A reason not to give up

Like a few in this missional movement,  I'm part of The Order of Mission.  TOM is a covenant community  of people committed to living as missionaries and disciples for Jesus.  We are a global family with members all over the world.  Helen and I are permanent members,  which means we've made some scary life-long promises.  If you want to find out more about The Order then leave a comment here or check out the website.

Anyway, this Advent TOM members are reading a chapter of Luke a day,  it conveniently has 24 chapters so fits well.  This has been really good as a way of contextualising the usual Advent/Christmas story within the wider life of Jesus and his disciples.   Each day a member posts a reflection on the chapter for that day.  I got day 13 and was asked to reproduce my post here. Before you read any further you might want to stop and look Luke 13.

My original TOM post follows.

I'll be honest. If I were one of the disciples, following round after Jesus, then Luke 13 may well have been the place I gave up and headed back to the fishing nets or tax desk.

The doom and gloom just seem relentless. First he's asked to comment on recent local disasters. His response? Something worse could happen to you.

Then there's the matter of the authorities. Why won't he just lay off them for a bit? They've obviously got it in for him, and he's really not helping. First the Pharisees, then Herod, who else is he going to take a pop at?

And to make it all worse, even those who do follow him in the street and listen to his teaching may not make it through the narrow door. The first will be last, and those who thought they'd made it may be in for a nasty surprise.

Come on Jesus, enough gnashing of teeth, can't you tell us something nice? Something encouraging? Yes, if I were one of the disciples, I may well be packing my bags right now. Except for two little things he says.

The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed. It's small, looks pretty insignificant, but when it's planted it grows. The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast. It's tiny, but only a very little works through the whole dough. It reproduces.

I think (I hope) that would have kept me. I hope I would have wanted to be part of this thing: The Kingdom. The place where the tiny and the insignificant grow. The place where the last are first. I hope that would have encouraged me to stay, to go with him even through the hardness.

When life is hard for you, when the One you are following just doesn't seem to give up or he becomes almost too challenging, may you know that you are part of a Kingdom where the small things grow and the hard things become beautiful. May you remember that the last people you'd expect, the weak and the struggling, get to go first.

(The photo is by cardoso on flickr.  It is a reference to the very funny film Dogma which I'd recommend only if you don't mind being offended.)