7th Sunday after Pentecost/July 16, 2023

Psalm 65: (1-8), 9-14; Isaiah 55:10-13; Matthew 13:1-9,18-23

Opening Prayer: (based on Matthew 13:1-9/ Christine Longhurst, re:Worship)

O God, we gather together in Your presence with expectation, hungry for an encounter with You, eager to hear Your Word. Open our eyes and ears to the presence of Your Holy Spirit. May the seeds of Your Word scattered among us this morning fall on fertile soil. May they take root in our hearts and lives, and produce an abundant harvest of good works and deeds. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ, our teacher and our Lord. Amen.

When we gather on Sundays, part of our worship always includes the reading of the Word of God, the Holy Scriptures.

Reading and listening to them each week are part of a practice of prayer, and meditating on the Word of God, the living Word of God, together in community…preparing and nourishing our hearts and minds and spirits to discern what God is saying to us today and asking of us today.

For many of us, Sunday might be the only day we are engaged in reading and praying with the scriptures.

In this week’s focus on the 2nd Mark of Mission: Teach/Learn…

Bishop Mark challenges us to commit to more than just meditating on the scriptures on Sundays only…and to commit at least 15 minutes each day to reading and praying on the Gospel lesson assigned for Morning or Evening Prayer.

This is not for the purpose of becoming biblical experts, but rather, an opportunity, every day, to explore and ponder our understanding of who God is, who Jesus is, and how it is that the Holy Spirit can teach us and guide us and strengthen us, in our relationship with God and one another, and help us prepare and nourish our hearts and minds and spirits to be grounded and rooted in the love of God, assisting us in discerning what God is saying to us and asking of us, each and every day…

Those of you who are gardeners, know that working in a garden, and with the soil, preparing it, tending to it…is not a once-a-week project. It’s a commitment to a daily and weekly practice to create a fertile soil for the fruits of your labors to grow and flourish abundantly. And most know that there are all sorts of external forces that can affect the outcome of your labors. The same happens in our own person lives at times, leaving us wondering where God is when things don’t go as planned despite our best efforts. Yet, God is there. That is the hope we can hold onto. We can begin again and again, to see what changes and re-working of the soil might be needed so that the widely scattered seeds of God’s love, may fall upon fertile soil and take root in our hearts and in our lives.

Reading and meditating on the Word of God, the living Word of God, every day, instead of once a week…is one small change we can make in our faith journey…that will not only transform our own lives to be more loving, joyful, peaceful, and hopeful, but these same abundant fruits of God’s love, when shared with others, will transform our entire communities.

I’m going to take a few moments to share some “gardening of the soul” practices and resources that, when used, can help enrich the soil of our hearts, and minds and spirits to equip us for answering Bishop Mark’s call to commit to more than just meditating on the scriptures on Sundays only…and to commit at least 15 minutes each day to reading and praying on the Gospel lesson assigned for Morning or Evening Prayer.

There are an abundance of ways you can access the Morning Prayer and Evening Prayer services and assigned scriptures, online, and specifically the gospel reading that Bishop Mark is encouraging us to focus on.

There’s a list in your bulletin insert, and they are all included on St Peter’s website for easy access. There’s even a free online copy of the Book of Common Prayer on the website, as well.

But there are other simple ways, too, using the hard copy of the Book of Common Prayer and a hard copy of a bible.

I invite you to open up your Book of Common Prayer to page 933. This is the beginning of the section for the Daily Office Lectionary where you will find the daily scripture readings appointed for Morning and Evening Prayer services. The Daily Office Lectionary is arranged in a 2-year cycle. We are currently in Year 1.

The year begins on the 1st Sunday of Advent, just like our Sunday Revised Common Lectionary. So, moving ahead to this coming week, I invite you to turn to page 974.

You will see the heading Proper 10…(week of the Sunday closest to July 13)…

This is where you will find the readings for this coming week.

The left page, 974 is Daily Office Year One, the right page/975 is Daily Office Year Two. This pattern continues in this Daily Office Lectionary section…Year one is on the left; year two is on the right.

Let’s look at Monday. The psalms are listed first. Psalm 25 is the psalm for morning prayer. Then you will see 4 dots...what follows are the psalms for evening prayer. Then you will see the old testament reading, the new testament reading and then the gospel reading.

Bishop Mark is calling on all Episcopalians in Alaska to commit at least 15 minutes each day to reading and praying on the Gospel lesson, only assigned for Morning or Evening Prayer.

And to think about these questions:

How does the passage relate to your life, your situation? How is the Gospel part of your story?

Maybe your answers to these questions, and your related stories, will come in the silences of your own heart and mind, maybe a reading partner will help you see something you haven’t noticed before, maybe you will respond to the questions by writing in a journal, or through art, music, prayer, or maybe the answers will come to you while out taking a walk.

After reading and reflecting and praying with the gospel lesson,

Bishop Mark encourages us to share our story with others. Share what came up for you when reading and reflecting on the assigned gospel reading for the day.

It takes time, a willingness to begin again and again, and prayer to commit to taking on anything new, especially a new faith journey practice. Committing to reading and reflecting on the gospel only, is a small, and simple way to begin.

It’s an invitation and an opportunity to transform lives by strengthening our relationship with God and one another, through the daily reading and praying with the Word of God, the Holy Gospel, that can prepare and nourish our hearts and minds and spirits to be grounded and rooted in the love of God, assisting us in discerning what God is saying to us and asking of us, each and every day…

And most assuredly, the daily reading and praying with the gospel lesson assigned for the day, can be a hopeful reminder, in the midst of so much turmoil, chaos, and uncertainties that people live with every day, that we have a loving God who is with us, always…

God calls each one of us, to go out into the world teaching and sharing the Good News, Gospel stories, in all the ways we possibly can, and as authentically as we can, with the hope that one day all God’s children will come to know and believe that the God of love, and joy, and peace, and hope, as revealed to us in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ in the Gospels, …is for everyone, and will be with us all, forever…The Word of the Lord shall be forever…

Hymn: Go out with Joy (#167 – Maranatha Praise Chorus Book)

Go out with joy and be led forth in peace, the mountains and the hills shall break forth singing.

And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands, the Lord (God) shall be praised. And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands, the Word of the Lord shall be forever.

Rev Julie Platson

St Peter’s by the Sea Episcopal Church, Sitka, AK