Iwan Russell-Jones teaches at Regent College in Vancouver, Canada.

Is the Kingdom of God coming in the future? A set of ideas? A political concept? A brand?
It is central to Jesus' teaching.
The nearness of the Kingdom is connected to Jesus. It is first and foremost to do with God. It is God present with us. It is an upside down Kingdom. Jesus shows us what the Kingdom is like. It grows independently of human agency. The small mustard seed becomes a whole environment. There were epidemics in the second and third centuries. Pagan doctors fled, whilst the Christians tended the suffers. This touched the community.
The Kingdom is a new reality.
It is easy to be disheartened, but these parables remind us that God is at work.