Fr Peter Helman

He put before them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and sowed in his field; it is the smallest of all the seeds, but when it has grown it is the greatest of shrubs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nest in its branches. (Matthew 17:31-32)

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Good morning, friends,
 

Today The Episcopal Church commemorates the life and ministry of Bede the Venerable, the 8th-century scholar, priest, and monk at the English monastery of Wearmouth and Jarrow, in Northumbria.
 

In the brief reading from the Gospel of Matthew appointed for the commemoration, Jesus teaches his disciples about the kingdom of heaven using images of everyday things that were more familiar to them. He tells them first of the mustard seed, a very small seed that grows, in time, to become a tree, reaching twenty feet tall and twenty feet wide. The branches can stem from the bottom of the tree, like a shrub, all the way to the top of the tree. It is a shade-bearing tree, and its seed used for spice. The mustard tree also yields a fruit that some regions use as a dried fruit similar to currants.
 

Jesus uses the image of the mustard seed, a tiny seed that grows into a mighty tree, to gesture toward the life of the kingdom of heaven here on earth. God in Jesus came among us as a tiny seed, the very Word of God sown into the earth, sown into our hearts, so that the Word would take root and grow and yield the fruit of abundant life, and become a place of refuge.
 

Later in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus teaches his disciples with another story about a mustard seed that I’m sure you’ll recall. In Matthew 17, the disciples are unable to heal a boy stricken with epilepsy, and they ask Jesus why? Jesus said to them, 
 

Because of your little faith. For truly, I tell you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, “Move from here to there,” and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
 

Jesus taught that the kingdom of heaven is like the smallest, seemingly insignificant and unassuming prospect that takes root and grows beyond anything one could have asked or imagined. The Word of God has been sown into the earth and into our hearts and has taken hold, and nothing will uproot it. 

Where do you find God at work in your life today? How is the kingdom of heaven taking root in your heart and all around you? And how can you show others the way to Jesus who is our life and our salvation?


Yours in Christ,
Peter+