3 Pentecost/Year B
June 13, 2021
2 Corinthians 5:6-10; 14-17; Psalm 20 ; Mark 4:26-34
Prayer: The Season after Pentecost
(ordinary time) – From Liturgy for the Whole Church
God of seasons and Sabbath, God of our days and our hearts: You bless us with greening time, that we might be renewed. Teach us to live slowly, and taste the goodness of your love. Show us how every moment is alive with you, far from ordinary, trembling with hope, shining with glory. Through Christ, who found you in corners of quiet, and in whose arms we find rest. Amen
Show us how every moment is alive with you, O God, far from ordinary, trembling with hope, shining with glory.
Jesus seeks to do just that with today’s parables.
In today’s gospel reading, we hear two different parables, The Parable of the Growing Seed, and the Parable of the Mustard Seed. Jesus often used parables, a simple story-telling style, when speaking to those who were eager to sit at his feet and learn from him. He used stories to try and help them see where God was at work in their own lives, in the lives of others, and in all of creation. He used parables to open their eyes, and their ears, and their hearts and their minds to help them come to believe that every moment is indeed alive with God, far from ordinary, trembling with hope, shining with God’s glory throughout the world.
The first parable today, the Parable of the Growing Seed as it is titled in some bible translations….is the one catching my attention this week.
Let me share those few passages again, according to the Good News Translation: Jesus went on to say, “The Kingdom of God is like this. A man scatters seed in his field. He sleeps at night, is up and about during the day, and all the while the seeds are sprouting and growing. Yet he does not know how it happens. The soil itself makes the plants grow and bear fruit; first the tender stalk appears, then the head, and finally the head full of grain. When the grain is ripe, the man starts cutting it with his sickle, because harvest time has come.
There are so many different thoughts and questions and wonderings that came up when I read this scripture this week., (this year!)
I wonder about the man who scattered the seed in his field….
Who is this man? What kind of seed did he scatter? How much seed did he scatter? Does he scatter the same seed year after year, expecting the same, or hoping for more growth and a more abundant harvest this year than last year? I wonder what his faith in God was like?
The scripture tells us that “He sleeps at night, is up and about during the day, and all the while the seeds are sprouting and growing. Yet he does not know how it happens.”
Does he ever wonder if God has something to do with the sprouting and the growing?
When the harvest time has come, does the man ever pause to say thank you to God for the abundant gifts brought forth from the earth…
Then my thoughts backed up to the Kingdom of God is like this….
And I had a lot of questions and wonderings…
When was the last time, I really wondered what the Kingdom of God was like? And I wonder what stories Jesus would be sharing with me, to help me understand what the kingdom of God was like? I wonder how I might tell someone else what I believe the Kingdom of God is like? When was the last time, I paid attention to the extraordinary that is unfolding right in front of me every day in my seemingly ordinary moments…
How often have I neglected to live out my beliefs that every moment is alive with God, far from ordinary, trembling with hope, shining with God’s glory…because I’m too busy, too worried, too concerned about so many things…to remember that God is present…at all times and in all places…
I could add a few more pages to this sermon, with a whole lot of wonderings and questions…because that’s what the parables of Jesus are meant to do…to help us seek and see God…through the eyes and the heart of Jesus, to help us come to believe, that indeed every moment is alive with God, far from ordinary, trembling with hope, shining with God’s glory throughout the world.
They also help us turn our focus back to God, and to give thanks and praise to God for the abundance of love poured out for us and for providing all that we need.
So, the more time I spent with this parable this week, the more gratitude swelled up in my heart…
Gratitude, as I marvel in thinking about God’s hand in the beauty of all creation, and especially now in Sitka, in the flowers, and in the abundance of the vegetable gardens growing everywhere!
Gratitude, as I reflected back on this past year of the pandemic, to see how in our relationships with God and one another, we were strengthened and encouraged to reach out and care for one another in so many new and unexpected ways, extraordinary ways, during these most difficult times….
Gratitude, as I think about our days ahead…knowing that as we rest, God is there, as we work together day by day, God is there…In all times and in all places, we can believe that God is there…helping us to grow in love for God, and one another...with the seeds of love that have been planted in our hearts and scattered far and wide…
I invite you to begin again, every new day, with a wondering about God….perhaps one from the parable today…The kingdom of God is like this…. And then go out into the world, to be amazed and grateful by the extraordinary signs of God’s presence surrounding us on every side, and showing us that indeed every moment is alive with God, far from ordinary, trembling with hope, shining with God’s glory.
Let us pray: God, our Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer: we thank you who has planted your holy name, and your holy love within our hearts. Amen.
Rev Julie Platson
St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church
Sitka, AK
Hymn after sermon: Father, we thank thee who has planted
1 Father, we thank thee who hast planted
thy holy Name within our hearts.
Knowledge and faith and life immortal
Jesus thy Son to us imparts.
2 Thou, Lord, didst make all for thy pleasure,
didst give us food for all our days,
giving in Christ the Bread eternal;
thine is the power, be thine the praise.
3 Watch o’er thy Church, O Lord, in mercy,
save it from evil, guard it still,
perfect it in thy love, unite it,
cleansed and conformed unto thy will.
4 As grain, once scattered on the hillsides,
was in this broken bread made one,
so from all lands thy Church be gathered
into thy kingdom by thy Son.