Understanding the Good Soil of God’s Promises
Scripture texts from all of today’s readings proclaim an idea that great joy is beheld when the fullness of God’s goodness is brought forth unto flourishing throughout all creation. This sermon focuses on today’s Gospel text—The Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23)—and proclaims that such abundance can become a wonderful harvest in our lives, even when adverse conditions may challenge our growth. Just as Jesus encourages, when we hear, we listen, and we understand how to tend the soil of our lives, with God’s help, goodness can flourish throughout creation. And it just might be a marvel to behold!
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Transcript
Before I begin to share this sermon, this homily with you today, before I begin to preach, I want to start with a word of thanks. Thank you for inviting me, for giving me this kind invitation to come and proclaim the gospel of the Lord today with you. It’s always a pleasure to be in worship. And I’m so thankful for the kind invitation and the space to be here with you today. It is my practice, before I begin to preach, to say a little prayer. And so, I wondered if you might join me in my practice today. So, I’ll invite you, as you’re willing and as you’re able, to please join me in prayer.
Dear God, how thankful we are to be together in this beautiful space with you and with one another. It is a true joy to make time to pray, and to fellowship, to worship, to sing, to praise your name together with one another and with the presence of your Holy Spirit. I pray that you would be with us today, and you would abide with us, and you would go with us as we open ourselves to all that you may reveal to us today and always. Amen.
July in Georgia is always quite a time…
Although my family and I have recently relocated here to Gainesville, I am a lifelong Georgia resident. And for as long as I can remember, the month of July has always been one of my favorite times of year.
And I think it’s because it’s such a full time…
These long, hot days with their abundant sunshine always seem to make me feel like the summer will last forever…like the season is full of possibility.
Everywhere you look, an opportunity to enjoy, to grow, to breathe in fully, and to bask in the glow of summer’s abundance.
Isn’t it a marvel?
And when I think of summer, I can think of no better place to marvel during the long, hot, sunny days of July in Georgia—than in a garden!
A garden is one of those places here in Georgia, and beyond, where you can absolutely soak in the abundance of the season.
Any gardeners or garden enthusiasts here today in worship? I imagine you quite agree!
Yes, when I think about July time, I can’t help but think about beautiful summer gardens, filled with fresh, sweet fruits and veggies!
Maybe that’s because in summers past, one of those gardens full of fresh fruits has been my own.
At our former homes, we had full and abundant July gardens. And I found them so joyful to tend!
The first gardens we sewed were square foot gardens. They became raised beds, encased in cedar planks, set into the hillside of our first home’s backyard. We followed the instructions in a square foot gardening book and by this time in July, for several summers in a row, we were treated to an abundance of wax beans, green beans, and juicy grape tomatoes, which made the perfect summer snack for my, then, much younger kiddos.
The next gardens we sewed were at our most recent former home, which had a bit more space to roam. There, we tilled up a beautiful patch along our fence and set in many short rows. We grew everything from herbs, to sunflowers, to cucumbers, to gladiolus, to watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, green beans, sugar snap peas, and of course tomatoes!
Everything was so good, y’all, and it was such a joy to tend the garden, watching the plants blossom and flourish, eventually bringing forth a tasty little harvest.
It was indeed a marvel to behold.
But it did take some time to finally get there, of course.
If you’ve ever gardened, you understand that growing a garden takes some work…
- You understand you’ll need to get your tools together.
- You understand you’ll have to gather and select your seeds.
- And you understand, too, perhaps most importantly: you’ll have to work your soil, sometimes again and again and again.
Then, and only then, after you’ve understood and undertaken the work that simply must be done, can you begin to sow your seeds and watch as the abundance of your garden increases until it brings forth its delicious and marvelous yield.
Today’s scripture from the books of Isaiah, Psalms, Romans and Matthew proclaim an idea that great joy is beheld when the fullness of God’s abundance and goodness is brought forth unto flourishing throughout all creation.
But the scripture before us today which illustrates this idea most explicitly is our Gospel text from the book of Matthew…
This is a text where Jesus expositions fullness through an abundant harvest, that indeed would be a marvel to behold.
But he also shows that it will indeed take some work to get there.
Contextually, our Gospel text spans quite a time…
The Parable of the Sower and Jesus’ interpretation of it for the disciples that follows, is found in Jesus’s third teaching discourse in the book of Matthew. The Gospel writer, putting these stories to paper a generation or so after Jesus’ death, places this parable first in a series of seven which reveal the nature of the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God.
In Matthew’s Gospel, the Parable of the Sower is narrated by Jesus and shared with both disciples and crowds of followers who have all been keeping up with Jesus’s ministry as he moves through the towns and villages of the Galilean countryside.
The Parable of the Sower is about the fullness and flourishing of God’s goodness that brings rejoicing throughout creation.
But like Jesus said, it takes some work to get there…
And Jesus would know! At this point in Matthew’s narrative, Jesus has been putting in the work y’all in his earthly ministry so that the seeds which he sows might one day bring forth a full and flourishing harvest.
Jesus understood that he had to gather his tools for this kind of work…
- So… Jesus empowered the ministry and work of John the Baptist, he called the first of many disciples, and he began his ministry work throughout Galilee.
Jesus also understood that he’d have to select his seeds…
- So… Jesus thoughtfully shared transformational teaching with God’s people. Teachings like the Beatitudes, the calls to be Salt and Light, to love your enemies, to bring about reconciliation, and to let the goodness of God be treasured in inside yourself in such ways that its flourishing brings about blessing and joy in creation.
And Jesus understood, too, that he’d have to work the soil, sometimes again and again and again…
- So…Jesus shared parables, performed miracles and healings, and continued to work through his life and his ministry, death, and resurrection, so that the abundant harvest of God’s goodness might flourish throughout creation with joy for all of God’s people.
Yes, Jesus knew and he understood the work.
I believe that’s why, especially in this Parable, Jesus warned the crowd, and explained to the disciples, of adverse conditions that can and do affect matters of growth.
Adverse conditions …they can really give us quite a time,
can’t they?
But even amid the adversity, my friends, my fellow disciples, and my sisters and brothers in Christ, I proclaim to you this day that there is still hope and there is still promise, just as Jesus’ Parable teaches….
The last verse in our Gospel reading is the promise, voiced through the very words of Christ.
Jesus says:
But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty. (Matthew 13:18)
Good soil AND understanding is the promise through which God’s goodness will be brought forth ABUNDANTLY.
Even amid adverse conditions…goodness can and will flourish, with God’s help.
And it just might be a marvel to behold!
As I close this homily, I’m thinking back to my gardens.
I remember, even amid the good harvests that we brought forth, we still encountered some adverse conditions.
And as I recall, most of them were because of our garden’s soil…
- One year, it was vine borers, taking out my yellow squash.
- Another year, it was verticillium wilt, going after my cucumbers AND my tomatoes.
- And still another year, our cantaloupes just never quite made it to the size and sweetness they should have been, with vines feeling floppy and leaves looking sparse.
These were all adverse conditions that kept goodness from flourishing!
But, since I’m not a master gardener, I didn’t quite know why these conditions were happening.
I just didn’t understand!
So…I found some help! Then, I came to understand that most of the adverse conditions that we encountered in our gardens could have been remedied with healthier soil.
And once I understood that, I got busy and put in a little work:
My family and I built an open compost heap and started feeding it all the good stuff: brown crunchy leaves in the fall, green grass clippings in the summer, and all our compostable produce items from the kitchen, including veggie scraps, egg shells, and coffee grounds. Then, we watched it steam all winter long, and as my gen alpha kids would say: we let it cook!
And let me tell you that little bit of work went quite a long way …
When springtime came, we served up that good compost from the bottom of the heap to our garden.
- We tilled it into the soil on the rows.
- Then, we prepared the beds and sewed the seeds, along with some baby bonus tomato and pumpkin plants that volunteered to be part of the garden, thanks to the rich soil from our compost heap!
Ya’ll, what a difference we saw! The garden became a lush place!
- Squash blossoms that wouldn’t stop…
- Dill plants that reached towering heights…
- Cucumbers that crawled this way and that…
And best of all, y’all…the tomatoes!
- We had big boys ready to slice…
- Sunny boys shinin’ on…
- And grape tomatoes that tasted the sweetest we’d ever had!
Everything was a delicious delight!
Even still–we experienced some adverse conditions:
- Some weeks were so dry that the soil started to crack.
- Some weeks hungry deer came by for an uninvited nibble.
- Some weeks pests descended, like aphids and tomato hornworm caterpillars.
And in the face of those adverse conditions, we did what we needed to do to keep our garden healthy:
- We quenched its thirst with water in the evenings.
- We sprayed its branches with organic neem oil each morning to ward off the pests.
- And when necessary, we completely removed the invaders, like the hungry hornworm caterpillars.
And because we understood and we were willing to take on that work of doing what we needed to do to tend our soil, make it good, and keep our garden healthy, we finally enjoyed a tasty and somewhat plentiful harvest.
It was a marvel to behold!
I believe our lives are a lot like gardens.
And I believe God is lot like a gardener, or a sower.
I believe we’ve been created by God with this great potential and hopeful purpose to bring forth a flourishing and abundant harvest in our world.
And with God’s help, and hope, and promise, such goodness can fill creation and such joy can abound.
But in our lives, I believe we often encounter adverse conditions.
I think these conditions can taint our soil and sometimes spoil our harvests, just like Jesus warned the disciples in Matthew’s Gospel:
Just like Jesus said, I believe we encounter wickedness…
I believe wickedness swoops in on us, snatching tolerance and compassion from our lives and leaving us with hatred and apathy for our fellow children of God.
Just like Jesus said, I believe we encounter rocky paths…
I believe rocky paths pinch our footsteps, blocking our progress towards inclusion and love, and setting us on pathways paved with bigotry and disdain.
Just like Jesus said, I believe we encounter sharp briers and thorns…
I believe sharp briers and thorns crowd in on us, poking us here, there, and everywhere, so often that we become numb to the many ways that injustice, violence, and environmental destruction threaten to choke out our freedom, our joy, and our peace.
Yes, my friends and my fellow disciples, I believe we encounter these adverse conditions, just as Jesus said we would.
But Jesus also told us in our Gospel text today to listen, to hear, and most importantly, to understand.
Jesus said, the one who understands is the one who bears fruit.
Jesus said the one who understands is the one who brings forth the harvest.
And Jesus said the one who understands is the one who brings forth yields that are abundant, and full, and flourishing, through the good soil of their lives, with God’s help.
This is the hope, the promise, and the GOOD NEWS of Jesus’ Parable, my friends!
I pray that we might rejoice in this good news through the work and the ministries of our lives.
And I pray too that we might hear,
and that we might listen,
and that we might understand this good news,
proclaimed in Jesus’s parable and
throughout all the scripture texts before us today.
And as we all go back out into our many and separate lives today, to work, to love, and to live…
I want to share with you the hopes which I hold in my heart for all of us this day. I hope you’ll hold these hopes in your hearts, too:
- I hope we’ll sew the seed of our scriptures and Jesus’ promise into the gardens of our lives.
- I hope we’ll tend our soil and cultivate our understanding so that we bear good fruit.
- I hope we’ll do what we need to do when we encounter adverse conditions, protecting ourselves and one another so that we can all remain healthy.
- And I hope we’ll ALL live into our created potential & purpose:
which is to bring forth abundant harvests throughout creation
that are full of God’s goodness, hope, and promise…
With God’s help, both now and always.
My friends, my fellow disciples, and my sisters and brothers…
May it be so through God’s abounding love,
Christ’s endless hope, and the enduring goodness of the Holy Spirit…
Today. Tomorrow. And forever. Amen.
Rev. Andrea Corso Johnson, M.Div.
July 12, 2026