[Propertalk] Fwd: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Proper 10A

[Joe Parrish]

Forwarded:



-----Original Message-----
From: Judy <judy_boli at ecunet.org>
To: propertalk.topic <propertalk.topic at ecunet.org>
Sent: Sat, Jul 12, 2014 11:58 am
Subject: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Proper 10A



Dear Friends,
 
This Sunday’s sermon is entitled “A Sower Went out to Sow” or “WhatSoil Do You Provide for the Sower?” or “Plastic Bags” and deals with the gospel(Matthew 13: 1-9, 18- 23).  Here it is:
 
We just heard Jesus tell the story of the farmer who wentout to sow his seed.  In those days, asyou probably know, seed was planted by broadcasting it- tossing it across theground.  Wherever it landed, that’s wherethe farmer hoped it would sprout.  Jesustold of four kinds of soil that received the broadcast seed: a soil on a road;thin, rocky ground; soil full of weeds, especially thornbushes; and goodground. It’s easy to see that each type of soil represents a kind of humanheart hearing the Word of God.  If you’vebeen at St. Paul’sfor a while, you’ve seen all of these types of reception of the Word.  You’ve seen people like the soil on a road-hard and unyielding.  The seed lands butdoesn’t sink in, so Satan (represented by the birds) snatches it away.  People like this come once or twice, butdon’t ever seem to “get it.”  You’ve alsoseen people like the thin, rocky ground (shallow and warms easily).  The seed really seems to take root.  They come for a while and are veryenthusiastic about the Lord and St. Paul’s.  Then the hard work of living like a Christiancan’t be avoided, and they fall away. Maybe a drug or alcohol habit drags them down.  Maybe the message of the Gospel convicts themof sin.  Whatever- following Jesus getsincreasingly difficult, so they opt for an easier Gospel.  You’ve also seen people who start out fine,but get bogged down (Jesus uses the word “choked”) by the needs of life andfooled by the desire to get rich. Finally there are those- the good ground, who nourish the seed (the Word)and produce amazing results.  A seven toten fold increase would be a nice yield. Even the USAusing all the benefits of modern farming methods shows a yield of 15 to 20fold.  So a yield of 30, 60, or 100 foldis miraculous!
 
I started by telling about other people, but it’s really notabout them- it’s about us.  The nicething is, we can become the kind of soil we choose.  We choose the reception we give God as hecomes into our hearts.  Maybe we’re soheard-hearted that we don’t even consider living His way.  Maybe we are excited about being a Christianfor a while, but when it gets hard- we fall away.  Perhaps worries about our families, money,cars, friends choke out Jesus’ call to follow Him.  But perhaps- even if we started out weakly,we change and grow and fertilize our soil until we produce amazing results forthe Lord.
 
I’d like to close with a story that represents most of us atone time or another.  A family had beenrenting for years and finally saved up enough money for a down-payment on a house-a home of their own.  After moving in,they decided to renovate the yard, since it had been neglected for years.  They planted and watered, so the flowers grewand the grass became green and lush. Everything responded to their loving care- everything that is, exceptthe row of bushes that separated their yard from the neighbor’s property.  The family gave those bushes lots ofattention, watered and fertilized them regularly, and hoped they would thrive;but all their work seemed useless. No matter what they did, the bushes remainedspindly and nearly lifeless.  Theyfinally lost patience and decided to uproot those pitiful, unresponsive bushes.When they pulled the first one up, to their amazement- they found it still hada plastic bag from the nursery wrapped around its roots!  Would you believe- each plant was thisway.  With great care, they removed theplastic and replanted each bush.  In afew years, the bushes were the most beautiful in the neighborhood.
 
What’s the message for us? Don’t be hardhearted with God. Don’t let cares or worries or desires or fears or as Paul says in Romans8 “anything else in all creation” separate you from God like that plasticseparated the plants from the moisture and nutrients in the soil.  My prayer for all of us is that we stay opento Jesus and his Word all the days of our lives.
 
For anyone who is interested, this sermon and updatedAfrican-American wisdom statements are posted on our parish’s NEW WEB SITEunder “Sermons & Stuff”. The address is: http://www.stpaulsepisag.org .
 
Blessed preaching,
Judy Boli
St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Saginaw, Michigan

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to propertalk.topic+unsubscribe at ecunet.org.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20140712/1d74c8ef/attachment.htm>