16 July 2023 is the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. The main Bible text for this week is the Parable of the Sower – one of Jesus’ teachings – from Matthew’s Gospel.
In this story, the “farmer” is God and the seeds are the message (i.e. the Good News of Jesus coming to save the world from sin).
How does Jesus recommend we are to spread the Word? Should we be targeting specific demographics? Or should we “sow the seed” indiscriminately?
Today’s main Bible reading
Matthew 13:1-9 (from The Message Bible Translation)
A Harvest Story
13 1-3 At about that same time Jesus left the house and sat on the beach. In no time at all a crowd gathered along the shoreline, forcing him to get into a boat. Using the boat as a pulpit, he addressed his congregation, telling stories.
3-8 “What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.
9 “Are you listening to this? Really listening?” …
The Meaning of the Harvest Story
18-19 “Study this story of the farmer planting seed. When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn’t take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person’s heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road.
20-21 “The seed cast in the gravel—this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.
22 “The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it.
23 “The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.”
Video recording of today’s service from St. James’ Church
The answer to the question in the headline is “no”.
You can find a previous version of this sermon (with PDF download) on this website here.
