Sunday, July 16, 2023

Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

The Revised Common Lectionary passages for the Lord’s Day are:
– First Reading: Genesis 25:19-34
– Psalm 119:105-112
– Second Reading: Romans 8:1-11
– Gospel Reading: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

The liturgical color for the day is: Green

EATEN ALIVE.  Sometimes, like those seeds sown on the path, we will be eaten alive.  When we let those attitudes and self-righteous, self-aggrandized, over inflated egos of ours get in the way of our loving someone in our family, church, or neighborhood—then we have been eaten alive.

God, THE Master Sower, has sown within our lives the SEED OF LOVE.  When we choose to sow anything else in any of our relationships, the truth is we have been snatched away.  Eaten alive.

BURNED UP, BURNED OUT, FALLEN AWAY—sometimes, we get burned up, burned out, and we fall over and fall away.  Seeds that grow no roots, don’t make it—the July afternoon withers them.

God, THE Master Sower, has sown within our lives the SEED OF FAITHFULNESS.  It is that seed and its growth that gives us the power and ability to love God and serve Christ with our whole heart, mind, body, and soul.  When we do not sow faithfulness first—then we may get burned up, burned out—and fall away.

CHOKED OUT.  We need to know that the weeds of the world can grow so big that the seeds of our lives, the seeds of truth, get choked out.

God, THE Master Sower, has sown within our lives the SEED OF HOPE.  When we lose sight of that hope then the weeds grow to choke us out.  God, in the Living Lord Jesus Christ, has through the Spirit, planted the seeds of hope in our lives.

LOVE, FAITHFULNESS, and HOPE – the Master Sower is growing these in us.

—

Rev. Dr. Daris Bultena
General Presbyter and Stated Clerk