Sermons for the Month
Ah … Dirt!
DATE: July 10th, 2005
SERVICE: 8th Sunday After Pentecost
TEXT: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23“To all of you Saints here this morning, grace and peace to you from God our Father, from His Son, Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. AMEN
You know what good soil is, don't you? Let's begin by being literal. I identify good soil by the smell - it's that mossy, pungent odor that wakes up my farmer genes and causes me to say, "Ah … dirt!" When are my hands caked with it, when my fingernails are filthy and the distinctive odor reaches my nose, I know that this soil - this good soil - will bring forth life. When it comes to multiplying God's word, that's what we need to be - good soil; it's an image that really works for me.
In the parable Jesus tells in today's Gospel lesson there are four types of soil, or people, who respond differently to the seed, or God's word. The message is, of course, that our goal is to be good soil. That may be a challenge because, as one commentator noted, any of us can be any of the four soils that the story describes. I'm going to take that idea a step further, and thus increase the challenge we face. You see, I think we can be any of the four soils simultaneously.
In other words, within each of us is the hard soil and the rocky soil and the thorn-infested soil and also the good soil. And, not only do I think we carry each of these tendencies to be closed and to be shallow and to be overwhelmed and to be productive within us, but I even identify each one with a part of the body.
The heart can be hard, closed. The feet can be constantly moving, defying being grounded. The mind is easily preoccupied, worried and overwhelmed. And, the gut is the place where I feel the Spirit stirring to bring about transformation.
Obviously, the first transformation that must take place is in our own hearts and feet and minds, where good soil must replace that which is limiting us.
You remember what Jesus said. The seed that fell on the hard path cannot penetrate and is rendered ineffective by sinfulness. Here's the translation - there are times when we do not allow God's word to enter our hard hearts. Perhaps because of bitterness, or confusion or self-doubt or our own sinfulness we do not take to heart what Jesus says.
Pastor and author Walter Wangerin has written a devotion titled "Evidence of the Hard Heart". He describes his anger, his disdain for those who fall short of perfection, at least as he defines it.
Let me quote him, "Grocery clerks, I watch your beeping computer registers with a computer of my own. Ring one item twice, and I will not shout at you, but with cold articulation I will spotlight your stupidity…. My rightness is the death of others: garrulous dentists, ungrammatical teachers, weather reporters who speak of weather "on tap" as if it were a bear, cops whose English condemns them, postal employees who cannot find a house - door-knobs all! Yes, I have evidence of a hard heard. I am lonely. I say, 'None can match me! What good to me is a self-indulgent community, malingerers, sinners, impious and rude?' I say, 'I am solitary by choice.' But…I feel lonely." (1)
That's the consequence of a hard heart, unreceptive to the forgiving love of Jesus. That's going on in here, while at the same time our feet are experiencing some difficulty staying in place.
You remember what Jesus said. The seed that fell on the rocks sprouts quickly, but just as quickly withers away because it has no roots. Here's the translation - there are times when we like the idea of being a Christian; we receive God's word with good intentions and promise to be faithful. But, our feet are not grounded. We are long on excitement and short on commitment. So, we run at the first sign that being a person of faith will require something of us - like sacrifice.
Nearly 50 years ago the sermons of Helmet Thielicke were compiled into a book titled The Waiting Father: 16 Parables by Jesus Interpreted for Today. What he writes about our ungrounded feet still rings true, but is difficult to hear. He describes the person who is "thrilled" by a sermon or "excited" to be a part of a church community and then suddenly the fervor disappears. What happened?
He writes, "It most cases it was a kind of emotional Christianity…. For when the word of God really takes root a man (person) must die; it means going down deep, it means being born again. And if birth itself is a painful thing, then new birth is at least equally so." (2)
He goes on to say that being "thrilled" or "inspired" is merely spiritual foam, but becoming rooted in the faith makes demands on us. That's why its' hard to stand still long enough to become rooted. As we struggle with our feet wanting to move us on before it's time, our minds are giving us a hard time.
You remember what Jesus said. The seed that fell among the thorns was overwhelmed by them. Here's the translation - there are times when our dual enemies of anxiety and desire overwhelm us. Our minds are focused on what we want and on reasons to worry, until God's word is no longer heard amid the clamor.
I love the way the Rev. Charles Hoffacker describes this take over of the mind. Let me read you one more quote.
"Sometimes my mind is preoccupied, absorbed by the medley of the world, cluttered with its trash, incapable of observation, reflection, prayer. The hectic dance of activity, the endless tumult of events, leaves me without mental seriousness…." (3)
In other words, our minds are overwhelmed by gaining and keeping and all that threatens gaining and keeping, and it's as if the weeds are taking over inside our skulls.
And at the same time our hard hearts and ungrounded feet and overwhelmed minds are keeping God's word from sprouting, there is somewhere deep inside of us the good soil where the Holy Spirit is at work cultivating faith that will eventually spread. This faith is stronger than the hardest heart, can still the fastest feet and clear the weeds away from a muddled mind.
So, even as we struggle with imperfection, we place our focus on that Good Soil, the place of the Holy Spirit's planting, and pray that it might increase.
I'm reminded of my friend Mary who loves to garden. She has a secret gardening weapon that I'm about to reveal. It's a wheelbarrow full of manure. Every year she acquires the smelly stuff from somewhere, I imagine a local farmer. Each time she waters the flowers she hoses down the pile in the wheelbarrow and then takes it from one bed to the other, using that water for the plants. They thrive. It's not totally pleasant, it takes a bit of effort, but does she ever have good soil.
It seems to be that there's a message in that for we who want the good soil in us to increase, while all that other soil declines. It takes some intentionality. At first it may be difficult to pray more, to study scripture more, to worship more, to serve others more, to sacrifice more, to fellowship more - to do all those things that make us aware of the Spirit's presence and increases the soil's productiveness within us.
In the end though, we will have good soil in abundance and our hearts won't be so hard, our feet won't be as inclined to run when the going gets tough and our minds will be clearer. Then, the promise of the parable will come forth; there will be a rich harvest of the things of God in our lives, and through us in the world. Indeed, God will look at us and say, "Ah…DIRT!" AMEN
(1) Wangerin, Walter Jr., Measuring The Days, Daily Reflections with Walter Wangerin, Jr. New York: Harpers Collins Publishers, 1993, pgs. 212-213.
(2) Thielicke, Helmut, The Waiting Father: 16 Parables by Jesus Interpreted for Today. New York: Harper and Row, 1959, pgs. 56-57.
(3) The Very Rev. Charles Hoffacker, used by permission, What Kind of Soil Are You, What Kind of Sower?, materials for July 10, 2005, www.sermonwriter.com.