Isaiah 55: 10-13, Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23

As some of you know I have recently been on holiday for a week and in my absence my lovely neighbour had been watering all my pots. However, she also went off on holiday before my return so for three days neither my pots nor hers were watered. Thus, when I went to make amends on my return some of the plants looked very droopy and in particular my wonderful hydrangea whose mass of flowers looked oh so sad for themselves as did her tomato plants. But hooray after a good soaking they all recovered and I have to say the hydrangea now looks the best it has ever done and all being well there should be a good crop of tomatoes for my neighbour’s delectation.

And thinking about all this and today’s gospel reading it struck me that while I think we can all understand the meaning behind Jesus’ parable about the sower what was not mentioned that the seed sewn in the good rich soil may well produce healthy sprouts and promise a most excellent yield but it still has to be as it were watered and indeed nurtured.  And that is surely where we come in. All of us here must in some way have the seeds of faith within us even if perhaps for some here it is difficult for them to recognise the truth of my assertion.  But however deeply rooted those seeds, however rich the soil, however abundant their promised crop we are I think called to tend them and notice when they might need that careful watering, that expert nurturing to ensure that promise is fulfilled.

And as this is choral evensong I think there is another illustration of this called for attention to the wellbeing and successful fruition of those seeds. Those of you who are in the choir have been blessed with the seeds of a beautiful voice, seeds I fear I lack as they seemed to have fallen on very stony ground. But for all of you who are so blessed you know that it is essential if you are to fill this church with glorious music to join with that of the heavenly choirs that you practice; that you as it were refresh and water  your talent.  If you did not do this the music would like my hydrangea flowers, like those tomato plants droop and fail both to inspire and to give true glory to God.

So I firmly believe that we are called to tend to our faith, never to neglect it and just assume it can manage without any sort of ‘watering’ or ‘nurturing’ from us. Coming to this service this evening will surely help refresh and invigorate our faith and even give us that very real sense that our worship is joined with heaven but what about in the coming week? Will we be sure to keep an eye on it or just leave it to luck?  And here I think we need to look at the example of Jesus Himself whom we are told in the gospels so often took himself off to a quiet place to pray, to seek in solitude the very presence of God We live in a noisy, distracting, manipulative world bombarded on all sides by the media all of which can all too easily as happened to  some of the seeds in the parable choke  and over-run us  Are we aware of this danger, this possibility that our faith may become overgrown with the worries the  concerns and all the flim-flam  of a secular world? Our last hymn this evening points to this need to take care not to be ensnared by the thorns of choking care, the gilded baits of worldly love but to be prepared every moment to watch and pray and look not at those worldly temptations but to the glories of the eternal.

I am quite certain we need within the framework of our daily lives to allow ourselves time for Godly refreshment, for that essential watering and nurturing. And mostly I think we can achieve this by following the example of Jesus himself through stepping right away from all the demands and concerns of daily life and make real space for prayer and quiet contemplation.  Quiet contemplation of the innumerable rich blessings which are surely the soil in which our seeds of faith have been planted. Quiet contemplation of just what our faith means to us and how it has shaped us to bear fruit in God’s name and of how by careful husbandry and with God’s ever-present help that faith will continue to grow and we can produce a harvest of even more fruitfulness in the years ahead. Perhaps too we can find that much needed reinvigoration of our faith through being outside be it for a walk or simply to sit and look at and absorb   all the beauty which surrounds us. I’m sure Jesus did exactly this as evidenced by his many references to nature found in the gospel.

My hydrangea was planted in good rich soil and had all the promise of an abundance of flowers but without water it would have shrivelled and died. So too you who are blessed with musical gifts know that you must allow them to be continually refreshed and reinvigorated by practice or they too will not fulfil their potential. And the same goes for our faith it must never be neglected and assumed to be some sort of constant which we can for the most part ignore and which does not need any attention from us. That resolute attention is essential if we are to ensure those thorns and brambles of worldly cares do not overgrow and stifle the growth of those precious seeds of faith. The care of our faith is for each and every day and not just Sundays. But if we do this then surely we will discover that when we do come together on Sundays to offer our worship then it will indeed be replete with the strains of truly holy joy joining together with all the choirs of heaven.