Jesus once said that the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. Tiny. Insignificant. Seed. We don’t really like that do we? We like things big. I want a bigger house, a bigger car. More impact. Bigger church. More influence. Bigger dream. We are always looking for the next big thing because if it’s not big it must not be God. The world media doesn’t go around with cameras looking for small insignificant news stories.

“Here we are in Phillipsburg, PA where Mable has just finished knitting a sweater for her cat. Mable tell us how you feel.”

We want God to show up in the big. We are looking for God to show up in the big. But instead God shows up in rural Galilee as a carpenter who picks up a mustard seed and says — this is the essence of something more.  I long for us not to miss this. I long for us to get it. To embrace the significance of small seeds. I long for us to have ears which will hear the still small voice of God in the wind and eyes which will see God@work in Mustard Seed moments.

Andy is a PSU alum. He attended Calvary as a student and last week he sent us an e-mail that included a short God-story. A former co-worker of his has been struggling with a divorce.  When Andy was a student, he had invited her to Calvary a number of times, but she never came. For a variety of reasons and past experiences, she had been turned off by church.  Last fall he visited her while he was in town and while he was at her house, he noticed that the handle from her screen door was missing and she was using a piece of string to open the door.

When he got home, he emailed our director of lifegroups to see if any of the life groups would be interested in the opportunity to go out, be the church without walls, and fix her door handle.  The e-mail was forwarded a man who just happened to have some spare screen door handles in his garage.  :)  He drove over and put it on and had a good chat with her. Andy writes this,

Soon after (she got her new door handle), she went to the small white church on Houserville Rd near her house. I am 95% sure she’s made a decision to follow Christ! I think the show of support by a church where she never even went really stirred her heart..and for her to finally start to pursue God after this… it’s awesome!

Part of me wants to shake my head and say, “For crying out loud, it was just a door handle.”  And then I heard Jesus saying, “Yeah aint it cool, what I can do with a seed.”

This weekend Calvary is joining with a number of other local congregations to go out and plant some mustard seeds — seeds of kindness, seeds of service, seeds of generosity.  We will be baking, raking, painting, cleaning and building.  We will be looking for door handle moments.  We call it CityServe.  It’s going to be a great weekend.