Ezekiel 17: 22-24; Psalm 91(92); 2 Cor 5: 6-10; Mark 4: 26-34
Ezekiel has many chapters about Israel’s failure to keep faith in God, culminating in the Babylonian exile. But God keeps his promises: He will restore his people to Israel. A remnant will survive and return to Zion, to build a renewed and perfect creation.
The Psalm extolls the Lord’s just deeds: “the just” are so steadfast they appear rooted, flourishing “in the courts of our God”, while “evildoers shall be scattered”.
Paul has described some of his difficulties, accepting that “while we live we are always being given up to death for Jesus’ sake”. He encourages the Corinthians to have confidence in the Lord: whatever problems we face in our earthly lives, we look forward to making “our home with the Lord”. Then our reward will be affected by our behaviour in this world.
In Mark’s gospel Jesus describes the kingdom of God in parables. All around us are examples of transformation, seeds becoming unimaginable plants. We have got used to thinking of the kingdom of God as “somewhere else” – in “heaven” rather than on earth. But Jesus’ parables do not suggest this, and in the Lord’s prayer we ask every day that God’s kingdom come “on earth, as it is in heaven”. Do we mean it? What are we doing about it?
Psalm Response: It is good to give you thanks, O Lord.
(Ezekiel 17: 22-24; Psalm 91(92); 2 Cor 5: 6-10; Mark 4: 26-34)