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Sentence

In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us. 2 Corinthians 5:19                      

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Collect 

Almighty God,

without you we are unable to please you:

mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit

may in all things direct and rule our hearts; 

through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

 

Readings

• 1 Samuel 15:34-16:13
• Psalm 20
• 2 Corinthians 5:6-10, 14-17
• Mark 4:26-34

next week

• 1 Samuel 17:32-49
• Psalm 9:9-20
• 2 Corinthians 6:1-13
• Mark 4:35-41

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A Thought to Ponder

Pentecost 3 – Mark 4:26-34

“The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground … It is like a mustard seed …”

Farming is a matter of hard work and patient faith: All the farmer can do is plant the seed and nurture it along with water and care; God’s unseen hand in creation transforms the tiny seed into a great harvest. Today’s Gospel parables of the sower and the mustard seed, then, are calls to patience, hope and readiness.

The mustard seed – that tiny speck containing the chemical energy to create the great tree – is a natural parable for the greatness that God raises up from small beginnings.

Jesus may have been directing his words to the Zealots, a Jewish sect that sought the political restoration of Israel. Many Zealots were terrorists, employing murder and insurrection to destabilise the Roman government. The Zealots dreamed of a Messiah who would restore the Jewish nation. Jesus, however, calls them to see their identity as God’s people not in terms of political might but of interior faith and spiritual openness to the love of God.

We are called to seek the wisdom of God with the patience and dedication of the sower; we are entrusted with the work of making the reign of God a reality in our own lives with the gentle but determined faith of the mustard seed.

Christ asks us to embrace the faith of the sower: to “plant” seeds of peace, reconciliation, and justice wherever and whenever we can in the certain knowledge that, in God’s good time, our plantings will result in the harvest of the kingdom of God.

With the patience and hope of mustard seed faith, our smallest acts of compassion and generosity, in our unnoticed and unheralded offerings of affirmation and support, we can transform the most barren of places into great gardens of hope.

Though we “know not how” God makes the grain grow and the sun rise and the rain fall, we do know why: the perfect and complete love that is and of God, love that compels God to set all of creation into motion and to breathe that love into our souls and set us this life of ours. Realising the “why” should inspire us to mirror God’s love in our care for creation and our work to provide its gifts for all our sisters and brothers.   

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Sermon

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