Weekly letter from St Luke's - 14 July 2023

Dear Parish Friends In our readings through Matthew's gospel we come to the next section where the gospel writer recounts Jesus' teaching about the nature of the kingdom, starting with the familiar parable of the sower, scattering seed on various types of soil. The conventional wisdom when planting seed is to target it into well prepared soil, so the image of scattering seed in this parable seems almost careless or wasteful. Jesus, in his explanation of the parable to the disciples does not address this issue, so we need to turn to St Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians. Paul says that whilst he planted, and Apollos watered, it was God who gives the growth (1 Cor, 3:6). We are therefore encouraged not to give up on mission because we don't think it will work, as God, rather than we, who will bring this to fulfilment. As usual, our services this weekend are 7am (Holy Communion) and 9am (Family communion service with Zoom link). Children's Church restarts this Sunday at 9am! The weekly notice paper and 9am service sheet are available via the links below. We will also be welcoming Robyn Maxwell, the SU Chaplain at Weller's Hill State School at both our services. She will tell us a little about how she seeks to support the students, families and staff associated with the school, and what a positive difference this has. There will be a retiring collection to support her ministry after the services (if you are unable to join us on Sunday, but would like to contribute, then see https://suqld.org.au/donate/wellers-hill-ss-chaplaincy). Yours in Christ

Rev'd Timothy