Sunday School Lesson - July 10 - Year A - Pentecost +4

Link to this week's scripture  Genesis 25:19-34 ; Psalm 119:105-112; Isaiah 55:10-13; Psalm 65:(1-8), 9-13; Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Such beautiful psalms this week, and Jesus' parable of the sower. Sarah Dylan Breuer offers a different perspective on this parable than we usually consider. She considers the sower in "God is a Foolish Farmer,, from her blog, Dylan's lectionary blog." Think about her discussion of a koan as we read, not only this parable, but all of God's word. She says "the story pulls us out of entrenched patterns of relationship and ways of being in the world; it dislocates us from what’s comfortable to free us to establish new kinds of relationship, new ways of being... There is room in your heart and in mine for more compassion, more peace, more freedom than we'd thought...The Good News we experience as we wrestle with scripture in community is well worth the hard work we put into it... we need to be born again, and again, and again..."

She also considers the worries and concerns of "scarcity" in her church, St. Martins: "There's been a lot of talk at St. Martin's about scarcity, about guarding closely what's precious because it seems to be rare. Money is tight; time is hard to spare. Even when we're looking at less tangible and measurable qualities we value, like love and blessing, there's sometimes a sense that the good things God has for us are in such limited supply that the only kind of good and responsible stewardship is to guard it very carefully, give it only to those we're sure are worthy, protect it like the last egg of the rarest endangered bird. Predictions of peril and doom provoke a great deal of anxiety, and living on a knife edge like that not only causes constant unrest, but also tends to shut down the kind of creative and life-giving vision that energizes us to live more deeply into God's dreams for us as individuals, in community, and for the world. That's not the Good News God has for us:

For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.
-- Romans 8:15-17

"The kingdom of God has come among us. God has blessed us richly, and God’s people have been entrusted with that which is most precious in the world. But ironically, these priceless commodities only gain value – the seed of God’s word only bears fruit – when God’s people scatter it absolutely heedless of who is worthy to receive it."