Matthew 18:1-23
I have a patch of land in the back of my house that I care for. It’s an area about twenty feet long by fifteen wide of grass, surrounded by bushes. That’s the aspirational idea, anyway. In truth the bushes are infiltrated with some horrible species of vine that I have to keep chopping back, along with other weeds. But the patch of grass, that’s something even worse. If you are looking from a distance it doesn’t look so bad, but up close, it’s not grass so much as various weeds growing in what appears to be mostly barren ground. Over the course of years I’ve worked on that patch of grass. My son and I dug it all up, leveled it out, planted new grass seed, watered it faithfully, and for a couple of years it looked good. Then it began to revert again. I dug it all up and bought those rolls of sod, which I laid down. Looked good -- till a couple of years went by. I hired an expert to come in and do what I could not do. It turned out he couldn’t either. And so for the last few years I’ve kind of given up. I mow it now and then and on hot days I water the patch a little but I’ve found the best way to deal with my patch is to ignore it, to watch it from a distance. I’m either a terrible gardener, or this is really poor soil. I favor that idea.
Growing up, my mother’s side of the family were excellent gardeners. Mom loved to plant her garden in the spring and then force me and my sister to weed it. My uncle Phil had an incredible garden -- whatever he planted grew abundantly. In fact all ten siblings except my aunt the nun had beautiful gardens. The secret was in the soil.
If you wanted a great garden, it began with the soil. Nowadays you can go buy bags of soil from the hardware store. I always resent having to buy dirt, but we do -- and my wife can grow about anything if she puts her mind to it. But my mom’s siblings would never have used their hard earned money to buy dirt. The preparation of the soil was paramount. It involved scattering dried cow manure over the area then spading it into the ground. This aerated and fertilized the soil. Every couple of years you laid down lime and worked that into the soil as well; it counteracted the acid. And during the growing season you water the land -- and even that has to be done carefully so as to avoid erosion and leaching the nutrients out of the soil.
I suspect the people listening to Jesus were aware of what it takes to make good soil as well. In today’s gospel Jesus talks about seeds and soil. Some seed falls on the path where people walk; on the concrete sidewalk. That seed has no chance. Some fell on rocky ground where it couldn't put down roots. Some fell into areas where weeds grew up and choked the new plant. But some seeds fell on good soil and yielded an abundant harvest.
Is Jesus telling us that it’s all just chance? It seems that way, sometimes. There are parts of the world where the gospel isn’t heard because preachers are thrown in jail or executed, like North Korea. There are places where the whole apparatus of the state favors one religion and the Christian message is drowned out. There are still places in the world where the message of the gospel can’t compete with the struggle of the people to just find enough food to stay alive - parts of Africa come to mind. And there are places where the message of JEsus conflicts with the prevailing message of the society, where religion is laughed at, where men can be women, where if you are depressed you can have someone put you out of your misery by assisted suicide, where the golden rule is do whatever you want because there are no long term consequences, there is no life after death.
But there are things you and I can control; we can control the soil on which the word of God falls for us. My uncles and aunts, with hard work, could grow gardens that yielded enough produce to last through the winter. They knew how to create good soil.. You and I do as well, with respect to the word of God that falls on our soil. Faith is a fragile thing that needs tending. You can choke it off with the cares of the world, with distractions like the internet, television programs, sports … you name it. We can always find ways to amuse ourselves. You can starve the faith by failing ot fertilize it. Prayer, strengthens faith; training ourselves by fasting, by breaking bad habits, by adopting new habits, that helps our faith grow. And growing in love of God by actively loving our neighbor, that is great fertilizer for our soil.
IN our time there are so many parts of the world where the word of God is falling on bad soil and we can only hope that God in his own time will do what he has promised and bring all men and women into his heavenly kingdom. But we can control our own soil, we can create the conditions for the word of God to bear abundant fruit -- and that’s where the making over of the world to become good soil begins.
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