Opening Prayer:
Creator of all, we thank you for the opportunity to gather in study. Open our minds and hearts. By the power of the Holy Spirit, unite us in faith, hope, and love. Help us to be faithful to the gospel and to walk humbly with you. Grant us your peace as we grow in wisdom and understanding. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 What is your relationship with the Sower?
Jesus usually did not explain his parables; they were so obvious no one could miss the point. Hearers who did not understand were not spiritually alive enough to respond anyway. But this one he explains—to the disciples. Between the time Jesus told this parable and the time Matthew wrote his gospel, the church began to interpret the parable allegorically. In the interpretation, the emphasis is no longer on the harvest but on the soil. The different kinds of soil where the seed has landed has now become symbols for different kinds of responses to the words spoken by Jesus and the apostles. For Matthew, the shift of emphasis from the sowing to the soil pushes the hearer, the disciple, to take responsibility for producing fruit.
Romans 8:1-11 It was Jesus’ life, rather than death, that brought about the work of salvation. Is that a new idea for you? How do you react to that statement?
Paul has been talking about the struggle between the longing to do right and the compulsion to do wrong. Now he moves beyond that to declare that the Spirit gives us victory over the law of sin and death. Jesus, as a human being, lived the life that God intended for humans to live and became a new head for humanity. Christ’s obedience and perfection made all life new. His crucifixion was important, but it was not the whole story. Jesus’ whole life, from birth to resurrection, was the pivotal moment in history, the scene of great victory over sin and death. Paul’s admonition to the Romans is, “join the winning team.” Jesus’ resurrection has shown that the ultimate victor in the struggle between good and evil is God.
Closing Prayer:
Ancient Gardener,
your holy word is planted in our hearts
as good seed in fertile soil.
So nurture us
that we may bear fruit abundantly. Amen.