Cultivating the Soil (Seventh Sunday after Pentecost)

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Jesus begins his parable today with the words, “A sower went out to sow.”  This was an image all of his first listeners were familiar with, but it’s honestly something most of us hardly ever see or do. “Sowing” is the act of tossing seed on the ground and scattering it far and wide.  And honestly, the only time I ever do that is when I engage in the exercise of futility I refer to as “trying to plant grass.”

Grass seed gets “sown”, but it’s always a messy experience and fraught with possibilities that the seed goes places you don’t want it to land, yet somehow it also doesn’t cover the places you want it to!  (This is, of course, one of the points of the parable!)

And so when I sow grass seed, I try to recognize and avoid all of these types of places that Jesus describes in the parable.  But even though the messiness of sowing makes some places difficult to avoid, at least it’s easy to recognize the types of soil that I DON’T want the seed to land in.  After all, I know what the driveway looks like (and that seeds will find the tiniest crack and grow there!).  I know where the bushes are.  And it’s easy to see where certain paths are running through my backyard.  And even if I’d like to get some grass growing there, I know from experience that it’s a waste of effort.

I know what the “soil” in my yard looks like.  And I’m wondering if this is part of the point of Jesus’ parable.  That is, we can look around at the ground we walk on and know how receptive it will be to growing seed.  But are we able to look at ourselves and figure out what kind of “soil” we are at any given moment, and how receptive we are to really receiving the seed of God’s presence in our lives and for that presence to really take root and grow?

And while sometimes people have read this parable as though certain types of people are just the way they are – that is, some people are like the “good soil” and some people are like the “path” – I suspect that Jesus isn’t calling us to judge other people. Instead, I think at least one of the things Jesus is asking us to do in this parable is to constantly examine ourselves, so that we can recognize what kind of “soil” we are at any given moment, and tend the soil that we are in order to be more receptive.

At least for me, I know I’ve been all of these types of “soil”, sometimes in a very short period of time!  It’s easy for all of us, as we go through our days and weeks to sometimes realize that we’re like:

• The path – we feel so walked on and trampled that no matter how hard God may be trying to get our attention, God’s Word barely has a chance to take root at all;

• Rocky ground – we hear God’s Word and think it’s great; but there are a lot of other things that are great, too; and we get pretty distracted with all the other stuff that needs to get done;

• Thorny ground – we care deeply about all kinds of stuff, including important things like political oppression and making sure we have enough money for our families; God’s Word of life and hope may be important, but it can get choked out by all the pain and problems and responsibilities of life around us;

• Good soil – we actually feel invested in God’s presence at the moment, and ironically, the “fruit” that gets produced when we feel like that is often the very thing we need to deal with the thorns, the rocks and the birds on the path…

If you’re at all like me, you can probably identify times in your life when you’ve felt like all 4 of these types of soil.  Maybe you feel like two or three of them at the same time!

But here’s where it’s important not to push the metaphor too far.  After all, the soil is just the way it is.  It can’t do anything about it.  And of course, we often can’t control whether there are thorns growing in our lives.  We sometimes get trampled no matter how much we try to avoid it.  And rocks and birds appear whether we like it or not.

But the last line of this parable is interesting.  Jesus says, “let anyone with ears listen.”  It’s Jesus’ standard way of saying, “pay attention.”  And if there was absolutely nothing we could do but be the passive soil we are at the moment, there would be no need for Jesus to say this.  Instead, he could simply say, “hey that’s just the way it is.  Suck it up and deal with it!”

But instead, Jesus calls us to listen and to pay attention.  And that means that, even though we may be subject to lots of things we can’t control, we aren’t just passive soil in the picture.  We’re also cultivators who have some responsibility for the kind of soil we are.

And sometimes, taking responsibility for the kind of soil that we are means tending to:

• The things that make us crazy, upset and confused – Sometimes, soil can’t have a relationship with the seed because it’s too exhausted from supporting the thorns and the weeds.  And often, the thing that keeps us from really engaging with what God is planting in our lives is that we’re just too exhausted to deal with it.  Sometimes, part of tending the soil that I am means finding ways to take a deep breath and letting go of things I know I can’t control.  It doesn’t mean that I stop caring, but that I put myself in an emotional place where I can transcend the craziness of the moment (not unlike putting on your oxygen mask before helping others…)  And sometimes, when I can transcend the emotional anxiety of right now, God’s Word can work in my life to give me the fruit I need to address all the stuff that’s making me anxious…

• The things that distract me – Sometimes, soil can’t have a relationship with the seed because there are just too many rocks for the seed to grab hold of the soil.  And often, that happens when we just get too distracted by the need to always be doing something.  Maybe you’re like this, too, but sometimes, I just gotta stop checking email, scrolling through my news feeds and trying to focus on every little thing that somebody else wants me to do.  Of course, I need to do many of those things.  But by clearing out some space, I often give myself the space for God’s Word to speak to me and help me focus so that I can keep the rocks that I can’t clear out in perspective…

• The physical place where I am – this is the real limitation of this metaphor – soil can’t know or change where it is.  But we can sometimes tend the soil we are by physically changing where we’re located.  And at least for me, physically gathering with other Christians puts me in a place where I can experience the presence of God in ways that I just can’t when I’m by myself.  And I find that very often, when I put myself in a different place, even just for a little while, I become a different kind of soil where God’s Word can take root in me in a way that it can’t while I’m by myself …

In the end, if we want God’s Word to take root in us, and do anything with us or in us, we need to have a relationship with the seed of God’s Word and God’s presence.  We can’t just sit back and say, “Hey God, lay it on me without any commitment or involvement on my part.”  It doesn’t work just to be passive soil. 

But the good news is that God is always working in our lives – and sowing the seed of his Word in us – no matter what kind of “soil” we’ve been in the past.  And so Jesus’ words to us today remind us not only to have hope and confidence in God’s continuing action in our lives, but also to be people who constantly tend the soil that we are, so that the fruit of God’s Word can give us – and others in our world – the strength and nourishment we need to keep going.

Amen.