+ In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen
The Greeting:Grace, mercy and peace
from God our Father
and the Lord Jesus Christ
be with you
and also with you.
Prayer of Preparation:Almighty God,
to whom all hearts are open,
all desires known,
and from whom 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.
The Collect – Lent 3Eternal God, give us insight
to discern your will for us,
to give up what harms us,
and to seek the perfection we are promised
in Jesus Christ our Lord
Amen
Readings:
Isaiah 55: 1-9“Come, all you who are thirsty,
come to the waters;
and you who have no money,
come, buy and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk
without money and without cost.
2 Why spend money on what is not bread,
and your labour on what does not satisfy?
Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good,
and you will delight in the richest of fare.
3 Give ear and come to me;
listen, that you may live.
I will make an everlasting covenant with you,
my faithful love promised to David.
4 See, I have made him a witness to the peoples,
a ruler and commander of the peoples.
5 Surely you will summon nations you know not,
and nations you do not know will come running to you,
because of the LORD your God,
the Holy One of Israel,
for he has endowed you with splendour.”
6 Seek the LORD while he may be found;
call on him while he is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake their ways
and the unrighteous their thoughts.
Let them turn to the LORD, and he will have mercy on them,
and to our God, for he will freely pardon.
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the LORD.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
1 Corinthians 10: 1-1310 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry” 8 We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did—and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test Christ, as some of them did—and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did—and were killed by the destroying angel.
11 These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. 12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! 13 No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.
Luke 8: 4-154 While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. 6 Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”
When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
9 His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10 He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,
“‘though seeing, they may not see;
though hearing, they may not understand.’[a]
11 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
Homily:
Today we reach the third story in our Lent series of Stories Jesus Told. And it concerns seeds. Now when I look at the tiny, black specks you normally find in a packet of flower seeds I find it difficult to believe that when I provide a few basic necessities like warmth, water and light they will grow into the most beautiful flowers. I think that all that potential hidden in a tiny speck shows the miracle of God’s creation.
Jesus gathered a crowd around him and he began to tell them a story. It may have been that when he stood up to speak, his eye was caught by a Sower in the distance somewhere sowing seed on his land. And it was not as simple in those days as opening the packet and sowing the seeds. There was no modern machinery to ensure that as much seed as possible covered the fields which had been carefully prepared to give as much chance as possible for there to be a good crop. Jesus talks about the hazards of sowing and uses them to enhance the story.
The common ground in Palestine at that time was split into long narrow strips and between the strips there were paths which were in fact rights of way. When the seed fell on those paths, which had been beaten as hard as a road, the seed stood no chance of growing and was often taken and eaten by the birds. Then there was ground which was basically a very thin layer of soil over deep rock. The seed that landed there could not put down roots in order to reach nourishment or water, so it very quickly withered and died. Then there was the seed which fell among thorns. We know from our own gardening, we can make the ground look good by raking it over and removing the surface weeds but if we leave strong weeds under the surface, weeds and seeds will grow up together and the seeds can get choked by the stronger weeds. Thankfully the Palestinian Sower had some seed which fell on to ground that was well prepared and had the conditions necessary for a good crop.
So, what was Jesus talking about? He tells us in this parable. The seeds are the Word of God. Words are interesting things. Have you ever had the situation where what you thought you said to someone was not in fact what they heard? Those of us who sit on committees can be surprised by what comes out in the Minutes of meetings either because we think we heard something different or the Secretary heard something different and recorded it. Our words also have the potential to cause a reaction we did not intend in people. Some of us will still remember words used by people in authority such as parents and teachers to us or about us. Those words can still have an emotional affect today. I always remember the first teacher I had in Secondary school who taught me French. In the beginning I did not like French or maybe I just didn’t like the teacher. Whatever it was, I can still recall her handing back my homework and saying in a very thick French accent: “You are very lazy”. The affect it had on me was that when, a year later, I had the Head Teacher for French, I made sure I did all my homework and learnt all that French Vocabulary because I did not want that to happen again and certainly not with the Head Teacher who possibly had more power to cure my laziness.
Jesus says that our words are like seeds. In the right conditions they will bring growth to a friendship or family relationship or enable people to re-evaluate a situation. To show me up in front of all my classmates and call me lazy certainly did not help me to complete all my homework for that particular teacher. I never liked her that much after that comment. The positive affect it had was that later I thought things through and realized that I needed to conform a bit more if I was going to stay out of trouble.
Sometimes the ground that the seed is sown into has not been prepared properly, either by ourselves or others and then our words fall where the seeds cannot grow. The seed that falls on the hard path stands for word which falls on deaf ears because that person is prevented from taking the words on board for some reason. Those parents amongst you will remember trying to give advice to children who always thought that they knew the right way to do things and so were deaf to anything you might have said. Maybe when they had time to think later or were a bit older they realized that what you were saying was true.
The seed that falls amongst thorns represents the words which can get crowded out by busyness. A friend and I love to catch up over coffee and then we pray together about the concerns we have spoken about. Last week, we almost did not get together because we were both busy with what were very important things for us to do. But eventually after a to-ing and fro-ing of messages we agreed to put those aside for a couple of hours and like always our time together helped us to see more clearly about our own individual lives and the friendship we share. And all the work still got done. The seed that falls on the rocky ground represents where relationships do not grow because we do not spend time looking at what they mean to us and we allow them to die, maybe after a fall out or a comment where we get hurt. Or maybe we just become complacent and don’t work at them.
Seeds are incredibly resilient, however. Those little specks in the packet, do grow most of the time with very little encouragement. My own poor gardening skills are testament to that. Using a word of encouragement here and there and speaking a word of love from time to time will before long create a better atmosphere: in a difficult neighbour or a family member. As we sow seeds, we begin to reap the harvest. As we approach the second half of Lent, let us continue looking for opportunities to speak hope into the situations of our world and into the lives of the people we meet.
IntercessionsAs God has called us,
so we come to pray.
We pray for the Church, the Body of Christ,
with all its collected gifts and weaknesses;
give us grace to recognize
that in your Spirit we are one,
and curb in us all tendency to division.
We pray for our Bishops Graham, Alan and Jane
and for this church of St Margaret.
We pray for Karen and the PCC as it makes decisions and plans events.
We pray for our Benefice and for all homes, places of work and schools.
Lord in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.We pray for the world in all its beauty and richness;
give us the desire
to share our planet’s food and resources,
to care for its people’s well-being,
and to foster peace and justice for all.
We pray for the world’s leaders and continue to pray for peace in Ukraine.
We pray for our Prime Minister and for our government’s response to the growing crisis.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayer.We pray for those we love
those we see each day and those we miss;
help us to cherish one another
As we live the loving way of your commands.
We pray for our neighbours and those we meet as we go about our daily lives.
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayerWe pray for all victims of selfish or violent acts,
and for those whose lives are trapped in sin.
We pray for all whose bodies and minds have difficulty functioning.
Make us more sensitive to their needs.
Particularly today we pray for ……..
Lord, in your mercy,
Hear our prayerWe pray for those who have died
And for those who miss their physical presence.
Have mercy on them;
may they and we in our turn,
rest in the peace of your love.
We pray for the family and friends of Betty Mildred Burlingham whose funeral took place last week.
Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.We give you thanks
For the loving example of Jesus,
who was obedient even to death
and strengthens us in all goodness
Merciful Father
Accept these prayers
for the sake of your Son,
our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.The PeaceSince we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has given us access to his grace.
The peace of the Lord be always with you
And also with you
The Lord’s Prayer:Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come;
thy will be done;
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass again us.
And lead us not into temptation;
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
The power and the glory,
For ever and ever. Amen.
Final Prayer: Merciful Lord,
grant your people grace to withstand the temptations
of the world, the flesh and the devil,
and with pure hearts and minds to follow you, the only God;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen. The Blessing:Christ give you grace to grow in holiness, to deny yourselves, take up your cross,
and follow him;
And the blessing of God Almighty,
the Father, the Son, and Holy Spirit,
be among you and remain with you always.
Amen