Mystifying, Immeasurable Fruitfulness
- davidwperk
- Jul 21
- 6 min read
Devotional Reflection, Monday, July 21, 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:
3‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. . . .8Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ 9And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’. . . .
20And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold . . . .
(You will find the full text of today’s Gospel reading at the end of this reflection.)
Daily Office Lectionary readings (BCP, 976)
AM Psalm 41, 52; PM Psalm 44
1 Samuel 24:1-22; Acts 13:44-52; Mark 4:1-20
Today we celebrate the Feast of Maria Skobtsova. See below.)
David's Reflections
Jesus' parables hold a unique fascination for me. My first doctoral seminar was on Jesus' parables. That seminary required hours in preparation and one afternoon a week for a semester in a seminar session, always with a sense of rapt awe at the powerful imagery and at the faith-energy those sayings evoke.
The vivid description of the various soils to be found in a wheat field can distract from the central driving energy of this story--the raw fruitfulness and life generated by the message of Jesus, the message of love, freedom, wholeness, and forgiveness that comes to us by faith in him. It is easy to get distracted by the losses and miss Jesus’ encouraging thrust on the fruitful power of the seed.
Imagine Jesus as the original sower, and imagine his work and teachings, his death and resurrection as the initial seed sown in the world. What incredible fruitfulness!! One life lived fully and given fully, a life that climaxed with a very brief public ministry of 2-3 years and that ended abruptly with a violent death and mystifying resurrection. All that we know of the Christian faith as expressed in the existence of the Jesus movement springs from that one solitary life (and beyond the boundaries of institutional Christianity by the impact of Jesus' life and teaching, for example in the nonviolent teachings of Gandhi).
My daily walks at my former residence on US 301 north of Richmond, Virginia, took me through wheat fields in the spring. I often would cut green wheat stalks with a pocketknife and eat those green, juicy heads or put the stalks in a vase on the dining room table. They reminded me how powerfully fruitful God's love is, seed bursting with energy and generating response.
I had a firsthand look at that fruitfulness in the springing forth of All Souls, a new Episcopal church in metro Richmond, Virginia, that I served as start up priest from 2002-2010. Nothing quote compares with the joy of seeing people for whom you pray and whom you invite, experience God's transforming touch and become interwoven into in a new community.
What more exciting experience than to watch God's love at work springing forth in the lives of people? God's love lived and shared cannot but generate a loving faith response far larger and more profound than we can envision. Trusting the life-giving, fruitful possibilities of the Good News of Jesus Christ, that is our challenge. Jesus’ teaching challenges us to focus, not on the losses, but on those fruitful possibilities. Seed and soil are made for each other. The human heart and God’s saving word of love are made for each other. Sowing brings them together.
Mary Oliver captures something of what I hope you take away from this reflection in lines from her poem “Sometimes.”
Instructions for living a life:
Pay attention.
Be astonished.
Tell about it.+
As Jesus puts it in this parable, “Let anyone with ears to hear, listen!” And, as Jesus did, “tell about it.”
+Mary Oliver, Red Bird (Boston: Beacon, 2008), p. 37.
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 Maria Skobtsova, monastic and martyr (died 31 March 1945 CE)
Collect of the Feast of Maria Skobtsova
O Creator and Giver of Life, who crowned your martyr Maria Skobtsova with glory and gave her as an example of service to the suffering and poor even unto death: Teach us to love Christ in our neighbors, and thereby battle injustice and evil with the light of the Resurrection; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God in glory everlasting. Amen.
A Collect for the Renewal of Life
O God, the King eternal, whose light divides the day from the night and turns the shadow of death into the morning: Drive far from us all wrong desires, incline our hearts to keep your law, and guide our feet into the way of peace; that, having done your will with cheerfulness while it was day, we may, when night comes, rejoice to give you thanks; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 99)
For Local Government
Almighty God our heavenly Father, send down upon those who hold office in this State (Commonwealth, City, County, Town, __________ ) the spirit of wisdom, charity, and justice; that with steadfast purpose they may faithfully serve in their
offices to promote the well-being of all people; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 822)
A Prayer for Light
Almighty God, we give you thanks for surrounding us, as daylight fades, with the brightness of the vesper light; and we implore you of your great mercy that, as you enfold us with the radiance of this light, so you would shine into our hearts the brightness of your Holy Spirit; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 110)
A Collect for Mission
O God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth, and sent your blessed Son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near: Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you; bring the nations into your fold; pour out your Spirit upon all flesh; and hasten the coming of your kingdom; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, 100)
Daily Office Gospel, Mark 4:1-20
4:1Again he began to teach beside the sea. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. 6And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. 7Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ 9And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’
10 When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11And he said to them, ‘To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; 12in order that
“they may indeed look, but not perceive,
and may indeed listen, but not understand;
so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.”’
13 And he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? 14The sower sows the word. 15These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. 17But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, 19but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. 20And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’
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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