Your Name Is Mud
Isaiah 55:10-13, Psalm 65:(1-8), 9-13, Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Looking at this morning’s lesson from Jesus on the parable of the soils, let’s say that I did a little digging…so to speak. I think that dirt has gotten a bad rap. Dirt has a pretty low reputation in our society. Look at how we use the word dirt in our figures of speech. If you don’t have much money, someone might you‘re as poor as dirt. If you have a bad reputation in your hometown, you might be considered a dirty dog. As we become more advanced in age, we might be called as old as dirt. If someone is spreading rumors about our private affairs, they might be dishing the dirt or airing our dirty laundry out in public. Eventually, if enough rumors get out about us, they might tell you that your name is mud.
Your home is thought of as messy if it has dirty dishes or dirty windows, and you were a bad parent if your kids had dirty faces or dirty clothes, And for some strange reason our mothers and grandmothers would be most upset if we had a car accident while wearing dirty underwear.
We don’t like dirt, and we don’t like things that are dirty. Dirty is bad, and sometimes this is the case as with dirty pictures, dirty movies, dirty words, and dirty minds. Those are some dirty things that we could seriously live without. But I still think that most of the time, the term dirt is either overused or simply misunderstood. Seeing as how Jen and I are potty-training Ben, and probably will be for months and maybe even years to come…when we say that Ben has dirty drawers or soiled pants. Let me tell you this…it isn’t dirt we keep finding in there.
Now if I have offended anyone’s sensibilities in introducing my message this morning, I do apologize. For something as simple, honest, and hard-working as dirt, it is tough to have any meaningful discussion about the topic without feeling …well, dirty. And this is a shame, especially considering that we are all little more than dirt ourselves..
Genesis 2:7 the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. In Genesis 3:19 one of the conditions placed on Adam was this: “By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return." This same sentiment is reflected in Ecclesiastes 3:20, “All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all will return.”
We’re dirt. We have come from dirt, and even with the finest funeral and embalming service available, someday our bodies will be dirt once more. In the meantime, we need dirt. From it comes our food. Adam was given the command to work the ground and harvest what it produces in order to live. Generation after generation would cultivate plant, tend, harvest and thresh.
It was great to see combines out gathering wheat this past week, and although the machinery is far more sophisticated than it was in biblical times, these processes remain much the same. This is how Jesus would communicate to the people.
In Matthew 13, crowds gathered around Jesus. People from all over the countryside sought him out. But the crowds became too large, too numerous to manage. They wanted him to touch and heal them. They wanted his attention. They wanted his time. But the time had come for Jesus to teach. He was unable o do this with people crowding and pushing toward him. So he got into a small boat and pushed away from shore. Without the crushing crowds on top of him, he began to teach the people
"A farmer went out to sow his seed.” From the parable, we know that this farmer scattered the seed, and it fell indifferent places, on different types of soil. The first one mentioned was the path. Because the ground was pressed and hard-packed, the seed stayed on top, and the birds came and ate it. The second soil was shallow and rocky. Because the soil was shallow, it had no problem popping right up. Yet also because of the shallowness, the soil did not have much moisture. The rocks kept the plants from putting down deep roots. When the sun came out, the plants died.
The third soil was full of thorns. The seeds made it to the ground and began to grow. But the thorns also grew. Competing with the thorns for water and nutrients, the thorns won out. The good plants were choked out and died. Finally, the seed also made it to good soil. It grew. It bore fruit. Some produced a crop sixty times what was sown and others one-hundred times what was sown. Matthew 13:9 “He who has ears, let him hear."
The disciples asked Jesus why he taught in parables. He revealed to them that most of the people in the Hebrew faith had lost their ability to hear what God had been teaching them. They heard the words of the Law, but no longer understood what they said. They saw the deeds of prophets, but could not understand what God was showing them. The people had closed their eyes and ears to God. Because of this, Jesus spoke in parables. The disciples would come to understand, but the people would remain in blindness until the time would come for Jesus to be fully revealed.
So Jesus explained the parables to the disciples. The seed scattered along the path is the message of the kingdom of heaven shared with the spiritually blind. Because they do not understand the good news of Jesus, it is stolen from their hearts by Satan. They remain in their darkness and ignorance of God. The seed scattered on the rocky soil are those who hear of Jesus and accept him joyfully. But they are shallow like the soil. Their hearts and minds are on their own desires, not God’s. Faith does not take up root and the person is as much of a lost soul than ever.
The thorny soil is the hearts of those who hear Jesus’ message and believe. However, their concerns of life and their worries about wealth overtake and overcome their faith. For these people, their faith is choked by fear and made impotent by worldliness. What is interesting is that the plant lives, but produces no fruit. These are people who know God enough to be kept alive, but do not know him well enough to be useful to the kingdom. The good soil is the hearts of those who hear, believe, and despite whatever fears, worries, or circumstances present themselves. These persons live their faith to its fullest. Because of this, others are affected. Because of this, seeds are being planted in the hearts of others. Plants are bearing new fruits in that disciples are now producing other disciples.
Four kinds of soil. Four kinds of dirt. Can anyone tell me what kind of soils might be the best? Of these four choices, the path, rocky, thorny, and good, which is the kind of soil that God wants us to be? Any guesses? The good soil. What kind? THE GOOD SOIL.
In this parable, what makes the good soil so good? We know that it produced 30, 60 and 100 fold crops, but why? Good soil is cultivated soil. Good soil has been plowed and disked, prepared to receive the seed. When I look around most fields in the late winter/early spring, there is all kinds of old plants, last year’s stalks, and garbage growth. And after the winter, that ground is probably as hard as a rock. You could go throw handfuls of seed out there, but you’re not going have any crops.
Faith must be cultivated. If you are a Christian…if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, two things happened before you ever came to faith. 1. The Holy Spirit was working on you, calling you to faith. 2. Someone demonstrated what faith is like. Someone showed you what it is like to be a Christian, and I can only hope that they proved to be a good example. Faith was cultivated in you. You heart was being prepared to receive faith before you could ever perceive it. That is the work of God through the Holy Spirit, and the witness of God through the heart, hands, and words of a living, practicing believer of Christ. Faith must be cultivated, and hearts must be open to receive the good news. If people are not coming to Christ, it is probably because 1. They are fighting against the Holy Spirit, or 2. They don’t see or hear people openly practicing their faith. They don’t “see” any good reasons to become a Christian.
Faith must be cultivated, but it must also be tended. Fields are fertilized before and after planting. Asking around, I have learned that there are different types of fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides used not only to make the fields fertile, but also to get rid of the weeds that choke the plants. No farmer plants his or her fields and is happy with stunted empty stalks. The crops need to be fruitful. There needs to be a grain. There needs to be a fruit coming as a result. There needs to be a seed for the next crop as well.
Christians MUST BE fruitful. So often, Christians are just happy being fruit. We are happy that someone sowed and shared faith in our lives. We are the fruits of their faith, but then we just want to take it easy. Our faith must be tended. Weekly worship. Daily prayers and devotions. These keep us strong. They keep our ears open and our eyes upon God. When troubles come, we may get singed, but we still yield a crop. When the worries of this world, when fears about wealth threaten us, we may choke up a little, but our thirst for righteousness instead of worldliness keeps us fruitful.
We need to be fruitful. We need to be the good soil. We need to be yielding a crop of sixty and one-hundred times what we are right now. As a Church, fruitfulness should cause our barns to be overflowing. Our worship services and our Sunday schools, and our Bible Studies should be full to the point where we are starting another. Our lives should be so full of fruitfulness that we are planting new churches every few years.
Is this happening? In reality…no. Not here. Around the world, in Africa, South America, Asia, the church is exploding with new growth. Why? Because their fields are open to the word of the Lord.
Isaiah 55:10-11 10 As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, 11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
Although the Lord is moving in mighty ways around the world, I don’t think that he has given up on us yet. But we need to get moving. We need to get going. We need to put our faith affairs in order. We need to help cultivate the hearts of others. Cultivate faith in others by being faithful yourself.
We need people to step forward. We need two kinds:
1. People with hearts open to learn.
2. People with hearts open to lead. We are blessed to have so many in Sunday school, but everyone should be in a class. We have a nice-sized Bible study, but everyone should be there. We need more. We need more times and opportunities where we can gather together to enrich the soils of our souls.
We need teachers. We need leaders to expand our current ministries and to start new ones, opening up new mission fields here in our community. If we’re going to turn pressed dirt into fertile soil, we’re going to need some tools. We don’t need another stick in the mud. We need people to step forward who are willing to shape and be shaped.
It is time to give dirt a good name. We need to be people of the good soil. Deeply rooted in our faith and willing to cultivate and enrich the lives of others in the hame of Jesus Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit. Who here is with me? I WANT TO BE THE GOOD SOIL. I WANT TO HELP OTHERS BECOME THE GOOD SOIL. Who here is with me?
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