Father Peter F. Hansen

Sermon for Sexagesima

February 23, 2003

Good Ground

“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 .”

     In contrast, I have heard that the lower lands around the west side of Chico are the world's top 1% of all agricultural soils, rich and loamy and fertile. We grow almond trees in it, or rice, or walnuts. We could probably grow anything in it.

     I remember going to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in 1974. This city emerged out of the sand on the shore of the Arabian side of the Persian Gulf, built on oil money. Flying to Dubai from Iran, the expanse of the placid Gulf waters there shone blue and flat underneath the aircraft . Then it just changed color : from blue to tan . And that was Arabia. Two feet above sea level for as far as the eye could see, and nothing whatsoever but sand. We'd just come from Shiraz , around which much of the ground scarcely grew even weeds, and the entire earth seemed to be light brown. A great part of the Mid-East is barren like that. Jesus touched a nerve whenever he taught about farms and growing things. Fertile and good ground is more precious in the Middle East than we ever know, here in this rich valley.

     Jesus taught about good ground vs. bad ground in His parable about the Sower and the seed . The parable was not about the Sower particularly, nor did it speak much about the quality of the seed, or type of plant being grown. He was talking about dirt . And by ‘ dirt' He meant us : you and me. Dirt .

     This is oddly appropriate. For, as you may remember in Genesis, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” Genesis 2:7 If we know that, we know we are but dirt, soil in which God intends something to grow and bring forth abundantly. This first earthman , Adam, betrayed the trust of his Maker and ate something he was told never to eat. So Adam and Eve were expelled from a Garden world and into a more difficult one, where the soil would not yield so plentifully to give food for them. God told him, “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” Genesis 3:19 “ Mud I was, mud I am, and mud I shall become again!” goes a song lyric. Or in the words of Job: “I also am formed out of the clay.” Job 33:6

     It is fitting that we work the soil. Growing things is an icon of what God intends to do in our lives. Fresh out of college, I worked in a Training Center for Mentally Retarded adults in Richmond, like the one here in Chico. I organized and instructed the clients to work on simple assembly jobs, packaging and such, for them to earn a little money and learn to work. When work was scarce, we did activities. Noticing the large weed-choked field that was part of the center's property, I used the clients to plant a vegetable garden. We weeded, fertilized, created a gopher barrier, planted seeds, watered and watched . The exciting day came when we harvested the fruits of the field and had the biggest salad you ever saw. Even better fruit was to show these folks that food doesn't come from Safeway anymore than water comes from a faucet. It is originally gotten from the earth. We must always to marvel at the miracle that plants grow and bring food out of simple dirt . It is God's wonderful creative might that is still latent in the earth beneath our feet.

     In Christ's parable, we are shown four different types of soil. One is hard pounded “ wayside ” dirt that has been trampled on and driven over with ox-carts. Nothing grows there because it is too hard. Another is rocky soil . I know about that from planting my tree. Plants struggle to survive there because their roots can't get past the rocks. Still another is good soil, but in which weeds and thorns compete with the good seed and choke it out. Finally there is good ground , fertile, deeply tilled, free of weeds and ready to bring on a good crop.

     We are dirt. God means to grow something in us, and He is sowing seeds all the time. If it has had a difficult time taking root or bringing forth fruit in us, it's not the fault of the Sower or His seed. The problem is in us . And I think it's important that Christ didn't use any examples of worthless soil. He didn't speak of desert sand. He didn't talk about hardpan. He used no example of polluted ground that would never bear fruit. The soils He spoke of might all have borne fruit; it might all be good ground . This is no predestination model. We are not destined to be bad ground or good ground. We are all dirt. The outcome can change, if we change.

     How do we, then, become good ground?

     That wayside ground was bad only because it was the path used by farmers and others to travel on. It was beaten down and too well traveled to grow anything. This is life in the world. A hard-bitten soul develops when things happen to us. Unlike little children, such as Patricia Ann , who so humbly receive the gift of Baptism and hear with uncritical minds the wonders of God and His Son, the soul that has heard it all and been cheated and lied to opens very slowly to the truth of the Gospel and receives little. Rain, seed, and sunshine don't penetrate its defenses. Wayside ground must be broken up, turned over, fertilized and allowed to breathe in order to become good ground.

     Breaking up soil —our lives— is an act of violence that God does in extreme cases. He loves us all, and will make every effort to get into our lives, even at the extent of causing tragedy or disruption of the norm if it might mean we will accept a Savior and stop resisting His grace. Good ground often happens at the expense of our peaceful lives and presumptions. If that only confirms our gloomy outlook, it is because we steel ourselves to resist Him to the end. But if, in the aftermath of great upheaval, we finally realize we need God, it's worth it. As Hosea said: “Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord, till he come and rain righteousness upon you.” Hosea 10:12

     The rocky soil just has something else in the way—the bones of the earth. To a farmer, rocks are a hazard to a good plow. It takes some extra effort to unearth these rocks and to painstakingly remove them, hauling them over to where we might make a wall with them. The fields around Chico have ribbons of rock walls made long ago when farmers cleared their fields of the volcanic stones that once flew from Mt. Lassen. The rocks that are in us may be lies we use to resist God's grace, or sinful patterns of living that lie below the surface. We don't show these —we hide what we do because it is shameful. But the existence of our sins and lies we tell are exposed when our lives bear no fruit and the Gospel takes shallow root in us . The solution is a slow, painful removal of the rocks, and it may take many a sorrowful confession of sin to clear this ground of the impediments to God's work in us. But we have God's promise that it is worth it: Psalm 126 says: “ They that sow in tears shall reap in joy.” v5

     The third type of dirt is ready to grow anything, like the soil here to the West of downtown. It will grow crops, or weeds, or anything. Life springs out of it readily. But it has allowed its richness to be used selfishly. Riches and cares of this world choke out the seed meant to bring harvest. What may have seemed important becomes treasure in this world, and in the next only a judgment. Jesus said: “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:21 “…he that layeth up treasure for himself …is not rich toward God.” Luke 12:21 There is nothing wrong with what we find in this world, but when it competes with what is eternal, we create idols of temporary things. God is eternal. We need to weed our gardens. This is so essential that Christ suggested to the rich young man that he sell everything he had for the poor and follow the impoverished Jesus. Which would have been more important: the man's money or the Master of the Universe? It can be a hard lesson, but when learned it liberates us from heavy anchors that keep us in this world frantically trying to maintain what we can't keep anyway —but will blow away; “they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” Hosea 8:7

     Now the good soil , turned and softened, rid of rocky impediments, free of choking weeds and thistles, can freely receive the seed and bring forth a harvest. What is that harvest? Christ said it brought a hundredfold . For every seed, every plant, 100 fruits were borne . It is the nature of soil to be abundant . It is only when soil is in an unnatural state that it can't sustain life and bring fruit. Packed, rocky, or weed-choked: we can't do what God made us to do—to bring forth fruit. Fruit here means many things, but it is apparent He means the building of His Kingdom, the addition of souls, the raising of His standard, the healing of our world.

     You were meant to be good ground, but are you willing to do it? A baby comes into the Kingdom so readily, doesn't she? Everyone needs to become as a little child, free of what this world infects us all with, so God's eternal Word can live and grow in us and bring much fruit. You are all God's field. What will He grow in you?

           PFH+