Learning to Care Just Enough
- davidwperk
- Jul 22
- 7 min read
Devotional Reflection, Tuesday, July 22, 2025
Proper 11, the week of the sixth Sunday after Pentecost
The Rev. David W. Perkins, Th.D.
Key phrase for reflection from today’s Gospel reading:
26 He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.
(Y9u will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.)
Daily Office Lectionary readings (BCP, 976)
AM Psalm 45; PM Psalm 47, 48
1 Samuel 25:1-22; Acts 14:1-18; Mark 4:21-34
Today we celebrate the Feast of. Mary Magdalene. (See below.)
David's Reflections
T. S. Eliot in his poem "Ash Wednesday" wrote these lines:
Teach us to care and not to care
Teach us to sit still.*
What a line! Are there times when Christians care and other times when we do not? It feels more to me like we are to care while being “care - less.” That is, we are to show our concern for others and for God by our efforts. Our trust in God is to be such that we can care without being “overcome by cares” about those people for whom we care or about those challenges, issues, and values that ultimately concern us.
What a tension! On one end apathy and despair. . . . On the other anxious striving that overdoes because it cares too much. Living in the tension between, living on that edge feels like our call from the Jesus of these parables. One of the parables in today's Gospel gets at that tension, the parable of the seed growing on its own (Mk. 4:26-34). The farmer cares--he sows and harvests. But in between he cannot force the issue of growth. That happens without his aid and beyond his understanding. He must care and not care.
What a parable! This little parable occurs only in Mark. It presents us with this tension between human action and the lavishness of God's fruitfulness. The farmer's role as sower is barely mentioned, unlike yesterday's parable of the sower. Nothing is said about the cultivation process. All that we learn about the farmer is that he maintains his daily routine of sleeping and rising and that he observes the seeds sprouting on their own (the word is the Greek root of our English "automatic") and he knows not how it happens.
What a harvest! When the wheat matures, the farmer springs into action. The language here emphasizes that the farmer's response is determined by timing other than his own. "When the fruit allows" is the literal rendering of the phrase "when the grain is ripe."
What a challenge! Never in my ministry have I known anxiety comparable to that involved in launching a new church, All Souls Episcopal in metro Richmond, VA. I actually never doubted the ultimate success of the new work; but, I was clueless about how it would unfold. As today’s Gospel says, “the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how.” Those who joined in that adventure understood that anxiety. Like that farmer, we could sow, we could invest effort, prayer, and hope in sharing our witness and in doing the foundational tasks. Having done all that, like the farmer, we were forced to wait and watch the mystery unfold "we know not how." We were called to care and not to care.
What a tension! We cannot merely be passive, watching and waiting for results. When those moments of ripe opportunity allow, we can risk exerting ourselves to "harvest," to invite again those people whose interest suddenly awakens after seeming disinterest. In Richmond, we could take the risk of joining in the adventure even as the church was taking shape and was not fully formed. We could risk investing our time and energy and money in a vision of a community only barely yet in view. We could care enough to risk without being so full of care that we rushed frantically or that we felt paralyzed and could not act.
What learnings! New church development can instruct us in established churches about the mysterious, life-giving power of the Christian message, the Gospel. New churches grow more readily than established churches. And, we can take pages from their book about risk-taking, experimentation to find what works, and anticipation of a rich harvest when the results seem initially meager. The seed sprouts “we know not how.”
Something Cistercian monk and contemplative Thomas Merton said in a letter comes to mind. "Do not depend on the hope of results. . . . In the end, it is the reality of personal relationship that save everything.”+ "Teach us to care and not to care.”*
*T. S. Eliot, “Ash-Wednesday,” in T.S. Eliot: The Complete Poems and Plays:1909-1950
(New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World, 1971), p. 61.
+ "Thomas Merton's Letter to a Young Activist."
Collect of the Day, Proper 11, The sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Almighty God, the fountain of all wisdom, you know our necessities before we ask and our ignorance in asking: Have compassion on our weakness, and mercifully give us those things which for our unworthiness we dare not, and for our blindness we cannot ask; through the worthiness of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. (BCP, 231)
Today we celebrate the Feast of Mary Magdalene, disciple and witness of the resurrection.
Collect of the Feast of Mary Magdalene
Almighty God, whose blessed Son restored Mary Magdalene to health of body and of mind, and called her to be a witness of his resurrection: Mercifully grant that by your grace we may be healed of all our infirmities and know you in the power of his unending life; Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
A Collect for Peace
O God, the author of peace and lover of concord, to know you is eternal life and to serve you is perfect freedom: Defend us, your humble servants, in all assaults of our enemies; that we, surely trusting in your defense, may not fear the power of any adversaries; through the might of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 99)
For those in the Armed Forces of our Country
Almighty God, we commend to your gracious care and keeping all the men and women of our armed forces at home and abroad. Defend them day by day with your heavenly grace; strengthen them in their trials and temptations; give them courage to face the perils which beset them; and grant them a sense of your abiding presence wherever they may be; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 823)
A Prayer for Light
Grant us, Lord, the lamp of charity which never fails, that it may burn in us and shed its light on those around us, and that by its brightness we may have a vision of that holy City, where dwells the true and never-failing Light, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 110)
Lectionary Prayer
God of faithful surprises, throughout the ages you have made known your love and power in unexpected ways and places: May we daily perceive the joy and wonder of your abiding presence and offer our lives in gratitude for our redemption. Amen.
Revised Common Lectionary Prayers (Minneapolis: Augsburg/Fortress, 2002), p. 135.
A Collect for Mission
Almighty and everlasting God, by whose Spirit the whole body of your faithful people is governed and sanctified: Receive our supplications and prayers which we offer before you for all members of your holy Church, that in their vocation and ministry they may truly and devoutly serve you; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen. (BCP, 100)
Daily Office Gospel, Mark 4:21-34
21 He said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? 22For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. 23Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’ 24And he said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. 25For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.’
26 He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’
30 He also said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’
33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
Daily Prayer Offices in The Book of Common Prayer
Morning Prayer, Rite 2, page 75, Book of Common Prayer
Noonday Prayer, p. 103, Book of Common Prayer
Order of Worship for Evening (Vespers), p. 109, Book of Common Prayer
Evening Prayer, Rite 2, page 115, Book of Common Prayer
Compline (Night Prayer), Page 127, Book of Common Prayer
Daily Devotionals, page 136, Book of Common Prayer
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