We're a podcast community here on Things Unseen.

And this week we've been reflecting on how we hear the preaching of God's Word.

In particular we've been thinking about how Jesus' parable of the farmer and his seed

and the soils help us to think about how we hear.

And the parable also analyzes how we do that in four different ways.

Some seed fell in the path, some on soil with a rocky substratum.

And then says Jesus, some seed fell in thorny soil.

The thorns grew up and choked it so that it yielded no grain, nothing to show at harvest

time.

It's a really interesting parable.

Because among other things it makes us ask questions that the parable itself doesn't

quite answer.

And here's one.

Are we supposed to envisage the farmer sowing his seed on ground where thorns were already

evident?

Or is it only afterwards that those thorns have sprouted up?

Perhaps when the farmer soesys seed it, it's inevitable that some of it falls on ground

where there are thorns, and that those thorns will choke its growth.

And Jesus and his disciples do something similar when they preach his word.

The gospel is to be preached to everyone, not just to the elect or to people who look

as though they might be elect.

That's part of what we mean when we speak about the free offer of the gospel it's offered

...