Turning Dirt into Good Soil

I had a dissent with the speaker at church last Lord’s Day. It was not a major dissent and I hope caused no damage. I hope. The subject was the parable of the sower where it is recorded as follows

“ And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold “Mk 4:8

It is called in the NIV as the Parable of the Sower however it could just as easily be called the  parable of the soils. To recap Jesus was telling His followers a parable about a farmer who went out to sow his crop, and about the different conditions the seed might encounter, finishing with the verse quoted above.

The difference in perspective was that our speaker was looking from the point of view of the technical method of turning dirt into soil in the modern day with manure and other embellishments. It was an entirely appropriate way to make the difference in the result of the harvest, and it worked.

My perspective angle was the spiritual element contained within the parable. It occurred to me that there was in all likelihood little difference in the soil, the issue was the environment into which the seed had been sown.

The path was hard and a great feeding place for the birds, next was the rock garden which had little protection from the distractions that confound a new plant.

The next area was the uncleaned area, where the seed grew but was but had to compete with pre-existing plants, weeds, in its life. This area is reminiscent of the rock garden but whereas it had little soil and died as a result of the heat of the environment, here the plant continued to grow but just didn’t thrive. The problem for the wheat in this situation continues to grow encumbered by the debris of the old life that was supposed to be left behind

Finally Jesus came to the “good soil” This was dirt that was prepared for new life. There is just so much a farmer can do to get the ground ready for seeds to be sown. He has little, no, control of the outside forces that come into play such as rain and sunshine.  Both of these conditions can make or break a crop, at the right or wrong time.

So it is when we are sowing for a spiritual harvest. There are things that assist the way our presentation of the Good News is made. These include:

1)     the condition of the relationship between the person we are making a presentation to,

            2)   prayer the ground breaker that sets the Spiritual preparation into motion,

            3)   sensitivity to the condition of your friend  during that presentation, and

            4)   the Jesus love that your person experiences from you.

This is the equivalent of the soil preparation that the farmer does to, hopefully, prepare for a good harvest. The spiritual equivalent of the farmer’s weather variable is the God factor. It is God working in a person’s heart that provides the harvest.

There is some difference between dirt and soil. Some dirts take more work to make productive than others. This is the difference between what my friend had been saying and what I was thinking. His was prepared soil, with all its good stuff added, but I was seeing people as plants who needed the soil around them nurtured. For instance, it may seem more pleasant to work the environment of a prince than a pauper, a judge or a prostitute judy, but Jesus calls us to treat all with the same love and attention.

We are not all called to care for paupers or prostitutes, that takes some special gifting. We are all called to care for the fellow members of humanity who are in our area of influence, after all the second  part of Jesus’ life code is to “love our neighbour as you do yourself.” He didn’t say if they are nice simply to love them