"Kudzu Work. Kingdom Work." - By Canon Kana Goldsmith

“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” 
— Matthew 13:31–32 

While mustard seeds grow vigorously in Alabama, my roots make me think more along the lines of kudzu. 

The kingdom of heaven is like kudzu… 

It also gives a whole new meaning to “I am the vine, and you are the branches.” 

We are talking about abundance. The kind of faith that is nurtured in the abundance of the Holy Spirit and flows through the vine with unmeasured amounts of enthusiasm. Luscious green leaves reaching upward in the Alabama sun—truly unstoppable. 

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to take a different view from the Lord’s Table out to the pews. 

What if we quit counting wafers like tally marks in a book every Sunday? What if, instead, we looked at that glorious bread, broken for us, as fuel for the seedling sitting in the pew? A sprig of kudzu thrusting out hungry shoots of thanksgiving, ready to grow beyond the walls of the church. 

What I am trying to get at is this: it does not matter if your church has five seats filled on Sunday morning or 5,000. The Holy Spirit is alive and well from the smallest parish to the largest church—and we are all intertwined. 

This is one of the reasons I said an enthusiastic YES to Bishop Lawson a month ago. He wanted to change things up a little in the Diocesan office and build upon the foundation he has been called to serve. So he said, “Let’s blend together Parish Vitality and Vocations.” 

And I think those really are two parts of the same work: helping create places where people are encountering Christ, discerning God’s call, and growing in faith. 

Kudzu work. Kingdom work. 

I started counting all the different parishes I have been a member of since birth. There are seven of them. Some medium-sized, some small, and some really big. 

And here’s the thing: in every one of those parishes, I have felt the love of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit. From the parish of 30 where I knew just about everything about everybody, to the larger parish where there are people I have yet to meet—the Spirit has been there. 

I think sometimes in our larger parishes we forget that a large church is really just a big boat carrying all kinds of smaller church families within it. And in our smaller parishes, perhaps we sometimes forget just how far our branches can reach. 

Maybe that is what parish vitality asks us to see differently. 

Not: “How big is your church?” 

But: “Where is the Holy Spirit growing?” 

Where are the shoots reaching? Where are people encountering Christ? Where are they discovering their gifts? Where are they hearing God call their name? And where is all of that life spilling beyond our walls and into the community around us? 

Because that is vitality. That is vocation.  And that is Kingdom work.