(Audio)
Jesus said, "What is the Kingdom of God like?
To what can I compare it?
It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in the garden.
It is not obvious when one sees the seed how big the bush will be when full grown. The effect of yeast on a batch of flour would be hard to guess until one has seen it. These both sound like nice things in parables. But they are meant to be comfort for us. There are times when we know the seed of the kingdom is within us, times when we know leaven is being added to the dough, long before the results are visible.
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing
compared with the glory to be revealed for us.
What if our suffering is the seed of glory? What if all of creation is being leavened for glory that will one day be revealed?
for creation was made subject to futility,
not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it,
in hope that creation itself
would be set free from slavery to corruption
It isn't simply that joy is on the other side of sorrow, though after sorrow we do have great hope. It is precisely through sorrow, through our suffering, because it can be united to the suffering of Jesus, that resurrection and joy are possible. The whole universe is ordered so even the brokenness and pain, though not intended by him, can lead us back to God. Death is permitted with a view to it one day becoming something more, a doorway to immortality.
we also groan within ourselves
as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
For in hope we were saved.
Now hope that sees for itself is not hope.
If this seed is indeed within us, how should we live?
For who hopes for what one sees?
But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.
Endurance, but more than endurance because it is charged with hope.
Although they go forth weeping,
carrying the seed to be sown,
They shall come back rejoicing,
carrying their sheaves.
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