Parable of the Sower

AM Psalm 119:49-72 • PM Psalm 49, [53]
Ezra 6:1-22 • Rev. 5:1-10 • Matt. 13:10-17

Butterfield is “dressing up” for fall and Thanksgiving. I now live at Butterfield Retirement Village and thus am getting familiar with the pace and pattern of older people walking. I can detect this even when I see only a hat and shoulders of a man and his dog below my second story window. My cat is looking also on this scene of moving trees and people.

Here we take strength classes and balance classes and wear masks all the time. We can’t always recognize each other. That is especially true of me because I am new, so I say “hi” to everybody. I also get lost within the buildings. If I intend to go to the indoor post office I may wind-up near the convocation room. People know this about me. It is like the first day of school all over again.

And some people, in this reading from Matthew 13, didn’t understand the parables and were just as lost as I am. They didn’t get even the parable of the sower and the seeds which, it seems to me, is fairly clear. When seeds fall on good soil, they thrive. That little bit of a shift from soil to heart, or from seeds to wisdom, does not come into some people’s minds. They do not apparently think: Oh! My soul as soil where seeds grow.

“This peoples’ heart has grown dull and their ears are heavy of hearing and their eyes they have closed, lest they should perceive with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn for me to heal them,” the passage says.

Even when Jesus told the parable gently it took the people awhile to grasp the meaning, just like getting used to a new home.

Written by Rebecca Newth

Rebecca Newth sings in the choir and is a lay reader.