St. Albans and Welwyn Circuit Service for Sunday 16th July 2023
A Service prepared by the Rev Rosemary Mutopo
Call to Worship:
Come, let us magnify the Lord!
Come, let us worship our Creator!
God is the great Sower, scattering seeds of life and abundance across the earth.
We are the soil the Sower plants, created to nurture and sustain the seeds of God’s life-giving love.
God is the great Gardener, tilling and cultivating our soil with love and grace.
We notice the rocks and thorns in our soil and call on the Gardener’s love and grace to transform us into good soil.
God is the great Life-giver, sowing seeds and tending the soil to produce the fruit of abundant life.
May we nurture and grow God’s new reality, bearing the fruit of flourishing and abundance for all God’s creation. Amen. (Written by Martin Rinkart, United Methodist Publishing house)
STF :340 (Charles Wesley 1707-1788 / Tune: Laudate Dominum)
Prayers of adoration and confession
You formed the mountains by Your power and armed Yourself with mighty strength. You quieted the raging oceans with their pounding waves and silenced the shouting of the nations. Those who live at the ends of the earth stand in awe of Your wonders. From where the sun rises to where it sets, you inspire shouts of joy. (From Psalm 65)
God of grace and compassion we draw close to You in our time of worship knowing that we are unworthy of Your love and forgiveness, and yet You freely forgive us. Hear us now as we tell You of the wrongs, we have done this week. (Silence for confession)
Merciful God, help us to see the error of our ways and to put right the wrong we have done.
Give us wisdom and understanding to go forward into the world
as Your forgiven and restored people. Amen
STF 671: What shall we offer our good Lord?
1 What shall we offer our good Lord,
poor nothings, for his boundless grace?
Fain would we his great name record
and worthily set forth his praise.
2 Great object of our growing love,
to whom our more than all we owe,
open the fountain from above,
and let it our full souls o’erflow.
3 Open a door which earth and hell
may strive to shut, but strive in vain;
let thy word richly in us dwell,
and let our gracious fruit remain.
4 O multiply the sower’s seed!
And fruit we every hour shall bear,
throughout the world thy gospel spread,
thy everlasting truth declare.
5 So shall our lives thy power proclaim,
thy grace for every sinner free;
till all the world shall learn thy name,
shall all stretch out their hands to thee.
August Gottlieb Spangenberg (1704–1792)
translated by John Wesley (1703–1791)
Please read: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
The Parable of the Sower
13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
18 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. 23 But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
Reflection
Do I need to be a good soil in order for the seed as the word of God to be sown in me? What could be another symbolic meaning of seed in our Christian Life today? These are some of the questions that we shall look at and will guide us in this reflection. The parable of the Sower is a well-known parable and sometimes, it is misunderstood. In fact, the purpose and the aim for this parable as used by Jesus is to explain two things, one, to hear and understand God’s message about the Kingdom of Heaven, two, to accept and respond positively to the message about the Kingdom of Heaven.
First what is the meaning of the seed in this gospel passage? As interpreted by Jesus, it means the word of God. In addition, we can construct another symbolic meaning of the word seed that could mean potentiality or capacity of something. For instance, you might have come across a building well- constructed, well tiled and roofed well but when that house is abandoned for some months or some years you will find some plants growing on top of the roof then you wonder, how did the seed grow on top of that roof. The seed being able to germinate on top of the roof is what I call the power or the potentiality or the capacity of the seed. The seed has all the potentialities to germinate anywhere, anytime and on anything so long as there are favourable conditions for it to germinate. This answers the question as I posed earlier on. Because I don’t need to be a good soil for God to sow a seed in me but he needs a positive response from me. This is further illustrated by the seeds that fell in different soils such as, along the path, on the rocky grounds, among thorny grounds and in good soil.
In respect to this Sunday’s liturgical readings everyone can hear the word of God and respond differently. What is it that we are talking about when we say the word of God as used in this parable? I would like to borrow a response from mother Teresa. She describes the seed that is put in us by God as charity or love. I agree with her because the seed of charity is sown in our hearts when we listen to God’s word, when we hear and understand the message from God through his messengers. Each person has good righteous naturally such as the seed of love that germinates, that can grow, that can mature and give fruits in one’s life. Nevertheless, it requires some favourable conditions for the seed of charity to grow in us. Moreover, the reception, the understanding and the response to the word of God as we hear it from the Holy Bible makes a disciple to experience some dynamics, conversions and transformations in life.
As an individual I can hear the word of God as a seed which could make me to oscillate in the four stages determined by the four kinds of soils that received the seeds that were sown as given or narrated in the parable of today. For example, on a Sunday a Christian who hears the word of God understands it and even experiences some sort of consolation and some hope. Such a Christian with this experience could be said to be at the stage of good soil moment. One hour later, these Christians could be overtaken by some thoughts or some micro sleep that will make them to miss what is being preached in the church. This same Christian would be experiencing the stage of along the path moments because whatever is preached is being heard but because of destruction or microsleep that they have at that moment, no understanding has taken place and no response there. Furthermore, one week later when the same Christian comes to church the worries, the problems in the family forgetting and neglecting makes them to forget to live according to what was preached in the church. With this experience from the same Christian, we can say that this Christian could have moved from the good soil moment to rocky or thorny ground’s moment because the word of God they received did not grow to maturity. It failed to develop roots and it was chocked by the daily problems. In my opinion these are the four stages or experiences that a Christian undergoes both while in church and outside Church.
An expansive understanding of the word seed could mean the potentialities that each one of us have in life, for example when a child is born in a family it could be a seed because no one knows what he will become when he grows up. When God created Adam and Eve, he saw in them a lot of generations including you and me. Today, a family that is experiencing turmoil such as divorce, drug abuse, marital conflicts etc could be at the stage of rocky or thorny grounds whereby the seed of love germinated but it never grew up because it lacked deep roots in the soil and it was chocked by all sorts of conflicts.
We are reminded to create good conditions such as welcoming the word of God, understanding it and putting it into practice so that the seed of love can grow to become fruits of shared experiences, fruits of generosity, fruits of understanding and fruits of respect among the family members. At times at places of work the relationships could be on the rocky or thorny grounds because the seed of understanding has diminished due to jealousy misunderstandings and lack of respect. Jesus reminds us today to welcome his word, to understand it and to let it grow in us so that we may produce a hundred folds. Amen.
Prayers for others and the world (Intercessions)
Loving God, we pray for our world and the sadness that exists within it.
Especially we pray for the atrocities of war that Russia is inflicting on the Ukrainian people. Bring peace to this conflict and all conflicts that are happening in Your world.
For those who seek to destroy give them a desire to change and to become people of peace and not war.
We pray for our own country and those who are in positions of power.
All too often we see corruption and arrogance from some leaders, who seek to belittle their opponents. Give to them a new focus that centres on respect, which values others they serve.
We pray for those who are close to us.
Those who are sick and those who are suffering the loss of a loved one. Be their comforter and their rock to lean upon. You hear all prayers Lord, hear us now as we raise our concerns to You in a moment of silence
Silence
We ask these prayers in the name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.
We bring all our prayers together as we say the Lord’s … AMEN.
STF 123: Come, ye thankful people
The Blessing
May we strive to be the people who bring love and hope to all we meet. Be in our thoughts, words and actions. For this we ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
