BIBLE STUDY #94


Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time

June 17, 2012





READING 1

EZEKIEL 17:22-24



Thus says the Lord GOD:

I, too, will take from the crest of the cedar,

from its topmost branches tear off a tender shoot,

and plant it on a high and lofty mountain;

on the mountain heights of Israel I will plant it.

It shall put forth branches and bear fruit,

and become a majestic cedar.

Birds of every kind shall dwell beneath it,

every winged thing in the shade of its boughs.

And all the trees of the field shall know

that I, the LORD,

bring low the high tree,

lift high the lowly tree,

wither up the green tree,

and make the withered tree bloom.

As I, the LORD, have spoken, so will I do.



The Word of the Lord



READING 2

2 CORINTHIANS 5:6-10



Brothers and sisters:

We are always courageous,

although we know that while we are at home in the body

we are away from the Lord,

for we walk by faith, not by sight.

Yet we are courageous,

and we would rather leave the body and go home to the Lord.

Therefore, we aspire to please him,

whether we are at home or away.

For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ,

so that each may receive recompense,

according to what he did in the body, whether good or evil.



The Word of the Lord



GOSPEL

MARK 4:26-34



Jesus said to the crowds:

"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 through it all 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."



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 parables

he 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.



The Gospel of the Lord



Reflection



Today’s Gospel contains the only two kingdom parables in Mark’s Gospel. While it can be much more, a parable is a basically “comparison of two objects for the purpose of teaching” (The New International Dictionary of the Bible, 1987, p.750). The term “Kingdom of God” is hard to define, but to me, it contains 2 basic aspects: our relationship with God, and our relationship with each other.



We usually think of the Kingdom of God (or the Kingdom of Heaven) as something we receive in the next life, as in getting to heaven. In this instance, we think that the purpose of Jesus mission was to suffer and die so we can be saved. While this is true, it is also incomplete. It also means that God is working effectively in our lives in the present to bring his grace, peace and love into the world through us. Whenever we love, God is present (because God is love) but when we love, the kingdom of God is also present.



In the first parable, a man scatters seed. The implication is that it was a random scattering of seed that went everywhere. It seems that this man sowed the seed but didn’t tend it, which was not a common practice for farmers. The seed grows on its own, without any help, and when the land bears fruit it is harvested. It is through God’s power that the kingdom grows, not because of anything we do. God uses us as his instrument, but it is through God’s power that people are converted. We never convert anyone; it is God working through us that affects conversion. The work of conversion and growing in God’s grace also takes time, and we need to be patient with ourselves and others. It takes time for the planted seed to grow. It takes time for God’s word to grow in our hearts.



Bearing fruit for the kingdom also necessitates repentance in our lives. This is not just asking forgiveness for our mistakes and sins, but also a change of heart, a change in how we think and act, a reorienting of our lives from what we want to what God wants for us and what God wants us to do.



The second parable is similar to the first, and compares the kingdom to a mustard seed, which is the smallest of seeds that grows into a large bush. The seed is a small beginning, it mysteriously grows suggesting divine guidance, and implies a great conclusion. The seed of faith sown through Jesus in our hearts will grow mysteriously into something grand and wonderful. We move towards the fullness of God’s kingdom at God’s pace; his word will be accomplished in the world. The largeness of the bush suggests the universality of the kingdom, how it will spread far and wide. The birds nesting in the bush suggests that many people from far and wide will be a part of the kingdom.



The Kingdom of God proclaimed by Jesus is the new Israel and is the place where God’s creatures find refuge.



Jesus speaks in parables to help explain his message, which is much deeper than words can express. Poetry does something similar. A poet tries to express beauty in words that evoke that sense inside of us, something we can’t always put into words. Poetry speaks to the heart, not the head, as music can. Parables try to evoke the mysterious and unexplainable, to touch something deep inside of us, to change us and help us grow.



In the first reading from Ezekiel, the people Israel are in exile in Babylon in the 6th century B.C. Ezekiel is certain that God will eventually return the people to the Promised Land and that when they return, it won’t be religion as usual, but faith will be much deeper and stronger. God will take a shoot from the old tree (a cedar tree, a symbol of Israel) and “plant it on a lofty mountain” (Jerusalem is on a high in elevation). The exile and return of the people is a means to achieve the renewal of their faith.



In the second reading from St Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians, he is encouraging people to believe and be faithful in their journey of life. We “walk by faith, not by sight”: we do not ‘see’ perfectly what God wants of has in store for us, be we go on anyway with courage because someday we will appear before the judgment seat of God to be rewarded for the good or punished for our evil. That seed of faith has been planted in us, has grown, and it is God’s grace that helps us get through life.



We are all called to plant seeds of faith in others by what we say and do. We are not concerned about being successful, just to follow God in all that we do. We use our gifts and talents and let God work through us.



Following is an interesting story about planting seeds, from the June 2012 issue of Connections:



“Anna loved to do needlework. But painful arthritis made it impossible for her to manipulate the large needle. So the 80-year-old great-grandmother began to look for something else to occupy her time. She found that her old fingers could hold a small paintbrush much easier than a needle. So she began to paint. She thought the scenes she painted around her upstate New York farm and village were good enough to show at the local fair. While she continued to win prizes for her jams and canned fruit, her paintings received little notice.



Then one day a New York City art collector was traveling through the village. He noticed four small paintings in the window of a local drug store. The dealer inquired about the artist and bought the paintings for a few dollars. He then went to visit Anna at her farm nearby and was charmed by her humble, homespun manner and values.



The collector returned to New York and got three of Anna's works included in an exhibit at the Museum of Modern Art. An art dealer championed Anna's work, launching her on a quarter-century career that would make her an internationally known celebrity.



The combination of the farm wife's homespun personality, the simple, unpretentious wisdom of her years, and her simple but evocative portrayals of everyday farm life catapulted Anna to acclaim and fame. Her paintings were displayed in leading galleries in New York and around the world, as well being featured in books, cards and calendars. Amazingly, 25 percent of her 1,500 paintings were completed after she was a hundred years old!



In her autobiography, published just before her death at 101 in 1961, Anna Mary Robertson Moses - Grandma Moses - wrote:



"I look back on my life like a good's day work, it was done and I feel satisfied with it. I was happy and content, I knew nothing better and made the best out of what life offered. And life is what we make it, always has been, always will be."



[From "Grandma Moses Country" by Stephen May, Smithsonian, April 2001.]



Anna Mary Robertson Moses possessed the faith of the farmer in Jesus' parable: the conviction that whether needlework or painting, her talent and work - however insignificant it may have seemed to her - could be vehicles of joy and good for others. We may have no idea how or why it happens or harbor no expectation of any meaningful result; nurturing what we have planted may be a frustrating and demanding undertaking. Grandma Moses, refusing to yield to crippling arthritis, found new life as an artist, celebrating life in rural America and God's gifts of nature and the harvest. We all have opportunities of bringing forth new life amid the changes and endings we all experience; in our generosity, kindness, support and consolation to others, we can bring the life of the Risen One into our own hearts and homes. Christ asks us to embrace the faith of the Gospel farmer and the hope of the mustard seed: to readily plant seeds of kindness and joy wherever and whenever we can in the certain knowledge that it will, in some way, result in a harvest of God's life and love.”







Fr. Phil