Thursday Theology

I want to take a pass on the gospel reading for this week's lectionary schedule. If you want to read it you can find it at Mark 4:26-34. 
My simple take on this is that the Kingdom of God is maybe simple to describe, but difficult to understand. I think that the thing that makes it difficult for us to understand is that it includes everybody. Our world is not like that. Part of our survival instinct as humans is to exclude what we don't know or understand and we think God is okay with our wanting to exclude people from heaven.

God seeing us differently than we see each other is demonstrated quite well in this week's Old Testament reading, 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13.
If you remember, the Israelites wanted an earthly king and God gave them Saul. Saul kind of went and did his own thing rather than following the guidance of God's prophet, Samuel, so God rejected Saul as king and sent Samuel to anoint the new king.  
The prophet Samuel is to go to the house of Jesse and find the new king from among his sons. Each son is presented to Samuel, and each is rejected by God. Samuel asks if this is all and is told that the youngest is in the field tending the sheep.
It should be noted that -- 1) David is the youngest of the many brothers and would therefore be extremely unlikely to be chosen for any task before one of the older brothers (except watching the sheep), and 2) Shepherds were considered to be the lowest of people on the social ladder and would be looked down upon by nearly everyone in the culture.
David is called and is anointed as the new King of Israel. 

God doesn't see as man sees.

It seems that religion today is more about building a God that sees the way we see other people rather than trying to see others as God sees them.
Yeah, that fits well with a gospel story that God's kingdom is for everyone. 

Love God.
Love all of the people God has created (btw, that's everyone).
This is the kingdom of God.

John