View as Webpage

Morning Devotion for the Season after Pentecost

October 7, 2022

Invitatory

Send out your light and your truth, that they may lead me, and bring me to your holy hill and to your dwelling.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son: and to the Holy Ghost;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be: world without end. Amen.

The earth is the Lord’s, for he made it: Come let us adore him.

Reading - Luke 8:4-15

When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: “A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.” As he said this, he called out, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”

Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that

        ‘looking they may not perceive,

         and listening they may not understand.’

“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones on the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe only for a while and in a time of testing fall away. As for what fell among the thorns, these are the ones who hear; but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. But as for that in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.”

Meditation - Winnie Smith

A Google search of “Luke 8:4-15” took .89 seconds and yielded dozens of pages of results. Hundreds - probably thousands - of articles, Bible translations, videos, pieces of artwork, and more were at my fingertips in less than a second. That speaks to the immediacy of our lives today and the availability of everything we want. Overnight delivery of any good, food on our doorsteps within minutes, answers to questions of all kinds - everything is available when we want it. Great for curious minds and growling stomachs, this culture of immediate gratification is not so good when it comes to questions of spirituality and theology. We cannot find definitive answers to “what happens when I die?” or “is Jesus coming back?” with the click of a mouse. When faced with tragedy or struggle, one must have patience and be prepared for an unclear answer.

In today’s text, Jesus likens the word of God to seeds. We are the earth - sometimes hospitable to the seeds of truth - the Word - and other times not at all. Too often we are the rocky soil, the hard ground - we rarely have the patience of the good soil. We want results now: why come to church if it isn’t going to prove beneficial? If we are putting in effort to be here, to listen to the Scriptures, we should see a change for the better in our lives, right?

Right. But it will not happen overnight. “As for that in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.” The Christian life does not change us overnight. We do not wake up after attending a service for the first time and see a radical transformation in our circumstances and our outward appearance. No, the Christian journey is much like that of a seed taking root, sprouting, and slowly emerging from the soil, one day hopefully producing fruit. It takes time and so much patient endurance. This is why it is counter-cultural to be a Christian today. The Way of Jesus, the Way of Life, is not an Amazon Prime delivery or a Google search. It does not result in immediate satisfaction. As followers of Christ, we must accept that growth and change take time and diligence, but know that in the end, the bounty is far more than worth the effort.

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 against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

    but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom,

    and the power, and the glory

   for ever and ever. Amen.