The Kingdom´s Soil

Sermon The Sixth Sunday After Trinity, 12 July 2026

Readings: Isaiah. 55. 10-13; Romans 8. 1-11; Matthew 13. 1-9, 18-23

Theme: The Kingdom’s Soil

Jesus explains the scriptures clearly for us today. This is not always the case when Jesus speaks about the Kingdom, because he does so mostly in stories that can sometimes leave us wondering what exactly he meant by them. This is not because Jesus is unclear. The people listening to him at the time would not have found that. It is rather that as we listen so many years later, we are not aware of the cultural context and references that would have been apparent to Jesus’s listeners at the time.

When Jesus speaks to people, he often does so in the form of story-parables. Parables are educational stories based on everyday examples that Jesus uses to convey a particular message about God’s Kingdom. Today, it is the Parable of the Sower whose message is placed before us to grow into the seeds of the Kingdom in our hearts. The point of the parable is that the soil of our hearts matters for the growth of the Kingdom. This is why the Kingdom grows in some hearts and not in others, because God wants all hearts to know him and to love him. The barrier to this happening lies within us and not in God.

Four scenarios are given to us in this Parable of the Sower today: the path, the rocky ground, the thorns, and the good soil. Each of these terrains represents different soils in our hearts for the Kingdom to grow in. We might even consider the four different types of soils as each in some way occupying our own hearts as we seek to be more and more open to the gift of the seeds of the Kingdom to grow.

In the first type of soil, when the seed is sown onto the path, Jesus tells us that the key issue is one of a lack of understanding. When we do not understand the message of the scriptures, the evil one comes along and snatches away the seed sown in our hearts. Understanding the meaning of the scriptures is vital for faith because without it the seeds of the Kingdom cannot grow in us.

Understanding in a biblical context means both head and heart knowledge. We understand when mind and heart, intellect and our emotions are engaged with the text. Then our understanding is rooted in the depths of our souls and is able to put down deeper roots in ourselves.

When the seed is sown onto rocky ground there is understanding but there is no depth to it. The initial joy of receiving the word does not last because when difficulties come along there is little spiritual stamina to survive them, and the seeds shrivel away. The deep roots of faith are lacking. This might be because the mind-heart engagement of biblical understanding is not in the correct proportions. When these dimensions of understanding in a biblical sense are properly engaged then our understanding penetrates our innermost being and is transformative.

When the seed falls among thorns it is the cares of the world and the lure of wealth which strangles them to death. These seeds produce no fruit because all our energies go into building our own Kingdoms rather than allowing the gift of the Kingdom of God to grow in our hearts. The two Kingdoms of the Kingdom of Man and the Kingdom of God are placed before us in life and we should intentionally seek out the Kingdom of God so that our orientation and focus in life is clear.

Finally, there is the good soil. Here all the conditions for growth are met. The word is heard, it is understood in depth, and it bears fruit. For some this is one hundred-fold, for others sixty or thirty. But in each case the Kingdom grows. As to why the growth is different in each case is not clear. However, the important point is that when the soil is properly prepared the seeds of the Kingdom will grow.

Jesus alludes to the first reading from Isaiah in his interpretation of this Parable of the Sower. The word that goes forth from the mouth of God does not return to God empty. It is fruitful and leads to joy and lasting peace in our hearts as we journey back to God. The scrolls of Isaiah would have been well-known to Jesus from his own times in worship and it is not surprising that the allusion to this passage is made by him in the Parable of the Sower. 

The words of the Gospel are also echoed in the message of Paul in the passage from his Letter to the Romans. Living in the Spirit means living according the law of God’s Kingdom that is sewn in our hearts by the Spirit. This is living in a way that rejects the things of the flesh; the flesh here represents the poor soil that allows little of lasting value to grow because it is entangled in selfish desires.

The Kingdom grows in the good soil of our hearts that is nurtured by the gift of the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. When this Spirit lives within us, the yield is one of raising our mortal bodies to the abundance of eternal life. It is this eternal life that we are called to enter already now in this mortal life. When we do this we invest our energies in the long-term plan of God to build his Kingdom here on earth as in heaven both in the depths of our own heats and among the peoples of the world.