THE GOSPEL LESSON Matthew 13:24-30,36-43
THE SECOND LESSON Romans 8:12-25
Worship Notes
Today is the sixteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time and we continue to integrate the practice of Lectio Divina into our worship. Lectio Divina is Latin for divine reading, spiritual reading, or "holy reading," and represents a traditional Christian practice of prayer and scriptural reading. It is a way of praying with Scripture that calls one to read (Lectio), study (Meditatio), pray (Oratio) and listen (Contemplatio) to a bible text. The systematization of spiritual reading into four steps dates back to the 12th century. Around 1150, Guigo II, a Carthusian monk, wrote a book titled, "The Monk's Ladder" wherein he set out the theory of the four rungs: reading, meditation, prayer, and contemplation.
We continue our study of the spiritual practices illumined in Paul's letter to the Romans. Yet, in our worship today, we also reflect on Jesus' parable of the weeds as recorded in the Gospel of Matthew. This particular parable only appears in Matthew and it is one of two parables that Jesus explained specifically to his followers. The imagery of the wheat and the weeds growing simultaneously together in the same field is particularly vibrant in the parable. Jesus says that we should not ourselves attempt to separate the weeds from the wheat for in so doing we are likely to pluck up good grain as well as bad. When the kingdom of heaven is at hand, God will reap the harvest and separate the wheat (good) from weeds (bad).
The music through which we worship today is reflective of these images of harvest and, consequently, thanksgiving for the God who shares his bounteous goodness with us so that we may ourselves grow into good grain. The opening hymn, "Come, Ye Thankful People, Come," is a hymn of thanksgiving that reflects the text of the parable of the weeds. The hymn of response, "God, Bless Your Church with Strength," includes a prayer that we might grow in our faith so that we might bear good fruit. Finally, the sending hymn, "We Plow the Fields," expresses our thanksgiving for God who of sows good seed and nurtures us to grow in his love.
