Sermon: Good Soil

Good Soil

          When I look at this lectionary year—the year of Matthew
—I can’t help but wonder if the committee who chose which bits of scripture we read, weren’t a bit embarrassed about the 12^th chapter of Matthew.
After all, we lean heavily into chapter 11
—going into extensive details about the disciple’s situation as they are sent… Sunday after Sunday…
not so chapter 12.

          Chapter 12, where the Pharisees, a group of religious leaders of Jesus’ day, reject the disciple’s practice of eating grain on the Sabbath and then reject Jesus’ practice of healing on the Sabbath.

          Chapter 12 where the Pharisees claim that Jesus’ exorcism of a man oppressed by the devil are actually the work of the devil
—the Spirit is at work, but they see Satan.
They reject God’s work in him.

          Chapter 12, where Jesus is rejected by his family,
and Jesus points to the Disciples as his new family.

          The lectionary compilers reject chapter 12,
where we find a story about rejecting Jesus’ understanding of the Sabbath,
rejection of the Spirit’s work in Jesus’ ministry,
rejection of Jesus by his biological family.

          Why all this rejection?

          …Because we got a soil problem.

          Prayer

          Why all the rejection? We got a soil problem.
The Pharisees’ soil is so hard packed, rocks choke out the Spirit, Jesus’ family is faced with thorny questions about that boy of theirs…

 

          Jesus tells us about the soil problem:

          The Sower was casting seed everywhere, leaving no soil untouched.

          Some seed fell upon paths packed tight from the footfalls of generations,
soil so compact the seed could not enter
—and it became easy eats for the hungry flocks who regularly pecked that path clean.

          Some seeds were embedded in rocky soil,
stone shared their birthing bed,
and so they sprang,
but were scorched and stilted by the sun,
they were rootless.

          Some seed landed and laid with thorns,
and there they grew together,
and were chocked off
and died.

          Still other seeds fell in good soil,
and grew sturdy and strong
—an abundant harvest!
A thirtyfold yield and sixty,
one hundred times over the growth!

 

          Isn’t the Kingdom of God mysterious—that in our lives we have those moments:
-Scripture or Holy Conversation land just so, and open up before us.

-A sacramental moment, bread and wine, the water of new birth, transforms us.

-An encounter, a neighbor or family member or even an enemy,
who flips everything on its head and it all finally makes sense.

-A close call, calls you to your best self,
a relationship healed and you are compelled to go and do likewise.

          The Kingdom of God, which we ask to come into the world every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer… it is mysterious, and all too often lasts but a moment.

          You walk into the living room…
and then don’t remember why…
so too when the Kingdom comes, “oh wow” epiphany,
followed closely by… “wait, what?”
The seed lands, but does it find good soil?

 

          Does it land, and we don’t understand?
And then, those who ought to help us do so, fail,
or even eat up, peck away at, the promise?

          Has misunderstanding packed down the power of those God moments of ours, until our hearts are too hard to hear the magnificent harmony of heaven?
          Has it been taken from us,
explained away, commodified, monetized
or made into an ornament instead of allowed to grow?

 

          Does it land, in a heap of hardship,
does it’s tendrils get knocked over by awful actions,
the joy of the Kingdom rocked by times of trouble?

          There is nothing better than those God-moments, ask any convert, in their zeal…
but does it hold up?
Has the good news taken root, or will it simply wither when hardship hits, or at the first disappointment, or even the fifteenth disappointment,
Does it tumble when the faith is challenged or challenging.

         

          Does it land, in a field of cares,
a field so overcrowded, that it gets crowded out,
the Kingdom cut off by the thorns of other obligations
and choked by the vines of vanity and distraction?

          Those things we plant, they grow,
be they the good seed of the good news,
or a plethora of other stuff
—our overcrowded lives can keep the Kingdom of God coming, for us.

 

          Does it land in good soil?
Nutritious soil cultivated well,
weeded, cared for, and tilled.
The word of the Kingdom heard, understood, bearing fruit,
the great yield of goodness grown from the Gospel—the news of the Kingdom.

 

          Perhaps, this time of Pandemic and limited interaction, is an opportunity,
a time to cultivate our soil:
till our understanding,
care for our resilience,
and unclutter our lives.

          May we be good soil. May we not reject the Kingdom those times when the sower passes by and scatters seed.

 

          O Sower, make us to be good soil.

          O Sower, unsettle our soil and protect us from all Evil, so that your seed might settle in.

          O Sower, take the time to pick out every pebble, give us roots we pray, that neither troubles nor terror shall wither our joy.

          O Sower, weed from us that that would choke the seeds of your Kingdom.

          O Sower, make us to be good soil,
cultivate us, care for us, feed us with every nutrient, that we might bear the fruits of the Kingdom.

O Sower, make us to be good soil. A+A