Reflection
To what shall we compare the kingdom of God?
It is like a mustard seed that is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth.
But once it is sown, it springs up and puts forth large branches,
so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.
Mark 4:26-34
The mustard seed begins as something small and seemingly insignificant. It breaks through hard ground, grows and makes its presence visible. The tiny seed becomes a tree which provides for the needs of others. It symbolizes that from small beginnings things can be changed. From a handful of disciples there can grow a global movement. We are meant to be those mustard seeds growing into the community Jesus envisioned – a community where the poor are rich, where status makes no difference, where all of God’s people gather are loved, where no one is a stranger, and where all the creatures of earth find a home. That is what the reign of God is like. It is like a mustard seed where from small beginnings all is transformed into a glorious display of the power of God.
Prayer
May we work to bring about a transformed earth community.
Action
Reflect on the power in the hands of individuals. Can we really change the way things are? Are we willing to try?
Suggested Reading
He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
Luke 17:6
The reign of God is within you.
Luke 17:2
The kingdom of God has erupted on the field of the world through Jesus’ preaching and action. The Kingdom grows and develops not as a work of human labor but“of its own power, and according to criteria that are humanly speaking indecipherable.
Pope Francis
We must assess our thoughts and beliefs and reckon whether they are moving us closer to conformity to Christ or farther away from it.
John Ortberg
Christianity does not consist in any partial amendment of our lives, any particular moral virtues, but in an entire change of our natural temper, a life wholly devoted to God.
William Law
I surrendered unto Him all there was of me; everything! Then for the first time I realized what it meant to have real power.
Kathryn Kuhlman
So never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself.
Florence Nightingale
You have to work at it. You have to know God on a very intimate level in order to have the kind of faith that will withstand the storms life throws at you. It’s a good thing that we only have to have the amount of a mustard seed. Sometimes that’s about all I can find.
Lynette Eason
The Word says that if we have a faith as small as a mustard seed we can move mountains. And yet, we limit what God can accomplish through us when we continuously mull over our fears, feed our hopelessness, and encourage anxiety, which then causes doubt. Doubt hinders God’s power.
Cheryl Zelenka