Call to worship
God is like a generous, wasteful farmer or gardener, throwing seed all over good and bad ground. God sows seeds generously in order to secure that there will be growth and that life comes to fruition. Today’s scriptures call us to be rich soil — to receive the seeds of God’s bountiful love in our lives that God’s Word may bear fruit in our world.
- To the point: Both in the parable itself and in Jesus’ explanation of it, he indicates that seeds falling on rich soil do not all produce the same abundance— some 30-, some 60-, some a hundredfold. God cares less about quantity produced and more about growth and Life coming to fruition. As we take in God’s word with understanding hearts and come to conversion and receive healing, God actually gives us more than even a hundredfold. God gives us fullness of Life forever.
- Connecting the Gospel (Matthew 13:1-23) to the first reading: The first reading gives us confidence that God’s “word shall achieve the end for which God sent it.” The end is that we produce fruit.
- Connecting the Gospel to experience: Every year farmers sow seed in hope of a harvest, knowing full well that drought, storm, insects, etc., can bring it all to ruin. But it is the hope of a harvest — no matter how abundant—that warrants the effort.
Centering prayers
The Gospel
(Matthew 13:1-23)
“But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears because they hear.”
Blest be our eyes. Because they see your splendor
in the sunlight at play in summer trees,
in the faces of loved ones, in the beauty of images
of Cezanne and friends.
And blessed be our ears
that certainly hear your glory
in the sounds of geese high overhead,
in baby’s laugh, in Puccini’s opera,
and in the hello of a friend.
And, let us always listen
for the cries of your poor.
And make our lives rich
so our eyes and ears always wait
to receive your ever-tender love.
Your “grace is everywhere.”
The First Reading
(Isaiah 55:10-11)
“My word shall not return to me void, but shall do my will,
achieving the end for which I sent it.”
Lord of all: tend to our Earth,
give it clean water, and seed for bread
for all your hungry children.
Tend to our souls. Render them fertile and fruitful.
And, please send us out to plant your Word within the whole world.
The Second Reading
(Romans 8:18-23)
Creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God.
Lord, all creation is groaning,
laboring within itself,
eagerly hoping to be set free from
pollution and corruption, and to grow in
the wonders you give it through your Spirit.
Oh, let us see in the soul of this,
our deeply wounded world.
Please let us help in saving it.
Copyright © 2020, Anne M. Osdieck
Music for reflection