Proper 10 :: Isaiah 55:10 – 13 / Psalm 119:105 – 112 / Romans 8:1 – 11 / Matthew 13:1 – 9, 18 – 23
This
is the homily given at St. John’s, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania, on Sunday, July
16, 2023, by Fr. Gene Tucker.
“THE FOUR SOILS”
(Homily text: Matthew 13:1 – 9, 18 – 23)
This morning, we hear Jesus’ wonderful
parable about the four soils. As I think about this familiar teaching, I think
it functions on more than one level.
At one level, it informs Christians
about the responses they are likely to encounter as they go out into the world,
sharing the Good News (Gospel) of God’s great love, seen in the sending of
Jesus Christ. Surely, the church of which Matthew may have been a part was
experiencing the various responses and reactions that Jesus outlines as they
lived their lives in the middle-to-late first century.
Perhaps these early Christians asked
themselves, “Why do some people, when they hear the Good News, reject it? Or
why do others seem to accept it, but then fail to live into it? And why do some
accept the Good News, live into it, and are forever changed?”
It seems to me that the reactions those
early Christians experienced are much the same ones that we Christians today
experience. Why is it, for example, that some people reject the Good News,
which – to us who have come to believe – makes so much good sense? (This is to
cite but one example of the reactions that we are likely to encounter.)
Alas, what we’re asking ourselves about
is a mystery, something that is beyond our knowing.
Today’s parable also functions at the
personal level of the individual believer, I think.
Let me explain.
If I am being totally honest about it,
I find within my own heart, mind and soul conditions that resemble each of the
four soils described in today’s parable.
At times, my heart and mind are deeply
attuned to the things of God, and there’s an intense love affair going on with
Him. At other times, however, the cares of everyday life seem to grab my
attention, crowding out the things of God. (Are you there with this condition?
I certainly am.) At still other times, my heart is rocky and hard, so hard, in
fact, that it seems like God’s love and God’s truths can’t take root at all.
If we’re honest with ourselves, and if
we recognize the nature of everyday living, then I think we have to admit that
most of us experience some level of differences in our relationship to God.
Probably there are very few among us whose hearts are so completely and
faithfully oriented toward the things of God most or all of the time. In some
cases, those who are that way we call Saints (with a capital “S”).
What can be done to deal with the
realities of the responses that our Lord lays out before us? Is there any way
to deal with the thorn-infested soil of a person’s heart? Is there a way to
break up the hardness of a rock-solid heart?
Indeed, I think, there are solutions,
and they fall into the realm of the work of the Holy Spirit, and into our role
as bearers of the Good News.
Ultimately, it is the Holy Spirit’s
role to cultivate the conditions for the Good News of God to take root in a
person’s heart. The Spirit informs, enlightens, convicts and empowers a person
to be able to respond to the things of God. We human beings are incapable,
absent the Holy Spirit’s work and presence, to do anything positive in this
regard. (I am sure that St. Augustine of Hippo would agree!)
I think, however, that we Christians
also have a part to play. It’s our job to proclaim by word and by example the
Good News of God in Christ, as our Baptismal Covenant states so well. In so
doing, we give the Holy Spirit some tools with which to work, kind of like
being a good tool (hoes, shovels, rakes, e.g.) for managing the growth of
things in a garden. The things we do, the things we say, the ways in which we
live, are all ways that demonstrate the truth of the Good News, and the Good
News’ ability to change people forever and for the truest good.
May the Holy Spirit enable and empower
us for the work of ministry in the Lord’s name, that our witness may be of use
to the Spirit’s work.
AMEN.
