29 January 2014 - getting our hands dirty

 29 January 2014 - getting our hands dirty

The sower sows the word.

'OK, moving on,' we think, 'I've received the word already.'  But wait, is that it?  After listening once do we then stop listening?  "Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear."

We are sheep who know the voice of our shepherd (cf. Joh. 10:27).  This is only a useful skill for sheep to have if the shepherd continues speaking.  If the shepherd falls silent the sheep wander off on there own.  But we follow the Good Shepherd (cf. Joh. 10:11).  He is not distant.  He is not only a voice in our past.  Or at least, he doesn't want to be.  "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (cf. Rom. 10:8).

And that means that this parable has relevance not just when we accept Jesus at first but every single time he speaks.  This is one reason why this parable is so important to "understand any of the parables".  We see the centrality of having good soil when he reveals to his Apostles his plans to suffer and die for the salvation of the world.  Peter does not accept this right away.  "Worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things".  But hearing "Get behind me, Satan" (cf. Mat. 16:23) he does not abandon Jesus.  The secret is that Peter has sufficiently deep roots.  Because his roots are deep he doesn't abandon Jesus when Jesus when he tells the crowd that they must eat his body and blood and Peter doesn't understand.  Even so, he is able to say, "You alone have the words of eternal life."

We need to get the word deep into the soil of our hearts.  We need it to penetrate the surface.  We need to give it more than a superficial hearing so that Satan can't just pick it off the top of the path.  We need to break up the rocky ground that resists certain aspects of the word so that we can get it deeper down where the soil is rich.  We need to allow the roots to grow so even in adversity we will have the depth we need to endure.  Then we will be "the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”

We try too hard to turn desert sands into good soil.   We think that we are going to build God a house when he must first build one for us. 

I will fix a place for my people Israel;
I will plant them so that they may dwell in their place
without further disturbance.

He is preparing a dwelling place for his people that their king Jesus may find a rich dwelling in their hearts. 

I will raise up your heir after you, sprung from your loins,
and I will make his Kingdom firm.
It is he who shall build a house for my name.
And I will make his royal throne firm forever.



How do we cooperate with God as he builds his kingdom?  How do we do our part to prepare our soil for the word?


Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. [emphasis mine]
When this throne holds sway we have nothing to fear.  No weather or enemy will disturb the "imperishable seed" (cf. 1 Pet. 1:23) planted within us.

“Forever I will maintain my love for him;
my covenant with him stands firm.
I will establish his dynasty forever,
his throne as the days of the heavens.”