A Meditation for our seventeenth week of Ordinary Time in 2026

The Kingdom of Heaven arrives in our midst. Day after day, and parable after parable, I walk with Jesus. I listen to Jesus. This God of love has come to me and invites me into His kingdom – into the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet my eyes see this Kingdom just as well as they can see Jesus. Both are beyond anything my eyes have ever gazed upon. For our God being one of light, that light has never reached me with enough clarity to come into crisp focus. So I am among the countless others left with parables of the kingdom from Jesus. Parables of a place from where love lives, rests, and radiates throughout creation.

While I cannot see the Kingdom in the light of day, I can see the ways it is growing around me. Jesus tells me that the Kingdom is like a mustard seed and a bit of yeast. A single mustard seed is so small. I’m not sure that I could see them when they are tossed into the dirt. These little black specks mixed into the dark gray hues of the soil.  Yet, what is unseen takes root. These roots stretch into the unseen depths as it sprouts into view. It appears and continues to grow until it is full of thousands of seeds and becomes a sanctuary for even more life. The love of God doesn’t only sustain creation; it is a source of life and makes a place for what lives to rest and grow.

Jesus pairs this mustard seed parable with one about yeast worked through a batch of dough. These small bacteria that I cannot see with my eyes do their slow and inevitable work of leavening the flour. I still cannot see the bacteria when I return. I can see the impact of their presence and work. My eyes cannot see the Kingdom of God, but if I let Jesus teach me to see, I can see the impact of His Kingdom like bread that has risen. 

With time I have learned to see the small and slow movements of the Kingdom of God. Every time the growth and movement of His Kingdom starts with love. It is the love of God that gives me life. It is His love that awakens the seed to transform and grow. It is love that moves almost unseen through the depths of me, bringing lightness, comfort, and hope. With time, Jesus has been teaching me to see how God’s love moves beyond sight and grows in my world. With time it grows within me and continues to transform me. It helps me to ever more naturally embody the Fruit of the Spirit. It opens my tender heart to love my neighbors and to love our God. There is no better response I can give to seeing these glimmers and glimpses of the Kingdom growing than with the psalmist.  In Psalm 105, the psalmist invites me to sing. “Sing to Him, sing praises to Him, and speak of all His marvelous works.”

What is this love that seeds and sows the Kingdom of Heaven? It is a love that doesn’t expire. It is a love that is given to be given. When I send my love out into the world, it does not diminish the wells of love that were given to me. Instead, against all I have experienced, the more love I pour into the world, the more love I find that I have to give. It is a love that follows the hope of Jesus. The love of the Kingdom moves first. It is gentle and doesn’t impose itself upon others. This love is not relentless, but it endures all things. I am confident in this, as is the apostle Paul, who writes of this love in Romans (8:38-39).

“For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things that are, nor things yet to be, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God. The love revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

May the depths of your soul be a well of God’s love for our world.

Readings for the 17^th Sunday of Ordinary Time · Year A

Sunday readings according to the Revised Common Lectionary.

Photo Credit
Paul Prins on 23 December 2005 in Rome, Italy