Our God is an awesome God
who reigns from heaven above,
with wisdom, power and love.
Our God is an awesome God.

Forty-five years ago,
I was just beginning a six-month assignment
at a parish in Archbold, OH.
These were the readings I preached about
the first Sunday there.
I don’t remember what I said that day,
but I will never forget what several farmers in the assembly taught me
after Mass that day.

“You’re a city-boy, aren’t you,”
they started. 
Then they filled me in about today’s gospel.

You seem to think it’s about the four different kinds of soil.
It’s not.
It’s all about the sower,
the farmer.
No farmer today would waste seed
the way the sower in today’s gospel did.
This sower, however, isn’t your typical farmer.
This sower plans his seed everywhere.
This farmer believes in the power of the seed
not in the strength or the weakness of the soil.

This farmer believes that even the weakest soil,
the most unlikely to produce a good harvest,
deserves a chance.

Our God is an awesome God
who reigns from heaven above…

Our God proclaims the Word to everyone,
to the hard-headed,
to the hard-hearted,
and to the hard of hearing.
Our God proclaims the Word
to those with great promise
and to those with little promise at all.

Our God plants seeds of faith
in every heart,
and our God believes that
no matter what happens
something might happen
that will make a difference.

Our God knows that some days
we’re more receptive to hearing what God has to say
than on other days.

Maybe, today, isn’t the best day
to hear what God is trying to say,
but then,
tomorrow might be a better day.

… with wisdom, power and love,
Our God is an awesome God.

Our God, like the farmer to plants year after year,
always has hope that the harvest will be abundant
the next time around,
even if it wasn’t so this time.

Our God spreads the seeds of faith,
proclaims the Good News
to all creation,
never giving up
on the possibility
that one day will respond
with deep faith,
with loving hearts,
with hope in ourselves
and in our fellow creatures.

So, no matter what kind of soil you or I may be today,
our God never gives up on us.
Our God always has faith, hope and love for us.
Our God knows what Isaiah proclaimed
in our first reading today,
that in the long run,
the Word never goes forth in vain,
that ultimately the Word will do God’s will
achieving the end for which it was sent.

Our God is an awesome God
who reigns from heaven above…

I don’t remember what I said forty-five years ago,
but I will always remember what I learned that day
when the Word was shared with  me
but several people who knew more about what Jesus was talking about
than I did.
And for that,
I will always be grateful.

… with wisdom, power and love,
Our God is an awesome God.

May the Word we hear today,
and the bread and wine we eat and drink
make it possible that no matter how we feel today,
how open or closed our ears are to God’s message,
God’s blessings will come our way anyway.

May we, too, be sowers of mercy, love and compassion
in our world today,
sharing the Word nor only by what we say,
but also by what we do
in the days and weeks ahead.

Amen.

Our God is an awesome God
who reigns from heaven above,
with wisdom, power and love.
Our God is an awesome God.