Sermon for Sunday 12th July 2026, Trinity 6

By Rev Petra Elsmore

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READINGS

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Isaiah 55.10-13

 

10 As the rain and the snow
   come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
   without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
   so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
   it will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
   and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

12 You will go out in joy
   and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
   will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
   will clap their hands.

13 Instead of the thorn-bush will grow the juniper,
   and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
   for an everlasting sign,
   that will endure for ever.’

 

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 round 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.’

 

SERMON

Here we are today with the parable of the sower, one of the more familiar stories of the Bible. Often, when reflecting on the message of this parable, the attention is paid to the quality of the soil, the receptivity to the message that is shared. But today, I would like us to think what the Parable tells us about the Character of God, and why perhaps taking this less common look at the parable, is what we may need.

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Jesus, as he tells the story, gives us an image of the Sower, who scatters the seed with apparent disregard for where it falls, he scatters the seed freely, he does not pay attention if any of the plot is more deserving, more fertile, more receptive. He scatters the seed on the path, among stones, into thorns, and onto good soil.There is an abundance or you may call it wastefulness, which seems totally extravagant. 

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It is called Grace. 

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God extends his grace towards us with an abundance and extravagance, and seemingly without consideration where it is going to land.

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What, then, can we learn from that extravagant, wasteful love of God? I like the term wasteful love. Our instinct tells us that there is something wrong with being wasteful, yet here it means that this love is given freely, too freely perhaps, and it goes on giving and giving. There is no need for cautiousness, because the love is given with no conditions or strings attached. 

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Perhaps the first thing we learn is that there is truly no caution whatsoever in the way that God loves. God does not wait until we become deserving of his love, until we become presentable, until we manage to achieve something worthy of his consideration. He does not contemplate our usefulness or success before he offers his grace. Each one of us who came to know the love of God in our lives knows this well enough, God has offered his grace unconditionally and extravagantly. Like the sower who scatters the seeds in every direction, God gives generously, even where there is no guarantee of a response.

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This is both comforting but it is also deeply challenging. It is comforting, when we are on the receiving end of the extravagant love. It is challenging when we are those who should offer it with the same attitude.

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Somehow, in our human nature there is a need for order, rules, some kind of way of measuring worth, achievement, or acceptability, …..we think it makes life easier if we can divide people into categories, we can get on with setting objectives and goals, get some measurable statistics that would justify how we treat others. Of course I am not trying to say, that in a society there should not be order, or that we should not appreciate when people work hard. What is important though is that this order, or human need to categorise, or set goals, or have visions and ultimately to have control, none of that should stop us from learning to live a life of grace and extravagant love.

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One of the challenging things to learn, as followers of Jesus, is that the grace we receive is not meant to stop with us. We are invited to become people who reflect the character of God which is full of grace and love.

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Something that the Church has not always done well.

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Sadly, too often, the Church has become known to be guarded and with fixed boundaries and careful judgments about who belongs and who doesn’t. It has divided people into those who are acceptable and those who are not, 

But we all are in danger of similar attitude, being sure of our judgement, believing that we know who is right and who is wrong, that we have the right to judge others. It is the hardest thing to treat others with the extravagant love with which God offers his grace to us, especially if they disagree with us, or if they are different from us, whatever the difference might be. The challenge is to see every person not as a problem, a category, a threat or a burden, but as a human being bearing the image of God.

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It is easy to speak about love in the abstract. It is much harder to offer care, consideration, attention and goodness to someone who is different from us, someone whose life we do not understand, someone whose presence makes demands upon us, or someone whose views challenge our own.

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We may say that all people are worthy of God’s grace, but do we also believe that they are worthy of our time and our consideration?

Do we believe they are worthy of being listened to?

Do we believe they are worthy of safety, dignity, friendship and the possibility of a future?

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We live in a world where human life is often treated as expendable. And when we hear the news, we may easily forget, that behind each news there are real people, people with families, children, hopes, plans, dreams. Where the statistics of our news don’t seem to consider such details, God’s extravagant love would never treat any human life as dispensable, there is no sense that one life matters more than others, to God every human life is equally worthy.

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How do we see the world through the lenses of that wasteful, unconditional love of God? How do we see our neighbour or those closed to us? How do we see our community where we belong? How do we see the stranger in our midst?

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Over the years, I have learned that it is when we are at our most vulnerable, or our lowest point, that’s where we are also perhaps more receptive to experience the depth of God’s love for us. I had few such moments in my life as I am sure you did too. I have also in my role as a priest, worked with people who experienced the same, I know they did, whether they were homeless or refugees, struggling to find a safe place, a grieving family who lost their child, whether it was someone trying to rebuild their lives after serving a prison sentence, or someone who received a difficult diagnosis. They were in as much need of God’s love as I was when I found life hard. Pain, vulnerability, despair, is experienced deeply by all without difference, the need for God’s love at such times is equal to us all. And God treats us the same. Unfortunately the same cannot be said of society, the world, and even ourselves.

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I am not suggesting that we ignore the problems and challenges of the world today, or that we disregard difficulties, problems or injustices that are around us. Of course they need to be faced and dealt with. What I suggest is that if grace is our starting point from which we face the world and deal with the challenges, we gain a better perspective and understanding, both of the situation, but most importantly, of the lives of others.

 

In Isaiah we read:

The word that goes out from my mouth:
   it will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
   and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

 

The verse speaks to me of the fact that all that God does has intention, there is nothing that God sets to do which will not be accomplished. 

 

The wasteful love of God is fully intentional.  Shockingly so.

 

And we need to learn to follow in his footsteps.

 

There are many people around us who are in need of comfort and compassion. They might be closed to us, on our doorstep so to speak, or they may be just the people hidden behind the news we watch on the TV. As we consider them, let’s start with grace and ask, what would offering grace look like in a practical way? May God guide us by his grace to be able to respond to this challenge. Amen.