Call to worship
God is like a generous, wasteful farmer or gardener — throwing seed all over good and bad ground. God plants so generously in order to insure that there is growth and that life comes to fruition. Today’s scriptures call us to receive the seeds of God’s bountiful love in the rich soil our lives — that God’s Word may bear fruit in our world.
To the point: 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 (Matt 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.”
Bless our eyes. They see your splendor in the sunlight
at play in summer trees, in the faces of loved ones,
in images by Paul Cezanne.
And blessed be our ears
since they have heard your glory
in the sounds of geese high overhead,
in baby’s laugh, in Puccini’s opera,
and in the hello of a friend.
Let us always listen
for the cries of your poor.
Our eyes and ears
always look forward joyfully
to receive your ever-present 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 so that all may eat.
Tend to our souls too.
Render them
fertile and fruitful.
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.”
All creation is groaning,
laboring within itself,
eagerly hoping to be set free from
pollution and corruption, in the growth
you will give it through your Spirit.
Oh, let us see ways into the soul
of this troubled world, so as to be
your help in saving it.
Copyright © 2020, Anne M. Osdieck.
