Sally Rausch: "(Un)familiar Ground" (Sermon for July 12, 2026)

This Sunday's lectionary text is a parable many of us likely know well - the parable of the sower. As I've sat with it this week, I keep thinking about the stories we're part of - the story of this nation, the story of this community at St. Paul and St. Andrew, even the stories we tell ourselves in our own heads - and how all of them shape who and whose we understand ourselves to be.The word "parable" means to overturn, to cast aside. Jesus used them throughout his ministry not to comfort or confirm, but to challenge. Parables are meant to move the hearers to reconsider the status quo, to disrupt complacency, and to invite curiosity around how things might be different.That's work I know this community is about. It's also hard work - it's not easy to find something new in something familiar, on our own. So I'm looking forward to sitting with the parable of the sower together this Sunday and to whatever new ground it might open up for us all.With hope in the power of a disrupting gospel,sally