A Harvest of Perseverance

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fertile soil, generous heart, harvest, hear, keep the word, Matthew, perseverance, share, soil, sowing seed, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, understand

Yesterday someone brought us four large summer squash from their abundance and the vegetable farm down the road had many boxes ready to ship from their crop as well. That’s pretty common around here in the summer. Even if you only have one summer squash plant, you are bound to share in the end as the yield is always heavy. On the other hand, I was trying earlier in the week to plant two small pots of flowers and I encountered lots of stones (not uncommon on our land) and all sorts of ants and other bugs. I’m still not sure if they will survive.

This morning’s gospel is the one about the sower sowing seed in four different kinds of soil: the path (i.e. the road), rocky ground, soil among thorns and rich soil – all indicators of how we hear the word of God. It harks back to yesterday when I talked about open eyes and ears open to hear the word of God. All four kinds of “soil” hear the word this morning but it is only the rich soil that hears and understands the word which yields a good harvest. (MT 13:18-23) Implied is the importance of listening deeply but there’s another additive, found in the acclamation that precedes this gospel. It says: “Blessed are those who have kept the word with a generous heart and yield a harvest through perseverance.” That says to me that even if you have the best soil in the world it’s likely you will need to pay attention to all sorts of conditions so you’ll water the crop sufficiently and fertilize if need be. Sometimes it seems as if something I plant will never grow. I kept a plant of mistaken identity for six years because it kept putting out a leaf or two every year. When we transplanted it finally, it flourished into a large hibiscus rather than the hydrangea that was ordered! Clearly, perseverance does pay eventually!

Small Beginnings

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fertile soil, Holy Spirit, Jesus, Matthew, mustard seed, oak, The Sophia Center for Spirituality, tree, yeast

Any baker knows the importance of yeast in the process of baking most breads. That little package does wonders in the rising process. Just so, I have seen a lot of small seeds in my life but I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a mustard seed. I’m hearing it’s the smallest of all seeds (MT 13:31-35)… I have, however, watched trees on our property double in size in what seems just a few years – notably lately a large oak whose crop of acorns has just begun to appear. You know where this is going; it’s those two parables that are easier than most to understand. Jesus compares the Kingdom of Heaven to mustard seeds and yeast – small at the start but burgeoning into a huge tree or permeating a whole batch of bread as the necessary growth agent.

We could interpret these parables as giving us things to watch as they grow – just as the Kingdom of Heaven is growing in the world. But my sense is that Jesus means for his listeners to take what he says more directly. What if we, his hearers today, are the host for the change agents, providing the fertile soil for the seed of the kingdom to grow in us? What if we are the dough awaiting the yeast that we might be the ones to make possible the rising and the spread of the Kingdom here and now? Or more to the point, what if we are that seed or that yeast, having received the impulse of the Holy Spirit to use our energy for the growing and the spreading? We may not be the tree, visible to all by its spreading branches and great size. We may not be the beautiful and delicious bread from the oven giving joy to a hungry crowd. Unseen, unheard, unnoticed we may be doing the work that will advance the Kingdom which Jesus said is within us until it bursts forth to the glory of God and the benefit of the world. That is our call. And that is enough.