The Seed, Not the Soil

In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus describes four types of soil (hard, shallow, thorny, and good) to illustrate how people receive the Word of God, but the parable's true focus is not the soil at all. By nature, every human being is spiritually worthless dirt: dead in sin, incapable of producing anything good on their own. The miracle is that God himself, the Sower, comes to us in our hardness, shallowness, and weed-infested condition and plants the powerful seed of the Gospel; transforming us through Baptism, Absolution, and Holy Communion into good and fruitful soil. The seed, the pure, unmodified Word of God in both Law and Gospel, is so powerful that it can penetrate any type of heart, produce saving faith, and bear fruit that multiplies beyond what we can see or imagine. Therefore, the right question is never "What kind of soil am I?" but rather "Is the good seed of God's Word being faithfully sown into my heart?" because it is the seed, not the soil, that does the saving work.

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May you be blessed as you worship at home today and in the coming days.

JULY 12 WORSHIP MATERIALS

A link to this, and other, recorded services can be found in our Recorded Worship Services. The recording of the 9:30 a.m. service will be available on Sunday afternoon.

NEWS & ANNOUNCEMENTS

A web version is available here.* Be sure to check out current Community Service news on the last page. There is a lot of information about ways you can help others right now. And take a look at the Serve page for more opportunities.

*Due to a technical issue, some links (URLs) in the attached document may not be active; we are aware of the problem and are working to resolve it as quickly as possible.