The best words I heard this week: "You're not in exile; you're in the center, in the heart of the matter." Indeed, the center of the Gospel includes betrayal and heartbreak.
My Sunday offering - June 13, 3014, the 15th Sunday of Ordinary Time.
Parable by M.D. Ridge, a beautiful combining of Kohelet and Matthew, and a nice alternative to the Byrds.
Parable, by M.D. Ridge
Based on Ecclesiastes 3:1-9 and Matthew 13:4-8
1. To everything, there is a season;
a time to be born and a time to die.
A time to plant, and a time for harvest;
a time to meet and a time to part.
A sower went out to sow the seed.
Some of it fell upon the path,
some fell on shallow, rocky soil,
and some among choking thorns.
2. To everything, there is a season;
a time to speak, and a time for silence;
a time to wound and a time to heal.
Nothing can grow in barren soil;
briars and ravens take their toll;
still there is grain a hundred-fold
from seed that took root and grew.
3. To everything, there is a season;
a time to be born and a time to die.
A time to speak, and a time for silence;
a time to seek and a time to lose.
God's word is like the farmer's seed,
rooted in joyful, loving hearts,
growing like grain in fertile ground,
a harvest that overflows.
