Thanks for your patience,
Fr. Fred
Gardening
101
This
seems like a very straightforward parable of sowing good seed and bad
seed. It is a simple way of looking at sin. Weeds grow among the
good plants and both are harvested. The weeds are destroyed and the
good plants are kept.
Rather
than look out amongst all of you and try and figure out which of you
is a weed, I would like to take a different tack. In Iowa no one has
to plant weeds in with the crops. They find their way all on their
own. The thing about plants is that they have there own defense
systems.
I went
through the master gardening program through Wyoming extension and I
learned a lot about weeds. Weeds as well as the plants we like have
root systems that actually send out a poison to surrounding plants.
This is one of many ways they dominate and kill off the plants they
are competing with. They might grow a real thick system that chokes
out other plants. They might have real big leaves that do not allow
other plants to get enough light.
Weeds
are tricky just like the evil one. I used to think there wasn't a
devil. Now I'm not so sure.
I spend
a good bit of the winter fantasizing about what a wonderful garden I
will have in the spring. I can just see all of the ripe juicy
tomatoes, The perfect zucchini, the red and green peppers and the
juicy grapes that will make the most wonderful jelly. I just know it
will be the best garden ever, way better than last years.
Last year the weeds got ahead of me. I didn't get out there to pull them and because of the weeds and my neglect it was not a bountiful year. There is an old saying, “as you sow, so shall you reap” Maybe it should be, “as you sow and tend, so shall you reap”
Gardens
need to be tended. They need to be planted at the right time,
fertilized, weeded, thinned, protected from predators and finally
harvested.
Our
souls are kind of like a garden. They need to be watered and
fertilized. They need to be spiritually nourished. How do you do
that? You go to church services. You pray and meditate. You study
spiritual writings, you practice your religion.
We also need to weed this spiritual garden. The thing I have noticed about weeds is that they are a lot easier to pull when they are little. I doubt that there is anyone here who doesn't have a few weeds in their spiritual garden that need pulling. I know I do. Think about that for a moment. Imagine some old habit or some way of treating others or some desire that is just so tempting. These are your weeds. Then think about how destructive those weeds can be. Try and think of one or two really noxious weeds that are getting between you and God. Then pray to God to help you yank that weed out of your garden before it has a chance to spread its poison and kill off all the good things you have planted.
I
researched gardening on the internet for this sermon and I found a
story.
A farmer purchased an old,
run-down, abandoned farm with plans to turn it into a thriving
enterprise. The fields were grown over with weeds, the farmhouse was
falling apart, and the fences were broken down. During his
first day of work, the town preacher stops by to bless the man's
work, saying, "May you and God work together to make this the
farm of your dreams!" A few months later, the
preacher stops by again to call on the farmer. Lo and behold,
it's a completely different place. The farm house is completely
rebuilt and in excellent condition, there are plenty of cattle and
other livestock happily munching on feed in well-fenced pens, and the
fields are filled with crops planted in neat rows. "Amazing!"
the preacher says. "Look what God and you have accomplished
together!" "Yes, reverend," says the farmer,
"but remember what the farm was like when God was working it
alone!"
Too many of us think that
the things they accomplish are done without God's help.
I guess the message here is
that God is not going to do it all for you but He has given you
plenty of good seed and God expects you to do your share.
Amen
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