Jesus is telling parables, and this is the first of them. Parables are clever little stories, earthly analogies about heavenly things. Sometimes they help make things clearer, sometimes they actually are meant to do the opposite. In this case, the parable of the sower and the seed is quite simple, and Jesus even gives the crib sheet to His disciples so they don’t get it wrong

Again Jesus is again preaching the Word. He has preached in Nazareth and in Capernaum. Today He preaches at the shore of the Sea of Galilee, at a place called the Lake of Gennesaret. Same body of water. Here the synagogue is an informal gathering, a crowd that has formed and is pressing in on Jesus, eager to hear the Word. His pulpit is Simon’s fishing boat which Jesus presses into service.

Today on this fourth Sunday after Pentecost we are also celebrating the Presentation of the Augsburg Confession on June 25, 1530, a day almost 500 years ago, 493 to be precise, when Martin Luther, Philip Melanchthon, and other German leaders of the Church put their lives at risk so that the Gospel of Jesus Christ would be heard loud and clear again. The message was too important for them to remain silent.