A sermon by Rev. Barbara Lemmel and Rev. Mitch Hay.

Gospel Matthew 13:1-9, 19-23, Barnstone translation

On that day Yeshua went out of the house and sat by the sea. And a great multitude gathered before him, so that he got into a boat and sat there, and all the crowd stood on the shore. And he told them many things in parables. He said:

Look, a sower went out to sow

and as the seed was scattered,

some of the grain fell on the path

and some birds came and ate it.

Other seed fell on stony ground

where there was not much soil

and the grain sprang up quickly,

for the soil had no depth.

But when the sun came up

the seedlings were parched

and, having no roots, withered.

Some fell among the thorns

and the thorns grew and choked them.

But some fell on good earth and bore fruit.

A hundredfold and sixty and thirty.

Whoever has ears to hear, hear . . .

Now listen to the parable of the sower.

When someone hears the word of the kingdom

and does not understand it,

the evil one comes and seizes what was sown in the heart.

That is what was scattered on the path.

The one who received seed dropped into the stony ground is the one

who hears the word and at once accepts it with joy.

But since that one has no internal roots,

all is brief and transitory,

and when affliction or persecution comes because of the word,

that one weakens and falls away.

Now the seed dropped among the thorns is the one

who hears the word, but the worries of the age

and the lure of riches choke the word, and it gives no fruit.

But the seed sown in the good earth is the one

who hears the word and understands

and who bears fruit a hundredfold and sixty and thirty.