Soil Science

Matthew 13:1-23

But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.  –Matthew 13:23

As we drove along in the van on our Spring Break service trip, we were talking about what our parents did for a living.  “My dad is a soil scientist.”  One student remarked.  “You mean, you dad studies dirt?!”  Another student scoffed.  “Who dedicates their life to studying dirt!?”  Everybody laughed (including me, I confess).  The daughter of the soil scientist looked hurt.  It  wasn’t the first time she had been ridiculed because of her father’s profession.  She launched into her defense.  She explained that managing the soil properly was essential to providing food for the world.  Her dad focused on working with natural soil preservation and renewal techniques that poor farmers around the world used to increase their harvests and move beyond barely surviving.  By the time she was finished, there was an embarrassed silence in the van.  “I never knew.”  The student who had ridiculed her admitted.

Even in Jesus’ day, farmers understood that good soil produced better crops.  They knew that roads, rocks and thorns were detrimental to the harvest.   In his interpretation of the Parable of the Sower, Jesus explained that God’s Word was the seed, we are the soil, and that the fruits the Word produces in us depend on the quality of the soil where it is planted.

It is easy to immediately ask the obvious question: what kind of soil are you?  And the follow-up question, “What must I do to make myself good soil?”  But I think those are the wrong questions.  My student’s father didn’t go out to the fields and tell the soil to get its act together!   I’ve never seen a field remove it’s own rocks.  Thorns don’t pull themselves.  The same, I think, is true for us.  God, you see, is the primary actor in this whole drama.  God is the sower who plants the Word in our hearts – through preachers and teachers, bible studies and devotions, worship and prayer, and the witness of God’s people.  Paul asks in Romans 10:14,  How can they believe without a preacher?  God is the one who breaks up the paths and roots out the rocks and thorns from our lives through the forgiveness, grace, and mercy that is ours in Jesus Christ.  God is the one who gives the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:6).  When the Spirit goes to work on us, we bear fruit, fruit that will last.   Our only task is to listen.  Our only task is to hold the Word within us like the good soil wraps itself around the seed and let it grow into understanding. 

Peace,

Bishop Mike

Thanks for reading.