Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
The Reign of God is Jesus’ message throughout the Gospels, but he never describes it literally. He walks around it and keeps giving different images of what heaven is; what the kingdom looks like and should feel like, and how you and I are called to be part of that kingdom. Like today’s Gospel and the mustard seed, Jesus says the kingdom starts, begins like this small, insignificant seed; the kingdom is like this seed, really? Ok.
There was this Roman author and naturalist named Pliny, Pliny the Elder, who lived in Jesus’s and the apostles’ time. He wrote an encyclopedic book called Natural History, in which he described all the plants that were known in the Mediterranean world at that time. He says two main things about the mustard plant: it’s medicinal, and it’s a weed that cannot be stopped:
Pliny wrote, “Mustard…with its pungent taste and fiery effect is extremely beneficial for the health. It grows entirely wild, though it is improved by being transplanted: but on the other hand, when it has once been sown it is scarcely possible to get the place free of it, as the seed when it falls germinates at once”.
In this parable of the mustard seed, Jesus is using two parables: a therapeutic image of life and healing, and a fast-growing plant growing in yours and my world. Jesus is saying: “I’m planting a seed in the world that’s going to grow and grow and spread and spread, and I need you to get onboard!”
So how do I interpret this in today’s world; for living in today’s world? I think Jesus’ answer would be faith, keeping the faith, growing your faith despite this often-crazy world we find ourselves in.
He is talking about the grace and the freedom to live God’s dream for the world now-while not rejecting the world as it is, but rather living lives of faith and being witnesses of our faith here and now; to the whole world; the good and the bad; it’s both/and. That’s a challenge, a stress, that may not be easily resolved. But what good is it really to show our faith here and at home, but to not show it out there…out there in the secular world?
There are always two worlds. The world as it usually operates on power, ego, and success; and the world as it could be, that operates out of love. One is founded on dominative power, and the other is a continual call to right relationship and reciprocal power: that’s called love. The secret of this Kingdom life is discovering how we can live in both worlds simultaneously, so that we can ourselves grow and share in bringing his kingdom to our present world. So that in growing in our faith, we can welcome the birds, all the birds, to dwell with us in our branches.
Perhaps this has less to do with being “right” and much more to do in knowing and believing that God is love – at the end of the day that is what matters most. Those who agree to grow, to carry and love what God loves, both the good and the bad, and to pay the price for its reconciliation within themselves—these are the followers of Jesus Christ. They are the mustard seeds that God uses to transform the world.
Where am I in that? Where am I in knowing and believing that Heaven is not just a place that I am trying to get to. Heaven, the Kingdom of Heaven, is a place that I am trying to help spread and live in the here and now.
Peace be with You,
Deacon David
