As we gather, we recognize that we live, work, pray, and play
in the traditional, unceded lands
of the Cowichan Tribes and Coast Salish People. 
We continue to commit ourselves
to the work of reconciliation and relationship-building
with our First Nations neighbours.     

Call to Worship:

The word is very near you;
it is in your mouth and in your heart,
so that you can do it.

Deuteronomy 30. 14

O, Come.   Let Us Worship.

Gathering

Almighty God,
to you all hearts are open, all desires known,
and from you no secrets are hidden.
Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the
inspiration of your Holy Spirit,
that we may perfectly love you,
and worthily magnify your holy name;
through Christ, our Lord. Amen. 

Collect for Today

Almighty God,
You have made us for yourself,
and our hearts are restless 
until they find their rest in you.
May we find peace in your service,
and in the world to come,
see you face to face;
through Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you, and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and forever.    Amen.

The Proclamation of the Gospel:

Matthew 13. 1-9, 18-23 

Sermon:  The Ven.  Brian Evans

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of
our hearts be ever acceptable to you, O Lord.  Amen.

“Sowing Faith Seeds” 

Today, I want to share with you a visual for the sermon. I hope you can see it.

“Sowing Faith Seeds.”

I’ve divided the page into 4 quadrants.

The 1st quadrant talks about the Sower sowing seeds: he sows some on the path among the rocks. And in that Gospel reading, we hear that because it was laying there, open on the ground, along come the birds and they consume the seed, and that was the end of that crop-sowing.

The second frame shows that some fell on the ground—on the earth, but the earth was not very deep; and so, the sun came out and the crops withered.

You might be able to see the beautiful flower growing here, and the next thing you know, it is withered and drooping open.

So that is the withered seeds that happened.

And then there are those seeds that fall among the thorns. The thorns overgrew and choked the new plants. So, you might be able to see that there a few little plants along the bottom here, and up here, we have the thorns that are choking out the new crop.

So, the seeds sprouted, but they now have become overgrown.

And of course, the fourth part is the good soil. Good soil, the crop was planted. It grew. It produced a wonderful crop of seeds, and when harvest came, the farmer reaped, in some cases, a hundred-fold, in others sixty-fold, and in another, thirty-fold.

So, Jesus takes this and relates it to our lives.

It is one of those times, when Jesus says to the crowd, “Hear what the parable is teaching you.”

From that first set of seeds that were planted among the rocks; the people hear the story. The people hear the Scriptures read, or maybe hear, say, at Christmastime, as they walk through the malls, they hear the Christmas story. But at the same time, they don’t understand.

In other words, they are kind of falling on ground that has not been prepared.  It’s like a stony heart, you might say, or a hardness of heart.

It’s important for us to hear that, and the evil comes and takes away the soil  or the seeds—kind of like the birds  take the seeds away. 

On the other part, we might say, “well, it’s all easy” but at the same time, if you listen to the 6 o’clock news, you know that life is not that easy. Or you could be like the cynic and say, “well I tried it. But it doesn’t work.”

And then, in the 2nd quadrant here, we are represented in that parable of them falling on the ground; we are representing those that receive with joy.  We are all excited. We have heard the Word of God; we get all excited and we have all these wonderful ideas, but then our hearts become distracted.

We kind of fade away a little bit. We hear something good over here; or something good there; or whatever that parish is doing there, or whatever.

So, sort of like a story I read one time of a blind man in a hospital. It was a double ward: there was a bed beside the wall, and there was a bed on the opposite side of the room. And of course, in the bed beside the wall there was a person, a blind man. But because of hospital privacy, the curtain was always drawn between the two beds. And so, every morning, the person in the other bed would say to the blind man, “so, what is it like out today?”

"Oh", he said, "it’s a beautiful day! I see the birds; I can hear the humming sounds of the community; the sun is shining! There’s beautiful blue sky; it is just wonderful!"

And so, this went on for a few days, and as it turned out, the blind man was released from the hospital and the other man said to the hospital staff, “I would really like to move to the bed beside the window, because the person who was here before me always shared with me every day how beautiful the world was.”

And so, they said OKAY.

So they moved him over there in the evening. The next morning, they opened the blinds. And what does the man see but a brick wall.

Well, he needed to be able to see beyond the brick wall, as the blind man could.

And so, we often choke out the wisdom of God. And we would encourage not to let the busyness of life choke out the Spirit in our lives. And then, our life is like a withered plant when we allow that to happen to ourselves.

So, in the third instance, we have the seeds that fell among the thorns: the thorns overgrew and choked out the new plants.

Well, seeds of faith are sprouted in our lives, but often other things prevent those seeds from growing, and become more important in our lives. Like the thorns that overgrow the beautiful seeds.

Kind of like the wealth of the world reduces the yield.

It’s sort of like when I was talking to a friend recently who has some experience in a part of the world where the rain forests are continually being cut down for something they think is better.

Well, sometimes the Spirit within our own lives gets pushed to the side; and so, this is a reminder for us of the importance of continued teaching of the Church. It is a reminder for us to participate in Church programs like Cursillo; or Women’s Retreat; or a Parish Retreat.

I often think of one of my bishops I had who had a tradition (for which he was well-known). He would come into the Parish Office, and he would be standing there, and looking at all the library books that were there.

We would say to him, “Bishop, can I help you find something?”

"No", he would say. "I am just looking to see when you would quit learning".

In other words, how do we cultivate that new knowledge that we are sowing in us?

So, now that brings us to the Good Soil. 

Well, it must be all great! So, that part of our lives that we hear, but on top of hearing, we come to understand.

The first three in this story may be seen as defeat, and then, this is seen as victory.

Well, we hear many stories of victory.

We hear many stories of victory, though, that only happen following some of these experiences.

We hear many stories of victory. Recently we heard of an elderly man restoring a person’s faith and showing them that direction in life.

Or a young boy. A few years ago, I read about this young boy who went about the local cemeteries cleaning all the soldiers’ head stones; and the experience and the lessons that people in the community learned from that, and how he encouraged people to work in the good soil.

Well, if we step back then and go back to our Romans reading this morning, we have Paul talking about “the mind of the flesh”.

In other words, the mind that is distracted from the Word of God, and how it disables the person to really move beyond the rocks in life.

And then we have, in the second part, Paul talks about how the “flesh” in our lives can become hostile to God; how easy it is for us to blame God. "Why is God doing this?"

Rather than looking at how we might help God prevent the Spirit within us from withering and fading away.

The third part of Romans talks about where we sometimes feel that we cannot please God. It doesn’t matter how much we are doing; it doesn’t matter what we are doing; but we just can’t seem to please God. So, we become over-passionate about that, but at the same time because we are so concerned about that, other things grow up and get in our way.

But then, Paul finishes the reading today showing us how Spirit is Life.

How renewing your spirit gives you life, and the significance of that life in our lives and in the importance of that.

And so, we might just think about it this way: at times the way of life is hard. It is difficult and we do have trouble with it. But there are other times that we find obstacles in life, and there are many of them; and those obstacles can prevent us from seeing 'beyond' and being on the “Good Path”.

And then, sometimes we may find ourselves feeling like the withered plant, and how that affects us.

But, what we also hear today is that we have hope.  We have hope because we have the news of the kingdom of God. And Jesus tells us that in his lesson in the Parable today.

And so, we give thanks to Jesus who gave us this wonderful lesson on the Parable of the Seeds, or as I have called it today, “Sowing Faith Seeds”.

And so, we give thanks to God today for that.  Amen. 

Let Us Pray

Confident that God receives our joys, and concerns,
let us offer our prayers for the church,
those in need, and all of creation. 

Guide your church, O God,
to sow seeds of forgiveness and righteousness on good soil.
Direct your people to proclaim your love
in this congregation and throughout the world. 

Hear us, O God:
For your mercy is great.

Sustain your creation, O God,
by sending favorable weather,
causing trees and fields to grow,
protecting waterways from pollution,
and instilling in all people the need to be good stewards. 

Hear us, O God:
For your mercy is great. 

God, we do need that good stewardship in our lives,
as we are experiencing one of the driest periods
on this Island, and in many parts of the world.
And so, we ask for your gift of life that comes to us through water.
We pray for forth-coming rains, and that our fields and our forests
and our waterways may be renewed.   

Maintain peace among all people, O God,
and raise up lawyers to work for justice in the courts,
advocates to speak for the downtrodden, and
politicians to work on behalf of the common good.

Hear us, O God:
For your mercy is great. 

Heal those who are sick, O God.
Guide health care workers to care for those who suffer,
scientists to conduct lifesaving research,
and counselors to care for victims of sexual abuse and exploitation.

In our parish we continue to pray for:
Roy & Gail; Daryl & Sue; Roy; Jay;  Sheila; Sharlene;
Yasmine; Roberta; David; Pip; Maureen; and those on our hearts.  

Hear us, O God:
For your mercy is great. 

Answer the prayers of those gathered in worship, O God.
Protect those who travel near and far,
accompany visitors to this congregation,
and nurture our faith. 

Hear us, O God:
For your mercy is great.

Inspire us by the faithful departed, O God,
examples of your embodied love,
whose confidence in the resurrection guides us
in living lives worthy of the gospel. 

Hear us, O God:
For your mercy is great. 

Into your hands, O God,
we commend all for whom we pray,
in the name of the one who reconciled
all creation to himself: Jesus Christ, our Saviour.  Amen. 

As our Saviour taught us:
Our Father,
who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as in heaven. 
Give us today our daily bread. 
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive
those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us fom evil.  
For thine is the kingdom,
the power and the glory,
forever and ever.  Amen.

Prayer after Communion
Living God,
in this sacred moment, 
we have shared in the message of
your eternal kingdom.
May we, in the mystery of your word,
be given the opportunity, and the courage
to continue to serve you in faith, hope, and love.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord.   Amen. 

The Blessing: 

The peace of God,
which passes all understanding,
keep your hearts and minds in the knowledge and
love of God, and of his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And the blessing of God almighty,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,
be with you, and remain with you, always.  Amen.