Dear One, do I perceive that you
have told this parable against me?
Have I stolen the seeds of contentment
from those with whom I am on the way,
the path that you have laid out
in crazy paving, gravel, and grass, where joy
should be in abundance, the hopscotch,
skip, and jump of children? We swoop
instead with greedy, beady beaks and raucous crows.
We have scorched the earth, flooding
your fields with fire; we have pierced
the body you laid out and choked from it
black bile; it quakes beneath our power.
In the beginning, when the soil was planted
with food and beauty, in your Wisdom,
choosing your Words carefully, you said
that it was good;
good for growing grace and the glory
of the image of the living reign of heaven.
Dear One, may it be so.
May we first fall down and be forgiven
by your good earth,
by your creative and therefore compassionate
mercy.
The Gospel reading for Year A Proper 10 includes the parable of the sower and the soil from Matthew 13. Photo credit Gareth Hughes
