Today we hear about the nature of our God and His kingdom.
In our Old Testament reading (Wisdom 12:13-19) God tells us that not only is He kind, loving, forgiving, and just, but that he is the source of all kindness, love, forgiveness, and justice.
In today’s Gospel (Matt 13:24-30) Jesus tells us a bit about God’s Kingdom – a kingdom that embodies the love, kindness, forgiveness, and justice that flows from our God.
By way of the parable of the sower, Jesus helps us to understand and accept that our world is not perfect, that there will be both good and bad in our world, that the perfection of God’s kingdom might never be fully realized during our earthly existence.
But at the same time, Jesus gives us hope –
By way of the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of the leavened bread, Jesus is assuring us that with God anything is possible, and that in God’s time His kingdom will indeed be brought to perfection. Jesus tells us that just like a large tree can sprout from the tiniest of seeds and just like a bit of yeast can leaven the largest batch of flour, God’s grace can transform our world for the better – that even the greatest of evils can be overcome by the goodness and love that flow from God.
And Jesus wants us to know that we are called to help bring about God’s Kingdom, that we are called to be channels of God’s grace, conduits of his goodness and love. Jesus wants us to know that we are His “co-workers”, that we can help bring light to places of darkness, kindness to places of neglect, justice to places of oppression, and goodness to places of evil.
So we keep moving forward – “co-workers” in God’s field – prayerfully asking God to strengthen and guide us as, day-by-day, little-by-little, we help to bring about His kingdom.