July 16, 2023 

Prelude
Lighting the Christ Candle

 

Welcome and Announcements 

Called to Worship:
L: God scatters the seeds of reconciliation and love, and waits….
P: we pray it will take root….
L: God scatters the seeds of healing and hope, and waits….
P: we pray that we will be healed…
L: God scatters the seeds of redemption and peace, and waits….
P: we pray that we will grow in grace, and go forth to scatter seeds in God’s name.
L: Let us worship God who makes our hearts into the rich soil in which his  love takes root.
 

Hymn:  371 Love Divine, all loves excelling

Prayer of Adoration 

O Still Speaking God, we praise you, because you are still speaking, still bringing your word to fruition in the hearts of people everywhere.  We give thanks for all who have received your vision and shaped faithful mmunities to follow in your Way. 

Continue to open that vision to us, that we may become transformed by the renewing of your Word in our hearts.   Enable us to grow in love and understanding for each other . 

We desire that you Create in us, O God, clean hearts and minds; and so we bring you our Confession, saying together:  

 

 

Unison Prayer of Confession:
Lord Jesus Christ, we remember with gratitude those people who generously sowed the seeds of faith in our lives. 
We confess the times we fail to involve ourselves in planting any seeds of faith in the lives of others; the times when we have denied others the opportunity to expand their faith.    
Lord Jesus Christ, we know that when we become disconnected from you, our lives becomes parched.
Bless and renew our lives, we pray, so that we remain connected to you at all times and in all places, strengthening our faith to expand and us to bear the fruit of your mercy, your love, your undying life.  Amen. 

Assurance of Pardon 

Divine Gardener, You tend us in steadfast love, Unending mercies, and eternal faithfulness;  you cultivate true friendship with you through boundless forgiveness.  

In Christ, this faithful love is planted in our hearts. 

Thanks be to God! 

 

The Peace
Passing the Peace 

Hymn:  348  Tell me the stories of Jesus

Scripture:

Psalm 65: 1-13  p 900
Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23  P 1516 

Sermon:  Scattered Seeds 

When I was in Theological School, the New Testament professor, Lloyd Gaston, kept reminding us that the point of the parable is found in what makes us feel uncomfortable, or especially in what makes us angry. 

I was reminded of that as I read the commentary on this parable by Hoezee, who pointed out that in the passage between the parable and the explanation of the parable Jesus says, “that he tells parables because…this way matches the spiritual cluelessness of most of his listeners”   

Perhaps in today’s parlance, that statement could mean that Jesus explains God’s word in stories and parables because we are thick-headed and he needs to dumb things down for us. 

So what in this parable makes us angry? 

Or uncomfortable? 

A lot of the commentators suggest that this parable makes us look at the human condition.  We have hard hearts and reject God’s word.  Our hearts are as hard as a sidewalk, the seed that falls there is stolen by the birds.  Or our hearts are like stoney paths.  The seed takes root, but because it can’t get deeply rooted, it withers and dies.  The seed in thorny ground and is choked out by the thorns that grow among them, like life difficulties or the pursuit of money.  Or the seed falls on good, well prepared soil, and thrives.  

So, this may tell us something about human nature, but really we know this about ourselves, so what is the part that makes us sit up and say, “what is going on here?”   

What in this parable points to the nature of God?   

And why would this revelation about God’s nature be difficult to understand? 

I don’t think that parables are God’s word dumbed-down for us.  What I wonder is that the reason for parables is that they are meant to confuse us, and force us to stop to reflect and ponder what this could possible mean.  Whenever we stop and take a second look at Scripture and puzzle out what it means and what it is actually saying, then we expand our understanding about who God is and what God does? 

 

The big question here is:  Why does God act in the way he does?  Why is he so indiscriminate with the seed? 

That question is certainly true in this parable.  Any farmer or gardener would tell you that this farmer is wasting valuable seed. 

Hoezee writes:   Today we might have the same reaction if we heard a story about a farmer who hooked up his planter to the back of his John Deere, started up the tractor, but then threw the … switch to activate the planter even before he was out of his driveway.  There he is putt-putting down the country lane with corn seed scattering everywhere as he goes.  It bounces on the road, some flies into the ditch.  When he finally gets near his field, he first has to cut through a weedy and thorny patch with corn seed still flying out loosey-goosey from that planter that, by all rights, had been switched on way too early. 

So, is that true?  Is God wasting seed?   

If this was just a story about seeds, we could point out that even the seeds that land in sidewalks can find a crack and push their roots down and grow, even thrive in the proper conditions. 

If this was just a story about seeds, we could point out that even the seeds that land on stoney ground can push in deep roots and thrive. 

If this was just a story just about seeds, we could point out that even Jesus speaks about a harvest of seeds from thorny ground, in which the produce will be separated from the thorns at harvest. 

If this was just a story about seeds, we could point out that sometimes in good, well-prepared soil, a bad seed will not have a chance to grow. 

But this is not a story about seeds.  It is a story about God’s word.  More to the point, this is a story about God’s Powerful Word, God’s abundant word, God’s life giving word, God’s inexhaustible word.   

This word was cast out and the whole of creation came into being. 

The word was again cast and day and night with their own light sources came to be. 

The word was cast and water and earth were created. 

The word was cast and fish and birds and all manners of animals that live in water or on the earth were created. 

The world was cast out and humans were created.  

God’s word is powerful and apparently it always accomplished what God spoke. 

In Isaiah chapter 11 we read:    

6 Seek the Lord while he may be found;
    call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways
    and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on them,
    and to our God, for he will freely pardon. 

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
    neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so are my ways higher than your ways
    and my thoughts than your thoughts.
10 As the rain and the snow
    come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
    without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
    It will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.  NIV 

God’s word, even the ones that he thinks, yield their results, because it always accomplished the purpose for which he thought it, spoke it, and sent it.  Always!  God’s word always accomplished the purpose for which he spoke it.   

So who does God send the word for? 

The good people who gather regularly for worship, who pray and who do good for their neighbour? 

Well yes. 

But also for the sinner, the outcast, the foreigner.   

Now we know that Scripture has always pointed this truth out, but we also know that the religious leaders made judgements about who could receive the grace of that word.   

Sinners, adulterers, those who worshipped other gods…Not on my watch, thank you very much.   

So, we see that when Jesus told this story, the religious leaders of his time, had reason to be angry.  According to them God’s, word was not to be given indiscriminately.  The promise was only for the chosen people, only for the Jews and maybe the righteous Gentiles. 

Through the ages, the Christian church has also held to their version of the truth that said God’s gifts, grace and mercy are only for those who believe. 

So that raises the question, how do those who do not believe come to know God? 

Well, the good people who believe are called to tell the story.  And all too often we forget that.  The church forgets that we are to speak of God’s mercy, and not to stand in judgement of those outside the church, and even those inside the church. 

In an episode of Young Sheldon this spring there was an example of just how that judgement could be utilized to keep people away from God’s grace, even when already a member of the church. 

The church already had a problem with Sheldon, who often questioned God, and his existence.  There had always been talk about how scandalous this was.  But it was tolerated.  But what could not be tolerated was when Sheldon’s brother engaged in a relationship with a woman and she became pregnant—outside of marriage, and they did not plan to marry.   

The resulting scandal, caused gossip, and such a judgmental attitude that the family was forced out of the congregation… 

The promise of God’s grace and understanding did not exist in that situation.   

But when it comes to the church, what does God say we must do with his word? 

In 2 Timothy 4 we read:   

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.  NIV 

So now it looks like we are being called upon to scatter the seed, in fall and winter, a time when we know nothing will grow, well with a few exceptions like garlic.   

This letter from Timothy goes on to say  

4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5 But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry. NIV 

And what is the duty of that ministry? 

To preach the word in season and out of season.  When necessary correct and rebuke, but to do so with encouragement.  And always to spread the seeds of God’s grace with patience and careful instruction. 

I have recently read the novel Evergreen, set on an Island somewhere in Barclay Sound, which is one of the last havens on earth, where trees were sill healthy, following what was called the great withering.   

When that fungal blight came to the Island, one of the tour guides, an arborist by training, tried to find a way to treat the trees and cure the fungus and when discovered was fired for interfering with the forest. 

As she is being forcibly removed from the Island the trees suddenly released their pollen.  As she sailed away, she mused, that this was the wrong season for trees to release their pollen, but realized that to her, it spoke of a hope for the future when there would be a new forest of trees, quite possibly with an immunity to the blight known as the withering. 

In the church, we have to be the ones who are that kind of a risk-taker.  We spread the seed of God’s word, here among ourselves where it will take root and cause us to grow in faith.  But we also spread the seed in the neighbourhoods where we live, the stores where we shop, the coffee groups with whom we socialize in and yes, even the bars. 

In one summer school course I took, we were challenged to do just that.  As a class, we and the instructor went to a local bar where he modeled for us the gentle, kind and patient discussion in which God’s seed was spread to young adults who had left the church.  They spoke with him of finding a place to go and worship the next Sunday. 

The first time I told that story, some of the people in the congregation said they would never be caught in a bar.   

And I think that this is where for us, we come up hard against what will make us angry. 

We are called to spread the seed, even in places where we would be among people whom we judge to be unworthy.  For each of us that would be in a different place and among different people.  All of us have life experience that will make us reluctant to reach out to certain people.  All of us have cherished boundaries that will prevent us from telling some that Jesus loves them.    But all of us are called to reach out, even  where we are uncomfortable and perhaps unwelcome.   

On the sidewalk.  On the stoney ground.  On the thorny ground.  On the good soil.  In season and out.  When people don’t listen to us and when they do.  When people reject us for who we speak of.   

Why?  Because we take as our example God, whose complete and total trust is in his word, and that his word will bring about what it is meant to do.   

His word sent out is never wasted.
 

We are not called to judge the readiness of the ground for the seed or even if it is the right season to spread the seed…. 

We are not responsible for the outcome of sharing the word.  We are only called to share it.  And God, as he always has, will bring that word into completion.   

A farmer went out to sow God’s seed. 

The point here is that God’s seed is an inexhaustible supply.  We can throw it into the wind, sow it in the harshest of places and wherever it lands, God will bring it to life. 

Let’s go sow some word. 

Amen. 

 

Hymn: 445  Open our eyes Lord

  

Offering and Offertory
Doxology 830

Offertory Prayer 

Gathering Prayer Requests
Prayers of the People and the Lord’s Prayer 

God-ever-with-us:
you draw us near to your heart,
so that, cradled in compassion,
we might see the brokenness
of all who are around us.
Teacher-beside-us:
you draw us near to yourself,
so that, by following you,
we may discover the deep joy
of serving the broken of the world.
Spirit-within-us:
you draw near to us with your peace,
so that, reconciled and restored to God,
we may be the healers to a world shattered by despair. 

To this brokenness, we speak aloud or in our hearts, to bring your compassion and deep joy to the places and people who are shattered by despair and do are in need of your mercy. 

We thank you that you have loved us and that you show your signs of love in our lives at all times. 

JOYS 

We thank you that you have brought your word into our hearts, so that we will show that word of grace to all who need to hear it 

CONCERNS 

The family friends, and co-workers of the fire-fighter killed near Revelstoke
The people and places where fires spread 

Interior, Peace, Lwr Mainland, Island
the people isolated by fires and the problems they bring 

The people who have to be evacuated 

Those touched by recent tornadoes in Ottawa and Montreal 

To the people of Montreal affected by flooding that resulted from the same storm. 

The people in India after Monsoons that have flooded the area and all families whose members have lost their lives 

God in Community, Holy in One,
as we draw near to you in this time,
we lift the prayer you have taught us, saying, 

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive your debtors and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory, for ever.  Amen 

Hymn:  377  Come children join to sing

 

Charge and Benediction 

As you go out to give a living witness, 

as you go out to testify to God's love active in the world, 

go knowing that God’s word goes with you, in your hearts and in your words sharing the laughter and the hope, the fears and the tears. 

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the power of the Holy Spirit be with you now, and always.  

Thanks be to God! Amen. 

 

Sung Blessing  

575 Lead me Lord

Lead me Lord, lead me in your righteousness
Make your way plain before my face
for it is you, and you, God only
who makes me to dwell in safety
Public Domain
Three Fold Amen

 

 

St. Andrews Church 

1981 9th Ave. NE,
Salmon Arm BC 

 

Minister:  The Rev. Ena van Zoeren
Phone:  250-253-0338 

 

Our Purpose:  “To live and share the Gospel, the saving, forgiving love of God in Jesus Christ.”