Lord, May Our Hearts Be Fertile Ground

In his teaching and preaching, Jesus often used parables as "means of revelation." Theologians and biblical scholars have often referred to a pattern of "revelation and response" which constitutes an essential aspect of Christian worship. Within that pattern, those who gather for worship encounter revelation through scripture, symbols, prayer, preaching and other means. Worshipers in turn, respond to revelation in a variety of ways. One of the most prevalent vehicles is congregational song.

This collection provides hymns which will be useful for congregations to sing as their response to the reading of and/or preaching on selected parables. In some instances, phrases from the parable appear in the parallel hymn text. In others, the hymn text comments on the teaching of the parable without quoting from it. In still other instances, allusions appear to other related biblical passages. The collection includes two hymn tunes and suggested tunes for each hymn text.