The Sixth Sunday After Pentecost - July 12 - Rev. Melanie Lemburg

This past week, my brother, the one who is, among other things, an organic farmer, shared an image on his Facebook page. The image was originally shared on a page called The Farmer’s Footprint. The title on the image is Mexico Commits to Phase out Glyphosate, and it has a quote from Victor Toledo Mexican Environmental Secretary: “Glyphosate is the most dangerous poison in the world” . My brother introduced the image with the words: “Good for Mexico. Human health, and planetary health, starts with soil health.”

It wasn’t until this week that I actually started thinking about soil health. 

As you know, we have been back-yard gardening during this safer at home season. I believe that the fruits of our harvest are due in part to the prayers some of you have been offering, as you well know my spotty history with growing things. So here’s the update. First the good news: our tomatoes and the basil plants are doing amazingly well! I actually made a tomato pie this past week with tomatoes from our little garden. But….the peppers are struggling, (it’s like they are small and stunted and still, the plants can’t support their weight); we only managed to produce one sickly squash before all the squash plants just up and died. And don’t even get me started on the watermelon! 

All this got me to thinking about soil health. Could it be that there was something in the soil that helped the tomato plants flourish and what might have been lacking in it that the squash plants need? Because in my beginning gardening research, I’ve learned that the quality of the soil is absolutely necessary in order for the plants to have strong roots. And if the roots aren’t nourished by the soil, then the plants aren’t going to thrive or survive.

Our gospel reading for today is one of the parables of Jesus. I have most often heard it referred to as the parable of the sower, but this week, I learned it has also been called the parable of the soil. In this parable, Jesus talks about the effects of a sower who casts the seed on all different types of soil: some soil is rocky and the seeds can’t grow strong roots; some soil is actually on a path and is too shallow, so the birds come and eat the seeds; some soil is already choked with thorns and so the seeds become choked with thorns as they try to grow; and some soil is good soil, and it gives forth plants that yield a harvest that is miraculous in its abundance-far beyond anything a normal harvest on good soil could ever expect or even hope to produce. 

As I read this parable again this week, I’ve continued to think about what my brother wrote: “Human health, and planetary health, starts with soil health.” If I have learned anything in this Covid-season, it is that we are so much more interconnected than we, in our independent minded society, have remembered. The writer Brian McLaren reflects, “We used to think that we caught diseases as individuals: ‘I'm sick; you're not.’ But now we realize, no, we catch diseases as individuals who are part of families, and families who are part of cities, and cities that are part of states and nations. We realize now that our whole species can become infected, and that our whole globe can be changed because of our interconnectedness. . .” 

This pandemic has shown us that we are much more deeply connected than we have remembered in our modern world, and as a result, Jesus’s parable this week invites us to examine the health of our soil—not just for some of us but for all of us. One aspect of soil health is whether there is enough water. Our Old Testament reading speaks of this, comparing God’s Word or God’s truth to the rain that waters the earth. Isaiah reassures God’s people that God’s truth is just as trustworthy, as reliable as the rain. How much truth do we allow for our in own lives? Are we truth-tellers in our speech or do we tell people what we think they want to hear? Do we hold people accountable when they do not tell the truth? Do we demand truth from our elected and public officials? Another key aspect of soil health is nutrients. If there is not enough nutrients in the soil to nourish the roots, the plants will not thrive. 

The plants will also suffer if the soil is too shallow. What sorts of spiritual and intellectual nutrients are we ingesting for our souls these days? In what places are we seeking depth: depth of ideas, depth of conversation, depth of care? Are we connecting regularly to God through prayer or spiritual practices, tapping into the source of our nourishment? Is what we are reading, listing to, opening our hearts to, is that stuff that is nourishing and life-giving, or is toxic for our souls like chemicals or too much sugar is for our bodies? Are there impediments in the soil, such as rocks or thorns? Consider what these might be in our own hearts and in the soil that is our society. I know for me, when I am thorniest or most hard-hearted/rocky, it’s because I am focusing too much on myself and my independence and not enough on others. What are ways we can seek to uproot the rocks and the thorns in our own hearts right now? Finally, are we paying attention to how the soil of our common lives affects those around us, especially those who do not have as many resources as we have? We have learned that what one person in our community does affects everyone else in our community, for good and for ill. How might we be called to respond? 

Today, as we partake of the reserve sacrament together, there is no greater reminder of how we are all bound together. As we feed on the body of Christ, we are re-created once again as that very body, sent out into the world to be the hands and feet and heart of Christ, living no longer for ourselves but for him who died and rose for us. May it transform us, embolden us, inspire us to be agents of the resurrection in our homes, our church, and in our community. 

Here’s the article cited in the Farmer’s Footprint post: https://sustainablepulse.com/2020/06/27/mexico-announces-phase-out-and-ban-on-glyphosate-herbicides/?fbclid=IwAR3U7U3vxUL7uuetWR-Lbkm1gSlEiPZEQ_1Bix1bSGVRY4kcNQ3qhaXij8w#.Xwmv-xJ7mpp ii. https://growbeautifully.monrovia.com/how-important-is-a-strong-root-structure/ iii. This passage was shared in the Thursday, July 9th email from CAC.org. Originallly from Brian McLaren, “We Are All Connected,” Wisdom in Times of Crisis (Center for Action and Contemplation: 2020), faculty presentation (April 20, 2020), YouTube video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FOeCyEzbjM;