Eleventh Sunday in Ordinary Time
The Big Picture

We hear about the Kingdom of God in many of Jesus’ parables. Jesus must have gotten tired of trying to explain it, but he never gives up. In today’s passage, he uses parables to describe how the kingdom will spread. What is interesting is that these parables are not so much about our actions as they are about how God builds his kingdom.
Let’s start with the second parable: Jesus exaggerates a little, with the mustard seed being the smallest seed and the bush being the largest plant. His point is that the kingdom may look small at first, but it will keep growing. The image of all the birds coming to the branches is taken from Old Testament passages, in Daniel and Ezekiel, about other people coming into Jerusalem to worship the one LORD. Jesus implies that the growing kingdom will attract outsiders to be members. The main point is not to be discouraged when it seems the kingdom is not growing: We might be limiting it to people who think and act just like ourselves. We might see attendance at church in our parish declining. So Jesus is reminding us to think of the bigger picture.
In the first parable about the man who scattered seeds, Jesus says that those seeds produce a harvest, even though the farmer doesn’t know how or why those seeds can grow. We too can be doing things that help the Kingdom to grow, without knowing how we are helping. The obvious example is prayer: We may not see the results of our prayer, or not know if God is answering our prayer. But God is making the kingdom grow in his own way and in his own time. Like the farmer, we can help it grow by loving each other, teaching our children about Jesus, caring for the poor and the sick. 
If the farmer were to let weeds choke his crop, or be stingy with his seeds, he might not have a very good harvest. We can be stingy with our love, or hurt people with our anger. Then we would be slowing the growth of the kingdom. So let us always be aware of the kingdom, and ask God to move us to do whatever we can to help it grow.
Tom Schmidt

Short Version

We hear about the Kingdom of God in many of Jesus’ parables. In today’s passage, he uses parables to describe how the kingdom will spread. What is interesting is that they are not so much about our actions as they are about how God builds his kingdom.
Let’s start with the second parable: Jesus exaggerates a little, with the mustard seed being the smallest seed and the bush being the largest plant. Like the birds on the branches, Jesus implies that the growing kingdom will attract outsiders to be members. His point is that the kingdom may look small at first, but it will keep growing. We need not be discouraged when it seems the kingdom is not growing: We might be limiting it to people who think and act just like ourselves. We might see attendance at church in our parish declining. So Jesus is reminding us to think of the bigger picture.
In the first parable about the man who scattered seeds, Jesus says that those seeds produce a harvest, even though the farmer doesn’t know how or why those seeds can grow. We too can be doing things that help the Kingdom to grow, without knowing how we are helping. But God is making the kingdom grow in his own way and in his own time. Like the farmer, we can help it grow by loving each other, teaching our children about Jesus, caring for the poor and the sick. 
But we can also hinder the kingdom by being stingy with our love, or hurting people with our anger. So let us ask God to trust him as we do our part to help the kingdom to grow.
Tom Schmidt