Daily Office Readings for Tuesday of Proper 25: Year 1
Morning, Psalm 45; Evening, Psalms 47 and 48;
Ezra 5:1 to 17; Revelation 4:1 to 11; Matthew 13:1 to 9:
“Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!” (Matthew 13: 8 and 9)
I think what we are supposed to listen to with our ears is that our heart and minds should be like the good soil. I have never heard it preached this way, “We are to be the good dirt.”
We must notice that all the seed is the same and therefore good. What really matters is where it lands. These seeds are like the gifts of God and faith in God, given to us to bring forth a harvest pleasing to God.
But like the diverse terrain upon which some of the good seed falls, some of us are not conducive to making the most of God’s gifts to us. Some of us have faith that is too shallow and provide no foundation for God’s gifts to us. Some of us are too occupied with worldliness to make good use of God’s gifts to us, which would actually make the world we are transfixed by a better place. Some of us misuse our gifts for personal gain thus let our gifts go as if taken away by birds.
We are called to be absorbent soakers of God’s seed putting everything else aside. It is in this way that we will do what is pleasing in God’s sight, thirty, sixty, and a hundred fold.
As we listen to what the Spirit is saying to us, let us live to love, to serve, and to teach, while pondering anew what the Almighty can do. John
onewhoponders 