THE SOIL OF OUR SOUL

Sexagesima Sunday

15 February, AD 2009

TEXT:  St. Luke 8:4-15

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.  Amen.

“But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.”  (St. Luke 4:15)

On this, the second Sunday of Gesimatide, Jesus teaches a spiritual truth using a parable in which there is a common metaphor with which all members of his audience could relate, especially as members of an agrarian society.  It focuses on a farmer and the accepted method of hand-seeding a large field.  As he walked through his field, the farmer would broadcast the seed in large handfuls, scattering it in all directions in order to achieve the largest yield at harvest-time.  Inevitably, some of the seed would fall on the path as he scooped it out of the container.  Some of the seed would fall on the rocky outcroppings that occurred naturally in his field.  Because of the lack of herbicides, there were patches of thorny weeds into which some seeds fell.  But the majority of the seeds fell on good, rich, deep soil and bare fruit to their greatest potential, even an hundred-fold.  After Jesus told this parable, He stated quite openly, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”  That would be our plight as well with regard to this parable, if His disciples had not asked Jesus what the parable meant, so He told them.  He said that He was teaching about the Kingdom of God and that the mysteries thereof had been given to His followers; but to others, for whatever reason, the meaning would be hidden to them in fulfillment of the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 6, which reads, “that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.”  What does this mean?  Parables point to spiritual truths which compel their listeners to uncover that truth for themselves.  Likewise, they conceal the truth to those who are too lazy or hardened of heart to hear them.  But the main point is that God does not withhold the mystery of the parables, their understanding comes from the individual whose heart is attuned to God’s Word and Will.  But in this particular instance Jesus does tell His disciples what this parable means with regard to the Word of God and the hearts of several kinds of individuals.  First, He tells us, the seed is the Word of God.  And there are people whom we could call “path people” who hear the Word of God but refuse to receive or believe God’s message.  The Word of God cannot penetrate their heart and soul because it has become packed down and hardened, so the Word cannot germinate within them and is consumed away.  Next, Jesus says, there are people whom we could call “rock people”.  Rock people are different than “path people” because they have some good soil on the surface but underneath that shallow layer there is hard, impenetrable rock.  The Word of God germinates in the thin layer of soil in their soul, but again, for whatever reason, they never get around to tending it properly and when the spiritual drought of temptation comes, the Word of God dies in their heart and they fall away from God’s Word and His Church.  A third kind of people could be called “thorn-patch people”.  Their soil is pretty good, but then there are those pesky and recalcitrant thorny weeds which rob the soil of the soul of its precious nourishment; the same nourishment we receive from daily Scripture reading and from the Holy Eucharist; and because of life’s worries, riches, and pleasures, their seedlings of faith fail to mature and are choked out by those weeds in their soul.  But in contrast to these three types of people, Jesus teaches us that there are “good soil people” who hear the Word of God, focus their lives and souls on Jesus Christ and follow Him no matter the cost or labor.  They hear the Word of God to their heart, tend it, retain it, and by persevering produce the fruit of abundant and everlasting life and by faith and belief in Jesus Christ attain the salvation of their soul.  This must have been a tremendously important truth that Jesus expressed because this parable is found in all three synoptic Gospels – St. Matthew, St. Mark, and St. Luke with essentially the same interpretation – the mystery and process of how to gain entry into the Kingdom of God.  

Well, what does this parables have to do with Gesimatide and, moreover, what are we supposed to be doing in this pre-Lenten season?  We are given, in Gesimatide, a call and the time to prepare ourselves for Lent.  Ash Wednesday is not the time to begin thinking about our Lenten discipline.  We are given the opportunity through last week’s parable and this week’s to think about our place in the Kingdom of God and how to better secure our relationship with Jesus Christ as the time for soul-searching draws near.  What are some of the things we can do during Lent to draw closer to God?  Some people see Lent as a season with a negative connotation; in other words what do I have to give up or stop doing in order to punish myself or to deny myself in some way that would have a purgative or cleansing effect on my soul?  That’s certainly one way to approach the season of Lent, but I think that there is another, more positive way we can look at this season.  And that is to think about what we can DO, what we can add to, not take away from, our spiritual lives that would make Lent more useful to us and help us produce more fruit for our soul; something we can do to amend the soil of our soul as Lent draws near.  We have the tools already in our hands.  The first is prayer.  Whether you have a method of daily Scripture reading that you already follow or not, I would urge you to read the Holy Scriptures more.  You don’t have to read the King James version.  There are  many more translations available that make God’s Word clearer to people who really want to read it.  I can recommend some to you.  Along with daily Scripture reading you have in the pews before you the Book of Common Prayer and the Daily Offices; one for the Morning and one for the Evening.  The Daily Offices are an excellent way to read the Holy Scriptures and commune with God in prayer.  Another way to amend the soil of your soul is to avail yourselves of the Sacraments of the Church.  They are the channels of God’s Grace to your soul, instituted and affirmed by Jesus Christ, Himself.  To cut yourselves off from those means of Grace is to damage your soul beyond repair.  Finally, beginning on the Friday evenings of Lent, we will walk with Jesus along the Way of Sorrow by praying together the Stations of the Cross.  This is not a Sacrament of the Church as such, but is called a Sacramental, much like crossing yourself or saying Grace before a meal.  Like the Sacraments, the Sacramentals also convey Grace, but only if one participates in them.  All of these are ways made available to you by which you can amend the soil of your soul before Lent begins so that by the Grace of God we can all be transformed from “path”, “rock”, or “thorn-patch” people and become “good soil people” in order to produce fruit an hundred-fold and thereby have a closer relationship with Jesus Christ which can begin right now and continue until you stand in His nearer presence and see Him face to face.  The question is, Which type of soil are you now?  More importantly is your realization that with God’s help and grace you can become the best soil imaginable and at harvest-time, to bear the fruit of the Gospel an hundred fold!

And now, unto God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed all might, majesty, power, and dominion as is most justly due this day both now and forever; world without end.  Amen.

SOLI DEO GLORIA – JEU+