Worship - 12 July 2026

Summary Of This Week's Theme

Sometimes the choice of readings in the lectionary presents a dilemma: there are simply too many rich themes to explore in one sermon. This week, however, one thread seems to run through them all – the contrast between our tendency to grasp and God's determination to give.

The story of Jacob begins with a man who spends his life reaching for what belongs to someone else. Even before his birth he is described as grasping his brother Esau's heel. His very name, Jacob, means "heel-grabber" and came to suggest someone who is devious or manipulative. Jacob lives as though blessing is scarce. If someone else has it, he must seize it for himself.

Yet the remarkable thing is not Jacob's behaviour, but God's. Throughout Scripture, God chooses unlikely, deeply flawed people through whom to accomplish his purposes. God's faithfulness proves greater than human failings. Jacob repeatedly makes poor choices, yet God refuses to abandon him.

That is the same message that the Apostle Paul offers the Christians in Rome.  God's grace is never exhausted.  The Spirit continually calls us away from lives centred on ourselves and towards lives centred on God.  Perhaps it is misleading even to speak of ‘second chances,’ because God offers not just a second chance but a third, a fourth and countless more.  God's grace is astonishingly abundant.

That abundance lies at the heart of Jesus' Parable of the Sower.  The sower scatters seed everywhere, without calculating where it will succeed or fail.  Human beings tend to ration, count and protect their resources.  God lavishes gifts extravagantly.  Creation itself reflects that generosity as seeds are scattered in every direction.

Matthew reminds us that God's kingdom will come, but he also challenges us to consider what sort of soil we are.  Our calling is to cultivate hearts that receive God's generosity and pass it on to others.

Perhaps good soil begins with four simple practices: observing God's generosity in creation; listening for God's voice; allowing our imagination to be stirred by what we see and hear; and then acting upon it.

Jacob grasped because he believed there was never enough blessing to go round.  The sower scatters because God knows there is.  We are invited not to cling tightly to God's gifts, but to receive them with gratitude and sow them generously, so that God's kingdom may be seen ever more clearly among us.