Introduction:
I love to garden…but I am not a good gardener. I have been around gardening all my life. I have been working in gardens since I was a little boy. As a kid I can remember helping mom and dad rake our fall leaves into the garden in the fall and dad would burn them and turn the ashes into the soil for the following spring. I remember helping he and mom dig up the soil, drop seeds into the ground and then later pick green beans and break beans, even can beans, and my favorite part, eat beans. Later, I helped a my mom and step-father in their garden at home. But as time when by and other interests caught my attention – like sports and girls and girls…did I mention girls, I wasn’t drawn so much toward the garden. So I never really got into the science and the art of gardening. I was only on the periphery, only half-engaged. My step-father is a retired county agent, with a master’s degree in plant science, with shelves and boxes of books on gardening and plant science and decades of experience in advising gardeners and farmers, but I never soaked it in, or paid close enough attention to what makes a great garden and a skillful gardener. I had all this cultural and scientific knowledge of gardening at my disposal, but I did not learn it, soak it in and allow it to become part of me, so that now I am a gardener…but not a good gardener. The produce of my gardens has been mediocre at best. My wife and children are under no delusions. They know that we would all starve if we had to rely on my meager ability as a gardener. If I had lived in NT biblical times and spoke the language of the NT, which is koine Greek, I would have been known as a gardener who is ἐπαχύνθη (epa-kun-they). ἐπαχύνθη means thick or dull or even calloused.
That word ἐπαχύνθη appears only twice in the New Testament, once in Matthew 13:15 and another time in Acts 28:27, and both times it is used to express the thickness, the dullness, the “duh”, of all the people, and it seems it is most everyone, who fail to grasp the obvious but overlooked fact that the kingdom of God is breaking into the world with power and effect. ἐπαχύνθη describes the attitude of people who fail to miss the reality that God is in the world and he is up to something. And even when Jesus and then the apostles proclaim clearly and with power that the kingdom of God is in their midst, the crowds and even the religious people of the day do not hear it. In their dullness and thickness and callousness, they become angry, resentful and violent toward the Word of God preached.
The first use of the word ἐπαχύνθη is found in Matthew 13:15, where Jesus says, “For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” Jesus complains that the people have dulled their heart, their sense and sensibilities, to the voice of their Creator and have instead chased after the things, the allure, the agenda of the world. They are oblivious to the fact that God is on the move, is working in the world, and is waiting for them to get on board. It is like the old Afro-American spiritual “Tis the Old Ship of Zion”
'Tis the old ship of Zion,'Tis the old ship of Zion,'Tis the old ship of Zion,Get on board, get on board.
It has landed many a thousand, It has landed many a thousand, It has landed many a thousand, Get on board, get on board.
But Jesus says nobody is getting on board. Nobody is finding landing in the kingdom of God because they are dull and thick to the ways, to the purpose and the dream of God for His creation and for you and me is not realized.
Who is it that is dull, thick and calloused? There are two groups of people, according to the NT.
In Matthew 13:15 we find that it is the mass of people. Jesus speaks to the crowds. There are so many that they press up against him and he has to get on a boat and push out in to the waters a bit. And Jesus speaks to them in a metaphorical parable to paint a clear picture to the people but they don’t get it. They are too distracted by the vices and the vicissitudes of life, by the allure of money, power and position or by the disappointments and the struggles of life. Whether it is good fortune or bad fortune they had hardened their hearts and thickened their minds so that they do not hear the clear, powerful message that God is on the move and ready to transform a broken world into a beautiful kingdom of heaven on earth. If they would only hear he says in Matthew 13, then I could heal them.
There is a second group of people who are ἐπαχύνθη, who are thick, dull and calloused. They are the religious folk who have lost touch with the primal, divine origins of their faith and instead of become self-righteous and haughty. In Acts 28:27, the Apostle Paul, quoting Isaiah, speaks to the religious elites and says: For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ 28 “Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!”
What does this critique of those who are ἐπαχύνθη, who are thick, dull and calloused, have to say to us. Are any of us missing the clear, powerful voice of Jesus saying the kingdom of God is in our midst and he is looking for good soil into which to plant his kingdom? I believe the critique is unmistakably clear and unavoidably relevant to each of us today.
You see, the dream of God is not for your wallet to get fatter and fatter, or for you to rise to great power or for you to have so many material toys and to have every lust of your heart satisfied; Nor, is the dream of God that we settle into a legalistic, dead religion of complacency. God’s dream is that our dullness and thickness to his in-breaking Word and kingdom be replaced with an openness, an accepting of his Word and kingdom. And God’s dream is that you and I become good soil in which the word of God name find root, sprout up and grow yet another plot in the kingdom of God
God’s dream is that we be people who hear the powerful, radical Word of God and then respond to it with our whole lives by being kingdom people wherever we go. And its realization begins with our hearing and learning the fundamental message of the Word of God. And as Christians we believe that fundamental message is this: that God has come into the world as is up to something.
God is in the world, and He is up to something. (PAUSE). The late Lewis Grizzard wrote that, "In the south there's a difference between 'Naked' and 'Nekkid.' 'Naked' means you don't have any clothes on. Nekkid' means you don't have any clothes on ... and you're up to somethin!"
In the church there is a difference when we just think of God as a distance deity that we think of and worship once a week on Sunday or maybe at meal time AND a God who we see as intimately engaged in the world, in the flesh in Jesus Christ, desiring to unleash his kingdom of love, kindness, beauty and grace into a broken, sinful, ugly world, a God who is living and moving among us, desiring to redeem and make right a broken world, and who is looking for fertile soil where to plant his word.
Folks, God is up to something in this messed up world and he is looking for good soil into plant his Word. So the questions begging a response today in light of Matthew chapter 13 are this: Is your heart and mind and body good soil for the word of God? Can you hear his word? Can you hear his powerful, radical, scandalous alternative to the hate, death, sickness and despair of a violent, destructive world? Can you hear his word of truth and holiness speaking to the sin and darkness in your life? Can you hear his Word desiring to use you as a powerful, fertile place to grow his kingdom?
Jesus is waiting for his church all around the world to become fertile soil, a people who hear the word of God, who see that God is among us and is up to something in the person and living Spirit of Jesus Christ. A people who respond with evangelistic fervor by sharing the Word with everyone in earshot that they might hear the message of the kingdom of God and be strangely warmed by the powerful, transforming message of Jesus Christ.
That is the heritage and is surely the future of the Methodist movement, that we are an evangelical people who have become good soil ourselves for the Word and then go about preaching the Word with our lives
Paul says in Romans 10: 14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”[g]
Jesus in his parable today is calling you and I to be good soil:
You see, God doesn’t need more so-called Christians on the fringe of the path. Casual Christians in name only walking around the edges of half-committal to the faith and the kingdom. When the seeds of the Word fall on ones such as them, they don’t get it because they are not on the path of Jesus Christ, so the Evil One comes and snatches them away from being effective in the kingdom. The kingdom doesn’t need more men who are more married to their sports, hobbies and golf games than working as mentors for young men in the neighborhood, sharing their skills with boys, being leaders in the church and in local organizations.
My father died when I was nine. Dick McShanog taking us to St Louis. Showed me that there were men in the world who cared for me. Men in the world who would give up their time, resources and energy to be with a lanky, little kid with nothing to offer. But he made a difference in my life because of that one road trip to a St. Louis Cardinals game.
God also does not need more rocky soil Christians as he works to establish his kingdom one earth. He doesn’t need more of the ones who hear the Word preached and are touched by the Word, and cry hallelujah, lift their hands a few times but then their air goes out of them when they realize the cost of following Jesus and of working to build his kingdom in the world. Jesus calls them shallow soil and says when the hot sun comes out they shrivel up and you know see them working for the kingdom
God doesn’t need more Christians who are planted among the thorns. Christians who get themselves so entangled and married to the ways and concerns of the world that they have to spend all their time and emotional energy managing unhealthy lifestyles and relationships. Christians will go 30,000 in debt on a new car and then have to work 70 hours a week in order to keep up the payments, and you never once see them working for God’s kingdom because they are entangled in the world. You can’t serve both God and Mammon, Jesus said. Boy, he knew what he was saying. How much more free our spirits would be and happier our lives would be if we would control our worldly appetites, stay out of debt for things that will only come to own and enslave us, and once free of the financial worries weighing us down we would be liberated to serve the living God. Instead, we serve the life-sucking world, the spirit-killing dollar, the enslaving Evil One.
What God is looking for is good soil. People who are ready to work alongside our brother Jesus, our king Jesus, our Lord Jesus in building the kingdom of Heaven here on earth. He is looking for people of good soil, who have seen that the way of the world is folly and enslaving. They have seen the price of greed, envy, lust, hate and violence and that its wages is death. They are ready to go back to their origins, back to their God and live free and open to God and to his life-giving, empowering, purpose-endowing Spirit.
True is, I think most people want more than the deadened, dull, thick emotional and spiritual existence that they currently have, but they are too complacent, too entangled and, frankly, too scared to seek the kingdom of God first and trusting that all things will be added unto them.
In C.S. Lewis’ The Lion Witch and Wardrobe there is a conversation in which Mr. and Mrs. Beaver tell the children that they will take them to see the King, Aslan. Aslan is the Christ figure in this tale. "Is - is he a man?" asked Lucy. "Aslan a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion, the Lion, the great Lion." "Ooh," said Susan, "I thought he was a man. Is he - quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion." "That you will, dearie, and make no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver; "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly." "Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy. "Safe?" said Mr. Beaver; "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the king I tell you."
Becoming good soil, becoming fertile ground for the Lord to begin using you to establish his kingdom hear on earth as it is in heaven can be an unsettling experience. If it were not unsettling, it would not be a conversion experience. It would just be more of the same old life prettied up with churchy language and routines. But if you and I become good soil, fertile ground for the Word of God to land, it will mean a process of transformation, of letting go of the old concerns of the world, of leaving behind the captivating but empty sin that has hold of us, of fully committing to follow Christ, learn his ways and be obedience to his will for our lives.
If you look through a microscope and peer into the workings of soil, you will see an almost enchanted world of constant, tireless process: of churning, composting organic matter, eroding nonliving matter, earth worms eating and ants gnawing, water wetting it, sun warming it. All of this orchestrated by a beautiful Mystery that takes this various elements and from it brings life.
Conclusion: God can and will do the same for your life if you will let him. He will take all of the elements that are in your life right now, the good and the bad, and churn them, shake them, moisten them, and warm them to form a soil that is just right for the kingdom of God to be advanced through your life. The Lord will take you as you are at this moment and form you into good soil. The question is, are you ready? Are you ready to stop chasing after all the folly and wasted life that worldliness, sin, entanglement, greed and lust have to offer? Are you ready for the Word to take root in you, change you and make you fertile ground for the blooming of the kingdom of God?
