Parables for Bradford: Receiving wisdom
Service Sheet (pdf)
Call to worship:
O God of word and wisdom, parable and proverb, whose ways are beyond our understanding; open our ears to your hidden truths and our imaginations to the depths of your love, that we may know what is right and just and keep only to your paths, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Song:
Sing of the Lord’s goodness, Father of all wisdom (StF 65) OR Let all the world in every corner sing (StF 57; H&P 10)
We praise and thank you for your generous love
From the beginning you have formed us in faith,
and again, and again we have gone our own way.
Yet the voice of wisdom always calls us back to lives of service and love,
And we find forgiveness in you.
We thank you for your love made visible in Jesus for giving us the words and the will to praise you.
In the crib and on the cross you have showed how great your love is;
you have come to share our life and shown us the way to glory.
And that is why we praise you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and forever.
Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour
and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.
However we do it, listening is an important skill. Listening is more than just hearing. It is also understanding and interpreting what is heard. In our bible reading for today, Jesus speaks to the crowd, and tells them a parable, a story. But he begins it with a single word – Listen! Here is something worth hearing and paying attention to. It is the same for us also: Listen then if you have ears!
Opening prayer:
Blessed are you, God our Father!We praise and thank you for your generous love
From the beginning you have formed us in faith,
and again, and again we have gone our own way.
Yet the voice of wisdom always calls us back to lives of service and love,
And we find forgiveness in you.
We thank you for your love made visible in Jesus for giving us the words and the will to praise you.
In the crib and on the cross you have showed how great your love is;
you have come to share our life and shown us the way to glory.
And that is why we praise you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, now and forever.
Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honour
and power and might be to our God for ever and ever! Amen.
Introduction to the reading:
When I was younger, I had trouble with my ears filling up with wax, and I used to get them syringed by the nurse at the surgery. What a difference it made to my ability to hear! Of course, not everyone with hearing difficulties can solve the problem in this way; for some a lack of hearing is a permanent condition. But people with hearing loss may also tell you that they lip read or understand sign language (neither of which I can do). These people listen with their eyes.However we do it, listening is an important skill. Listening is more than just hearing. It is also understanding and interpreting what is heard. In our bible reading for today, Jesus speaks to the crowd, and tells them a parable, a story. But he begins it with a single word – Listen! Here is something worth hearing and paying attention to. It is the same for us also: Listen then if you have ears!
Bible reading:
Matthew 13.1-9.
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. 2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 Let anyone with ears listen!’
I had read the words wrongly, but my shortcoming gave me an insight when it came to tackling this bible passage. What does ‘scattering wisely’ look like? My first thoughts were about acting carefully, with focussed purpose, each detail holding importance. Like when I had been planting my vegetable seeds in garden a couple of weeks previously, with carefully raked soil, arrow straight drills, and a judicious use of the seeds from the packet. But the story Jesus told isn’t like that. The picture we are given is of a farmer throwing seed in all directions, far and wide, as it were, throwing caution to the wind. This of course is the original meaning of the word ‘broadcast’, as an agricultural term. In the same way, TV and radio programmes aren’t specifically targeted at your own aerial; rather you pick up waves that have been sent out everywhere and anywhere.
God’s wisdom is one that turns our human understandings upside down. My first thoughts had shown such a human understanding. But the wisdom of God is completely the opposite, reflecting instead an open-handed generosity (what we call the grace of God) that is God’s own nature. Wisdom and grace go hand in hand: God’s word of wisdom scattered like the farmer’s seed, without reserve, across the whole of God’s creation. Dom Helder Camara expressed it wonderfully in his prayer:
Lord, Isn’t your creation wasteful?
Fruits never equal the seedlings’ abundance.
Springs scatter water.
The sun gives out enormous light.
May your bounty teach me greatness of heart.
This open-handed giving has something vital to teach us. It is not only words of wisdom that are being passed on here. Generous living is wisdom, a way of life through which we might come to know the love of God more fully. It is a way of living modelled on the self-giving love of Jesus Christ.
Song: Lord of creation to you be all praise (StF 449, H&P 699)
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake. 2 Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 Let anyone with ears listen!’
Comment
A few days ago, I was completing the newspaper crossword (I say ‘completing’ but sometimes I am not that clever; however trying to finish it helps keep my brain cells lubricated and working). One of the clues read, ‘To scatter widely – Broadcast’. Maybe it was too early in the morning, but my eyes misread the clue the first time around, seeing instead: ‘To scatter wisely – Broadcast’. What an odd clue, I thought, until I realised my mistake.I had read the words wrongly, but my shortcoming gave me an insight when it came to tackling this bible passage. What does ‘scattering wisely’ look like? My first thoughts were about acting carefully, with focussed purpose, each detail holding importance. Like when I had been planting my vegetable seeds in garden a couple of weeks previously, with carefully raked soil, arrow straight drills, and a judicious use of the seeds from the packet. But the story Jesus told isn’t like that. The picture we are given is of a farmer throwing seed in all directions, far and wide, as it were, throwing caution to the wind. This of course is the original meaning of the word ‘broadcast’, as an agricultural term. In the same way, TV and radio programmes aren’t specifically targeted at your own aerial; rather you pick up waves that have been sent out everywhere and anywhere.
God’s wisdom is one that turns our human understandings upside down. My first thoughts had shown such a human understanding. But the wisdom of God is completely the opposite, reflecting instead an open-handed generosity (what we call the grace of God) that is God’s own nature. Wisdom and grace go hand in hand: God’s word of wisdom scattered like the farmer’s seed, without reserve, across the whole of God’s creation. Dom Helder Camara expressed it wonderfully in his prayer:
Lord, Isn’t your creation wasteful?
Fruits never equal the seedlings’ abundance.
Springs scatter water.
The sun gives out enormous light.
May your bounty teach me greatness of heart.
This open-handed giving has something vital to teach us. It is not only words of wisdom that are being passed on here. Generous living is wisdom, a way of life through which we might come to know the love of God more fully. It is a way of living modelled on the self-giving love of Jesus Christ.
Song: Lord of creation to you be all praise (StF 449, H&P 699)
Poem for reflection:
The Weaver, the Word and Wisdom
In the beginning, the Weaver, the Word and Wisdommoving in relationship together,
caught a vision of potential,
a glimpse of possibility, and
with tentative steps, creation’s dance began.
Creation was shot through with the generosity of the Weaver’s grace.
The rhythm of life’s passion played loudly
as a constant beat at the heart of myriad universes.
Against this universal backdrop the Word moved
and became free, small and intimate.
In the cry of a child, the song of a woman
and the shout of a dying man
the Word’s voice added melody to the Weaver’s song.
In the midst of confusion, absence and loss,
Wisdom found her way.
She had danced with the Weaver’s threads, throughout all time,
weaving a maypole dance of energetic passion.
She added harmony to the beat and the melody
and composed a symphony of colour.
If creation for a single moment fails to hear the Weaver’s rhythm,
or misses the Word’s intimate melody,
then Wisdom will dance through the silence
until all that is joins in love’s rejoicing.
Michaela Youngson
Leading into prayer:
Runner bean plants are beginning shoot up in a pot in the back garden at the manse. The bean seeds came from a plant that was over 100 feet high. No, they weren’t magic beans (and my name’s not Jack). Rather, they were ordinary beans, but grown on the 10th floor balcony of the flat where my daughter was living last year in east London. The view from the balcony was amazing, overlooking the Olympic Park and Stadium, and a city scene that is one of continuing transformation in the Stratford area of the capital.The outcome of Jesus’ parable of the sower was also one of transformation, of small seeds that multiplied many times over in the growing heads of wheat. The title of our current series of services is ‘Parables for Bradford’. What does it take to bring transformation into the life of our own city? Is there a different story to tell in contrast to the one so often presented in media stories which depict Bradford as a depressing place to live, characterised by racial tension, economic troubles and social problems? There is another story to tell, which rests not only in grand designs but also in small gestures that each one of us can make. We might not regard ourselves as storytellers, but each one of us has a story to tell. It is the story of our lives. Such stories can give witness to Christ and bring encouragement to others. Stories of ordinary people like you and me, telling of the extraordinary grace and wisdom of God in and through the example of our own generous living. So let us seek to live with that same generous wisdom of which we ourselves have received, and which in turn may become a blessing in the lives of others, of our city and of our world. May the way we live become a sign of hope and promise pointing to a future for our city ‘beyond our wildest dreams’.
Prayers of intercession:
A prayer for every person who is sowing the seed of God’s kingdom here on earthAllow time after each phrase to pray silently for those mentioned.
We pray for every person who is sowing the seed of God’s kingdom here on earth:
– those working to bring renewal and transformation in their local communities…
– those struggling to bring justice to the powerless and give a voice to the weak…
– those striving for peace and reconciliation between people who are at loggerheads…
– those who lovingly attempt to correct people’s mistakes and set them on a better path…
– those seeking to bring people from the darkness of despair into the light of hope…
– those telling the story of Jesus and speaking of faith in him…
Lord, their tasks are difficult and may be painful or unrewarding.
Give them the wisdom, patience and persistence that they need, we pray.
Amen.
your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and for ever. Amen.
We pray for every person who is sowing the seed of God’s kingdom here on earth:
– those working to bring renewal and transformation in their local communities…
– those struggling to bring justice to the powerless and give a voice to the weak…
– those striving for peace and reconciliation between people who are at loggerheads…
– those who lovingly attempt to correct people’s mistakes and set them on a better path…
– those seeking to bring people from the darkness of despair into the light of hope…
– those telling the story of Jesus and speaking of faith in him…
Lord, their tasks are difficult and may be painful or unrewarding.
Give them the wisdom, patience and persistence that they need, we pray.
Amen.
The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your Name,your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours, now and for ever. Amen.
Song:
Colours of day (StF 167; MP 1039) OR Go forth and tell (H&P 770; MP 178)
Dismissal:
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with us all, forever more. Amen.
Acknowledgments:
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition, copyright © 1989, 1995 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Poem, The Weaver, the Word and Wisdom by Michaela Youngson downloaded from theworshipcloud.com, with permission to use in acts of worship. Prayers taken from Roots resources, copyright Roots For Churches Ltd.
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