We have all felt unwelcome or out of place from time to time. Remember the difference it makes when someone reaches out and says there is room for you here? That is what the Reign of God is like, we all are invited to find a place to belong in the community of God's children and we are expected to make room for those who are feeling out of place.

For those who want to maintain their hold on power and influence the Parables of Jesus turn their world upside down. Even after all the violence and destruction caused by humanity God’s grace continues to call us to be an active part of building up the Kingdom of God in our communities and all around the world.

How do we measure success? Outcomes. In the Gospel of Mark, the crowds are expecting a certain outcome: they want God’s Kingdom to arrive with power, with victory, with obvious success. But time after time the Kingdom of God is revealed in the opposite: children, meals shared, quiet acts of compassion, and in our Focus Text, once again, seeds. When a seed is planted it is out of sight, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t working toward the outcome of a new plant. When we don’t see an immediate outcome, we shouldn’t assume God is absent instead we can trust God is at work using our small acts to grow the Kingdom in unnoticed ways just beneath the surface.

There’s storms in life that we just can’t control: layoffs, cancer, the poor decisions of others, even literal weather that disrupts our plans. If you feel like God is absent in your storm this week’s Focus Text is a reminder that even when everything is out of your control God is with you as promised.

In our Focus Text this week, Jesus has a few parables for the Kingdom of God, all of them involve being hidden. A tiny fragile seed is hidden in the ground before becoming a great big plant, it's a process that is hard to comprehend and one that requires patience like waiting for a butterfly to emerge from its chrysalis. Sometimes when God is at work in our lives, it is hidden away and in the moment we don't comprehend how our life is changing. In another parable Jesus reminds us that God's work in and through us is like a light of a lamp, we should make sure that light isn't hidden away.

In our Focus Text for this week, we hear John’s version of the Feeding Stories, which appear in all four Gospels. John’s is the only version that mentions the source of the little bit of bread and fish that end up feeding a multitude: a young boy in the crowd. John’s Gospel is reminder that God works with what we would likely dismiss as being too little to bother sharing. The Miracle Jesus performs begins when a little boy bothers enough to share, bothers to care, bothers to love. The Senior High Service Learning Trip students saw first hand the multitude of neighbors struggling in San Francisco, but instead of being overwhelmed they took action on a scale they could  handle: one meal served, one night at a shelter prepared, a simple outdoor project completed at one Bible Camp. Instead of making excuses for why we can’t help especially when the problem seems so big the Focus Text invites us to bother to take one small action for even just one person.

What is your go-to problem solving method? Careful, well-researched solutions that are known to work? Or do you charge in, throwing the kitchen sink at a problem because there are no bad solutions as long as it works? In our Focus Text we encounter people who approach problems in both these options. The friends of the paralytic man don’t stop until they reach Jesus even if that means cutting a hole in the roof! The Scribes are so set in their scholarly understanding of God that they don’t understand how God’s love works even when God is standing right in front of them. The solution Jesus offers is one grounded in the eternal promises, but at the same time taking immediate action to make us whole.

Has anyone famous come out of your hometown? In our Focus Text this week, Nathanael is convinced that nothing good has ever come out of Nazareth and God certainly wouldn’t send a Messiah there! And then he encounters Jesus of Nazareth and his whole idea of how God works is changed. Time after time God is using the ordinary to share the extraordinary love of AGAPe! Even if your hometown isn’t known for its celebrity, God is present working in & through the ordinary and in & through you!