We have this Earth, and it is good. We also have the rain, and that is also good. In the earth we place the seed, and with care we harvest a bounty that feeds us, and allows us to prosper. All because the God who creates allows us to use the soil and the nourishing rains with knowledge, care and understanding to our own benefit.

We also have the Word of God, planted by his prophets, and his very own Son into the minds and being of the people he loves. God’s planting of his word in us, that which comes from his mouth, and is placed in the fertile soil of good minds, shall accomplish God’s purpose. “For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace.” 

Isaiah offers this in explaining the goodness and constancy of God’s love. That we may know and understand what things we ought to do, and also have the grace and power faithfully to accomplish them. In this harvest season the scriptures align with the harvest, and the reaping of what we have sown. It is visible in the fields as we follow the movement of combines; and on the roads as trucks take the wheat to the elevators. It is good to see the metaphor up close, the benefits of good use of what God has given us.  

Even Jesus, in teaching the crowds of people who came to listen and learn, used the planting of grain as a lesson, it was a parable that they could clearly understand. 

So many wanted to hear him that they crowded him toward the shore of the Sea of Gallilee, and onto a boat, wherein he could stand and speak to them, and they all could hear. 

His message that day was one of planting grain. He said, “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and quickly ate them up ...” He also told of sees falling in other places where they would not grow; and finally seeds falling onto good soil, and brought forth much new grain. 

His message was relating the good soil of the mind to that of the field; and the hearing of the word of God and understanding what it is God would have us to do. He was telling them to listen and then act on what the message of God told them; and that acting upon that word, The Word of the Lord when we hear it, will certainly bear for us that good fruit; that God has promised. AMEN

The Rev. George O. Martin is an Ordained Deacon at St. John’s Episcopal Church, 17th and Adams, Great Bend. Send email to georgeom@hbcomm.net.