Beautiful and Lush

As someone who has planted, transplanted, and fertilized a lot of grass, I have learned that having a lush lawn is often easier said than done. Without exception, every yard that I have "inherited" over the years needed loads of development and TLC. However, I found great satisfaction in leaving those lawns in better shape than when I first received them.

 There are few things that I enjoy more in the summer than sitting and looking at a green and crisp lawn after I have finished mowing and trimming. And, yet, keeping a lawn healthy takes work. One fall, portions of my grass developed large brown patches: grubs. Another year, I planted grass in the spring, but even though I watered and cared for it, it did not fare well during the hottest days of summer. Another fall I planted seed a bit too late, and while the seed did finally germinate in the spring, the area has not flourished. This spring I laid some sod in various parts of the lawn. Most of it has done well, but some of it continues to need constant watering due to more needed root growth.

 Things that are healthy and thriving must have the nutrients that give strength due to the right kind of nourishment. Without care, and the right soil for the right planting, one is left with a shriveling or uninspiring result.

In the Gospel of Matthew we find the Parable of the Soils. Using agrarian language that would have been grasped and appreciated by most people in the crowd, Jesus teaches that there are very different ways in which people hear, receive, and reject the Gospel news of redemption. Jesus believes that he, and he alone knows how human beings are to flourish in this life and in the life to come.

However, the "soils" that receive the message about repentance and a transformed identity in Christ, joining his other disciples in his church, must be broken up, moist, and fertilized by the right nutrients if the seed of the Gospel is going to take root. Jesus reveals that most of the soils can't and won't receive his teaching because there is too much hardness, enslavement to material distractions, and the delusion that life should be free of troubles and pain.

Not even Jesus the Christ, full of the Spirit with no hindrances to his power or influence from sin, could change a disciple's heart that wanted salvation and life on their own terms. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin and transforms only the soft and receptive heart.

What kind of soil are we?