“When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path.”
The Parable of the Sower is, without doubt, one of the more well known stories in the Bible.  

It is a perennial favorite at Vacation Bible School, it is often used in capital campaigns…and many a sermon has been preached using the imagery of the Sower.

And many is the time I have heard this morning’s parable used as a scare tactic- to scare people into acting right- the idea being that it is extremely difficult to get to heaven…

and there are so many obstacles in the way…and the world is most likely to drag you down into the mire and pull you into the bowels of Hell.

At first glance it appears that hardly any seeds make it to fruition, they get eaten by birds or scorched on the path or choked out by the weeds.   

Or, it is sometimes taught that you cannot help what type of soil you are- meaning how you are born is how you are born, and Our Lord is merely telling of the facts of life and who will and who won’t make it.

Some of us are born rocky soil, some of us are born weedy, and some of us were born only to be eaten by birds.  

But something that is often overlooked is the harvest itself.  It is bountiful, it produces 100 fold and 60 fold and 30 fold.  It is exponential…it is miraculous…it is something that can only be accomplished through the Grace of God.

And I think that is the point of this parable…that Jesus is the Sower of the Seeds and with His sowing a miraculous harvest will be reaped and we are issued an invitation to produce.  

The problem is there is no perfect soil.  It does not exist.  So to say that we are suck as one kind of soil the entirety of our lives is not very encouraging.  

It is more often the case that a good soil must be amended and worked.   At times rocks must be removed…at other times organic material must be brought in a mixed with the soil…

And at other times sand or clay must be mixed with the soil so it has good water retention.  

And the soil must also be constantly cared for…adding fertilizers and lime and rotating crops to try and maintain fertile ground.  

And I think it is the same for our souls.  A rocky thin soul does not have to remain a rocky thin soul.  A soul that has been worn down and hardened into a path does not have to remain so.

Every human has the ability to become that fertile soil that produces an 100 fold harvest- that is miraculous and of God.  

So, the question for us this morning is, “How do we amend our souls to become fertile soil that produces 100 fold?  How do we become part of the great harvest of God?”

To become a fertile soul we first must engage in a life of prayer.  Morning prayers, daytime prayers, night prayers, prayers at Church and at work.

Prayer brings about and makes flourish our relationship with God through Jesus Christ.  Prayer brings about grace…and grace brings strength and courage and fortitude.  

To become a fertile soul we must also engage in daily readings and reflection on the Holy Scriptures.

It is in reading Sacred Scripture our souls are fertilized…are fed with the words of God and the stories of our salvation.  It is within those words we learn how to produce fruit.
To have a fertile soul, we must also invite the Holy Spirit to dwell in our hearts.  The Holy Spirit is the giver of life…the Holy Spirit animates our soul…the Holy Spirit is the life giving water that sustains life and promotes growth…

We must also dedicate ourselves to examining our consciences.  We must study our souls and see where we are sick…we must search around and dig out the rocks and roots…we must search to find the hard and infertile areas within.  

And when we find those areas, we must then work to rid ourselves of them…confess and ask forgiveness…work to amend those areas of our soul that do not produce fruit.  

And as we begin and continue on this process of allowing the grace of God to make fertile soil of our souls…we constantly look at the fruit we are bearing.  

Are our lives dedicated to God?
Have we dedicated ourselves to works of mercy?  
Do we feed the poor and clothe the naked?...
do we give shelter to the homeless?...do we visit the sick?...

do we care for the widow and the orphan?…
do we care for those who cannot care for themselves?...
do we do our best to make the community we live a better place?...
do we spend our treasures for the Greater Glory of God and for the advance of His Kingdom?  
Do we dedicate ourselves to praying for others?

For all these things are fruit…and if our life is devoid of them…then our soil is not fertile…

And when you look inside yourself…and when you look at the fruits of your life and see deficiencies…you may look at them in two different ways…You can see them as a stern warning…or you can see yourself as a child of God where the miraculous is possible and the harvest can be great with a bit more work.

I was reminded of this driving home from the Gray Center in Canton this week.  There was this huge Billboard on the side of the road.

In enormous red letters were the words:  HELL IS REAL.  And then in tiny letters in the corner of the Billboard read the words, and so is Heaven.

And this is typical of our area.  Folks tend to focus more escaping Hell than on living more and more fully into Jesus Christ.  

And I think in the act of focusing on escaping Hell, we miss the point of life itself- we miss much of what Jesus came to earth to give us.

Jesus did not come to scare us into Heaven…he did not come to try and make us feel bad about ourselves…or look at ourselves and think about how terrible we really are…for that is all too evident.

Rather, he came to offer us something…He came to offer us life in abundance…He came to give us life and love eternal…He came to give us the opportunity to be miraculous and be that 100 fold harvest- to be more than we could ever imagine.  

So while we must examine our souls…while we must look at the fruit our lives bear…while we must dig around and find the rocks and hard places in our souls…

We should not do so to escape Hell…we should do so so that we may become that miracle and produce fruit that in our wildest dreams we could never imagine- we should do so because of our love of God.  

“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."

Be a miracle of God…produce 100 fold…through the power and grace and mercy of God- become more than you could ever imagine.