For Sunday
Proper 10A
Collect
O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Reading
Reflection
It was just a few weeks ago that Jesus was talking to his followers about the challenge of apostleship: of doing Jesusy stuff in the world. He said that he was sending them “like sheep into the midst of wolves” and that they may have to deal with true hardship.
He also spoke of division and people not responding to them. About how there are people will hear the call to follow Jesus and some that won’t. But that welcome is essential.
Then Jesus turns to the cities and finds the kind of adversity he warned his followers about. Not “good vs. bad” so much as self-absorbed and skeptical. He found religious leaders who wouldn’t play nice alongside thankful people.
This is the substance for this teaching about ground and growth. Of course hospitable soil is more desirable. And this teaching is so straight-forward, we might miss the true depth of the context.
And further, those people who represent less hospitable soil don’t feel un-hospitable!
We’re not going around thinking we’re the ones making it hard for Jesus! Perhaps this is why modern Christians are so good at diagnosing the problems with other parts of the wider church. Those guys are so selfish!
And perhaps this is also why we so fear being perceived as less than ideal soil. Why many of us refuse to acknowledge our racism, for instance. So we make sure we define the words so as to never apply to us.
Jesus gives many examples of soil that won’t lead to healthy, generous, hopeful growth. Many more examples of what won’t than what will. And rather than argue over what isn’t working, we might find far greater success, as a people, in focusing on what will work: healthy, generous, nurturing soil.