Sundays at All Hallows (July 12, 2026)

Welcome to Sundays at All Hallows.

This Sunday is the Sixth Sunday after Trinity. The Scripture readings in the season of the church year focus on the Christian faith and way of life. Being a Christian involves more than attending church services, hearing sermons, taking communion, giving to the support of the church and its work, and helping others. It requires that we surrender every part of our life to God.

In this Sunday’s message we examine what else we can learn from the Parable of the Sower and how it applies to Christians in our day.

GATHERING IN GOD’S NAME

Open this link in a new tab to hear Melissa Gingrich’s arrangement of Handt Hansen’s GOOD SOIL (Lord, Let My Heart Be Good Soil) for piano and saxophone.

The Lord shows us the path of life; in his presence there is fulness of joy, in his right hand are pleasures for evermore. see Psalm 16:11

[Let us worship God.]

Open this link in a new tab to hear Isaac Watts’ “Give to Our God Immortal Praise.”

1 Give to our God immortal praise;
mercy and truth are all His ways;
wonders of grace to God belong,
repeat His mercies in your song.

2 Give to the LORD of lords renown,
the King of kings with glory crown;
His mercies ever shall endure,
when lords and kings are known no more.

3 He built the earth, He spread the sky,
and fixed the starry lights on high;
wonders of grace to God belong,
repeat His mercies in your song.

4 He fills the sun with morning light,
He bids the moon direct the night;
His mercies ever shall endure,
when suns and moons shall shine no more.

7 He sent His Son with pow'r to save
from guilt, and darkness, and the grave;
wonders of grace to God belong,
repeat His mercies, repeat His mercies,
repeat His mercies in your song.

8 Through this vain world He guides our feet
and leads us to His heav'nly seat;
His mercies ever shall endure,
when this vain world shall be no more.

[Let us confess our sins to God our Father]

Silence

Heavenly Father,
we have sinned against you and against our neighbour
in thought and word and deed,
negligence, through weakness,
through our own deliberate fault;
by what we have done
and by what we have failed to do.
We are truly sorry and repent of all our sins.
For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ who died for us,
forgive us all that is past;
and grant that we may serve you in newness of life
to the glory of your name. Amen.

Merciful Lord,
grant to your faithful people pardon and peace,
that we may be cleansed from all our sins,
and serve you with a quiet mind;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Paul Inwood’s “Holy Is God, Holy and Strong.”

Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.

1 Sing the Lord’s praise, ev’ry nation,
Give him all honor and glory.
Strong is his love for his people,
His faithfulness is eternal.

Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
(Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.)

2 Praise to the Father almighty,
Praise to his Son, Christ the Lord;
Praise to the life giving Spirit;
Both now and forever, Amen
(Praise to the Father almighty,
Praise to his son, Christ the Lord;
Praise to the life giving Spirit;
Both now and forever, Amen)

Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
(Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.)
Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.
(Holy is God, holy and strong!
God everliving, alleluia.)

[Let us pray.]

Silence

Merciful God,
you have prepared for those who love you
such good things as pass our understanding:
Pour into our hearts such love toward you
that we, loving you above all things,
may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THE MINISTRY OF THE WORD

A reading from the Book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 55: 10-13

As the rain and the snow
come down from heaven,
and do not return to it
without watering the earth
and making it bud and flourish,
so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,
so is my word that goes out from my mouth:
it will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

You will go out in joy
and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills
will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field
will clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn-bush will grow the juniper,
and instead of briers the myrtle will grow.
This will be for the Lord’s renown,
for an everlasting sign,
that will endure for ever.’

[May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory.]

Silence

Open this link in a new tab to hear Timothy Dudley Smith’s “Not to Us Be Glory Given.”

1 Not to us be glory given
but to him who reigns above:
Glory to the God of heaven
for his faithfulness and love!
What though unbelieving voices
hear no word and see no sign,
still in God my heart rejoices,
working out his will divine.

2 Not what human fingers fashion,
gold and silver, deaf and blind,
dead to knowledge and compassion,
having neither heart nor mind,
lifeless gods, yet some adore them,
nerveless hands and feet of clay;
all become, who bow before them,
lost indeed, and dead as they.

3 Not in them is hope of blessing,
hope is in the living Lord:
high and low, his name confessing,
find in him their shield and sword.
Hope of all whose hearts revere him,
God of Israel, still the same!
God of Aaron! Those who fear him,
he remembers them by name.

4 Not the dead, but we the living
praise the Lord with all our powers;
of his goodness freely giving,
his is heaven; earth is ours.
Not to us be glory given
but to him who reigns above:
Glory to the God of heaven,
for his faithfulness and love!

A reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans.
Romans 8: 1-11

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.

You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.

[May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory.]

Silence

Open this link in a new tab to hear Howard Charles Adie Gaunt’s “Rise and Hear! The Lord Is Speaking.”

1 Rise and hear! The Lord is speaking,
as the gospel words unfold;
we, in all our age-long seeking,
find no firmer truth to hold.

2 Word of goodness, truth, and
beauty,
heard by simple folk and wise,
word of freedom, word of duty,
word of life beyond our eyes.

3 Word of God’s forgiveness granted
to the wild or guilty soul,
word of love that works undaunted,
changes, heals, and makes us whole.

4 Speak to us, O Lord, believing,
as we hear, the sower sows;
may our hearts, your word receiving,
be the good ground where it grow

A reading from the Gospel according to Matthew.
Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered round him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: ‘A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop – a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.’

‘Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: when anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.’

[May your word live in us
and bear much fruit to your glory.]

Silence

A Second Lesson from the Parable of the Sower

What do you notice about the way that the farmer sows his seed? You would think that a farmer who had sown in the field before would know what parts of the field had yielded the most would sow his seed in those places. But no. He broadcasts his seed indiscriminately, spreading it over a wide area, an area that includes a path, rocky ground, and thorns. This is more the remarkable because in ancient times the seed that a farmer saved from each harvest for the next year’s planting meant the difference between life and death. It was not something to sow wastefully.

Jesus does not explain why the farmer did what he did. We are left to ponder his actions and their implications. This is one of the reasons that Jesus used parables in his teaching. He wants us to think about what he is saying.

Why would a farmer broadcast his seed in such an indiscriminate manner? One possibility is that the path, the rocky ground, and the thorns were a part of his property, and he was hoping that the seed would grow wherever it landed. His field was small, and he had little choice. A second possibility was that he had ample seed and was not concerned about wasting it. A third possibility is that he was an inexperienced farmer, or even a farmhand who did not own the land or the seed and was sowing the seed for whoever had hired him.

“What difference does it make?” you may wonder. “Didn’t Jesus explain the parable to his disciples later?” Jesus gave them one explanation and that explanation is the one that most often influences our thinking and how the parable applies to ourselves. It is about receptivity to the message about God’s kingdom and three different conditions of the human heart which can keep someone from hearing the message or benefit from hearing it.

Jesus’ explanation of the parable has inspired a number of hymns, including this one titled “Good Soil” and written by Handt Hanson.

“Lord, let my heart be good soil,
open to the seed of your Word.
Lord, let my heart be good soil,
where love can grow and peace is understood.
When my heart is hard,
break the stone away.
When my heart is cold,
warm it with the day.
When my heart is lost,
lead me on your way.
Lord, let my heart,
Lord, let my heart,
Lord, let my heart be good soil.”

(To hear this hymn, open this link in a new tab.)

The hymn is a plea to God that we as individuals are found to be the right kind of soil—good soil, that we hear the word, the message about God’s kingdom, and understand it and produce a bountiful crop, “yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” It reflects our tendency to identify with the soil in the parable due to Jesus’ explanation to the disciples.

While the sower in the parable is usually identified as Jesus himself or God. Which of the two makes no difference as Jesus and God are one. However, the sower may also represent Christians going about spreading the good news throughout the world according to Jesus’ command—pastors, lay preachers, Sunday school teachers, catechists, missionaries, and ordinary Christians making known what God has done.

When we consider the actions of the sower in the light of the great commission Jesus gave the apostles and all Christians and the different ways that God shows Peter and others that the good news was for all people, Gentiles, non-Jews, and Samaritans, the Jews’ despised cousins, as well as the Jews, the sower’s indiscriminate broadcasting of his seed, scattering it over a wide area, makes sense. All the world is God’s field, and God sows where he wills. This and Jesus’ teaching about emulating God’s mercifulness, point to a second lesson that may be drawn from this parable: It is God’s will that Christians spread the good news like the sower scattered his seed. They are to make known what God has done in a way that involves a lot of people hearing the good news. They cannot say to themselves, “I am not going to sow in this place because its people are not the right soil.”

In sharing the good news with others, it is important to remember that God is a go-before God. God goes ahead of us to prepare hearts. God enables those whose hearts he has prepared to believe. God works in them to will and do what is his good pleasure, and God’s good pleasure is that they enjoy a right relationship with himself.

God is one who gives life to a seed, causes it to germinate and to grow, and eventually to flourish and bear fruit. Our task as a Christian is to sow the seed, to water the young plant when it needs watering and to do whatever else we can to help it thrive and become fruitful. We do this in the knowledge that what we do, we are able to do because God himself is working in us.

Silence

Open this link in a new tab to hear John Cawood’s “Almighty God, Thy Word Is Cast.”

1 Almighty God, your Word is cast
like seed into the ground;
now let the dew of heav'n descend
and righteous fruits abound.

2 Let not the foe of Christ and man
this holy seed remove,
but give it root in ev'ry heart
to bring forth fruits of love.

3 Let not the world's deceitful cares
the rising plant destroy,
but let it yield a hundredfold
the fruits of peace and joy.

4 Whene'er the precious seed is sown,
life-giving grace bestow
that all whose souls the truth receive
its saving pow'r may know.

[Let us affirm our faith in the words of the Apostles’ Creed.]

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended into hell.
The third day he rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven,
and is seated at the right hand of God the Father
almighty;
from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.

THE MINISTRY OF PRAYER

[Let us pray for the Church and the world.]

Grant, Almighty God, that all who confess your Name may
be united in your truth, live together in your love, and reveal
your glory in the world.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Guide the people of this land, and of all the nations, in the
ways of justice and peace; that we may honor one another
and serve the common good.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Give us all a reverence for the earth as your own creation,
that we may use its resources rightly in the service of others
and to your honor and glory.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Bless all whose lives are closely linked with ours, and grant
that we may serve Christ in them, and love one another as he
loves us.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Comfort and heal all those who suffer in body, mind, or
spirit; give them courage and hope in their troubles, and
bring them the joy of your salvation.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

We commend to your mercy all who have died, that your will
for them may be fulfilled; and we pray that we may share
with all your saints in your eternal kingdom.

Silence

Lord, in your mercy
Hear our prayer.

Faithful God,
you have promised to hear the prayers
of all who ask in Jesus’ name.
In your mercy, accept our prayers.
Give us what we have asked in faith,
according to your will:
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

[Let us give thanks to God for his goodness.]

Almighty God, merciful Father ,
we give you hearty thanks
for all your goodness and loving kindness to us
and to all people.
We bless you for our creation, preservation,
and all the blessings of this life;
but above all for your immeasurable love
in the redemption of the world by our Lord Jesus Christ;
for the means of grace; and for the hope of glory.
And, we pray, give us such a sense of all your mercies,
that our hearts may be truly thankful
and that we may praise you
not only with our lips, but in our lives,
serving you in holiness and righteousness all our days,
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
to whom, with you and the Holy Spirit, be all honour and glory,
now and for ever. Amen.

May the Lord who has wrought in us to will, work in us to do of his good pleasure. May he make us perfect in every good work to do his will, working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

[And now as our Saviour taught us, we pray]

Our Father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy Name,
thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
for ever and ever. Amen.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Charles Wesley’s “Ye Servants of God.”

1 Ye servants of God, your Master proclaim,
and publish abroad his wonderful name;
the name all-victorious of Jesus extol:
his kingdom is glorious, and rules over all.

2 God ruleth on high, almighty to save;
and still he is nigh, his presence we have;
the great congregation his triumph shall sing,
ascribing salvation to Jesus our King.

3 Salvation to God who sits on the throne!
Let all cry aloud, and honour the Son.
The praises of Jesus the angels proclaim,
fall down on their faces, and worship the Lamb.

4 Then let us adore, and give him his right:
all glory and power, all wisdom and might,
and honour and blessing, with angels above,
and thanks never-ceasing, and infinite love.
Amen! Amen!

GOING OUT AS GOD’S PEOPLE

Eternal God and Father, by whose power we are created and
by whose love we are redeemed: guide and strengthen us by
your Spirit, that we may give ourselves to your service, and
live every day in love to one another and to you; through Jesus
Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.

Open this link in a new tab to hear Lee Fisher’s “Go in Peace, Go in Love.”

Go in peace, go in love,
May the Lord be at your side.
Go in peace, go in love,
May he ever be your guide.
May his grace overflow
And his blessing be upon you.
Go in peace, go in love,
Now and evermore,
Go in peace, go in love,
May the Lord be at your side.
Go in peace, go in love,
May he ever be your guide.
May his grace overflow
And his blessing be upon you.
Go in peace, go in love,
Now and evermore,
Amen
Amen
Amen