What Kind of Soil Am I?

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, one God. Amen.

Good morning, everyone. >> Okay, getting better. Getting better. One more time. Good morning, everyone. >> It's a glorious morning. You are here and you are in the house of the Lord about to partake of his body and his blood. What better a morning can it be?

The gospel this morning. Um, you will notice that for this week and next week, it'll be repeated. Um, and you'll find that this gospel reading is a gospel reading that we hear so often, and it never runs dry of sort of spiritual meditations and things that we can take and apply from it.

As I was reading this more this this this week throughout the time, I was reading this passage over and over again, I kept asking myself the question, like, like the sower knows the different type of soil, right? Like any expert farmer knows the different types of soil, and he knows like, okay, this soil is not so great. This soil is pretty good. This soil is terrible. I'm not going to sow it. So why does the sower in this passage so indiscriminately? Like, the farmer knows, but does the Lord not know which soil will receive his word and produce something from it?

I think this is like just a real testimony to the humility and the love of God, right? Like, I have something so, so beautiful. My word. Like, I want, I want to, I want to like take a second to talk about the word of God. Like, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. When God created the earth, he spoke the world into existence. There was a logos that was spoken that created the heavens, the earth, the stars, the trees, the mountains, the rivers, the plains, the animals. Like, God's word produces beauty. And all of us are the beneficiaries of the beauty that God has bestowed in all of creation.

Like, when one really goes for a nice walk, especially during this season right now with the fall foliage, and you see the trees with different colors, and you see the leaves that have fell to the ground, and the wind that blows, and it kind of moves the the leaves with a nice bristle. You, you pause, you close your eyes, and you can hear the divine order. You can see God moving everything and making everything work in such a beautiful, harmonious fashion to point to his penmanship or his artwork, right? Everything points to him. His word brings forth beautiful things, and he takes this seed, which we know is his word, and he gives it to everyone. There's no one that he says, "No, you, I know that this is not going to produce forth. I'm still going to give you a chance. I'm still going to give opportunity. I'm still going to sow. I'm still going to sow. I'm still going to sow."

And I kept asking myself this week, what kind of soil am I? What kind of soil am I? Am I the soil that receives his word and grows and becomes this beautiful tree that brings forth fruit, and people eat of that tree? Or am I this, this ground that is dry and rocky and filled with so much thorns and thistles? And I think there's a real, like, awakening that has to happen in every single one of us. The awakening that has to happen in every single one of us is that the Lord, in his goodness, he will sow, and he will plant, and he will give, and he will love, and he will never stop loving each and every one of you, and never stop giving opportunities to each and every one of you. He will never, ever, ever stop because that's who he is. He is the lover of mankind, and the lover of mankind never stops loving his creation. Never stops pouring into his creation. Never stops giving and giving and giving.

But this gospel gives us warnings. This gospel gives us warnings of what we know happens to many of us. We know that he explains this parable very, very clearly. He says that those by the wayside are those who hear, and he gives us the warning that the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. I know God loves me. I know God cares for me. I know God is sowing, but I need to be watchful.

And the church teaches, teaches us this understanding of watchfulness. Watchfulness, because we know that the enemy crawls around like a lion seeking those whom he may devour. We sometimes think that there is no warfare. There's no enemy that is lurking to try to steal those from the kingdom of heaven. But there is. And you see the enemy working in our households, causing division. You see the enemy working in our own souls, causing us to doubt God and to not believe that he's real. You see the enemy working and making us lack belief, not believe in the work that God is doing in us, and believe that we can finish to the ends. We see that the enemy is always trying to steal. And that's why for some of us, God is planting, planting, and planting, and we let the voice of the enemy come in, and what God has planted is taken away. Be watchful. Be vigilant. Your enemy crawls around like a lion seeking those whom he may devour. This is not a joke, ladies and gentlemen.

I want you to be aware that we have a whole invisible world that works against us. But in that same invisible world, we have a legion of angels and archangels and saints who work for us. And that's why for us, we have to call upon the ministering spirits that the Lord has given us as caretakers. Each of us are assigned a guardian angel. Each of us have intercessors and saints that we are named after. Please, please, please do not forget the invisible world. The world that works against you, but also the world that works for you, that tries to help you and support you. This is why we should name our children after saints. This is why we should give them an intercessor so that they, when they, when they have hard times, they know that they have a heavenly friend.

But most of all, we have the holy Theotokos. We have the mama to all of us, who we can call on and ask, in the same way that she received the word, and she held him, and she took care of him, and she nourished him. Help us to be like you, that when we receive the word, we care for it. We hold it deep in our hearts. It enters deep within us. It moves us. It changes us.

The second warning that this gospel gives us is that those who are on the rock, when they hear, they receive the word with joy, and these have no root, who believe for a while, but in the time of temptation fall away. This is why when we hear the word, we have to go deeper. It's not enough for us to be coming to church and to just expect the church to feed us. We need to be going deeper. When St. Peter was called, the Lord said to him, "Launch out into the deep." All of us are called to launch out into the deep. To go deeper into our relationship with God, to go deeper in prayer, to go deeper into his word, to go deeper into serving one another, to go deeper in our understanding of what's happening.

The more superficial we stay, the easier, when temptation comes, the easier it is for us to fall. But when we put ourselves in a climate of spirituality, listening to hymns, coming and praying liturgies more often, reading God's word, praying the akathist, doing things that will put ourselves in a spiritual climate, when temptation comes knocking on my door, you know who answers? The Lord Jesus Christ. He answers. He says, "No, no, no, no, no, no. This one, this one, I will allow you to tempt him." But he is given a supernatural grace. This grace that comes from him dwelling with me and receiving from me power to be able to overcome every temptation.

The third warning that the Lord gives us today is now the ones that fall among thorns are those when they have heard, go out, and are choked with the cares, riches, and pleasures of life. Some of us here, and some of us love the Lord, and we're so grateful for his work. And then when things happen in our life, circumstances, challenges, difficulties, or when we get occupied with things that are of this world, we forget. We forget very quickly.

How many of us, for the adults, you remember a time when you were younger, and when your heart was so inflamed with the love of God, and you would come to church, and you'd be so eager to be there from the beginning, so eager to receive every word that the Sunday school teachers would give you, or that the priests would give you? And here we are, older now, occupied with the cares of the world, busy, troubled. And how many of the kids, or even the youth, you remember a time in which you would be so eager to hear your parents read a little Bible story to you, because you couldn't wait. You couldn't wait to hear about Jesus.

Life has cares. Life has troubles. Life has difficulties. Life has challenges. Life has things that try to occupy our space. But the Lord tells us today, be careful. The things that I've given you have have been a medium, are supposed to be a medium and a catalyst for you to glorify me. Every single thing that the Lord has given us is supposed to be a medium to glorify him. Whether we eat, whether we drink, whether we work, whether we play, whether we serve, whether we vacation, every single thing needs to be for the glory of God. Now, how do I glorify God? I glorify God by bringing him into every aspect of everything that I do. So that when troubles and temptations and difficulties and challenges come again, I have the Lord with me.

Finally, the good ones are the ones that fell on good ground. Are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. Bear fruit with patience. All of us in this church, me first and foremost, have been given a lot. The sower has planted and planted and planted, and sown and sown and sown, and watered and given, uh, you know, fertilizer and and, uh, you know, made sure that the sun was kind of, you know, the sunflower, sunflower rotates in order to be facing the sun. Right? It knows that the sunflower knows that if it's not facing the sun, it slowly starts to tilt and fall away. The sunflower is always rotating. Wherever the sun is going, the sunflower is chasing after the sun. The ones who the word falls on good ground are constantly chasing after the sun. Constantly chasing after him, because we know he's a good one and lover of mankind that sows to all people in all times, in all occasions.

I pray, Lord, that I would be good soil for you, and I pray that all of us would be good soil this day and every day. Glory be to God forever. Amen.

[Music] Oh, the body. [Music]