Latest / St. Paul Podcast / Good Soil 7.12.26

Transcript

Good Soil 7.12.26 · St. Paul Podcast

• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: Hi everyone and welcome to the St.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Podcast.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Mark Neethammer, Senior Pastor at St.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Lutheran Church, located in Davenport, Iowa, part of the Greater Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right here, each week, you will find beautiful music and a message of hope and good news to guide your life.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'm hopeful that this podcast can inspire you and help you on your journey of faith as you grow in love and trust in our God.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: I am so grateful to be able to spend this time with you on our podcast today.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: We're going to hear one of the parables Jesus told.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: Parables are teaching stories, stories full of metaphor and images that help us to see God, to see ourselves, and to see this world from a new perspective.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: These parables are often surprising and unexpected.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: And in the story we're about to hear, it has its own bit of unexpected realities, some behavior you wouldn't expect.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe as you listen, you can notice it.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: Someone does something that seems just a bit out of the norm.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus loves to tell stories.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: Most of the time, the stories are a bit of a mystery, and we get to playfully interpret what they might mean for us.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_01: But in this story, what is often called the parable of the sower or the parable of the planter or the farmer, Jesus actually gives us an explanation.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_01: Jesus tells us what he meant as he told that story.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_01: It's a bit of a gift, and it helps us make sense of his words.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: But enough talking about that story Jesus told.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: Let's hear it.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: This parable comes from the thirteenth chapter of Matthew, verses one through nine, and then skipping to verses 18 to 23.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: That same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: And Jesus told them many things and parables, saying, Listen, a sower went out to sow.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: And as he sowed, some seeds fell on a path, and the birds came and ate them up.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: And other seeds fell on rocky soil, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_01: But when the sun rose, they were scorched, and since they had no root, they withered away.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: If you have ears, hear.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: Hear then the parable of the sower.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_01: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_01: This is what was sown on the path.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_01: And when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_01: As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case, a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_01: Now listen in to more about this wonderful parable.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: The city of Los Angeles, California, has twenty-six square miles of city-owned abandoned lots.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's a lot of abandoned lots, over 20 central parks just sitting empty, unused, collecting trash, an eyesore.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: And in South Central LA, where most of those lots can be found, there are few grocery stores, a whole lot of fast food restaurants.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: And like many historically neglected neighborhoods around our country, with little commercial or government investment, the neighborhoods become what is called a food desert, a place where healthy and fresh food is nearly impossible to find.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, in response to this, a resident of South Central LA, his name was Ron Finlay, he got tired of all of this.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: He saw his neighbors getting more and more sick.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: He saw this land that was unused and full of possibility.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_01: He wanted healthy food for himself, for his neighbors.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: And so Ron decided he would plant a garden.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't on one of those vacant lots, but he planted vegetables on a parkway in front of his house.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_01: This parkway is city property.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: He had to maintain it.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_01: And so he he took instead of just tearing out the weeds that he mows over every week, he would, he tore everything out.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_01: And with the help of some neighbors, he planted tomatoes and green beans, cabbage, and sunflowers.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: The crazy thing is that Ron initially got a ticket and a fine and eventually a warrant for his arrest for misusing this government property.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: But thankfully, the city council got on his side, and he has uh now become a part of a movement.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: This movement called LA Green Grounds, where people come together to plant gardens in unlikely places to feed their neighbors.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: LA Green Ground nurtures community and creates beauty.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_01: They grow seeds that feed and nourish their community.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: Ron Finlay had this TED talk, and he talked about how gardening is one of the most defiant and therapeutic things we can do, especially in the city.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: And plus he said at the end of the day, you get strawberries.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: And in this TED talk, Ron Finley said you'd be surprised at what soil can do.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: That abandoned vacant lot might look like nothing.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: It might appear hopeless, but stuck being what it is.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: But that abandoned lot can become a thriving garden full of food, nourishing people, delighting us with beauty, with a little bit of tilling and nurture and compost, you'd be surprised at what soil can do.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Ron Finley reminds me of that farmer, the sower who goes out to sow in the parable Jesus tells.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: That sower took his seeds and scattered them all over the place.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Some seeds landing on good soil, but others, most of them on unproducible soil, on rocky soil and shallow ground.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: And the thing is, this farmer was absolutely wasting his seeds.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: Seeds, of course, are precious, expensive, limited.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: Just throwing them willy-nilly is not a good use of resources.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: Many of you are probably listening to the story and thinking, imagine, imagine how much better it would have been for that farmer if that farmer had access to computers and some ag equipment, the things we have today.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_01: That farmer needs some GPS on its planter with soil analyzers, figuring out just where to plant those seeds and how deep to plant them.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: But the thing is, this farmer's ridiculous wasteful scattering of seeds is the whole point of the story.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_01: The story is not a lesson in getting the most yield most efficiently.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: It's a lesson on God's abundant and generous and extravagant grace.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: The story, more than anything, tells us about the character of God, who so richly spreads love into this world, indiscriminately, foolishly, perhaps, showering blessings, scattering seeds, planting goodness.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: And this farmer is not one bit worried about wasting those seeds.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_01: God's love, after all, God's mercy is not a scarce resource.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: There's plenty of it to go around.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: It's unlimited, it's abundant.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: And because of this, that farmer doesn't need to skimp and save and focus the planting on the most effective or efficient or faithful or seemingly good and perfect soils.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_01: That farmer doesn't let the condition of the soil stop him.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: He doesn't judge or hold back based on some soil that seems too rocky or too dry.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's as though that farmer were saying, Wouldn't you be surprised at what soil can do?
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_01: So this is a story about God, the farmer.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: God's words are the seeds.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: And we, dear people, we are the soil.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: Everything we do in our lives have many different seasons of many different soils.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: For some, our own thorny soil comes out in different ways, maybe in our anger or resentment or frustration.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: For many of us, we get caught, as Jesus says, in that lure of wealth or the realities of the world that lure us away from God, pulling us from our ability to receive it.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: For some of us, life just has beaten us down, external forces trampling upon us until we're worn flat and hard like that path.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: And for many of us, our own heart hearts have been heartbroken so many times by hurt, by grief.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: And we all know the times when our initial excitement and commitment fades away, when life gets busy.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: And then of course, there are those good soil times, those moments where we just receive and experience God's blessings so obviously.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: For me, most often it happens when I'm here with you, standing here singing, when I'm miraculously able to receive God's word of grace, God's words that take root and grow in me, words that are falling upon my heart all the time, that I just can't always receive.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: We are, all of us, all those different soils in different seasons and times of our life, and so are other people.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: And so we can let go of our judgments of ourselves, of others, for the ways that faith shifts and changes, hardens and softens, opens and closes in various times in our lives.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: It's part of this beautiful adventure of being human.
• 15:50
  SPEAKER_01: And thanks before God just keeps on planting, keeps pouring mercy into us, keeps on reminding us who we are made to be and whose we are.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_01: When Jesus first told the story, his friends would have been very familiar with soils.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_01: Most of them were in some way or another subsistent farmers, growing the feud they needed to survive.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: And the land in biblical Israel, in current Israel and Palestine, was not like the fertile soil that we are so blessed with here in Illinois and Iowa.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't have a gardening center down the street to pick up some bags of rich dirt for their garden beds.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: Instead, they had long dry seasons followed by intense rains and a whole lot of rocks in the soil.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: But those subsistence farmers had practices that we still use to tend and to protect their soil.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: They would rotate crops and let their fields life follow for a Sabbath year.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_01: Good soil was not something that just appeared.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: It was not naturally part of the farm, like of their farmlands.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_01: The land had to be tended and worked in order to make for good soil.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I wonder how might we tend to our own lives of faith with that same kind of loving intention that we can trust that God is not going to give up on us.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_01: God will just keep showering love into our lives.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: God continues to remind us who we are and how we can live in the world.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: So the question for us is how do we let our hearts be good soil?
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_01: How do we tend to ourselves so that we can continue to open our lives to receive God's goodness?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe today can be your own kind of day to test the soil of your heart.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: Not necessarily pH levels or whatever, we however we test our soils.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: But simply ask, how are you?
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: What is your soil like?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: Is it hard or tender or shallow?
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: Ready?
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: Too full.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Only you and our gracious God knows this answer.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: And here's the thing not one of those soils, not one of your hearts, has been abandoned by God.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: None of you.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: Not one of us is deemed unworthy or do anything for God.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's true for each of us.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: It's true for everyone we encounter on a given day.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: And so in the midst of this, what are the things you can do to nurture your heart into receptivity to God's goodness planted in you?
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you need to keep practicing open-heartedness and grace, letting go of hate and judgment and anger you hold on to in this world so full of vitriol and cruelty that is a language for so too so many.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe there are thorny vines creeping in, taking space in your head and your heart, pulling you away from your loving God and loving your neighbors.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe you need a little crop rotation to bring in new activities or practices or people serving opportunities to shake things up a little in your life.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe your heart just needs to rest, to lay fallow for a while, to heal, and just to be.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: And then we can wait and see what grows.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: You'd be surprised, after all, at what soil can do.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Or maybe it's best to say you'd be surprised at what God can grow in us and through us and for us by God's abundant mercy.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: At the center lies the seed of Christ.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: May the seed take root, may it blossom and grow, and may the flower grow beyond a measure in the garden of my time.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: I leaves to the sun.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: From the garden of my stool.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: I love my stone.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: From the garden of my stool.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: I love my soul.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: I leave the caterpillars for else.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_02: Consuming only what they meet.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: Then suddenly they're gone.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: And the butterflies take life.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: Giving gently off their last tons of life.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: To the garden of your soul.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_02: To the garden of your soul.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: May the love I have shared be as a living soil, enriching those whom I have touched in the garden of our soul.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_02: In the garden of our soul.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_03: In the garden of our soul.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_03: The garden of us.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_01: Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as in heaven.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Give us today our daily bread.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: Save us from the time of trial and deliver us from evil.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: For the kingdom, the power and the glory are yours now and forever.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: My dear ones, God casts love and goodness around with excessive and extravagant generosity, blessing you with mercy and forgiveness and grace simply because you are loved.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_01: So don't be surprised at what God can do in and through you.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_01: Amen.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Our commitment to endeavors that lend hope to other people stretches across the country and around the world.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: We hope that in a good way you feel a part of that reach.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Tune in next Thursday for another edition of the St.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_00: Paul Podcast.