Sermon – Mark 4:26-34 – A Mustard Seed, John Calvin

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard
Sermon – Mark 4:26-34 – A Mustard Seed, John Calvin
Eagle Rock Presbyterian Church
June 14, 2009

Listen to this sermon.

This morning is an important day for our church. We will be ordaining and installing new elders and deacons as our leaders. This coming year the elders will have many important decisions to make as this church moves into the future. And as we all get older, the deacons will have more and more people to care for. So God has provided us with these leaders to guide the church and to serve those in need. To prepare for this ordination and installation of new officers we need to begin in prayer.

Father in heaven we pray that the people we ordain and install as our leaders this day will be mustard seeds that will grow into ministers of your church. We pray this with you, your son Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Mark 4:26-34 26 He also said, "The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come." 30 He also said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32 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." 33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34 he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

This morning I will be talking about a mustard seed, planted by God five hundred years ago, and still growing into a mighty church. That mustard seed was named John Calvin.

Calvin was born on July 10, 1509. His father was the attorney for the local bishop and served on the city council of Noyon, France. When he was 12, Calvin was sent by the bishop to Paris to learn Latin and become a clerk. Calvin hoped to study moral and natural philosophy before beginning graduate work in theology. By age 16 Calvin had earned both his bachelors and his masters degree. But Calvin’s father wanted him to become a lawyer rather than engage in graduate theological work. So Calvin went to law school at the University of Orleans.

Sometime around 1529 Calvin converted to the new Reformation. He developed a strong desire to know as much about God as he could. He studied Greek and Hebrew so that he could read the Bible in it original languages. He studied history, philosophy and theology to provide a scholarly context for what he was reading in scripture. But in 1533 he forced to flee Paris for his life as the persecution of Protestants swept France. Calvin went into hiding and began writing the first edition of his monumental work of theology, the Institutes of the Christian Religion.

Calvin then decided to go to Strasburg, but while on the way he spent a night in Geneva and met a reformer named William Farrel. Farrel persuaded Calvin to stay in Geneva and help him with his efforts in reforming the city. Specifically he needed to define a new relationship between the city council and the church now that the domination of the Church of Rome had been removed and the city government was now independent of the church. This meant that a new structure was needed for the church and Calvin was the perfect person as both a lawyer and theologian to accomplish this task.

Calvin designed a plan for the organization of a reformed church using offices which he found in the Bible. The first office he proposed was that of Pastor. The Pastor was to give moral direction to the church and do those things the medieval priests used to do such as weddings, baptisms and funerals. The Pastor was to administer the sacraments and give spiritual leadership to the church. The second office was that of Doctor. The Doctor of the church was its teacher. The Doctor would read the Bible in it original languages, interpret it using the tools of history, philosophy and theology, and expound upon it for the benefit of the church. The third office was that of Elder. The Elder was to enforce moral discipline on the members of the church. If a member drank too much alcohol, or got in fights, or gambled money, or cheated on a spouse the Elder was responsible for doing something about it. And the fourth office was that of Deacon. The Deacon was to collect money for the poor during worship and see to it that the needy in the community were cared for.

The Pastors and senior Doctors were organized by Calvin into a Company of Pastor. The purpose of this group was to lead the church and ordain new Pastors and Doctors. This was a source of conflict with the city council which wanted to appoint Pastors and Doctors themselves. The Company of Pastors once decided that the Lord’s Supper would be served monthly, but the city council overruled this decision and scheduled communion quarterly.

Calvin organized the Elders into the Consistory. The Consistory would enforce Christian law and anyone who was deemed unworthy could not participate in the Lord’s Supper. This too created conflict with the city council which wanted to make these decisions themselves. As a result of these and other conflicts, Calvin was asked to leave Geneva, and he went as to Strasburg to join another reformer, Martin Bucer. At Strasburg, Calvin preached, taught, got married, and revised his Institutes.

But in 1541 the church and city council in Geneva realized that they had made a mistake in getting rid of Calvin and they asked him to return, which he did, reluctantly.

Back in Geneva Calvin went to work creating what he believed would be a Holy Commonwealth based on Christian morality. He taught in the church every day and twice on Sundays. He wrote commentaries on nearly every book of the Bible. And he again revised his Institutes.

A large number of foreign immigrants were coming to Geneva to escape persecution of the reformed church is many parts of Europe. Calvin established a school where Pastors and Doctors were educated with his technique for interpreting scripture and his way of organizing the church. These students were then sent out to churches all over Europe. One young student from Scotland was the pastor of an English congregation in Geneva. John Knox was trained by Calvin and sent back to start the Church of Scotland called the Presbyterian Church. A Reformed wave that started in Geneva swept across Europe, it landed with a group of reformed pilgrims on Plymouth Rock and with a group of Dutch settlers in New Amsterdam, present day New York, and from there it crossed the continent of North America arriving in Eagle Rock in 1914, and crossed the Pacific landing in Asia.

Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion grew into a massive work that has been extremely influential in churches and schools around the world. It is organized into four books. In the first Calvin talks about God and how we come to know God. In the second book Calvin talks about us and our need for God. In the third book Calvin talks about our union with God through the grace of Jesus Christ. And in the forth book Calvin talks about the work of the Holy Spirit in guiding the church.

Over the next three Sundays, as we approach Calvin’s 500th birthday, I will be preaching three sermons based on Calvin’s theology as written in the Institutes. Next Sunday we will be looking at the doctrine of the Sovereignty of God. The following Sunday we will consider the doctrine of the Total Depravity of Humankind. And on the third Sunday we look at the doctrine of Divine Election.

As we look back on the life of John Calvin and growth of the Reformed church we realize that this is just what Jesus was talking about when he described the kingdom of God. God planted a small seed of reformation in Geneva that grew into a reformed church that covers the world. We are still studying scripture using the tools of biblical languages, history, philosophy and theology. This church still governs itself with Pastors, Doctors, Elders and Deacons. The seed planted 500 years ago has grown into a church that is still reformed and reforming. Amen.