July 12, 2026
7th Sunday after Pentecost – The Rev. Mark S. Winward MDiv, ThM
The Parable of the Sower
“…as for what was sown on good soil, 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.” – Matthew 13:23, NRSV
When Jesus told this Parable of the Sower, he was painting a picture that anyone living in ancient Palestine would have immediately recognized. To say the farmland in Galilee was challenging to cultivate would be an understatement. In fact, an old Jewish legend holds that at creation, an angel flying over Israel accidentally dropped a giant bag full of rocks that were strewn across the countryside. Besides the rocky ground, in many places only a thin layer of soil covers solid limestone. Seeds can sprout quickly, but without deep roots they wither under the hot desert sun. Everyone knew that growing a good crop required patience, persistence, and constant care.
That setting became the backdrop for one of Jesus’ most important teachings about discipleship and the Kingdom of God. In the parable, Jesus describes a sower scattering seed. Some fell on the hard path, where the birds quickly ate it. Some landed on rocky ground, where it sprang up quickly but withered just as fast because it had no deep roots. Other seed fell among thorns, which gradually choked out the young plants. Finally, some seed fell on good soil, where it produced an abundant harvest – thirty, sixty, and even a hundredfold.
Four Conditions of the Heart
In each case, the seed is the same, just as God’s Word is the same to all who hear it. The difference is the soil – the condition of the heart that receives it.
First, there are hard hearts. In a hardened heart, the seed of the gospel cannot take root. The message is heard, but it’s never truly understood or welcomed because the heart has become resistant to God’s work.
Then there are shallow hearts. These people initially receive the gospel with joy, but only on the surface. Their faith has no deep roots, and when following Christ becomes difficult or costly, they quickly fall away. They discover that enthusiasm alone isn’t enough to sustain a lifetime of discipleship.
Jesus also describes thorny hearts. Here the seed begins to grow, but it has competition. Jesus identifies the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for other things. Little by little, these competing priorities crowd Christ out until the plant can no longer bear fruit.
Finally, there are receptive hearts. These are the people who hear God’s Word, receive it, and allow it to take deep root. Their lives are transformed, and that transformation bears fruit. They become disciples whose lives bear witness – in both word and deed – to the risen Christ.
God’s Grace and Our Response
Left to ourselves, none of us can make our own hearts fertile. God is the one who softens hardened hearts, deepens shallow faith, and patiently clears away the thorns that choke our spiritual lives. Yet God also invites us to cooperate with his grace and cultivate the soil he has prepared.
Our baptism marks God’s gracious call to follow Jesus, but it is only the beginning of a lifelong journey of discipleship. Like newly sown seed, faith must be nurtured if it is to flourish.
Tending the Garden
Now I have to confess that I’m a wretched gardener. I plant seeds, and then I wonder why nothing seems to grow. But if I’m honest, it isn’t because the seed is bad – it’s because I usually neglect my plantings. I expect to plant the seed and have it grow all by itself. The reality is that if I want my plantings to survive, they need three things: water, weeding, and feeding.
The same is true of the Christian life. God’s grace bestowed on us in baptism gives us new life, but healthy plants still need care. Faith rarely flourishes when it is neglected.
First, we need water. That begins with a daily relationship with God through Jesus Christ. Like every healthy relationship, it grows through communication. Prayer is how we open ourselves to God’s presence and receive the living water that Jesus promises to those who come to him.
But watering alone is never enough. Every garden must also be weeded. Competing priorities inevitably find their way into our lives unless we intentionally make room for Christ. Anxiety, the pursuit of wealth, unhealthy habits, misplaced ambitions, resentment, or simple complacency can slowly crowd out our devotion to God. By God’s grace, we are called to identify those weeds and pull them before they choke the life of faith.
Finally, every garden needs nourishment. Jesus tells us that we are nourished by the Word of God. We grow as we read the Scriptures, worship together, receive the sacraments, and encourage one another within the community of faith. Neglected plants naturally become weak, but a nurtured faith naturally bears lasting fruit.
The Good News
The message of this parable isn’t simply that good soil produces a harvest. It’s that God’s Word is powerful enough to produce an astonishing harvest in hearts that are open to him. What begins as a tiny seed can become a life transformed for the glory of God.
And there is one more piece of good news. The sower never stops sowing. That means none of us should ever despair. No heart is beyond God’s reach. No life is too overgrown. No past is too rocky. The Sower keeps sowing. He does not give up on us. By his grace, the soil of our hearts can be changed, and what once seemed barren can become fruitful. The harvest ultimately depends not only on the quality of the soil but on the faithfulness and generosity of the One who continues to sow.
My prayer for us is that the Holy Spirit will continue to prepare our hearts to receive God’s Word with joy, that our faith will grow deep roots, and that we will bear fruit in love, service, and faithfulness. And may our life together as the body of Christ, by God’s grace, yield a harvest – a hundredfold – for the glory of God. Amen.
July 5, 2026
Independence Day (Observed) – The Rev. Mark S. Winward, MDiv,ThM
Jesus said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…” – Matthew 5:43-44, NRSV
The Mood of Our 250th Anniversary
Is it me, or does this 250th anniversary of the founding of our nation seem a bit subdued – especially compared to what I remember of our 200th anniversary? I was 15 years old during our Bicentennial in 1976, and you couldn’t get away from it. I remember parades, tall ships, fireworks, television specials, and a sense of anticipation and excitement that, to my young eyes, seemed to last for months. This year, as we celebrate our 250th anniversary – a quarter of a millennium of our nation’s life, and arguably an even more significant milestone than our Bicentennial – the mood feels very different. One of the things that saddens me most is that even flying the flag of the nation I dedicated most of my life to defending can now be interpreted as a political statement. I pray we can recover a sense of shared civic identity that rises above our political differences.
When Disagreement Becomes Enmity
Whether because of politics, media, social change, or simply the pace of modern life, many of us have the sense that we no longer know how to disagree without questioning one another’s motives.
June 28, 2026
5th Sunday After Pentecost – Proper 8A – Mark S. Winward
“…thanks be to God that you, having once been slaves of sin, have become obedient from the heart to the form of teaching to which you were entrusted, and that you, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.” – Romans 6:17, NRSV
The Meaning of the Clergy Collar
People often wonder what the clergy collar I wear means. I once had a waitress ask me if my collar was a new style! (I told her, “Actually, it is a very old style!”) But seriously, there are several ways to answer that question—and, for me, it comes down to being a visible reminder that I am a servant of Christ—more specifically, a bond servant of Christ. In antiquity, a bond servant, sometimes called a bond-slave, was someone who voluntarily bound themselves to serve another person, often for life.
In the Bible, the term carries two important meanings. Under the Old Testament law, a Hebrew servant who loved his master could choose not to go free. Instead, he voluntarily stayed in his master’s service, and that lifelong commitment was symbolized by having his ear pierced (Exodus 21:5–6). In the New Testament, Paul, James, and Peter all describe themselves as bond servants—the Greek word is doulos—of Jesus Christ. While slavery in the ancient world was overwhelmingly brutal, the apostles turned it around to express complete devotion,
June 21, 2026
4th Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 7A – Mark S. Winward
Jesus said, “Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it.” – Matthew 10:39
The Cost of Discipleship
In the name of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Wow, tough Gospel reading this morning—perhaps the hardest of Jesus’ teachings. But seriously, when there is a selection in the cycle of readings that is difficult to understand, hard to swallow, or seemingly harsh, that is probably the exact place a preacher should focus. So, I feel responsible to explore this very hard set of sayings of Jesus in today’s Gospel. Why was Jesus so harsh?
For one thing, he knew the sacrifices his followers would make to spread the Good News of his kingdom – and it was indeed costly. The great second-century Church father, Tertullian, famously wrote, “The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church.” Especially in the first three centuries of the Church, Christians would be beaten, tortured, and killed in ways limited only by the imagination of their persecutors. And it was their refusal to deny Jesus as Lord that inspired millions to embrace a faith ironically represented by a Roman symbol of execution: the cross. Martin Luther famously wrote, “A religion that gives nothing, costs nothing, and suffers nothing, is worth nothing.