methodists. After all, someone has said, 'We have a great message in our denomination.' Certainly with the more people you have, the greater the ministry you can do.

Certainly it is a good thing to strive to be relevant and give a hopeful message. After all, Christians are not 'mopers' but they are 'hopers.' Certainly, it is nice to have our pews filled, for nothing makes a church come alive more than for the pews to be filled with flesh and blood worshipers. There is nothing better than Christmas Eve and Easter Sunday.

However, I also want to be clear about something: the only reason for church growth is not to fill the offering plates, nor to become a big and successful church, nor to have the thrill of every pew filled, but to introduce others to this saving, strange and odd Jesus, who will keep hounding us with the irony of the Kingdom that it?s not the size that matters nor the success, nor the message, 'with Jesus you will come out on top and all your needs will be met.'

Rather it?s a citizenship in a Kingdom that oddly says: 'Come and be a loser with us, for success is not as important as faithfulness. Come and grow old with us for it is in the growing old that you will understand the resurrection and the life. Come and learn that you will know the Lord only in the midst of your puny, withering, losing, noxious, mustard seed life, for only then will you know how great is the Lord and how greatly God is to be praised.

It is then you will know what it means to be in the Kingdom of God called the church, for only then you will know -- when you know yourself to be a mustard seed -- the power that comes from reaching out to your neighbor in love and for support.

May God grant us success with church growth but God?s idea of success and not our own.

The Rev. David E. Thayer is senior pastor at St. Andrew?s of Annapolis UMC.