“One of the things I love about Springtime and Summer is just the blooming of the flowers and the trees that bloom and give such a great beauty to nature and to creation. It’s always great to see that and even now to drive down the street and to see homes with gardens out in front with flowers blooming or maybe with vases on the porches or wherever it may be and the beautiful foliage that is there and that is something that I can so easy take for granted, but I really try and stop and smell the roses a bit and appreciate the beauty that is there, but to realize that that doesn’t just come about by chance. There’s a lot of work involved in that. There’s a lot of work that is there. There’s a house if you drive down Grant there’s a fence there in the yard and outside of the fence by the street there’s this beautiful garden and they can’t enjoy it from their own home and once in awhile I’ve just stopped there and said, ‘Thank you so much for that beautiful garden that you put there for all the rest of us to enjoy.’ And she said, ‘Well you think that’s nice you should see my backyard.’ But that’s great, she shares it and that’s a wonderful thing. But to realize how much work there is. That soil had to be tilled. It had to be freshened up. It had to be fertilized. You had to put Miracle Grow in there. You had to put the seeds or the very small little plants in there and then watered those and allow them to be nurtured and to grow because that soil was welcoming to those little plants that were placed there. What a beautiful image that is that Jesus refers to when he talks about the soil of our own soul of our own heart. That’s what Jesus is talking about in that parable this evening. He says that the word of God is sown in the soil of our hearts in the soil of who we are of our lives and how do we accept that? Do we accept it with faith? Do we allow it to really germinate and bring forth new life, new vitality? Are we willing there to allow the word to truly transform and to bring forth a beautiful new life in Christ Jesus?
So often when we think about that word of God we think about Scripture and certainly that is the written word of God and that is part of what is referred to, but it’s not just that word of God. It is rather the very word of God himself, the word become flesh in Jesus is who Jesus is referring to there that He is the word that through the gift of the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts, comes into our lives, is implanted there in baptism and hopefully grows and develops and yet sometimes the heart is hard. Sometimes the soil is not very open to receive that gift of faith that gift of life in Christ Jesus and to be transformed and really our whole life is one of transformation that we are called to allow our heart to be transformed to become that beautiful expression of Christ himself that each and every one of us is called to manifest that beautiful love that compassion the caring the truth of Christ Jesus. That is our call. That is our vocation. We are as St. Paul said, ‘I live, no not I, but Christ lives in me.’ And the very fact that we are here this evening says that our soul is open that we are open to that working of the Spirit that our soil is good and we are called to bring forth an ever greater harvest to allow that word of God, Christ himself, who has entered into our life to bring about new life transformation and that fullness of God’s glory that will be manifested not only in this life, but in eternity. What a beautiful vocation we have. What a tremendous calling we have to be transformed to become Christ himself to share ever more fully in the word incarnate, our savior and our God, to become God-like by our welcome to Christ Jesus.”