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just what is emerging?

I wanted to share a couple of interesting quotes and thoughts today, little things that have been swirling around in my head and heart.

Jesus tells us about the parable of the mustard seed. (Matthew 13:31-35) It's one of those simple but deceptive verses of the Gospel of Matthew which challenge believers to consider the nature and purpose of the kingdom of God. For example, read what Shane Claiborne had to say about this parable in the Irresistible Revolution.

Matthew strategically places the mustard seed parable in the middle of a story about gardening in which Jesus commands people not to tear up the weeds from the garden but to let the wheat and weeds grow together (Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43). Then he tells his listeners that the kingdom of God is like mustard, which grows like a wild bush (Matt. 13:31-35). I once heard a farmer say it is like kudzu (a wild vine that grows everywhere), and a city preacher compared it to the wild weeds that grow out of the abandoned houses and crack the sidewalks. The mustard seed's growth would have been familiar to first-century Jews and its symbolic meaning unmistakably clear. It may have even been growing in the wild around them as Jesus spoke.

Jews valued order and had very strict rules about how to keep a tidy garden, and one of the secrets was to keep out mustard. It was notorious for invading the well-trimmed veggies and other plants and for quickly taking over the entire garden. (Kind of like yeast works its way through dough... hmm.) Then they'd be left with only mustard! Jewish law even forbade planting mustard in the garden. When those first-century peasants heard Jesus' images, they would have giggled, or maybe they would have told him to hush before he got killed. Here he is using this infamous plant to describe God's kingdom subtly taking over the world.

This is a bottom up revolution, an "annoying" revolution. It's a kingdom that spreads with determination and perseverance. It adapts to its surroundings - it changes as the landscape and climate changes.

Perhaps this most readily fits with the Christian faith as Daniel Migliore states in his book, Faith Seeking Understanding: "The changing, ambiguous, and often precarious world poses ever new questions for faith, and many answers that sufficed yesterday are no longer compelling today." Migliore writes: "Authentic faith is no sedative for world-weary souls, no satchel full of ready answers to the deepest questions of life. Instead, faith in God revealed in Jesus Christ sets an inquiry in motion, fights the inclination to accept things as they are, and continually calls in question unexamined assumptions about God, our world, and ourselves."

In both of these quotes, the images given of the kingdom of God and a faithful life suggest a "bubbling up", a movement that adapts to its surroundings, seeking and growing in new ways in a changing, difficult world. It is a slow revolution - a revolution of little things, of persistence and small questions leading to a deeper understanding of the joy of following Christ. But it is also annoying, ever pushing and challenging our boundaries.

In a sense, this is some element of the life of a follower of Christ and a community of Christians that I hope continues to emerge. I suppose my next question is - what would a church look like if it was ever seeking, ever allowing the questions of God and life to bubble up? What would it look like to be a follower that seeks to be a part of that irresistible revolution that sneaks its way into you bit by bit? What would it do to our world if Christians again focused on doing the little things that changed lives and share the love of God?