Gospel Reading
Mark 4:1-20
NRSV
Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’ When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, ‘To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that “they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.” ’ And he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflection
Water the Word
"And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold." (Mark 4:20)
Proverbs 4:23 tells us to attend to our “heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” It is amazing to think that we have been given the ability to choose, either to nurture the Word that has been spoken to us in Jesus, or to neglect it.
There are so many distractions in our modern world, so many competing ideologies, and most subtly, so many ways to soothe ourselves that fill our mental space every day. Thomas Merton points out that “the greatest temptation that assails Christians is that, in effect, for most of us the Gospel has ceased to be news. And if it is not news, it is not Gospel …”
I have found in my own life that it is the consistent watering of the Word in my heart that causes the truth, the good news, to flourish. I cannot add the good news to my schedule when I have time. I must allow my schedule to be subdued by the good news. When I have been through seasons where my faith has become dull, it is normally through the subtle lulling of my senses, through comfort and compromise over time.
If our hearts are not permeated with the truth of the good news each day, the Word loosens its grip on us, and other loves take its place.
Reflection byCaleb Bowles
