Year A - Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, July 16, 2023
Sowing the Gospel Seed
Gracious God of abundance receive our gratitude and open our hearts. Amen.
We did a thing this week. Who was here Wednesday? The Clarkson Center was profusely festooned in a spectrum of rainbow colors as Lucy, Molly, Tom, Mary, and others celebrated the LGBTQ+ community. Bishop Brown of Maine gave a sermon that was engaging with a clear call to follow Jesus into the world. There were a total 197 people attending the Pride Mass. A quarter of that number were singing in our choir. For many, many attendees our Pride mass is the only church service they will see this year. For some it is their first service ever and others a transformative moment after being away from worshipping in community for decades.
We did an important, amazing thing on Wednesday. I say confidently, we had a Sower of the Gospel seed moment.
Who was downtown on Saturday? The gathering with Episcopalians here, the parade with over 50 Episcopalians from EVERY Omaha parish, four church banners and a gorgeous truck and a gorgeous driver carrying waving Clergy, a Canon for Music, and young boys followed by a responsible to keep said boys safe from falling off. We had an Open House for passersby and went through almost four cases of water bottles, several carafes of coffee, and dozens of folks meeting our warmth and seeing the beauty of this space. More Sowing of Gospel seeds!
Even after all that activity – we showed up at the Heartland Pride Festival at the CHI center. Our modest booth was staffed almost entirely by our laity in the LGBTQ+ community. Deacon Ellen took two shifts as a staunch ally and wonderful servant. We ran out of crosses to hand out and made a serious dent in the other giveaways.
These are sowing moments! I saw three people at the 8:30 service who showed up because they talked with us at the Festival. Not just sowing seeds but seeing the sprouts of our efforts is thrilling.
We are a tuckered Cathedral, but we are exhausted in the efforts we’ve made to share the love of God and the salvation through Jesus Christ all over Omaha. Please forgive any flubs this morning.
The parable of the Sower is not only instructive for evangelism and sharing the good news with verve; it is also a call to develop rich soil for those seeds to grow and develop. Investing time, and money, and talents, and volunteer expertise deepen your own journey and bring you a high yield in the fruit of the Gospel. For those gospel crops to enliven the Church, allowing us to invite this divided and despairing world into the peace and concord of God’s kingdom, we must create good soil at Trinity. Each person has a role and a mission from the Holy Spirit.
For tossing gospel seed isn’t the only act of a faith community. Parishes must create rich soil for the Gospel to thrive. Formation and education, works of mercy and compassion, gathering in fellowship and mutual support. Yes, folks, potlucks and coffeehour, Sunday School and Choir are equally important to our parish life as works of service and advocacy for marginalized folks.
Our collect this morning guided us to pray that God “grant that we may know and understand what things we ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them.” As we leave today, may we all be filled with the Holy Spirit and bear fruit worthy of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Dean Vanessa Clark+