Brief synopsis of the readings: The first reading draws from the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel. The seventeenth chapter uses imagery of an eagle who plants a seed that grows and bears fruit. This reading completes the chapter where God speaks of breaking a twig from a great cedar and planting it. Everyone will know that this twig will grow into a great cedar and that God planted it. He then says: “I bring low the high tree, I make high the low tree; I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish. the Lord have spoken; I will accomplish it.” Mark’s Gospel gives us the parable of the mustard seed. Here Jesus imagines the Kingdom of God as seeds thrown by a farmer. The seed grows into a crop without the farmer knowing how. He then speaks of a mustard seed, the smallest of all the seeds of the earth. And yet it grows into the biggest shrub, putting out branches for birds of the air to find shelter.

I think we can all agree that if Ezekiel were around today, Fox News would denounce him as a job killer. He proposes something that would be roundly denounced: God will bring down the tall trees and raise up the small ones. He is basically talking about equality: the trees do best when there is not a large disparity between the tallest and the smallest.

This is a common theme throughout Scripture. How many times does God command the people not to exercise too much power over their servants because they were once slaves themselves? Or how often does Jesus speak of how the last shall be first and the first shall be last?

The problem with the largest trees is that they can easily claim to have become the largest trees on their own. With ridiculous ease they look down on the smaller trees with scorn and contempt, thinking that they are larger because they’re smarter, or harder working, or more blessed by God. When challenged they can claim that bringing them down so others may rise will only encourage the dumber, lazier trees to keep doing what they’re doing.

We see that all around us. Raising taxes to pay for services to the poor only encourages the poor to continue to be lazy. Suggesting that the wealthiest have more than enough is seen as a way of discouraging innovation. If everyone has the same opportunity why should we reward failure?

Except that there has never been a time where everyone has had the same opportunity, and disparities in the height of trees or individual wealth have much as or more to do with good fortune. Ezekiel writes soon after the Israelites were liberated back to their home after exile in Babylon. Again and again in our history we have fallen victim to our own greed and hubris and have lost everything. Again and again God call us home and asks only that we treat each other with the generosity with which we’ve been treated.

And we don’t. Whether President Hoover calls it “trickle down economics” or President Reagan calls it “supply side economics” we seem all too eager to embrace beliefs that allow us to lack gratitude and think ourselves brilliant.

Perhaps the best image of ourselves comes in the Gospel readings as we read about farmers. Since the time of Jesus we’ve made dramatic strides in our knowledge of agriculture but maybe that misses the point. We know much more about what types of soils grow better crops and we’ve mastered fertilizers, growing seasons, and mass harvesting. And yet all this is being dwarfed here in California by a drought nobody can outsmart.

Most of us can take our needs for granted. We plug in our lamps (and iPhones) and the electricity works. We turn on the faucet and, even in a drought, water comes out. We pump gas into our cars without ever actually seeing the gas but we can be confident that our cars will go when we press the gas pedal. We are removed from the chain of people and events who brought these things to us.

Many years ago I was inspired by someone who offered grace before a meal. He gave thanks for the food, and he also said: “And we give thanks to all those who brought this food to our table.” I immediately thought not only of the farmer who grew the crops, but also the farm workers who picked the crops, the truck drivers who drove it to my city, and the grocery workers who displayed it for me to purchase. From that day on I’ve thought about all those people I don’t know who made it possible for me to eat that meal and every meal since.

I realized at that point that when I purchased the food I wasn’t just paying the grocery store. I was also paying the truck driver, the farm workers, and the farmer. It helped me recognize I wasn’t doing justice by demanding the lowest price for my food. I recognized that unless I thought about them with every bite, I wasn’t being grateful enough. The farmer plants his seeds and doesn’t do the work of the seeds to germinate and grow. The farm workers harvest the crops and don’t do any of the work of planting the crops. The truck drivers transport the crops without having to plant or harvest them. The grocery workers display the crops without having to plant, harvest, or transport them. But most importantly, I eat the food without having to do any of their work. If I look at that food and think that I’m entitled, I haven’t taken seriously either Ezekiel or Mark.

I’ll be the first to say that I’m blessed. I was born in a country that values individual rights. I was born into a family that values education and a strong moral compass. I was raised in a family that loved and valued me, and sacrificed to ensure I had everything I needed (trust me, I needed glasses, braces, and allergy shots when I was a child). And I did nothing to deserve any of this. I’m a big tree.

In some ways we are all big trees. I’m not ashamed or embarrassed by what I’ve been given, but I hope I’m appropriately grateful. And if I claim to take my faith seriously I see the need to reach out to those who don’t have what I have been given. It takes nothing from me to reach out to those who want only to give to their children what I have. I’ve donated a fair amount of money in my lifetime and I can safely say that it has not cost me anything I’ve needed.

And so let us walk away from these readings with a recognition that our blessings are supposed to be seeds of the crops we provide with our gratitude and generosity.