Fr Matthew Reese

“But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
—Matthew 13:23

Dear Friends in Christ,

Last week, Fr Michael Anderson preached a lovely sermon on—among other things—the prayer attributed to St Francis of Assisi, “Lord make me [/us] an instrument of your peace…” And one of his insights which particularly stuck out to me was the agricultural metaphor of “sowing.”

“Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith…” (BCP 833)

This is a prayer which so many of us know well, but as many times as I have prayed it, I don’t think I had ever reflected on its earthiness. It is a prayer which puts us in the garden, tilling the good soil, sowing the gifts of the Holy Spirit in the place of hatred, injury, discord, and doubt. 

As I have been meditating on this week’s Gospel lesson, the famous Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-9,18-23), I’ve been thinking about these words and Jesus’s command. Today’s Gospel evokes both the line earlier in Matthew’s account, “thus you will know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:20), and from the Epistle of James, “so faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead” (James 2:17). 

Jesus is telling us here that it is not enough to merely hear the Word. For many hear the Word and have it snatched away. Others hear it and fall away at the first sign of trouble. More still hear it but lured away—not by the devil—but by the idle cares of the world.

No, our charge is to hear the Word and to understand. To meditate upon it. To pray on it. To discern in our lives—of study, of worship, of discipleship and service—where the Holy Spirit is leading us. We are to hear, to understand, and to bear fruit.

Or as the Prayerbook has it:

“Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: Grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them; that, by patience and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Savior Jesus Christ…” (BCP 184)

What fruits of the Spirit are we discerning in our own lives this season? What works of Christian service and charity can we, ourselves, sow in this needy world?

Yours in Christ,

—Fr Matthew