Bible discussion on Monday 16th October led by Cressida Pryor

On Monday 16th of October Cressida Pryor will lead our discussion on The Parable of the Sower. Cressida writes: 

The Parable of the Sower is present in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20 and Luke 8:4-15). The Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) devoted a great deal of attention and reflection to this parable and produced several drawings and paintings on the subject.

Van Gogh, as well as being a painter was also a lay preacher...and apparently ‘matured his religious vocation’ in England...he walked the 100 miles from Ramsgate to Welwyn in Hertfordshire to visit his sister Anne admiring the countryside as he did so...and wrote of the beauty of what he saw as he walked...

There are a number of his sermons on the subject of sowing where he compares God to a sower who 'infuses his blessing in the seed of his Word sown in our hearts'. (Sermon of 1876).

It is well known that VG didn’t have success selling paintings in his lifetime...and I’m wondering if this parable gave him the drive to keep working artistically... maybe he understood that the mystery of finding ‘the mystic unity of oneness’ the ‘Kingdom of God’ does not obey the logic of commercial success or mass conversions, but knows the logic of the seed, which entails waiting, maturing, modest beginnings, and slow but constant developments…

Do you agree?

We will explore this and other more currant aspects of this parable when we meet online on Monday October 16th from 6.30 to 7.20

The Zoom details remain as follows:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82378042367...

Meeting ID: 823 7804 2367

Passcode: 460019