Tuesday 27 October

Today is Tuesday the 27 October, in the 30th week of Ordinary Time.  

The Community of Taizé sing “the Kingdom of God is justice and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  Come, Lord, and open in us the gates of your kingdom.”  

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Luke.  

Luke 13: 18-21

He said therefore, ‘What is the kingdom of God like? And to what should I compare it? It is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in the garden; it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the air made nests in its branches.’ And again he said, ‘To what should I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed in with three measures of flour until all of it was leavened.’  

Use your own imagination as you place yourself in this scene.   Walk with Jesus and listen to him talking, perhaps there is a mustard tree close by, or perhaps, you watch a gardener sowing mustard seeds.  Pick the seeds up in your hand.   See how tiny they are.  Choose one single seed and marvel at how minuscule it is... Jesus points out the mustard tree itself.  Look up and marvel at how it has grown from a tiny speck of a seed to a strong healthy plant.  There are even birds nesting in the tree now. 

What might happen if you allowed the kingdom of God to be planted as a tiny seed and tended in your life?  How might you grow?  Could you just let go and let that happen?   What might be holding you back? 

Go back to the scene with Jesus and watch with Him a baker at work with 20 kilos or so of flour and just a small measure of leaven.  Breathe in the yeasty smells and perhaps share some of the bread.  Break it up and enjoy its texture and taste.  What role has the yeast played in the rising of the dough? 

As you hear the passage again, hold this sense of the kingdom of God as Jesus describes it in these simple, daily life scenes.

Can you recognise the kingdom of God in yourself?  Is there a seed of something in you that you need to, indeed long to, see growing?  The germ of an idea, perhaps, or a new attitude that might transform you?

Talk to God, as one friend talks to another, about what you most deeply desire on this, your journey of faith.

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.