A Sower went out to sow

Early today I made my communion at a Book of Common Prayer eucharist in our chapel. According to the B.C.P. this is Sexagesima Sunday and the gospel is Luke 8.4ff - the Parable of the Sower and the Seed. So on the same Sunday I experience three different liturgies and three different gospel readings. In these days of agreeing to do together what we can whilst some ecumenical problems remain intractable one would have thought we could agree a common liturgy and a common lectionary across Christendom but that doesn't seem to be the case. Here is William Barclay on the parable from "The Daily Study Bible":

What kind of soil are you?

In this parable Jesus uses a picture that all his hearers would recognise. It is in fact likely that he was looking at some sower sowing his seed as he spoke.

The fate of the word of God also depends on the heart into which it is sown.

a) The hard path represents the shut mind, the mind which, as we put it, will not take it in.

b) The shallow ground represents those who accept the word but who never think it out and who never realise its consequences and who therefore collapse when the strain comes.

c) The thorny ground stands for those whose lives are so busy that the things of God are crowded out. We must ever remember that the things which crowd out the highest need not be bad things. They may in themselves be good things. The worst enemy of the best is the second best.

d) The good ground stands for the good heart. The good hearer does three things. First, he listens attentively. Second, he keeps what he hears in mind and heart and thinks over it until he discovers its meaning for himself. Third, he acts upon it. He translates what he has heard into terms of action.

Speak, Lord, your servant is listening!