Welcome to our Worship on the second Sunday after Trinity Sunday. Our Parish Eucharist is at 10 am at St Thomas' Church, and Revd John Faraday will be preaching and presiding. If you can't be with us in person, you'll find everything you need to worship from home here on this page.
Our first hymn this morning is "Jesus is Lord, Creation's Voice Proclaims it"
Today's Gospel
Mark 4:26-34.
Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.”
He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
Reflection
We are all known by the many things we do and achieve. We are also known by the things we fail at! My family and other people who know me well would be able to give an impressive list of my failures! One of these failures is my dismal attempt at gardening. It has even been suggested that I could kill any plant just by looking at it! Because of that problem I am always very impressed at the people who are good at gardening.
When we moved into our current house there were hardly any plants in our back garden. Now, after six years and a lot of hard work by my wife, that garden is wonderful. I help with carrying bags of compost and doing some of the donkey-work, but Joan is the brains and the inspiration for our beautiful garden. The garden looks good and is very colourful but also produces a lot of our food.
Although techniques and some of the methods of gardening have changed over the years, we can still learn plenty from considering the parables of Jesus in Mark 4:26-34. Huge crowds went to hear Jesus speaking because He spoke about everyday things which meant a lot to them. Gardening was even more important to them because so many of them would depend on their gardens and fields for most of their food. It is not surprising that Jesus spoke about gardening so much.
Even though we are entertained so much by our TVs, computers and other electronic gadgets we all appreciate a good story teller, and to so many of his listeners Jesus was nothing more than that. At the end of the reading we are told that most listeners just listened to the stories. Only the disciples thought about what they meant and discussed them with Jesus.
I hope that we learn from those words at the end of the reading and seek to be people who pray and learn from those parables and try to apply that teaching of Jesus.
In the first parable we hear of a man who put seed on the ground. His job was done (except, perhaps for a bit of weeding). He then sat back while a miracle took place! The grain grew. From one tiny seed a plant sprouted with enough grains to add to the food supply and also to provide seed for the next year’s planting.
Other Gospels tell of Jesus’ explanation of this parable. He is talking about the good news about Him being spread like the farmer spreads the seed.. (The word ‘Gospel’ means good news.) The farmer does his side of the work by putting the seed into the field but the growth of the seed is controlled by God Himself.
There is a famous hymn which starts, ‘We have a Gospel to proclaim.’ That is a good reminder of our part in that parable. We proclaim the Gospel by the things we think and say and do. We need to ask the Lord to help us to do that in a way which attracts others to appreciate who the Lord is. Do not be discouraged by the fact that many people ignore or laugh at us, because (as Jesus taught in another parable) some of the seed falls on unfavourable ground. When we faithfully proclaim the good news some will respond.
The second parable reminds us of the importance of the good news.
You can hardly see a mustard seed because, like many plants, the seed is so tiny. Yet from that seed a huge mustard tree grows. If I planted it, it may have problems but a good gardener would know the kind of soil to put it in and if some kind of fertiliser would help. Once that tree is on its way the growth is enormous!
Many Christians think that they have nothing to give and that they are unable to achieve anything for the Kingdom of God. If we think that, we are making a mistake. It is not our job to produce the growth, but to ‘sow the seed.’ The Lord is the one who makes the seed grow. There are many ways in which we can sow the seed. We can regularly show kindness to people, and (to quote one bishop) ‘gossip the Gospel.’ We can write to newspapers. We can use social media.
There is no limit to the ways we can do our bit in making the Gospel known. Let’s ask for God’s help in doing that.
John F.
Our Prayers
Loving Lord,
Help us to know and appreciate your good news.
May we live it.
May we share it.
May we make it known to others.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ
Who lived, died & rose again to make it possible.
Amen.
Lord, You have taught us that all our doings,
without love, are worth nothing:
Send Your Holy Spirit
and pour into our hearts that most excellent gift of love,
the true bond of peace and of all virtues,
without which whoever lives is counted dead before You.
Grant this for Your only Son, Jesus Christ’s sake,
Who is alive and reigns with You,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
One God, now and for ever.
Amen.
This morning's final hymn is "We have a Gospel to Proclaim"
