Y’all…….every spring since we moved to Albuquerque we have done our levelheaded best to have blooming plants in our back living space.  I started to say “garden” but that won’t work, coz there is no “garden” to it, and “yard” won’t work, coz there is no grass.  So living space it is.  Anyway, the point is, that we try to have growing bits of color, flowers for the bees and hummingbirds, and eye-pleasing plants in our bit of the desert.  It’s a bit tricky, though, because the cost of plants and flowers has gone up and up and up, and often many of the plants we do buy just kinda shrivel up and die in the heat and sun, no matter how much they are watered and shaded.  We learned early on that petunias and lantana are the ticket for the store-bought plants.

Another of the things we have been most successful at growing has been sunflowers, and that started out as purely accidental.  Throughout the year, we try to keep black oil sunflower seeds in all the bird feeders coz the doves and house finches and sparrows and gold finches love ‘em.  And a few years ago, some of those seeds wound up in the containers that the petunias were in.  When they started springing up I decided to just let ‘em grow, coz I had no idea what they were, and I wanted to see what the mysterious plants growing in all the petunias were.  Lo and behold, we had sunflowers.  Since then, we’ve kept the store-bought plants to a minimum and just planted bird seed and we have an abundance of bright blooms.

Oddly enough, though, is that even when those seeds are planted intentionally, some of them germinate, and some of them get eaten by the birds, and some of them just lay there doing nothing, no matter how hard we try to coax them into growing and blooming.

Sadly, I have had students like that and still know several adults like that.  No matter how much care, attention, information, and love you give them, they just won’t grow and bloom.  Jesus had that problem too.  He even based one of his parables on it.  In the Gospel reading appointed for today, from Matthew 13, Jesus tells the parable of the sower and the seeds.

“A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep,
and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit,
a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold. Whoever has ears ought to hear.”

The disciples approached him and said, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” This is why I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and hear but do not listen or understand.  Isaiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in them, which says:  You shall indeed hear but not understand, you shall indeed look but never see. Gross is the heart of this people, they will hardly hear with their ears, they have closed their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and be converted, and I heal them. 

“But blessed are your eyes, because they see, “Hear then the parable of the sower. The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the kingdom without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in his heart.  The seed sown on rocky ground is the one who hears the word and receives it at once with joy.  But he has no root and lasts only for a time. When some tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, he immediately falls away.  The seed sown among thorns is the one who hears the word, but then worldly anxiety and the lure of riches choke the word and it bears no fruit. 
But the seed sown on rich soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”

When you come right down to it, it’s all pretty self-explanatory.  But, however, and oh my goodness, when this little story is combined with the first few words of the Gospel of John, it’s downright tragic.  You know how John begins…. .”In the beginning was the Word….  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

So, it follows that the Word of God isn’t the Bible, it’s Jesus and his words, what he said and did and what he commanded us to do and be.  And us?  In this instance, we’re where the seeds of the Word (what he said and did and what he commanded us to do and be) happen to fall.  Unlike in the parable, though, we have a choice whether to be the fertile ground or the barren soil.  We have a choice whether to embody the teachings of Jesus or not. 

I’ve said it a zillion times:  Sometimes you are the only Jesus people will ever see, the only Bible some folks will ever read.  St. Teresa of Avila wrote: 

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
Compassion on this world,
Yours are the feet with which he walks to do good,
Yours are the hands, with which he blesses all the world.
Yours are the hands, yours are the feet,
Yours are the eyes, you are his body.
Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
compassion on this world.
Christ has no body now on earth but yours.

So, again, the choice is ours.  Do we follow and embody Jesus?  Or do we not?  Keeping in mind his greatest commandments were: You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” (Matthew 22:37–40)   It bears repeating:  We are to demonstrate healing, compassion, and serving the oppressed. His teachings called for radical love and mercy. 

So, choose this day whom ye will serve.  What kind of soil are you gonna be? 

Amen.