Basileia tou theou

The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.

Jesus spoke in parables, one of the very few historical facts that can be reconstructed about the man.

Parables are a misunderstood literary form. They are often mistaken for metaphors. In fact even within the New Testament itself parables are interpreted by the Gospel writers as metaphors.

In a metaphor every item stands for something else---say a moral lesson, a critique of a politician, etc.--and once that something else is figured out the symbol itself dies and is no longer of any use. The Parable of the Sower and Seeds is interpreted by the Gospel writers as metaphors. The seed that lands on the bad soil are evil people; the seed that initially springs up but then is quickly killed by the sun are those who at first hear the Word of God and respond but have no roots and quickly die out; the seed that is choked with thorns are those who caught in the temptations of the world; the seed that bears fruit are those that listen and follow God's ways.

But then the seeds themselves, the whole construction is actually quite useless.

Jesus himself did not teach in such a way. Contemporary Rabbis did, but Jesus actually stands out for his use of the parable. The closest parallel to a parable is a Zen koan--a pithy statement drawn from agricultural existence that has no symbolic interpretation that is meant to destroy the mind, cut into its patterns of habitual thought, and actually bring participation and a new reality.

For Jesus that reality was the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God for Jesus was to call God to reign--an activity not a place or a thing. As in the Our Father--Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will be Done.....

To say God is King is a cultic, liturgical expression. It comes from the Ancient Near Eastern tradition of a cyclical end to the year and the overcoming in Spring of the Sun-God over the Wintery Forces of Chaos. In the Old Testament, Yahweh slays the Sea Monster (symbol of Chaos).

The parallel then to the kingdom is like a mustard seed is: What is the sound of one hand clapping?

It has no symbolic answer. It has no answer outside itself. It is a test for the awareness of a state of consciousness and the participation to the fullest (for Jesus) in that reality. Is the Kingdom actually coming /happening as you heard the words, "It is like a mustard seed?"

This radical way of reading parables has been obscured by the way the Gospel writers position them not mention how they are preached upon and taught.

But this particular parable has another referent behind it that was shocking to its ancient hearers but is lost on us today.

Normally the mustard seed is preached on like this: the mustard seed is the smallest of seeds but grows into this enormous shrub. Hence the Kingdom grows quietly from small things into this abundant way.

This reading isn't bad, isn't altogether wrong, but it's not the best either.

You have to know a little background to get this one. The Mustard Seed was in Jewish Rabbinic Law impure. So to say the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed was to say the Kingdom of God is impure. The Kingdom of God is defiled.

To translate that today, with common notions of purity and the hyprocrisy that often goes with such views, maybe something like:

The Kingdom of God is like a transgendered being.
The Kingdom of God is like admitting to holding racist-sexist views.

That doesn't mean symbolically that the Kingdom is beyond opposites, so therefore the Kingdom is like trasnsgendered-ism is about transcending masculine & feminine. It means exactly what it means. What does one hand clapping sound like? The Frog jumps in a pond--plop.

The Kingdom is like a transgendered means precisely that--that is what the Kingdom is like. Break your mind, find the hypocrite within, the part that contracts in the face of infinite (unconditional) love and desires holy and unholy, who desires to gain one's own perfection/achievement in the sight of the Lord. And then think of that which intrinsically makes you a little sick to your stomach, which is improper--and that is exactly what the Reign of God is.

Would you invite over the transgendered for dinner or the racist, sexist....would you embrace them in public when both will be shunned and ostracized each by a different side in the so-called liberal/conservative debates?