Lesson: PROCLAIMING THE KINGDOM OF GOD (REIGN OF GOD)

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Competencies: Doctrine: Understand that the Parable is one way of Proclaiming the Kingdom of God.
Moral: Make God reign in one's life as King by showing concrete changes in one's way of life and value system
Worship: Show one's belief in God's Kingdom by praying always the Lord's Prayer.

EXPLORE

Activity no 1: KWL CHART

In the first column, write what you already KNOW about the topic. In the second column, write what you WANT to
know about the topic. After you have completed your module, write what you LEARNED in the third column.

What I KNOW What I WANT to know What I LEARNED

FIRM-UP

Stories, parables, fables, anecdotes, illustrations, etc., help us see the "bigger picture" in life. They help us understand
that there is more to life than our own limited spheres of experience. They design pictures and evoke our imagination to
understand a greater dimension of life that what we are normally used to experiencing. Stories are vehicles that take us
to far off places, where we have never been, yet feeling as if we were there.

This is the same vehicle Jesus used with his disciples and with the crowds that flocked to hear him speak. He took them
where there is a new way of living, loving and healing a new world that they could never have imagined on their own. He
brought his listeners to experience the true meaning of life in his proclamation of the kingdom or kingship of God: where
God reign, there is joy, liberation, and a whole new future.

The Scripture uses the term Kingdom of God. Kingdom, however is, often mistakenly interpreted as merely a place. Thus,
we use the reign of God to emphasize the kingship of God, God who rules, rather than a place where God rules. God's
reign is not bound or limited by time or place. It is God's active presence within us, between us, and among us, in our
lives and in history.

Samples of Jesus' Teaching about the Reign of God from the Synoptic Gospels
1. Jesus Parabolic Teaching about the Reign of God. Most of the content of Jesus' teaching about the Reign of god
are in the form of parables which contain metaphors or similes. He uses such figure of speech as means to
describe the nature of the Reign of God.
2.
The Parable of the Weeds (Matthew 13:24-30,36-43)
Jesus told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone
was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads,
then the weeds also appeared. The owner's servants came to him and said, "Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where
then did the weeds come from?"
"An enemy did this," he replied The servants asked him, "Do you want us to go and pull them up?"
"No," he answered, "Because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until
the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the
wheat and bring it into my barn" (Matthew 13:24-30). Horticultural sabotage.
 The specifics of this story would have made a lot more sense to Jesus's original audience. When one farmer wanted to sabotage
another, it wasn't unheard of for them to sow bearded darnel into their wheat.
Bearded darnel is a noxious weed that mimics many of the characteristics of wheat for a while. Before they mature, the two
plants are almost identical, but as they grow, the differences become apparent in the fruit. Unfortunately, darnel is poisonous
and in big enough doses will kill a person. So it's not something a farmer
wants mixed up in their harvest.
The concerned servants want to remove the darnel, but the farmer is afraid they'll mistakenly throw out perfectly good wheat. He
instructs them to leave the separation to the harvesters whose job it is to remove the darnel

Interpreting the parable

After Jesus and the disciples leave the crowalk, they ask Hon to terpeet the parable for them.

He answered "The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the gourd seed stands for the
people of the kingskom. The weeds are the people of the evid vore, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest in the
end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.

"As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send ont his angels,
and they will weed ond of his kingslom everything that causes xin and all who do evil. They will throw them nao the blazing
furnace, where there will be weeping and gruashing of teeth. Then the righteoux will shine like the man in the kingdom of thee
Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear".

Jesus compares the Reign of God to a field of wheat sown with weeds by an enemy of the owner of the field The wheat
and weed grew together. But when harvest time came, the wheat was gathered in the barn and the weeds were burned.
This story can be interpreted as an allegory. Jesus says that the field is the world, the good seed (wheat) stands for those
who belong to the "reign of God," while the bad seeds (weed) refer to the followers of the evil one. Harvest represents the
completion of the time when destruction will fall upon the followers of the evil one, while those who belong to the reign of
God will shine like the sun.

The Seed Growing by Itself (Mark 4: 26-29)

He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. (A) A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he
sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces gram first the
stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest
has come."

Jesus compares the reign of God to a seed that grows without human intervention to its ripe abundance t harvest time. Jesus
seems to point out the reign of God is a gift, beyond human mitiative and effort. In other words, the reign of God comes into our
lives, we ourselves do not create it.

Treasures New and Old (Matthew 13:51-52)

Jesus asks, "Have you understood all this?" His disciples respond wuh Yes' and so Jesus says: "Therefore every scribe who has
been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like the master of a household who brings out of hus treasure what is new and what is
old".
Jesus compares the reign of God to a scribe's adding new treasures to the old. The scribe is one who has studied the
scriptures and knows what God has done in the past and has promised to do in the future. The old treasure represents
the previous stages of salvation history, whereas the new treasure is the fulfillment of the eschatological promises, or the
promises of the final fulfillment of salvation. Jesus' point is that the reign of God, the realization of the eschatological
salvation, stands in continuity with previous stages of salvation history, in no way nullifying them but fulfilling them.

The Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20: 1-15)

This story throws light on the kingdom of heaven. A landowner went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.
He agreed to pay the workers a salary of a silver com for the day, and sent to them to his
vineyard.

He went out again at about nine in the morning, and seeing other idle in the square, he said to them, "You, too, go to my
vineyard, and I will pay you what is just. So they went.
The owner went out at midday and again at three in the afternoon, and did the same. Finally he went at the last working hour-it
was the eleventh- and he saw others standing there. So he said to them, "Why do you stay idle the whole day?" They answered:
'Because no one has lured us. The master said: 'Go and work in the
vineyard."

When the evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his manager: Call the workers and pay them their wage, beginning
with the last and ending with the first. Those who had come to work at the eleventh hour turned up and were given a denarius
each (a silver coin). When it was the turn of the first, they thought th would receive more. Bia they, too, receive a denarius each.
So, on receiving it, they begun to grumble again the landowner.

They mask these law hardly worked an hour, yot you have treated them the same as us who have endured the day's harden and
heat. The onener sand to one of the Friend, I have not been unjust to you. Diul we not agree we denarno a day? So take what in
you and go. I want to give to the last the same as I give you. Don't I have the ryght to do as I please with my money? Why are
you envious when I am kind?

This is an example of a two-part parable with the emphasis on the second-half. The first speaks of hiring of workers at
different working hours. The point of the second part is that God shows mercy to those who repent and enter the
kingdoon. In the end, the love of God is the same for all, for those who have lived a good life all throughout, and those
who have come to their repentance late in the day. God's eschatological mercy is limitless and boundless. No one is left
empty. Everyone in filled. Those who do not understand God's mercy takes offense at what they think is an unfair or
unjust treatment of sinners. They are given what they do not deserve

The Treasure and the Pearl and the Net (Matthew 13:44-46)
The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field. The one who finds it buried it again; and so happy is he that he goes
and sells everything he has, in order to buy that field. Agam, the kingdom heaven is like a trader who is looking for fine pearls.
Once he has found a pearl of exceptional quality, he goes away, sells everything he has and buys it.

Just as a man who had found a treasure in a field sold all he had to buy the field, and just as a merchant sold what he had
to buy a valuable pearl, so should we pursue the reign of God with the same single-hearted desire and zeal.

Parable of the Fishing Net (Matthew 13:47-50)

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a big fishing net let down into the sea, in which every kind of fish has been caseght. When
the net is full, it its dragged ashore. They then sit down and gather the good fish in buckets, but throw the worthless ones away.
That is how it will be at the end of time; the angel will go out to separate Angels the wicked from the just and throw them into the
blazing furnace, where they will weep and gnash their teeth.

The kingdom of God is universal in its scope, for it includes no one, just as a fisherman catches all kinds of fish. But just
as some fishes are kept and others thrown away so also the good shall be separated from the wicked in the final
fulfillment of the reign of God.

The Mustard Seed and the Yeast (Matthew 13:31-32)

Jesus put another parable before them. "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, that a man took and sowed in his field. It
is the smallest than all other seed, but once it has fully grown, it is bigger than any garden plant: like a tree, the birds come and
rest in its branches.

Jesus compares the reign of God to a mustard seed which is the smallest of all seeds but which grows to be so large that
its branches can spread for birds to build their nests. The parable signifies the reign of God's sudden and surprising
transformation from its almost invisible beginning to its full grandeur.

Parable of the Yeast (Matthew 13:33)

He told them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like a yeast that a woman took and buried in three measures of flour
until the whole mass of dough began to rise.

Yeast or leaven is used for the dough to rise. Like the yeast, the reign of God transforms human history by infusing into its
activity the invisible spirit and power of God. The universal expansion of the reign of God expects not necessarily an
acceptance by all but a universal disturbance created in the world by those who accept. This is disturbance like that of
the leaven that causes the dough to rise.
Assessment: Alternate Response
Analyze each statement and write TRUE if the statement is correct; if not, FALSE.

__________1. In the Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds, the weeds refer to the good who will attain eternal salvation.
__________2. When Jesus said, "The reign of God is at hand, "he was proclaiming that it is already within us and in our
midst.
__________3. The reign of God is synonymous with life, the fullness of life.
__________4. The Fishing net in one of the parables is compared to the universal expansion of the reign of God.
__________5. The Parable of the Mustard Seed refers to the reign of God, from its almost invisible beginning to its full
grandeur.
__________6. In the Parable of the Yeast, Jesus pictures the reign of God as universal in scope which excludes no one.
__________7. God's unfairness is the theme of the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard .
__________8. God's eschatological mercy ads to what the self-ghteous people see as an "unjust treatment of sorens.
__________9. That the reign of God is present now, as it was in the past, and will be in the future is the message of the
Parable of the New and Old Testament.
__________10. The teaching on cutting one's hands or feet or tearing out one's eyes is Jesus 10 way of saying that one
must be willing to sacrifice anything for the reign of God.

DEEPEN

Activity no 2: Summary Table of the Parable of the Reign of God

Let us make a summary of the parables of the reign of God. Using the table below, identify the parables on one side,
then write a phrase on the other side as to what the parable proclaims about the reign of God.

The Parable What is the proclamation about the Reign of God

TRANSFER

Activity no 3: Lord's Prayer

Reflect and Pray the Lord's Prayer. What is your feeling when you pray the Our Father
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