Matthew 13:31-35, Mark 4:30-34, and Luke 13:18-21
He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything. (Mark 4:34) Mark adds a bit of an explanatory note in verse 34 as to Jesus’ affinity for speaking in parables. Would that we also could sit at His feet as …privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
…the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. (Mt. 13:32) I saw something new today, that this smallest of seeds (the mustard seed) grows to be the largest of the herbs, so large that the birds make nests in its branches. That’s a tree that is both large and strong. Granted, birds’ nests are not that heavy, but with the eggs hatched and the mother and father providing food – landing and taking off – those nests need the support of strong branches. It’s not like a weeping willow tree! But I wondered at the application for us today, and thought of those nests being our own small groups. Diocesan branches grow from the mustard seed that is ACNA, then other parish branches grow out from those diocesan branches – strong enough to host small group nests. And it’s in those small group nests that we are further nurtured. I have thought quite often of those people who left St. Andrew’s in 2019 – of how few there were who left who had been in one of the five small groups that we had at that time. There is something about small groups that is indeed nurturing!!
See also: April 17 / Matt. 13:31-33; Mark 4:30-32; Luke 13:18-21; April 20 / Mark 4:26-29,33-34
Thanks, Fred. I was also thinking of the growth from a small seed as applying to our own relationship with God as well as the growth of the community/kingdom of God.
FYI> Rather than ACNA to diocese to church and small groups, I think that the church initially grew through small groups (the twelve) into a larger community, i.e., small groups to church to diocese to ACNA, bottom up rather than top down.