7th Sunday after Pentecost 2026

Sermon: 7th Sunday after Pentecost 2026

Texts: Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Grace, Peace, and Mercy from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

I imagine many of you have seen the classic film Back to the Future. As we heard today’s reading from the Gospel, I was reminded by one of the latter scenes of the film where Marty McFly is back in the time of this parent’s youth, and to save the moment where his parent’s meet each other in high school, he plays a Rock and Roll song from the future called Johnny B. Good, to the utter astonishment of the crowd at the sounds and excitement being produced by Marty’s electric guitar. To the confused and jaw-dropped faces, Marty says: “I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet. But your kids are gonna love it.” Johnny B Good would become a classic of Rock and Roll and American pop music, but in that moment not everybody understood the greatness of that song, except, paradoxically in the film, the original author of the song, Chuck Berry, whose cousin calls him in the movie and tells him: “You know that new sound you’re looking for? Well, listen to this!”, thus inspiring Chuck to make his innovation of Rock and Roll possible. As I read today’s Gospel, I cannot help but wonder that Jesus had a similar Rock and Roll effect upon His hearers, where some people were taken aback with incomprehension and others understood and went all in on the new sound of the Gospel, the good news of the future Kingdom of God.

Although not Rock and Roll, today we heard Jesus’ very naturalistic parable of the Sower, where He teaches how His preaching of the incoming Kingdom of God is received in human life by comparing it’s reception to a seed’s growth in different kinds of soil. One of the wonderful things about Jesus is how He takes different aspects of people’s ordinary lives to explain profound divine truths, for everything

around us is material for grasping the deeper aspects of our existence. In this case, Jesus takes a very familiar role, that of the working-class Sower who sows the seed in different terrains and watches them grow. Jesus often preferred these images of marginal figures of society to center the divine things of life. In this parable, there are the seeds that are superficially scattered upon the path, which are immediately eaten by the birds. Then there are those seed scattered upon the rocky soil, which due to its lack of depth, they did not take root and withered with the sun. Thirdly were the seeds scattered among the thorns, which are choked by them. And lastly, the seed that is thrown on the good soil, which grows fruit to varying degrees.

The seed is the word of the Kingdom, Jesus said. The seed is the Gospel, that good news of God’s reality breaking through our systems of sinful neglect and liberating us from its grip upon our lives. The word of the Kingdom is the knowledge that in this person of Christ, God has been made known fully in His truth and goodness. By making this parable, Jesus is letting us know that such a transformative message will not be received by us openly at any given moment, for the Gospel confronts us in so many profound ways, that sometimes we are not ready to hear well and understand it’s implications upon our lives. For many reasons, human beings can end up at this point in which the Gospel message is too wild to comprehend. Perhaps one of the most insightful aspects of this parable is that indeed our lives are a multiplicity of moments in which our openness to receive the gospel of Christ varies. Often we can find ourselves in situations in which our ears are perhaps not attentive enough, our bodies over-preoccupied with things that make us unattuned to that seed that is growing unto life. Sometimes we are simply not ready. However, this is not to say that

the message is not meant for us. Indeed the Gospel is always for us, for our liberation from sinful way. The Gospel is for all, the Sower casts His seeds widely and generously. But it is the field of our lives that often prevents us from trusting God and His Kingdom. It could either be our idolizing of money, status or fame, many things can stifle our own growth into Christ, so many things can take His place in our lives and wither that seed. Perhaps we had not reached our point of maturity to grasp Jesus’ gospel. But the Sower is persistent, and perhaps that seed will not fall into the dry thorny surface, perhaps it will reach deep and grow roots and produce fruit in us. This is one of the reasons why as Christians, we must be on the lookout for the Word of God always, we must check the soil of our lives. Is it dry, ragged, or thorny? Am I preparing to receive and understand the Gospel? Or am I tending other things that distract from that fundamental ground in which God will do His work in us? In a sense, all of us go through different periods of dryness, thorniness, and goodness, thus the importance of being attuned to our spiritual life.

When it comes with Jesus, often we are confronted with the new sound of the Kingdom, and the purpose is not to simply be hearers of the word, nor even enjoyers of the word. But to hear, understand, and practice the Word of God. The joy is not in the superficial impressions or the nice ideas that the seed of the Gospel of Christ contains, but rather the real joy is in the full growth of the message in us to the point where our lives become the fruit of this Kingdom that Jesus is preaching. That when we talk about Christian Love and Mercy, others can pluck from the tree of our lives and be nourished and also understand what God is doing in our midst. Often we are timid with God’s work in us because we think we need to expect gigantic amounts of

fruit. But Jesus’ parable is wide-ranging, sometimes the fruit we give is hundredfold, sometimes sixty, at others thirty, He says. What matters is the fruitfulness of the seed itself, not the quantity. A small batch can be of great quality. We ourselves are not a large church, yet here fruit is born from the hearing of the Gospel. Thus is the practice that all of us do each Sunday that we gather, we are preparing good soil in community, so that we might receive the words of Jesus in a life-giving way, and thus be one more growth of God’s Kingdom in this land.

The fruit that the Christian becomes is thus what Paul calls in his letter to the Romans, a life according to the Spirit. This is what God sows all around, and when it falls in good soil, what a life it can grow. This is one of the reasons the church must be present in the margins. In the margins, the world seeks to plant thorns and rocks that harden the soil by our sin, there are many merchants of hopelessness and despair. But the church is called to clear away the obstacles, to nourish the soil so that the seed of this life of the Spirit might grow fruitfully. I think of the many saints that prepared good soil for the seed of the Gospel to grow; each of us has a saint that has prepared us to receive Jesus in our hearts, whether it was a parent, a friend, or even a stranger. The life of the Spirit is something God offers to all, and we desire that all might grow to the maturity of the kingdom. Paul says that: “to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.” It is unity and belonging with Christ. We have life and peace because the roots that the Spirit grows is love, God’s own essence. The life of the Spirit is a life that knows it exists to glorify God with the purpose it was made to be, to love. So the church’s task is to foster the growth of this seed of spiritual people, a loving humanity that seeks God in all people.

So let us cultivate this soil, let us prepare our hearts for the seed that grows us to be a spiritual people, a new humanity that is rooted in the values of the Kingdom’s hope, faith and love. So let us be followers of Jesus, to be listeners of the ever new sound of Jesus Christ. As a people of the Spirit, we are tuning in to the sound of the future. No longer bound by sin, no longer tied to the old ways of death, we are part of the new world. So as Jesus says: “If you have ears, hear!” Hear the new sound of the Kingdom, and be part of God’s fruitful harvest. Thanks be to God!

Let us pray: