PENTECOST IV

The Sower by Vincent van Gogh

Genesis 25:19-34
Psalm 119:105-112
or
Isaiah 55:10-13
Psalm 65: (1-8), 9-14

Romans 8:1-11
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

‘A sower went out to sow’. In today’s Gospel, Jesus recounts one of the most famous parables ever told. It is a simple story made homely for most of us by its familiarity. Yet it has very serious import, a meaning we can miss altogether because it is so easy, and so tempting, to think of the sower as scattering seed on virgin land. No doubt this is what Jesus had in mind, 2000 years ago, but in our circumstances the Gospel is no longer being preached and heard for the first time. The soil, we might say, has been farmland for so long, that we take both the sowing and the harvest for granted.

Even so, the parable still applies. It is right to say that week by week in the course of an ordinary Sunday service, the Gospel goes on being ‘sown’ among regular as well as occasional church goers, and the different ways in which it can be received – carelessly, half heartedly, seriously – are not confined to the secular world outside the church but are possibilities in the heart of the sanctuary also. Indeed, there is an additional danger; the story’s sheer familiarity easily sustains an unspoken assumption that the Gospel has already found fertile ground in our hearts. But has it? We can set ourselves a simple test. On Monday, without the help of the weekly bulletin, can you recall the Bible readings from the day before, and especially the Gospel reading?

In a wonderful phrase Psalm 119, says ‘Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path’. This beautifully captures one way in which Christian faith can accompany our journey through life. But it applies only if casualness, complacency, daily distractions, or worries and anxieties have not prevented God’s word from properly taking root in our minds and souls. The real purpose of regular worship is to stop them doing so and allow us to hear the Gospel afresh. If only it can be properly rooted and regularly nourished, we can hope for life of a quite different order. As Paul says in this week’s reading from Romans “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.”

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