This sermon is based on (Matthew 13: 1-19, 18-23)-
Sowing seeds has changed a bit from Jesus's time when he told this parable about a sower.
Farmers then used the method of sowing seeds called broadcasting, scattering across their land. And this method meant that some seeds didn't reach the well prepared soil. Some landed on the path or amid the rocks or with the thorns.
Jesus unusually explained this parable to his disciples. And it wasn't about how to be a good farmer, but a good listener. What do we do when we hear the word of the kingdom of God? That's God's rule for life about loving him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbours as ourselves.
Jesus taught us the importance of listening to God's way, the way that leads to bearing good fruit and lots of it. If we only listen a bit or have selective hearing and don't work at trying to understand what it really means, we're like the seeds sown on the path. The birds come and eat it all up. It doesn't last. If we hear the word of God and embrace it with joy, but don't work at putting down roots, we become weak like the seed that landed in the rocky ground. We're not anchored and we will wither spiritually when we face harder times.
As Jesus taught in another parable, we need to be grafted to the vine which has deep roots so that our branches bear good fruit abiding in him. If we hear the word of God but allow the cares of the world and the leur of wealth to overwhelm us, we'll be choked and yield nothing.
We must aim to allow all that we learn about God's way to fall on good soil, hearing God's word and working at understanding it by watering and hinging out the weeds, fertilising it, and allowing good roots to form.
Following the instructions, putting them into action, not just passive listening. It's not just a theory. We have to work at our own spiritual soil.
We may not get instant results, but we will have deep roots and our fruitful time will come. This parable gives us a chance to reflect on our Christian growth and how we're looking after our souls, our hearts. What gets in the way of us and others receiving God's word and for us to continue to grow. The Christian life is a lifelong journey and we have to be like those trees and those old olive trees that can hang on in and have our roots deeply in the ground.
The Christian life is not intended to be settled or static. We're meant to keep on growing and in our knowledge of God. And that growth will be precarious at times. And we will need deep roots and the ability to sit lightly to the cares of the world.
Listening to the word of God creates growth in us. In the process, we who've received the word are invited to become sowers of the word, too. This is our mission to share the good news about all that God has done for this world through Jesus.
The farming metaphor is encouraging here. Farming takes time and care and there are no instant fixes. I can't make seeds grow in one day or even one week despite all hot weather and watering. They need a good soil, water and nurture and protection from birds and weeds and our results are not guaranteed.
We might think in the parable that the farmer was wasting his precious seed by scattering it so broadly into use unhelpful places. Yet we see in the natural world that plants produce a multitude of seeds. In a packet of garden seeds contain hundreds of tiny little dots. Not all germinate but the massive numbers show a kind of reckless generosity on God's part.
How can we make inroads on the hard ground, the thin soil to the choking leaves? And perhaps the clue is by welcoming and caring and persevering with tending all the soil. And we need to make the soil good enough for the seeds to do well. Anyone can do this, but you have to get your hands dirty and to remember to keep at it, doing a bit each day until you get the flowers, the fruit, the vegetables you'd hope for.
It's important for your heart to be like good soil. If you're hard-hearted or have unconfessed sin or harbour unforgivingness, it will be difficult for God's word to take root. And if we're self-centred, careless of others will be like soul with no depth, shallow, and with a divided heart.
However, if we spend time listening for God's voice and trying to abide in him, our life will be as good as fertile soil. God's words will take root and can go deep truly affecting how we live our life. And the deeper the roots, the more stable we'll become, wholehearted, steadfast, and unswayed by the lies of the world.
And our lives will produce fruit, maybe even a hundredfold. But as I said before, we have to be patient. We may have to wait. Therefore, our task is to guard our hearts and mind and to nurture them so that there's some good ground for the saints, God's word to fall on.
And then we'll be in a great position to advance God's kingdom so that we and others can listen well to the words of his kingdom. And Jesus told his disciples to go first to the lost sheep of Israel. We need to look at our own community, our church, and get our own house in order to ensure that we have good soil for those who come to join us.
Are we preparing our soil well enough? Are our hearts really deepening our own relationship with God and following Jesus's radical teaching about God's kingdom? Is it making a difference for us?
Thankfully, we're reminded by Paul in the letter to the Romans. We're not on our own. We can live according to the spirit, setting our minds on the things of the spirit, God's kingdom, Jesus's teaching. This helps us to hear the word and understand it and ensure our roots go deep to make us fruitful, ready for others to listen to God's word and join our community.
The word of God that Jesus is speaking about today goes very deeply into our hearts. He speaks about the different types of soil. The rocky soil, the soil that has thistles, the soil that scorches, the soil that can bring forth joy.
So if we were to think of the soil of our own hearts, what sort of soil are we giving to the Lord? What sort of soil are we allowing the seed which is the word of God to be planted in our lives so that we make a difference?
The soil of our lives needs to be nurtured. It needs to be nurtured by scripture. It needs to be nurtured by reflection. It needs to be nurtured by love. It needs to be nurtured by the Eucharist. It needs to be nurtured by the love that God has given to us and we in turn must accept and learn to live it in reality.
Jesus speaks to his disciples today in a way that he wants them to understand because they are to go out and bear witness to the kingdom of God. He speaks to you and I today in a way that he wants us to understand because we have to go out and bear witness.
I would challenge each of us to look again at what type of soil can we say our heart is. Is it a soil that is rich and fruitful and ready to accept what God wants of us and ask for the strength and the courage as difficult as it may be sometimes to go out and bear witness to his truth.
So we ask ourselves, is my heart, is the soil of my heart good, or do I hear the word and allow what's going on in the world to take it away? Words are important. Words have meaning. Words have life. And the way that we use them has to be responsible, has to be truthful, has to be just, has to be beautiful. So let us go out and replant the word of God into our homes, into our schools, into our communities.
Let us go out and plant the seeds of hope and joy in our world. So that as Jesus says, it will bear fruit And the planting of that seed that Jesus has given to us in his word is up to each and every one of us.
Questions of who's in and who's out, who gets it and who doesn't, who is saved and who is damned. Of course, loom large behind the parable of the Sower. And each of us might well look into our hearts and ask what work it is that we might need to do to be more receptive to God's word, more like that good soil.
There are four different types of human response to hearing the word of God. We might call them respectively ignorance, fickleness, distractedness, and finally attention. If we notice what is really extraordinary about this story, we're reminded that we always have the choice to respond a fresh to God's abundant and fertile word.
This parable reminds us that God's good news does indeed meet resistance in this world. Sometimes our hearts are hard. Sometimes enthusiasm fades. Sometimes the cares of life cried crowd out what matters most. None of us is permanently one thing or another, but the grace of God continues to cultivate us.
The soil of our hearts is not a final verdict, but the place where God remains at work throughout our Christian lives. This gospel of abundance reminds us that it is never too late. For while rocks remain rocks, human hearts with God's grace can change and respond to his love ever a new.
To be of good soil is to be transformed by God's word and to use your talents that Jesus has given you through the Holy Spirit and to be a light for others which is sufficient for Christ. You may not bring many followers to the faith as we are all different individuals with different talents, but if you are doing your best to serve the faith it is always enough and it is never to late to start if you haven't made a start yet.
