God’s reign is wild

The 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time – B

Around the corner from where I live is a farm right in the middle of the city. I know spring has come when everything from cars to sidewalks is coated in yellow by the pollen from the wild mustard that grows there. I never understand why the farmers allow such an annoying weed to take over their fields and my sinuses! They could do much better with a more lucrative crop, and we’d all be less inconvenienced by the mess.

And that’s the point of today’s parables. God’s reign will grow whether you want it to or not. Tend it or uproot it, it will still flourish where you least expect it. It will get into every crack and crevice and leave its mark. And those who need it most, the ones most vulnerable and least powerful, will find safety and shelter in it.

God’s reign is wild, and those who want to control where it sprouts and whom it benefits will be covered by its residue regardless. In our world where systemic injustice seems to have cemented over any ground for hope, the dormant seeds of God’s reign lie waiting.

And those who have swept away and buried the nuisances demanded by God’s justice will be reminded one day that people who carry the Gospel in their hearts and on their lips are seeds.

This post was first published in “GIA Quarterly: A Liturgical Music Journal.”

Image credit: Photo by Mak on Unsplash.

Read more reflections on the Sunday readings here:

• Prune our hearts
• Heed and follow
• New life in Christ
• Now what?
• We are Loved and Longed For