NOTES: 1] Some translations opt for 'God's Rule' or similar rather than 'kingdom of God' to emphasize an activity as distinct from an area. 2] Jesus has already been telling about God's Rule being like seed earlier in this same chapter.

WARMING UP: Do we prefer to read stories or listen to them? What about when we were a child?

TREASURES OLD & NEW: Identify God at work in anything this week?

ENTERING INTO THE STORY:
26-29   Even though we're grown now, do we still find it hard to get away from thinking about atlases & coloured maps with boundaries on them when we come across 'kingdom of God' in the Scriptures? If we had to draw boundaries round where God rules, could we really do that? How might we colour the map of where God rules? Silly as it may sound, might it prove an interesting exercise?

Does God's Rule really spread as Jesus says, like seed, unseen, unexplained? Is that our own experience of how the things of God work? Which do we find harder to understand - the being like seed? the not being seen? the not being understood? Does 'sowing his Rule like seed' make much sense as the way for a Ruler to act in the first place? Is this just one more of God's mysterious ways we have to accept & work by even if the world sees things differently?

Do we find it hard to live with the fact that God doesn't seem to be getting much of a harvest at all these days? If this is the case, is it 'the Graingrower' who's at fault, or someone / something else? Is there something wrong with the old biblical imagery, or something wrong with us? Do our churches just need to be using better farming methods? How does anyone - except God - really rate / measure the kind of harvest God is after? How does God rate / measure the harvest?

30-32 Is the mustard seed imagery any easier to come to terms with than the previous grain imagery? Is it any more helpful in understanding and fulfilling our own lives as disciples & church members? Do we ever see the kind of expansion Jesus tells his yarn about here? Do we just have to get used to and stick with perpetually small beginnings & leave the measurement of any kind to God? Do we find that hard to do? Is it simply a matter that that's the kind of Rule we've chosen & now we're stuck with it? What if we think of each grain-seed, each mustard seed as a person unique and special in God's eyes? Does that get us anywhere? Does it get God anywhere?

33-34  How important does the role of story-telling need to be in our churches, not just for the children but for 'grown ups' too? Is it time for a re-think on our ways of teaching, educating, informing, nurturing, all that kind of thing? Where would such a re-think need to start? How would it need to start? What about like a seed of grain, or like a mustard seed?