This Sunday, the Old Testament reading, Psalm and Gospel alike all use simple and beautiful images from nature to teach us eternal truths. It is as if we are being encouraged to both see and draw from the wisdom of God as expressed throughout the natural world.
The Prophet Ezekiel (First Reading) uses a shoot from a mighty cedar tree to describe how the Kingdom of God will grow, and to describe how intimately God is at work throughout creation.
The psalmist sings of both the cedar of Lebanon and the palm-tree. Those whose life is rooted in the Lord will always bear fruit for the Kingdom of God.
The Kingdom Parables in the Gospel draw on similar images of God’s seeds of love and truth slowly growing and bearing fruit in ways that we often cannot see, and fail to understand fully. The Kingdom of God is within us and around us. It is not a realm of power and dominance; rather it is a spirit of growth and nourishment rooted in compassion and love, providing shelter and sustenance for all.
In the Second Reading, Paul encourages us to be confident of our faith and to place our trust in Christ.
Perhaps in our prayer for this coming week, we can make a special effort to look more deeply at nature on our doorstep and connect more meaningfully with it. May we have eyes to see God’s Kingdom at work throughout nature and in our fellow human beings. May we grow ever closer to God in all that we do, so that we may be living expressions of God’s Kingdom on Earth.