Sixth Sunday after Trinity Celebrating Pride Sunday
“The one who hears the word and understands it bears fruit, thirty, sixty, a hundred fold.”
Overview
“Listen, a sower went out to sow” … we all know Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, it is the parable of the sower. We tend to interpret it, however, as the parable of the soil. We wonder about our own soil: is our faith shallow like rocky ground? are we too choked with the cares and concerns of the world like thorny ground? We wonder even more about our neighbours’ soil: we compare and have opinions about who is bearing much fruit and who is bearing little. But it is the parable of the SOWER. It has something to say, not about us, but about God. Whilst we are busy judging whose soil is best and whose lives are the most fruitful, the sower blithely carries on scattering seed everywhere.
Today we celebrate Pride Sunday. We rejoice in the fruit borne by LGBTQ community and all that they teach us of human dignity, creativity in the face of injustice, unity, strength and love. We also acknowledge that the church (both past and present) has judged LGBTQ people as bad soil, not worthy of love and inclusion.
Our gospel reminds us that the God in whose image we are all made is generous and profligate and blesses all without distinction. More than this Isaiah 55:10-13 makes it clear that any growth and goodness is not the result of our efforts but comes solely from God. It is God who can bring forth Cypress out of thorns and Myrtle out of briers.
The church’s role is not to decide who is or who is not worth cultivating nor to opine on whose soil is bearing more fruit than anyone else’s; it is to be grateful for the unconditional generosity of God’s love and to rejoice in the fruits of that love, wherever, and in whomever it flourishes.
FIRST READING
Isaiah 55:10-13
For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven
and do not return there until they have watered the earth,
making it bring forth and sprout,
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,
so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;
it shall not return to me empty,
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.
For you shall go out in joy
and be led back in peace;
the mountains and the hills before you
shall burst into song,
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle,
and it shall be to the Lord for a memorial,
for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.
GOSPEL
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
“Hear, then, the parable of the sower. Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on a path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. If you have ears, hear!”
When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet such a person has no root but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
