7-20-20 - Tiny Seeds

You can listen to this reflection here. Sunday's gospel reading is here.

The parables Jesus told come in all shapes and sizes, short, long, simple, complex. Some cover decades, with multiple characters and dialogue, while others are just extended examples. All are meant to convey in words and images the invisible reality he called the “Kingdom of Heaven.” Next Sunday we get a series of one and two-line parables. Yet as we explore these small gems, turning them this way and that, seeing how the light shines through them, we may find as many layers as in the longer ones.

We start with the Kingdom being compared to a tiny seed: He put before them another parable: “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.”

How is the realm of God like a tiny seed? Hmmm. Let’s wonder together. What is a seed? A nugget of life, a whole life hidden from view, disguised as something small, seemingly innocuous, yet containing the future. All that is to be, all the fruitfulness and loss, is right there, waiting to burst forth. Are we the seeds in which the kingdom of God, the Life of God, is contained? Is the church?

Seeds must be sown in order to bring forth life. Where has God planted you? Do you like the field you’re in? Do you wish to be moved to soil more to your liking, or are do you, as the old poster read, “Bloom where you are planted?” (We moved so much that my mother prefixed “trans-“ to that.)

A seed must die if its future life is to be released. That breaking open causes trauma to the seed. What in us needs to be broken open so the God-Life inside can be made visible? What in us that is broken has yet to be healed, so that we might through that wound bring healing to others?

Small things can wield a large impact. Witness the power of a baby or a kitten to garner the attention of whole households. Witness a rudder on a large boat. Witness the impact one tired woman like Rosa Parks can have on a nation. What examples have you lived of small things with big influence? What comes to mind?

The tiny mustard seed in Jesus’ parable gives way to a bush, a shrub that becomes a tree – its blessings are multiple. It bears fruit and gives shade and provides dwelling places for the birds. Name some of the multiple blessings that the world sees from your life.

Today, let’s pray as seeds – 

giving thanks for where we are planted, or asking to be planted elsewhere;
taking note of where we are being broken open and anticipating the new life to emerge;
taking note of our fruitfulness and who is being blessed by our being the fullest “me” we can be;
asking God where in the world the Spirit is inviting us to carry the seeds of more new life.

The growth cycle of God’s planting is never done. The fruit of each seed brings forth more seeds, which contain in themselves more life, and more life, and more life. We are a part of God’s great harvest, and as we bear fruit we are invited to carry seeds to the whole wide world, that the fruit of the Good News in the love of God will be made known to all God’s children. Amen!

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