Dear Partner in Preaching, I have to confess I’ve always had a certain bias against this parable. Actually, not the parable as much as the interpretation. You probably know the generally accepted theory of the history of composition behind today’s passage. Since Joachim Jeremias published his seminal The Parables of Jesus, biblical scholars have pointed out the shift in emphasis from the parable proper and its explanation nine verses later. The parable is all about the extravagance of the sower, the farmer foolish enough to throw seed anywhere and everywhere, even on paths and patches of stony ground. The explanation, however, shifts...

I’ve asked this question at least once in a sermon in every church I’ve served. Why do we go to Church? I think it’s an incredibly important question right now because there are, quite frankly, so many other options on a Sunday morning – far more than when I was a kid and multiples more than when my parents were children. Consider: you might want instead to sleep in, or catch up on some work, or go shopping, or meet a friend for coffee at Starbucks, or run through some email, or read the paper (online or the old paper and ink variety), or go to your kid’s soccer match or hockey game, or see what you missed this week on your...