11th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Gospel Reading: Mark 4: 26-34

26 Jesus said to his disciples: 'This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man throws seed on the land.

27 Night and day, while he sleeps, when he it awake, the seed is sprouting and growing; how, he does not know.

28 Of its own accord the land produces first the shoot, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

29 And when the crop is ready, he loses no time: he starts to reap because the harvest has come.'

30 He also said: 'What can we say the kingdom of God is like? What parable can we find for it?

31 lt is like a mustard seed which at the time of its sowing in the soil is the smallest of all the seeds on earth;

32 yet once it is sown it grows into the biggest shrub of them all and puts out big branches so that the birds of the air can shelter in its shade.’

33 Using many parables like these, he spoke the word to them, so far as they were capable of understanding it.

Meditation

We see Jesus in this passage searching for the right metaphors to illustrate the concept of the kingdom of God, and we are re­minded that today we need to find new images to illustrate our own vision of God's kingdom.

Verses 26b to 30. A farmer has sown a tiny seed; he now Will dies and waits for it to bear fruit. Jesus makes a comparison between the small and negligible start and the extraordinary re­sults.

The farmer is in no hurry, he simply waits and lets things happen. Whatever happens will take its own time and he must certainly not try to hurry it. He does not try to find out how this happens, but allows things to develop as they will. When the time is ripe the farmer knows that he must get to work.

Stay with the slow movement, the first signs of the crop before it is harvest time. Experience the contrast in the last verse when the time comes and everything seems so easy and natural.

We think of parents who worked hard for their children and then one day they saw that it was time to move on and let them go. We remember leaders who gave their all to their jobs and then one day knew that the time had come to let others take over.

We think of church pastors who gave themselves to their work and must now allow others to take their place.

Verses 30 to 32. In this parable Jesus makes a distinction be­tween the small beginning and the final flowering. 'At the time of the sowing it is the smallest of all the shrubs of the earth.'

We remember small acts that we know about and that have led to great results. Acts of love and kindness and loyalty that were done without thinking about what would happen in later years.

Looking back, we now see that a great tree grew out of it with plenty of space for people from other classes and tribes to bene­fit from it. We think also of the many cultures that have found their home in the Bible.

In your meditation you can start from the time of sowing the little seed, a time of enormous potential; or you can start from the time of full growth and remember the small beginnings.

Prayer 

Lord we thank you for the times that a Bible passage touched us deeply.
When we first read it we knew it was a beautiful word; so we just received it like a seed sown on the land.
Then we carried on with our daily lives knowing that somehow the words of the passage were there within us weaving in and out of our experience.
Gradually we began to catch glimpses of its meaning.
Then, quite unexpectedly, it all came together and we knew that the passage was ours and all we had to do was enjoy it and give you thanks.
Lord, in our modern world there are many things we can do just by pressing a button or turning a switch; eventually we come to think we can move people like that too.
Remind us that helping others to grow is something totally different.
It is rather like throwing a seed on the land; night and day we sleep, we are awake, the seed is sprouting and growing, how we do not know.
We see some results and we think that the crop is ready but we have to wait a little longer.
Only when the harvest has come can we start to reap.
I, Lord, we pray for those who work the land, that they may reverence it and trust its rhythms remembering that the land has many secrets they do not know, that it must do things of its own accord, mid only when the crop is ready must they start to reap.
Lord, it is not easy to keep the vision of Jesus alive in the world today.
The things we preach may sometimes seem irrelevant or trivial: love your enemies, put the poor first in your calculations, practise modesty.
Yet we know that we must keep preaching these things because if that tiny seed continues to be sown one day it will become the biggest shrub in the whole world, it will put out big branches and the birds of the air will shelter in its shade.
Lord, our leaders like to stand over us and hand down instructions.
But you are not like that.
You speak your word in parables, in Bible passages, in things that happen to us, in people.
We cannot get to the bottom of them, but you give us time because you only teach as far as we are capable of understanding.
Then when the time comes we understand the parable so clearly, with so much joy; it is as if you had taken us aside as your own special pupils and explained everything to us.
Lord, help us to relate to others as you relate to us.