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Green Seasons

Daily Devotional • January 23

Christus am Lebensbaum – Hoffnung für alle

A Reading from Mark 4:21-34

21 He said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket or under the bed and not on the lampstand? 22 For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. 23 If you have ears to hear, then hear!” 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and it will be added to you. 25 For to those who have, more will be given, and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”

26 He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of itself first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle because the harvest has come.”

30 He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”

33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it; 34 he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.

 

Meditation

How do parables prepare us to follow Jesus?

Christians in liturgical churches often talk about the “green seasons,” the weeks following Epiphany and the endless months after Pentecost. The cycles surrounding Christmas and Easter, glorious but exhausting, are done, and we can breathe easy. Nothing much happens. We come to church, listen to Scripture, celebrate the Eucharist, and get on with our lives. “I love monotony,” biographer Clyde S. Kilby quotes C. S. Lewis as saying, and the “green seasons” may well be the ecclesial version of that yearning.

But when nothing much happens, is “nothing much” actually happening? The parables of the kingdom, the series of back-to-back word pictures that Jesus paints to describe the reign of God, tell a different story. The kingdom, Jesus says, is like a gardener scattering seed and paying little attention afterward. Does nothing happen? Hardly: “The seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.” God is at work, Jesus tells us, even when it isn’t obvious that he is working.

Jesus makes this clear in his second parable. The kingdom, he says, is like a small seed that turns into an enormous bush, so huge that “the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” The beginning may be small, but God is doing something big.

Often it seems that nothing much is happening in our lives. Whether we love monotony or not, we find ourselves bogged down in the long, slow slog of discipleship, a “green season” of the soul. Today Jesus is reminding us that even in those times, something is indeed happening. Prayer is routine? Never mind. Keep at it; the Lord is at work. Ministry bears little fruit? Don’t worry. Appearances deceive; the Lord is at work. The parables of the kingdom provide encouragement for the long-haul of following Jesus.




The Rt. Rev. Edward S. Little II was bishop of Northern Indiana for 16 years after serving parishes in Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Joaquin. He is the author of three books; most recently: The Heart of a Leader: St. Paul as Mentor, Model, and Encourager (2020).

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