Friday 30 March 2007

The week ends with a short parable about the Kingdom of God.

He said therefore, "What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed it in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in it branches." (Luke 13:18-19)

What is the kingdom of God like? This parable follows a wonderful story of Jesus healing a woman who was bent over for 18 years. Jesus initiates the healing and completes it all on the sabbath in a synagogue. Get this, the leader of the synagogue is "bent out of shape" over what he has done on the sabbath, "there are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath." Compassionate leader, isn't he!? It may be that he also needs to be healed...or at least have a better vision of God's Reign. That is the immediate context of this parable and then one with a woman and yeast in flour. One commentator picks up on the very common imagery of the mustard seed (and the woman with the flour).
This God who Reigns over all things and make people whole is among us in our daily images and in them...making life flourish beyond what is imaginable. A shrub is called a tree...and it comes from a small seed...and on top of that feat...it becomes the home for birds. The Reign of God is not something that can be contained in images that we come to expect - like rules for the sabbath that do no allow for the great and triumphant vision and expression of God's Reign that blows the lid off of what is seen and takes us into what has not been imagined...and is yet so...common.

Connection: The Reign of God is unfolding and providing for life by bringing life even to days that appear to be empty and ruled by everything but God's gracious love - even today.

Within your gracious Reign, O God, you press upon us with your healing presence...you enter our space and you call us to live new lives. Inspire us to see how your Reign breaks into our lives today and begins to bring people who are bent out of shape into a gracious experience of your growing love. Amen.