NO VIDEO THIS WEEK - AUDIO ONLY
Pastor Eric preaches in this service on the Gospel text from Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, accompanied by Isaiah 55:10–13 and Romans 8:1–6, 11. We know the story: a farmer scatters seed, and it lands on four kinds of ground. Most of us learned to hear it as a test—which soil are you? In a sermon titled "Ground Work," Pastor Eric asks a different question. What if the point isn't the soil at all, but the sower, who flings seed everywhere with reckless generosity, on rocky ground and good alike? God's word, Isaiah says, falls like rain that waters the earth whether or not it has earned it. The invitation isn't to improve ourselves; it's to notice the Spirit already at work in us.
This summer, Jesus tells stories in his typical way—sideways, unresolved, full of dirt and weeds and yeast. Small things turn holy. Bread multiplies. Peter sinks, then rises. A mother won't back down. A question won't let go. In this seven-week, ongoing conversation, we explore what it means to trust a God who grows what's good in the middle of a tangled, hungry, stormy world.