Month: July 2026

The Text: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Dear heavenly Father, send your Holy Spirit on us so that we may not lose heart
when the weeds of conflict, deception, or persecution come, for the sake of Jesus Christ. Amen.

You know, there’s so much to do (and most of it seems too hard or too complex), so you might feel stressed or anxious. Perhaps things haven’t worked out as you hoped, which might make you feel angry, frustrated, or depressed. Maybe you’re feeling tired and worn out. Maybe you feel as if you’ve let yourself or someone else
down. You may have succumbed to temptation again and feel bad or upset
about yourself.
But it may not just be about your internal struggles.
It could be that people you trusted or looked up to have let you down. They lied to you, argued with you, or withdrew their support from you. The world around seems to be filled with bad news or bad people. Even in the church, people who confess to be Christian don’t seem to be very forgiving, gracious, or merciful.
In response we might feel upset, let down, flat, depressed, angry, or frustrated.
All of these feelings and responses to what happens in our lives aren’t unusual or uncommon. Many of us can feel depressed, discouraged, worn out, or troubled.
We might feel like giving up, running away, or hiding from whatever’s affecting us.
It often happens when things don’t go according to our plans, or when we don’t feel appreciated for our effort, or when we have health concerns – either for
ourselves or someone we love. It happens when we get more complaints and
criticisms than words of encouragement or appreciation. It happens when the bad we experience seems to outweigh the good. It happens when we realise the people in church are not as holy as we hoped.
So, in response to what happens to us, we feel disillusioned, disheartened, and are tempted to give up.
I’m not sure if any of us are feeling this way at the moment, but I wonder what
might Jesus say to those who feel disillusioned and depressed by broken dreams, troubles and tough times?
Well, today he gives us an illustration of a man who sowed his best seed into his field. Since he later identifies himself as the sower, he probably gave loving
attention to every seed he planted. He knows his field, he knows his seeds, and he knows what he’s doing. He works patiently and diligently in order to get a good result. You’d think he’s guaranteed to succeed, and the resulting crop would be abundant and productive!
But at night an enemy came to sow a different seed. He also gave proper
attention to every seed he planted. He knows the field, he knows the seed, and he too knows what he’s doing. He wants to spoil the farmer’s crop, so he sows weeds among the good seed in order to ruin the harvest.
Now, unlike many weeds in our gardens which are easy to identify from our good plants, these particular weeds are often called Darnel wheat today, which is a false and very deceptive wheat.
This weed looks just like wheat right up to the moment when the wheat starts to produce seed on its head. It’s only then that the weed is revealed for what it truly is. So, by the time the weed is discovered, the crop is ruined.
Discovering this weed, the workers of the field come to their boss and tell him
about the false ‘wheat-weed’ which spoiled the crop. They ask whose fault is this?
Who would do such an evil thing? Who would ruin such a good crop?
Almost matter-of-factly he says his enemy did this.
Now, you’d think he’d be furious. His crop seems totally ruined. His careful work of planting the seed appears to be a complete waste of time. That’s not just a bad day or a bad week, but a bad season!
If this happened to any of us, we might want to exact revenge on our enemy, but we may also feel depressed, disillusioned, or want to give up.
The workers, like us, want to do something about it. They want to fix the situation.
They want to make everything right. They figure the best solution is to pull out all the bad weeds.
To us, this seems a simple and logical conclusion – if you want a good crop, then get rid of the bad weeds. If you want a good week, then get rid of all the bad things which happen. If you want a good world, then get rid of all the bad people or lock them up. If you want a perfect church, then let’s get rid of all those who aren’t faithful enough, spiritual enough, or who don’t seem to be living like a ‘good Christian’.
But strangely, the one who planted the crop doesn’t talk of revenge, even though he knew who did it. He also doesn’t show any despair or depression. In fact, he seems to show no emotion at all.
Instead, he says ‘No, leave them there, otherwise you’ll end up uprooting my good wheat. They’re my prime concern. Wait until harvest time and then we’ll divide the excellent wheat from the worthless weeds. The weeds will burn in hell, but the good grain will be gathered into my kingdom.’
Leave them there. Let the weeds live among the wheat.
In other words, this seems to suggest we need to continue to put up with difficult people, troublesome situations, conflicted relationships, evil attacks on the innocent, bad health, bad weeks, and an imperfect church. In fact, we’ll have to put up with evil and all its iterations until harvest day at the completion of the age.
Of course, this doesn’t appeal to us where everyone wants instant solutions and quick fixes to all our problems. It also doesn’t appeal to people who want a
trouble-free life, lasting good health, no more evil people, or even a perfect
church free from sinful and hurtful people.
It also doesn’t appeal because it doesn’t tell us what to do. The wheat is passive during this whole story and continues to be passive even after the harvest. The only thing we’re told to do is if we have ears, then we’d better listen!
But hidden behind this strange command is the fact the good grain who live
surrounded by weeds will have ears and will use them. Because they hear and trust the promises of the good gardener, they won’t despair when they have to live surrounded by deceptive and evil plants.
So, there’s no quick fixes. No guarantees of success or happiness. No magic wands to make all our problems and frustrations disappear. There’s only a call for us to keep listening to God’s Word with patience, endurance, and perseverance.
What frustrates and surprises people is; following Jesus isn’t all about fun and
success and happiness. Following Jesus isn’t about good times and a complete
freedom from evil. Following Jesus often involves suffering and putting up with all the bad weeds in our life. Following Jesus means the evil one will specifically target God’s chosen ones to ruin our faith and our loved ones’ faith.
Jesus has planted his precious seed of the gospel among us which tells us to rely on his work which has been fully completed on the cross rather than relying on our own work. But the devil will also plant misunderstandings, deceptions, and lies among us, which spread doubt in God’s goodness and mercy. We may even hear things in devotions or books or sermons or church conferences which sound good, but the true telling is when the fruit appears.
Those who hear and believe the Spirit-inspired Word of God will produce the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self- control. The fruit of those who only want to hear what they want to hear for their own benefit will be impurity, discord, jealousy, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy.
Jesus never guarantees every plan we undertake will be successful. While we’re still here in the world there’ll continue to be troubles and hardship and frustrations and persecutions and evil. We’ll be tempted to despair or give up.
Just because we’ve had a bad day, a bad week, or a bad life, doesn’t mean
Jesus doesn’t love us. Jesus still cares for every grain of wheat in his field. He knows each of us and he knows about all the ‘weeds’ we put up with.
While we may be tempted to think the proof of God’s love for us is only when God gets rid of all our troubles, it’s because he cares for us that he may leave the troubles, frustrations, difficult people, and stumbling blocks there.
Now this might seem strange but think of it this way: If any of our troubles and heartaches lead us to pray to God for his mercy, to search the Scriptures for assurance, to go back to his holy Sacraments, and force us to look to him for help, then our troubles were turned into blessings for us.
In other words, if our troubles and the evil we experience lead us to the cross of Christ so that we learn to rely on him rather than our own works or plans, then the devil’s plans have backfired!
It’s not our fault some things don’t succeed. It’s not Jesus’ fault things go wrong. If we experience pain and suffering, it doesn’t mean God doesn’t love us. God’s Kingdom is hidden among us and will be preserved until the end.
If any of us feel like giving up, then we’re encouraged to not lose heart. We’re to be faithful to the simple task Jesus has given us – to listen to him. We’re to keep on receiving his gracious holy nourishment in the Sacraments. He may not always take away all our troubles, but he’ll supply us with what we need in order to endure our times of trial.
Let’s be encouraged by the good news that all his good grain will be gathered up into his own barn. Jesus says the ones who hear his words are his precious people who’ll be gathered up in his arms and taken to his eternal kingdom of grace and
peace.
Therefore, for all those of us who have ears, let us hear……so that the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The Text: Matthew 13:1-9,18-23

I’m not a gardener – I can barely gather the motivation to drag out the lawn mower
and mow the grass. I look with envy upon those who live in apartment blocks and
don’t have to worry about how long the grass is growing or how many weeds there
are. Sometimes I feel a little guilty about this. For I know that in Genesis, working in the Garden of Eden was a blessing that Adam enjoyed. In fact, the name Adam means
“from the ground or the earth.” But I also understand that one of the first punishments of Adam’s sin affected his enjoyment of gardening: “Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” So, most of the time, I don’t feel so bad about my reluctance to do gardening.
But in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus uses a beautiful gardening analogy; a well-known parable, “The parable of the sower.” As we heard, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart. I think we all know this situation.
Maybe you’ve tried to share the Gospel with someone. Maybe you’ve invited them to come along to church or a church function. We shouldn’t be surprised or disheartened when this happens. Instead we can recognise the truth about what Jesus says about this seed we attempt to sow: the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart. This is a spiritual battle going on. This is frontline work on the battlefield and before we attempt to do anything like this we need to spend time in prayer and seek the protection and guidance of the Holy Spirit. So remember that when you’re trying to share the Gospel with someone and they are rejecting it, even antagonistic to you – if that’s happening then your efforts are working.
Too often we think when someone rejects our invitations that we’ve failed – far from it.
The more we work – the harder the devil works. But we work knowing that God’s Holy Spirit will work where and when he pleases. That’s encouragement to persist in praying.
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. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. This is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away.
This is a sad situation. A person has heard the word – received the word – but then falls away when they are persecuted because of their acceptance of the word. This calls for us to take particular care of those who are new to the faith. We can’t just invite them – introduce them to the church – and then leave them and work on someone else.
This puts a great responsibility on the church to follow up visitors and newcomers to our church. We don’t just put them into our database, put them in the directory and send out the bulletin and that’s our job done. No, this may take a lifetime of nurture and maybe they may be the only person that God puts before us. This is not about quantity – trying to get hundreds or thousands through the door. No, the Bible says that
the angels in heaven rejoice over even just one sinner who repents. And this cannot be just the role of the Pastor or the Pastoral Assistants. We all have the responsibility of looking out for those who are absent for periods of time. Something has happened, maybe major, maybe minor, but it’s important to find out in case we can help. If not, at the very least it gives us more to pray to God about; to commend to God’s wisdom and strength.
Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. This is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.
This is also an all-too-common situation where priorities quickly take over. Sadly with 7 day work week – our 24/7 society – sometimes church on Sundays become the easy part in our life to neglect. Not intentionally, perhaps. This is not saying that church isn’t a priority, but it is the easy one to manoeuvre around. Sundays have quickly become family days for so many organisations, especially sport. But before we become critical of families – can you imagine what a child might think of church when a parent says to
them – you can’t play footy this morning – we have to go to church. Or, you can’t goto your friend’s birthday party because you can’t miss Sunday School. It’s a tough situation for growing families!
Children quickly begin to see church and related activities such as Sunday School as the enemy. How often don’t we hear young adults reject the church because it was shoved down their throats? I don’t know what the answer is other than this is a real
challenge for the church to work adaptively with families.
Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!” 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.”
There’s probably not a lot to analyse here. Sometimes we sow a seed of faith and it grows, but what we can gather from Jesus’ final statement is that sometimes it produces a hundredfold – sometimes sixty and sometimes thirty. So he affirms – this is not about numbers, but faith, and yes, faith even as small as a mustard seed. Maybe there will only ever be one person that God places in your life to mentor and nurture in
their faith. In fact sometimes we may only have laid the foundation that someone else builds upon. This is what even St Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3: By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it.
The final thought which the Parable of the Sower leaves us is that we can sow the seed anywhere. The farmer in our parable intentionally threw the seed on the path. There was no hole in his seed bag, rather he intentionally threw the seed everywhere and
anywhere. Even though he would know that they were not good places to sow seed, he knew that ultimately it was not his decision or power to make them grow. Have you ever thrown out food scraps and sometime later you’ve seen something grow –
maybe some potatoes or tomatoes and yet when you try to grow them nothing appears. That’s how it is with God’s mission in the world.
Sometimes the most extraordinary results come from our unintentional actions. As, again, St Paul says in 1 Corinthians: I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. Today’s Gospel reading is all about mission work. And mission work is different to anything else we do because we cannot measure it by human measures. This is where we are called upon to trust in God and the work that he is doing which we don’t always see.
So let us be like the sower in our parable – let us sow wherever we go. We can spread the seed of God’s love every day, in every aspect of our life, as we go about loving our neighbour as ourselves. So may God bless you as you sow his seed of love wherever God sends you.
I’m not a gardener, and we might think that we are not missionaries. But we can all spread the love of God wherever we go and with whomever we meet. And let us trust God in all this who promised in our Isaiah reading today: so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
And the peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds safe in Christ Jesus; the Word made flesh. Amen.

The Text: Matthew 11:28-30
Jesus said: Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am
gentle and humble at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my
yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Something strange has happened in the way we live our lives.
Once upon a time most people spent most of their lives doing things that were
physical—working the land with hand tools; running the household with great effort; making things with hard physical labour.
We can think of God’s word to Adam after he was thrown out of the Garden of
Eden: Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. By the sweat of the brow you will eat food, until you return to the ground.
People would work hard all day, and by the end of the day they were exhausted.
People would work hard all their lives, and by the time they were old, their bodies were worn out.
Then people started to get cleverer. People invented all sorts of machines that took over many of the hard tasks – machines for the household, and for working the land, and for manufacturing things in the factories.
I think that most of you would agree that our lives today are much easier than the lives of previous generations. Much of the burden of hard physical labour has been lifted off our shoulders.
But then something strange happened. We have realised that we need physical activity. We need physical exercise to keep us healthy. We need to do things that make us tired.
So what did we do? We invented some more machines, machines that we use to exercise, and we put them in gymnasiums, and sometimes in our own homes, and we use them, not to take away the physical efforts of life, but to give us the sort of physical effort that will help us to stay healthy.
Our text today talks about hard work, about the burdens of life, that leave us
exhausted, worn out. It talks about relief from your burdens, and rest, and
refreshment, and recuperation.
But then it also talks about a new burden, a new exercise that you need for the
good of your health.
Jesus says: Come to me all you who are weary and weighed down with heavy
burdens. Jesus promises: Come to me, and I will give you rest, and refreshment. But then he challenges us: And now pick up my yoke, and learn from me. Learn how to live a life that is healthy and strong.
What are the burdens that weigh people down? What makes you tired?
Do you get tired physically? For all the labour-saving devices that we have, life can still be physically demanding. At the end of the day we may feel tired and worn out.
Our bodies have their limits, and when we have been doing physical work, we
reach the point where our bodies tell us. If we are ill, if we are carrying injuries, then we become even more aware of our physical limits.
We feel tired. We need rest.
As you grow old, you become more and more aware of the loss of physical
strength. You cannot do the same tasks you used to do. You appreciate rest and
quietness more and more.
But there are other kinds of burdens and other kinds of weariness.
Today, when we spend less time and effort on physical work, our levels of mental stress have grown at least as much. As life has become more and more
complicated, our emotional stress keeps going higher. We talk about the pressures of life. There are pressures all around us—we are expected to succeed, to be able to manage new tasks, new technology, and we often get to the point when we cry out: I can’t cope with it all. Give me a break.
We have financial pressures—all the things that we want to get, the security we hope for. We struggle to make ends meet.
We have relationship pressures. We want to love and be loved. So often our
relationships become difficult and we carry disappointments and regrets.
There are pressures within us. We want to be successful. We want to be able to
manage. We want to be independent. But again and again we are reminded of
our own limitations. We feel that we have failed.
But the greatest pressure, and our greatest failures, are spiritual.
If we are honest, we know that we are not the people that we would like to be. We do not live the life that we know that we should live.
I know that I am not the person that God wants me to be, and expects me to be, and commands me to be. I know I should obey my God, and I should live
according to the life that God has set up for me. But I don’t. I fail. I disobey God, and I break God’s commands. The greatest burden we carry is our moral failure.
We try to get around it and think that as long as we do our best, that should be OK.
But it does not work. We carry a great and terrible burden of guilt. We have sinned against our God.
If we think back to Paul’s words in Romans 7, it is one of the most honest cases of facing the guilt within our human hearts: I am a prisoner to the law of sin which is at work in my body. What a wretched man I am! We can hear his frustration, his anger, almost despair. If we are honest, we know that we all share in the same sort of
struggle.
I once shared this passage with a person who was struggling with addictions
gambling addiction, alcohol and drug addiction, sexual addiction. This person
wanted to break free, but the reality is that an addiction keeps grabbing you and dragging you back.
So you have the burden of terrible frustration and guilt. You want to do what is right and healthy, but the urges to do something to satisfy your desires is so great that it keeps dragging you back.
Sin is an addiction. We don’t want to sin – but we do. Those desires to do
something, even if we know that it is hurtful—they keep grabbing us and dragging us down.
That is what Paul is speaking about, and we feel it too: I don’t understand what I am doing, and why I keep on doing it. I don’t do what I want to do, but I do what I hate. I know that God’s law is good, and I want to do what is right. But sin is living in me, and I keep on giving way to sin. I have the desire to do what is right, but I do not have the strength to carry it out. ….I don’t do the good I want to do, but I do the evil I don’t want to do.
We hear his great frustration, and we share that frustration. Who will rescue me from this body of death?
But Paul also has an answer. Paul knows where to go for relief, for release, for rest.
Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
That is also the answer that Jesus himself has given. That is the invitation that Christ gives to us: Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened. Come to me and I will give you rest.
One of the great gifts of God is rest. Rest is peace, relief, refreshment. When we have rest, our bodies, and our minds, and our spirits, have the opportunity to recover, to gather strength again.
When we are tired, we just want to stop, to put our feet up, to crawl into bed, to go to sleep. When we are rested, we are ready to start again. Our energy and our strength have returned.
We have been made in a way so that while we rest we are made strong. Our
bodies and our minds are refreshed and rejuvenated. If we are sick, often a good rest is the best medicine, so that your bodies can heal themselves, and overcome fevers and infections.
There is a beautiful psalm verse: “In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for God grants sleep to those he loves” (Psalm 127:2)
Jesus Christ offers rest. But now it is rest that brings health and recovery from our spiritual weariness, from our burdens of sin and guilt. Jesus Christ offers to take our burden. Jesus Christ has taken the burden of our sin and guilt all the way to the
Cross. He has carried that burden and he has paid for that guilt with his own life. So
Jesus says to us that we do not have to try to prove your own goodness—not to
God, nor to ourselves, nor to anyone else. Jesus takes away that pressure.
And Jesus tells us that as we come to him in repentance, he forgives us. He takes
= away our sin. He sets us free from the burden of guilt, and that terrible frustration when we can never avoid following our human sinful desires.
Jesus gives us that deep rest and peace, for we know that our sins are forgiven.
With that rest we are refreshed, rejuvenated, recuperated. We are ready to live
again, with the strength and energy that comes from God’s Spirit.
But just when we think that all of our problems have been solved, Jesus comes back and says: But now I have something for you to carry. Take my yoke on upon you. A yoke is the big heavy beam of wood that was placed over the shoulders of a team of oxen, so that they could pull heavy loads. Jesus is putting a load on us.
Is it easy to be a Christian, to follow Jesus, to live for Christ? No, because Jesus also has very high expectations on us. Jesus calls on us to be totally dedicated to our God, to serve God with our bodies, minds and spirits. That is demanding, and it can mean a huge effort, a deep sacrifice.
Has Jesus lifted off one burden, and replaced it with another? Yes—and no! Jesus takes away the real burdens that wear us out and threaten to destroy us. But remember how we spoke about another sort of effort, about work, about exercise, which is part of healthy living that creates a healthy tiredness.
That is the sort of task and challenge that Jesus gives us. Jesus says: Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
If you look at a yoke, you will see that it is not meant to be carried alone—it is
always carried by a pair of oxen. Jesus tells you, I am giving you a burden, but I am not expecting to carry it by yourself. I am not plonking it on top of you to weigh you down and oppress you and destroy you.
No, I am gentle and humble in heart. I am giving you something that is going to help you and build you up.
Jesus says that he is carrying that burden with us. Learn from me. When you share the tasks and challenges of Christian life, you are sharing in the life of Jesus Christ.
You are sharing the life that comes from God. That is a privilege, not a burden. And it is a challenge that makes you stronger, that builds up your faith. The more you respond, the more you grow, and you appreciate more and more what God is doing through you and what God is doing in you.
With Jesus Christ, this yoke is easy, this burden is not too heavy. As you commit to God’s tasks, yes, you do get tired. You know that you have been putting your body and mind and soul into it. But it is a healthy tiredness. It is the tiredness that brings refreshment and new life.
Until you finally have finished all of your tasks. Then you have a new rest and an eternal peace. Then you are living in the peace of your heavenly Father. For Christ has given you the rest for your souls. Amen.