Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

In Mk: 4:26-34 we hear / read

Seed Grows of Itself.

He said, “This is how it is with the kingdom of God;^* it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.” 

The Mustard Seed.

He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” With many such parableshe spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it.  Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.

There is always so much for the adult to hear and to hear often out of  a world shaped by mishearing making the hearing all the more difficult.

Minor Background

Of less importance but still in need of correct understanding is the very name of this Sunday’s celebration, The Eleventh Sunday of Ordinary Time.  In English “ordinary” means, well ordinary, not spectacular, run of the mill, not extraordinary.  However, “Ordinary” in the Liturgy means anything but that.  It comes from the Latin “ordo” which means an ordered series; 1, 2, 3, etc.  The liturgy of the church emerged over time but the central event of that liturgy is, and must always be, the resurrection, Easter, no Easter no Christianity.  With Easter as its center, the church developed a time of preparation for Easter which we now know of as Lent, and a time of celebrating the Feast, not a one day affair but 50 days, Pentecost.  Then there is Christmas modeled on Easter so a period of preparation, Advent, and a time of the Feast, again not a one day affair.  These are the Seasons of Preparation and Celebration.  Most of life though is focused on the day to day, living.  And that is what “Sundays of Ordinary Time” address.   Rising to the level of our times means to know and appreciate the liturgical year, a gift of wisdom from our ancestors in the faith to us.

Major Background

Now to the really important; the key phrase in the two parables is, of course, Kingdom of God, [in Matthew, Heaven  – Why does Matthew use “heaven?” ].  Probably all three of those words dwell in a world shaped by our misunderstandings.  If Easter is the central event in our life as Christians, the Kingdom of God was the central theme of Jesus’ preaching and his life.  The Kingdom is what Jesus proclaimed in word and deed, in life and death.

When I was growing up, it wasn’t the Kingdom though that was central, it was heaven; going to heaven that’s all that mattered in the long run.  I suspect that almost all of us have as our goal in life to “Go to Heaven.”   Even if we are not all that clear on exactly where heaven is, or what it is, or what we would do once we got there.  We do know that to get there we had to do two things: do good and avoid evil, sin.  They were key.

For Jesus, his Father’s Kingdom wasn’t a place anyone went to.  It wasn’t a place.  More than anything it was a presence, quiet, rarely recognized but very powerful.  It comes to us, we don’t go to it.  The Kingdom is the Father at work, not in the next life but in this life.  So Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy Kingdom come.”

Some questions to help focus

I have so many questions to ask you.  Answer any one or two of the questions that capture you.  First, though, read the passage afresh.  Ask yourself what concretely in the parables is the Kingdom like?  I know this is obvious, but what is the word[s] that Jesus uses?  Now what does that word[s] do?  How does it act?  What happens because of that activity?  Also pay attention to who else is involved and how are they involved in the parable?  What do they do?  What is the result of their actions?

Where are you in the parable?  What do you think is the most significant part of the parable?  Do you have any questions, comments, observations?