HELLO!

In a previous blog I shared the sad news Judy Chaulk had died. I told you then I would let you know when there were details re: a funeral service. That gathering will be held on Thursday, July 16^th at 2 pm at Woodlawn United Church. Please keep Derek and his family in your prayers. https://www.dignitymemorial.com/en-ca/obituaries/dartmouth-ns/judith-chaulk-12961303

Our Gospel story this Sunday is Matthew 13:1-9,20-23, the Parable of the Sower. Consider the actions of the sower in this reading. The sower goes out to sow, and as he sows, seeds fall everywhere. Imagine it — a sower blissfully walking across the fields and meadows, the back alleys and sidewalks, the playgrounds and parking lots of this world, fistfuls of seed in his quick-to-open hands. There is no way to contain that much seed. No way to sort or save it. Of course it will spill over. Of course, it will fall through his fingers and cover the ground. Of course it will scatter in every direction. How can it not? But here’s the surprising part of the story: the sower doesn’t mind. He doesn’t mind one bit. There is in him a confident realism, a sense what needs to flourish will flourish. In other words, the sower in Jesus’s parable is wholly unconcerned about where the seed falls or lands or settles — all he chooses to do is keep sowing. Keep flinging. Keep opening his hands. Why? Because there’s enough seed to go around. There’s enough seed to accomplish the sower’s purposes.

The parable describes three failures of sowing: the seed on the path is devoured by birds (v. 4); the seed sown on rocky ground is scorched by the sun because it has no roots (vv. 5-6); and the seed sown among thorns is choked (v. 7). Some seeds fall on good soil and bring forth grain. Mark's version of this same story was written in a time of persecution, focuses on comforting the vulnerable young community. The emphasis is on the miraculous harvest of the seed despite adverse circumstances. Matthew, written several decades later to an established, but divided community, highlights the need for the individual to bear a harvest from the seed that falls on its soil. Mark, writing in a time of persecution, emphasizes that, though the vulnerable community is not in control of its own destiny, God brings forth a harvest. Matthew, written later in the first century, emphasizes the need to be a doer of the word and not only a hearer.

The painter Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) was obsessed with the Parable of the Sower. He made more than thirty drawings and paintings of this story. Van Gogh had a very deep faith. He had theological training and considered becoming a minister. In his letters to his brother Theo, you can read his theological musings and reflections. He speaks about the seeds, how they are like God’s grace and God is throwing grace around indiscriminately. God isn’t careful, anxious, exacting with grace. The sower will not be deterred, the sower will continue to scatter seed and has extraordinary confidence grace will take root, and the yield will be enormous. The church exists to serve this vision, God’s vision for the world—the church has no other purpose. Which means, as servants of the sower, “the church” as one of my professors once said, “is called to waste itself” to throw grace around like there is no tomorrow, because as the sower knows, there is a tomorrow, and it belongs to God. Peace, Kevin