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.
The Kingdom of God started off small, hidden, and all but invisible. It was not established using obvious preexisting foundations. Rather than choosing primarily the well educated or the powerful Jesus instead chose ordinary women and men to be his followers. The Twelve Apostles who would become the pillars of a new and spiritual Israel didn't get the job because of their resumes or their curriculum vitae. It wasn't on the basis of prior experience or existing skillsets that they were chosen.
For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are (see First Corinthians 1:26-28).
The Kingdom was the realization of the great reversal about which Mary sang in her Magnificat, in which God, "has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate" (see Luke 1:52). It was already the incipient stage of a new world in which the one who "exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (see Matthew 23:12). In such a world it would be evident that all praise and all thanksgiving belonged to God alone.
Again he said, “To what shall I compare the Kingdom of God?
It is like yeast that a woman took
and mixed in with three measures of wheat flour
until the whole batch of dough was leavened.”
The Kingdom of God definitely plays by its own rules, where success is not predicated on strength. But it might seem like this would only be true within its own limited sphere, as though this were fine for the specifically religious, but not applicable to other parts of society. And yet the influence of the Kingdom of God on the world around it also works differently than one would expect. Its influence on the society around it is not based on size, power, or prestige. It may often not even be evident to the world that the influence is in play. More frequently it seems that the rising effect of the leaven is misattributed to society itself. But the more the Christian element is isolated and prevented from interacting and exerting this effect the more society will first flatten, and eventually fall apart. We tend to take for granted the importance of Christendom for good aspects of the modernity that supplanted it. But much of what is good in our world is actually derived from the parts of Christendom from which the modern world has not yet realized the need to extricate itself.
Because the Kingdom of God works in small and hidden ways we should not fear when the world seems large and the Church seems hopelessly outmatched. Further, we should not worry that our own weaknesses might disqualify us from having a role to play. For God does not generally call the qualified but rather qualifies the called. And if our attempts at contributing to growth seem trivial and ineffective we should not fear. It is likely that we are just not in a position to see the results at present. The Kingdom gives us cause to hope even when things look hopeless and to help even when we seem to have nothing to give.
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