Worship
Service for July 12, 2026
Prelude
Announcements:
Call to Worship
L: We have been called to walk the faithful
road and to choose the way of God’s justice.
P: We are here because we believe strongly
that God is good, and that we live in that goodness. We are here to proclaim our faith and to seek
direction.
L: Come together then, to be God’s
people. Follow Christ and listen for the
good things that God has done. Rise up
in praise and thanksgiving!
P: We will share with others the goodness
that we have found in God. May our lives
be an expression of that goodness.
Opening Hymn – Come, Christians, Join to Sing #150/225
Prayer of Confession
You have called us by name, O
Lord, and made us into Your family. Yet
we do not always live as one body in Christ.
We neglect to care for Your creation; we forget that our neighbor is
also our brother, our sister; we ignore suffering children in lands far
away. Forgive us, we pray. Loosen the chains we place on our lives –
chains of burden and busyness, chains of ignorance and stress. Free us to care for Your family, that there
might one day be true peace on earth and that we all might dance, sing, and
praise Your glorious name. (Silent
prayers are offered) AMEN.
Assurance of Pardon
L: We belong to the King of Glory who
joyfully sets us free. In Christ’s
healing, we find forgiveness.
P: Glory
be to God! Amen.
Gloria Patri
Affirmation of Faith/Apostles’
Creed
I believe in God the Father
Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth; And in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord;
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under
Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried; He descended into hell; the
third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, and sitteth on
the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge
the quick and the dead. I believe in the
Holy Ghost, the holy catholic Church; the communion of saints, the forgiveness
of sins; the resurrection of the body; and the life everlasting. AMEN
Pastoral Prayer and Lord’s
Prayer
Lord of
the dance of life, You have breathed into us Your creative, joyful Spirit. You have lifted us from the dust into the
swirling joy of Your presence. We are so
grateful for all that You have done for us.
Each day reminds us in many ways of Your mercy and Your love. Yet there are times in our lives when we have
felt lost and alone with little or no peace.
We have been hurt and frightened and wondered where You were. Remind us again of Your peaceful presence in
our lives. Place Your hands of healing
on us. Comfort us when we become afraid,
lost, lonely, and fearful. Prepare us
to serve You faithfully all our days. (PAUSE)
Gracious
God, as the world continues to escalate in hatred and war, we find it difficult
to justify reckless shootings here at home, as well. There is no peace on earth, yet we yearn for
it. We yearn for that same peace in our
own very souls. Sometimes, we are at war
within, too, O God. Bring us that peace
that passes all understanding when we are afraid, when we feel lost or alone,
when life’s tragedies seem to overwhelm us.
Holy Lord,
hear our cries of humility and heal us.
Help us find a way forward that is absent of violence and hatred against
those we do not like, against those with whom we disagree, and frankly against
ourselves, You and all of Your creation.
Watch over our thoughts, that we think positively towards one another,
carefully measured so that our thoughts don’t lead to hateful words. Watch over the words that come out of our
mouths, that they be respectful of people even when we disagree, so that our
words do not lead to bad actions. Watch
over our actions, that they may be in service always to one another, that our
swords indeed become plowshares.
We have
lifted the name of dear ones to You who are in need of Your healing love. We especially pray for…
Lord,
allow us a moment to also reflect on our own needs for Your love, joy, and
peace in our dedicated service to You in these moments of silence…
The earth
burst forth at Your word, O Lord, and we respond to that creative voice,
praying... 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. Forgive us our debts as we
forgive our debtors. And lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. AMEN.
Hymn – Christ is Made the Sure Foundation #417/403
Scripture Reading(s):
First Scripture Reading – Isaiah
55:10-13
Second Scripture Reading – Matthew
13:1-9, 18-23
Sermon –
The Seeds We Never See Grow
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
There are few images in Scripture
that are as familiar as Jesus' Parable of the Sower. Even people who have spent very little time
in church have heard something about seeds falling on different kinds of soil.
We usually hear this parable as a lesson about the condition of our own
hearts. Are we the hard path that
refuses to receive God's Word? Are we
the rocky soil that responds with enthusiasm until life becomes difficult? Are we so surrounded by the worries of life
and the pursuit of success that God's voice is crowded out by everything else
competing for our attention? Or, by God's grace, have our hearts become good
soil where the gospel can take root and produce a harvest beyond anything we
could imagine?
Those are important questions, and
Jesus certainly intends us to ask them.
Yet the parable begins somewhere else.
Before Jesus ever describes the different kinds of soil, He invites us
to notice the farmer who walks into the field with a bag of seed hanging from
his shoulder. He does not stop to
inspect every square foot of ground before he begins sowing. He does not ration
the seed, carefully calculating where it might produce the greatest
return. Instead, he scatters it
generously and almost recklessly, allowing it to fall wherever it may. Some of it lands on the path, some among
rocks, some among thorns, and some on fertile ground. The farmer's responsibility is not to
determine the outcome. His
responsibility is simply to keep sowing.
The more I have reflected on this
parable over the years, the more convinced I have become that this is also a
picture of the Christian life. We spend
a great deal of time worrying about results.
We wonder whether our efforts matter, whether our conversations make a
difference, whether our prayers accomplish anything, or whether the small acts
of kindness we offer are quickly forgotten.
Jesus reminds us that those questions are ultimately God's to
answer. Our calling is much simpler,
though no less demanding. We are called
to keep scattering the seeds of God's kingdom wherever He has placed us,
trusting that He alone knows what is happening beneath the surface of another
person's heart.
That truth came to mind as I
recently read Allen Levi's beautiful novel Theo of Golden. If you have not read the book, it tells the
story of Theo who is a quiet, mysterious older gentleman who suddenly appears
in the Southern city of Golden. After
visiting a local coffee shop, he becomes captivated by a collection of pencil
portraits of the townspeople drawn by a local artist. Theo embarks on a campaign of anonymous
generosity, purchasing the portraits to gift them back to their rightful
owners. In exchange for the portraits,
he asks only for their life stories.
Theo is not a celebrity, a famous preacher, or someone who draws attention
to himself. In fact, if you met him, you
might wonder why anyone would even notice him.
He repairs things, listens carefully, remembers people's stories, and
seems to have an endless capacity for making others feel seen. At first glance, nothing he does appears
extraordinary. Yet by the end of the novel,
we discover that nearly every life in the town has somehow been touched by his
quiet faithfulness.
What struck me most was that Theo
rarely sets out to change anyone. He
simply chooses, day after day, to scatter kindness with the same generosity
that the sower in our text from Matthew scatters seed. Every conversation becomes an opportunity to
encourage someone. Every stranger is
treated as though they matter. Every
broken object he repairs becomes a reminder that broken people can also be
restored. He has no idea which moments
will matter most, so he treats every moment as though it carries eternal
significance.
Although the story centers on this
86 year old man from Portugal who shares kindness, the most memorable
characters in the novel are the many people whose lives intersect with
his. Some arrive carrying grief that has
hardened their hearts after years of disappointment. Others are burdened by regrets they cannot
seem to escape. Still others have become
isolated by loneliness or bitterness, convinced that no one really notices them
anymore. If we were standing outside the
story, we might easily assume that these are people beyond hope, that nothing good
could ever grow in lives that appear so neglected. Theo never makes that assumption. He refuses to judge the condition of another
person's soil because he understands something we often forget: only God knows
what is happening beneath the surface.
That, I think, is where this novel
beautifully echoes Jesus' parable. We
are often tempted to decide in advance who is worth our time and energy. We look at someone who has rejected faith for
years, or someone whose life seems hopelessly tangled, and quietly conclude
that our efforts would be wasted. Jesus
never gives us permission to make those judgments. The farmer in the parable scatters seed
everywhere because he understands that the power is not in his ability to
predict the harvest but in the life contained within the seed itself. Likewise, we never know when one word of
encouragement, one unexpected act of generosity, or one patient conversation
may become the very thing God uses to awaken faith in another person.
Perhaps that is why Theo's influence
grows so quietly throughout the novel.
The people whose lives he touches gradually become people who begin
touching the lives of others. Kindness
multiplies. Compassion spreads. Hope becomes contagious. By the end of the story, it is difficult to
trace where the transformation actually began because one act of grace has led
to another, which has led to another still.
Isn't that precisely how the Kingdom
of God works? Rarely through dramatic
spectacles, but almost always through ordinary people who faithfully plant
seeds they may never live to see grow.
As pastors, parents, teachers,
grandparents, neighbors, and friends, we often become discouraged because we
expect immediate results. We want to see
lives changed after one conversation or one sermon. Yet anyone who has ever planted a garden
knows that growth is one of God's quiet miracles. The seed disappears before it ever becomes
visible again. For weeks it seems as
though nothing at all is happening, when in reality roots are stretching deeper
into the soil where no one can see them.
The kingdom of God often grows in exactly the same way. Long before we witness changed behavior,
restored relationships, or renewed faith, God is already at work beneath the
surface.
I suspect every one of us can look
back over our lives and identify people who were sowers in just this way. Perhaps it was a Sunday school teacher who
faithfully told Bible stories year after year without ever knowing how deeply
they would shape your faith. Perhaps it
was a grandparent whose quiet prayers sustained an entire family, or a neighbor
whose kindness taught you something about Christ before you ever understood the
gospel. They probably never imagined the
harvest their lives would produce. They
simply kept sowing.
Jesus concludes the parable by
saying that the seed which falls on good soil bears fruit—some thirtyfold, some
sixtyfold, some a hundredfold. That
extraordinary harvest is not ultimately a reward for the farmer's skill but a
testimony to God's power working through ordinary faithfulness. The same is true for us. We are not called to manufacture spiritual
growth or to guarantee results. We are
called to scatter grace generously, to love people patiently, and to trust that
God is always doing far more than we can see.
Perhaps that is the greatest lesson
both Jesus and Theo have to teach us.
The most significant things we ever do may never seem significant at the
time. A conversation over coffee, a
handwritten note, a visit to someone who is lonely, a word of forgiveness, an
unexpected kindness offered to someone who least expects it—these are the seeds
of the Kingdom. We release them into the
world without knowing where they will land, believing that the God who gives
life to every seed is still capable of bringing forth a harvest beyond our imagining.
So, as we leave this sacred space
today and go back into the world that we a part of, perhaps the question is not
whether we can change the world by ourselves.
We cannot. The better question is
whether we are willing to become faithful sowers, scattering the seeds of
Christ's love with open hands and generous hearts wherever God leads us. For the miracle has never depended on the
sower. It has always depended on the God
who gives the growth. And because of
that, no act of love offered in the name of Christ is ever wasted.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.
Offertory –
Doxology –
Prayer of Dedication –
Creator of all things, we give back to You in
praise of Your glory. We do not wish to
simply praise You with our song and our words and our hands; we wish to praise
You by loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. Take and use our gifts, that they may serve
Your holy kingdom. AMEN.
Closing
Hymn – O Love That Will Let Me Go #384/606
Benediction –
Children
of God, go forth in peace – in your heart and spirit and then out into the
world, sharing God’s message of love, joy, and peace. AMEN.
Postlude
