Once again this week Jesus speaks to us in parables… multifaceted gems that once tumbled around in our hearts and ruminated, upon yield, unbelievable insights into the Reign of God. While the disciples certainly preferred straightforward answers, Jesus obviously preferred parables. Of the comparisons of the reign of God to a field, a mustard seed and the leaven in bread, I have always liked the comparison of the mustard seed and the Reign of God. This tiny, tiny little seed grows into a great bush…so large that the birds of the air make their nests in it. If you take the parable at its face value, it all seems quite lovely. However there is a dark side that farmers know well: the mustard bush is an invasive plant. It grows wildly and rapidly, quickly overtaking a garden, ruining the plants that had been planted with care and reducing their yield, if not completely choking them out. Mustard bushes are uncontrollable and rapidly spread across a farm if not quickly uprooted before going to seed. Surely this reality was not lost on Jesus…nor on those who heard him tell the parable. It seems that perhaps Jesus is presenting an image of the expansion of the Reign of God as something uncontrollable, invasive and fast growing! Looking through the lens of this image…the Reign of God is not something that can be domesticated or controlled…by its very nature it grows uncontrollably and bursts forth offering refuge. I believe that most of us, though, would prefer something that we could contain and control…domesticate!
But the truth is that the Reign of God is just that: ”God’s Reign”; not ours. We are part of it by our baptism and we are called to help water it so that it continues to grow and “invade” every crevice and furrow of this planet…we don’t get to tame it. Two thousand years ago Jesus’ vision of the bursting forth of the Reign of God was nothing less than radical ….and it still is today. We are called to be part of that radical vision…to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and imprisoned…to love one another as Christ loves us and to reach out and to care for “the other.” To proclaim the deep and passionate love of God for all peoples, of all races and all ethnicities…a world of racial justice and an end to white privilege, an end to a world where a person of one color is valued over a person of another color or ethnicity! And wasn’t it just this radical vision of the reign of God -- where every person was valued equally -- that Jesus preached that got him crucified?
As his disciple just how radical of a life am I willing live? In a world that proclaims a “gospel of personal prosperity” with tax cuts for the rich at the cost of healthcare cuts for the poor, to what lengths am I willing to go in building up this radical vision of the Reign of God that Jesus preached? What concrete action can I take today to “water” the Reign of God? Where and how do I see the Reign of God bursting forth in imaginative and radical ways…such as the “Black Lives Matter Movement”. How can I support it and join in? How can I work to bring about racial justice and end white privilege, that is so antithetical to the most basic message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
Blessings,
Fr Tim
But the truth is that the Reign of God is just that: ”God’s Reign”; not ours. We are part of it by our baptism and we are called to help water it so that it continues to grow and “invade” every crevice and furrow of this planet…we don’t get to tame it. Two thousand years ago Jesus’ vision of the bursting forth of the Reign of God was nothing less than radical ….and it still is today. We are called to be part of that radical vision…to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, visit the sick and imprisoned…to love one another as Christ loves us and to reach out and to care for “the other.” To proclaim the deep and passionate love of God for all peoples, of all races and all ethnicities…a world of racial justice and an end to white privilege, an end to a world where a person of one color is valued over a person of another color or ethnicity! And wasn’t it just this radical vision of the reign of God -- where every person was valued equally -- that Jesus preached that got him crucified?
As his disciple just how radical of a life am I willing live? In a world that proclaims a “gospel of personal prosperity” with tax cuts for the rich at the cost of healthcare cuts for the poor, to what lengths am I willing to go in building up this radical vision of the Reign of God that Jesus preached? What concrete action can I take today to “water” the Reign of God? Where and how do I see the Reign of God bursting forth in imaginative and radical ways…such as the “Black Lives Matter Movement”. How can I support it and join in? How can I work to bring about racial justice and end white privilege, that is so antithetical to the most basic message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
Blessings,
Fr Tim
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