6-7; Ps 67:2-3, 5, 6, 8; Rom 11:13-15, 29-32; Mt 15:21-28
Praise be Jesus Christ 4 ever and ever – Amen.
Have you ever had someone say something to you in one context, but when you think about it means so much moreLet me tell you about mine…
My good friend and brother in Christ is a landscape architect. He has traveled the world in that career working with large international companies. He not only shared his green thumb and professional talents, he shared his faith as a witness of Jesus Christ.
Even though he has been successful in the business world, he still loves to garden at his home in Alexandria. He has a beautiful raised bed garden with clean wide walkways and strives to keep it immaculate. What the garden produces is magnificent!
At a recent gathering at the Jesuit Spirituality Center, I asked if he had any pictures of his garden to show my wife.
He said “Sorry, Brother Bill but I do not have my phone. I can tell you the secret of a good garden is to make your own good dirt. You have to have good soil. If you compost, you make good dirt and will not need any artificial chemical fertilizers. The secret making things grow is to have good dirt.”
I thought about composting on the 3-hour drive back to Monroe. God wanted me to learn something else and the Holy Spirit showed me what God wanted me to learn from that advice. It was about God's mercy, faith, and salvation.
Those are the subjects of our scripture.
Isaiah that begins with this message from God - “Do what is right and do what is just.” The secret of making things grow is to make your own good dirt
Isaiah raised a few eyebrows when he pointed out God’s mercy is not just for the people that would normally be consider the fertile soil (tribe of Israel.) God’s mercy is for all people not just the people. If people Love the Lord – keep the Sabbath free from profanation - and uphold God’s covenant –they will make themselves good dirt. The LORD will plant the seed of faith in that good soil and from that seed of faith in God comes mercy that reveals his salvation and justice.
“My salvation is about to come, my justice about to be revealed.”
Even those raised in a good Christian home can reject God’s mercy. They have little or even no faith. They turn their back on God with excuses like I‘m too broken of a person. I made a mess of my life. I done such bad things. God could never love me. That part of them, the soil where the seed of faith is planted has been poisoned.
The injustice that is the evil of this world has been planted in hearts. Those who should know God’s mercy by knowing Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross, and are washed clean of sin in Baptism have become poison by what is around them. Their faith has become starved or choked or has withered under the heat of the deceivers influence. The evil of this world poisons them and the good is overshadowed by what is not good. .
This becomes their truth – God does not know me. God does not love me. I have done such bad things God could never forgive me. I am too far from God for his mercy.
Although the grace of God’s mercy is given to all, there little good dirt in the hearts of those whose allegiance is this world. They do not know or recognize God’s mercy around them.
The evil one justifies all that he does by boasting that this world is too broken for God to love.
The proof that we are loved is in the Gospel today. The Canaanite woman comes to Jesus in faith seeking his mercy. She was fighting her demons. And, the disciples try to run her off.
She was a foreigner and they did not think her good enough for Jesus’ message. Jesus even says - my message is for the good soil – the people of Israel.
In never ending faith, this foreign woman asked Jesus for mercy. Let some of your goodness fall upon my child and me. Even dogs get the scraps from their master’s table.
Jesus looked at her and saw her faith. She was good soil made by faith. This woman, a foreigner testifies to all - the justice of His mercy. The truth of his salvation. Because of her faith, her child was healed from that hour.
Friends composting takes all the scraps, refuse, and discarded materials from the yard, garden, and kitchen and makes it into something new. It is brought to the compost pile or bin and thrown in to be changed and to become good dirt.
It is the same for us- our sins, disobedience, all the bad things we have done that make us believe God will never love us can become the best of soils to receive God’s mercy and justice.
The message St. Paul gave to the Romans is still true. It is a message so many need to hear. You receive mercy because of disobedience; by the virtue of mercy we receive mercy. God’s mercy is for all.
Take it all to the confessional where our sins and the bad is thrown out and by the grace of God’s mercy we receive forgiveness. Work to be made good soil. It is not easy. There is going to be some stench coming out of us. By grace we become a good dirt and who we are meant to be.
Friends come and kneel at God’s table. Pray and ask for his mercy. Pray for justice. Let faith be in all that we bring to Jesus to make us good soil
Be good, be holy and make yourself good soil so that the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ can grow in you to share with others by the way you live your life and love one another.
Praise be Jesus Christ – 4 ever and ever. Amen.
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