Devotion - Monday, August 22

I should begin with a word of greeting. After three months, you may have forgotten that you were on the list to receive these morning reflections. It is good to be back with you; it is a blessing to be able to share this spiritual journey.

How appropriate that the appointed Gospel text for today is Mark 4:1-20. Here we have the parable of the soils. Jesus speaks of the sower who generously casts his seed. Some falls on the path, some in rocky soil, some among the weeds, and some on the good soil.

I grew up on a farm. Not one of those huge, industrial size places. More like a dirt-farm. My parents worked in the mills, but we maintained an apple orchard, cow pasture, and various other cash crops on the 84 acres my great-grandfather farmed. Regularly, we would sow seed by hand. Seed had to be purchased. My father taught me not to waste it. When you were sowing by hand, you have a lot of control as to where the seed is going. No sower, concerned with the effectiveness of their sowing, would cast seed along the path, among the thorns, or into the rocks.

This parable begins with a statement of God's generosity in spreading the Word. God is not frugal; God does not prejudge the worthiness of the receiver.

Turn to Mark 4 and read this parable for yourself. Reflect on where you find yourself in the storyline; are you one of the soils? Are you the one who has been asked to help sow?

Rejoice in that regardless of the type of soil you might think yourself to be - God's Word is coming your way.

Remember, God makes the sun to shine on the righteous and the unrighteous - How can a servant of God judge someone unworthy of an expression of God's grace? Share the Good News with all you meet!

This journey we share is one in which all are to come to know the joy of God's presence in our lives. This journey will continually remind us that the measure of a Christian life is the service rendered to the least among us. This is the seed which has been planted in our lives; this is the Word taking root in our lives. May we experience the thirty-fold, hundred-fold growth of God's grace.