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Posts Tagged ‘Parable of the Mustard Seed’
16th Sunday Yr. A: Parables – small stories to help build the kingdom of heaven
Discussion Guide: 16th Sunday Yr. A: Parables – small stories to help build the kingdom of heaven.
Reflection Questions:
• The Book of Wisdom was written for Jewish people living in cities heavily influenced by Greek culture and philosophy. Wisdom teaching was to remind them of their history and relationship with God. People are to learn from the patience and gentleness and forgiving nature of God and show this in their own lives. How can you be both ‘just’ and ‘kind’? Does your use of power show itself in being ‘lenient’ and gentle to all?
• Last week the Spirit dwelling within us was referred to as a ‘first-fruits’. A first installment. An engagement ring looking forward to the promise of the wedding day! St Paul today provides a beautiful image of the presence and power of the Spirit at work in us. The Spirit prays within us in a unique way to God. Have you experienced a time of wanting to pray to God but not having words to describe how you feel. What prayer intention does your body and spirit ‘groan’ with to God? Do you recognise that this experience can be a powerful prayer? Offer this groaning today to God in prayer.
• Weeds. Seeds. Yeast. Each image expresses something of the way that God and God’s project (growing the Kingdom of heaven) is present and alive in the world. Allowing wheat and weeds to grow together is risky farming. What is your emotional reaction to the presence of good and evil existing alongside each other?Within you? Can you glimpse the patience of God?
• The mustard seed is the smallest seed, yet within a year it can turn into a shrub large enough to be mistaken for a tree. From very small beginnings it becomes something extraordinarily large. Can you identify a small action of love and service that made a profound impact on you? Can you recognise that your daily ‘sowing’ mustard seeds of justice and forgiveness and gentleness, builds the kingdom of heaven? What ‘seed’ needs to be sown most in your workplace / home today?
• The humble presence of a small amount of yeast in a large quantity of flour dramatically transforms a flour mixture into bread (three measures would feed 100 people). Jesus challenges disciples to be this type of ‘presence’ in the world. Yet the kingdom requires a person to be completely possessed by a small seed: love your neighbour as yourself.
• Parables often hide a challenging message. The apparent power of evil. The littleness of the ‘seeds’ of our loving. The small amount of our ‘yeast’ in the vastness of the world and its problems. Yet the mustard seed is tremendously fruitful. The yeast succeeds in transforming flour. Hope is at the centre of kingdom living. The ‘righteous will shine’. Can you live full of hope – refusing to be beaten by the reality you see?
• What is one action that you will do to ‘livetheword’ this week?
Year A 16th Sunday Small stories, powerful ideas Reflection here.
Reading 1 Wis 12:13, 16-19, Reading II Rom 8:26-27, Gospel Mt 13:24-33
Discussion Guide and Questions
The Book of Wisdom was written for Jewish people living in cities heavily influenced by Greek culture and philosophy. Wisdom teaching was to remind them of their history and relationship with God. People are to learn from the patience and gentleness and forgiving nature of God and show this in their own lives. How can you be both ‘just’ and ‘kind’? Does your use of power show itself in being ‘lenient’ and gentle to all?
Last week the Spirit dwelling within us was referred to as a ‘first-fruits’. A first installment. An engagement ring looking forward to the promise of the wedding day! St Paul today provides a beautiful image of the presence and power of the Spirit at work in us. The Spirit prays within us in a unique way to God. Have you experienced a time of wanting to pray to God but not having words to describe how you feel. What prayer intention does your body and spirit ‘groan’ with to God? Do you recognise that this experience can be a powerful prayer? Offer this groaning today to God in prayer.
Weeds. Seeds. Yeast. Each image expresses something of the way that God and God’s project (growing the Kingdom of heaven) is present and alive in the world. Allowing wheat and weeds to grow together is risky farming. What is your emotional reaction to the presence of good and evil existing alongside each other? Within you? Can you glimpse the patience of God?
The mustard seed is the smallest seed, yet within a year it can turn into a shrub large enough to be mistaken for a tree. From very small beginnings it becomes something extraordinarily large. Can you identify a small action of love and service that made a profound impact on you? Can you recognise your daily ‘sowing’ mustard seeds of justice and forgiveness and gentleness builds the kingdom of heaven? What ‘seed’ needs to be sown most in your workplace / home today?
The humble presence of a small amount of yeast in a large quantity of flour dramatically transforms a flour mixture into bread (three measures would feed 100 people). Jesus challenges disciples to be this type of ‘presence’ in the world. Yet the kingdom requires a person to be completely possessed by a small seed: love your neighbour as yourself.
Parables often hide a challenging message. The apparent power of evil. The littleness of the ‘seeds’ of our loving. The small amount of our ‘yeast’ in the vastness of the world and its problems. Yet the mustard seed is tremendously fruitful. The yeast succeeds in transforming flour. Hope is at the centre of kingdom living. The ‘righteous will shine’. Can you live full of hope – refusing to be beaten by the reality you see?
What is one action that you will do to ‘livetheword’ this week?
Download 11th Sunday Yr B
Reflection Questions:
- Ezekiel is different because he was both a Priest and a Prophet. He was with God’s people when they were deported into Babylon enduring suffering and slavery. They were without a Temple, their Land, a King. In a time of great distress he is humbled to realise that very few people listen to him (and God) and even less respond with obedient living to God’s ways. He shares an image of a ‘snip’ of a great tree, a ‘faithful small remnant’ of people will be planted by God in Jerusalem. So deeply does he believe in God’s guidance of history he repeats ‘the Lord will do this’ 86 times. Would you consider yourself part of God’s ‘tender shoot’, faithful and obedient? The tree (Church) of God will include all types of birds and winged creatures and the ‘lowly’. How inclusive are you toward others?
- It is important to understand St Paul. Our bodies are good but there is a ‘desire’ in our flesh that is deeply selfish. A christian disciple lives and walks by ‘faith’ not by ‘flesh’. Jesus guides our life and choices not the selfish desires many in the ‘world’ chase. Is your ‘home’ in Jesus or the ways of the world. Paul encourages disciples to face this tension and question head-on. Imagine an examination of your life at the end of time: What did you live for? What was your heart attached to?
- Jesus very early on in the Gospel of Mark meets great resistance. His family think he is ‘out of his mind’ and religious leaders from Jerusalem suggest he is possessed by a demon’ (Mark 3,20). It does not look like Jesus is having much success. Have you met resistance from family and people in leadership? How did you cope? What did you hold on to so as to continue your call and purpose?
- Jesus shares a story of the mysterious and silent working of God in bringing the ‘Kingdom’. Just as farmers presume something is happening to a seed under the ground, we also need to trust not always by sight but what we know. In truth, the mustard seed only grows to a 4 foot ‘bush’! Are you expecting Church to be a magnificent Cedar tree and struggle with the reality of a stumpy ‘bush’? Is Jesus suggesting a change from strong and powerful to humble and ‘medicinal’? The mustard-seed was considered to be a medication for many ills.
- The topic most frequently talked about by Jesus was the ‘Kingdom of God’ (Kingdom of Heaven). He chose to use parables to describe ‘God’s ways’. Parables trap us. We agree with some parts of the story but resist or don’t want to agree with other parts. We reject it, or open ourselves to an opportunity of a new way of understanding (conversion). Why did Jesus choose to describe the Kingdom as a mustard seed. We like the idea of many birds finding shelter and the church ‘welcoming and including’ all people. But a ‘mustard’ seed and bush was a backyard weed, very stubborn and difficult to get rid of. Is the way of God really requiring a revolution? Who gets threatened by that? Do you prefer the status quo or an inclusive change welcoming the poor and marginalized?
- What is one action that you will do to be ‘livingtheword’ this week?