May 19, 2015
Soil Samples
The Parable of the Sower uses
four different soil types to illustrate the understanding of people who hear
God’s Word when it is presented — a path
where birds eat the seed, rocky places with shallow soil, among thorns which
choked the plants, and good soil which produces a healthy crop. It occurs to me
that these soil samples can change from bad to good; and unfortunately good to
bad. Applying the parable to sowing seeds
in a nation, I see that America began as good soil, “Still other seed fell on
good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was
sown” (Matt 13:8 NIV). However, today our US soil is a mixture of weeds
and thorns, “The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the
man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of
wealth choke it, making it unfruitful” (Matt 13:22 NIV).
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Gail;
-----A couple years ago, Scientific American presented an article comparing a new farming technique to those techniques mankind has used over the centuries. Its focus was a simple chart paralleling the advantages and disadvantages of plowing, furrowing, seeding and irrigating to just furrowing, seeding and irrigating to just seeding and sprinkling, to just seeding and waiting. This was one of those rare summations striking anger in half the heart and laughter in the rest. After showing that all the advantages of food production stacked higher upon each technique in relation to how much soil preparation and water application was made, and after specifying the advantages for making wild habitat and pest infestation went to the seed and wait technique also producing the least food, the article concluded seeding and waiting was the best farming technique.
-----Is there any connection between the word “culture” and the word “cultivate”? Actually, the etymology of “culture” is from “cultivate”. History underscores the connection, especially of the last five hundred years. The dictionaries give long definitions for the word “culture”, because it is used in so many ways. But the factors common to them all are the ideas of meaning, transmission, and commonality. (I cooked several of the dictionaries’ concepts together into “meaning“, such as intelligence, knowledge, learning, values, conventions, etc.)
-----Culture is fascinating when you strip from it all of the distinguishing characteristics of any particular culture and just look at the simple processes making it. One of the first processes is some exchange of “self” for “other”. If each of five people forming a culture demanded interactions based totally upon their own self-aspects, there would be no culture. There would only be territories and territorial war. Instead, for culture, each person must carefully examine himself to enrich what of himself benefits interaction, and scuttle what of himself detriments it. Moreover, there is some amount of replacing scuttled aspects with beneficial aspects learned from others. This system of honoring one another produces a roadway for amicable interaction - culture. And it requires some amount of intentional teaching and learning.
-----But that is only one way culture forms. Another way is for each of the other four to be examined and transformed by the biggest and meanest bully of the five. It does not matter how that bully got there, he may have ridden in on a white horse conquering, or he may have been elected by some stupidity deliberately cultured into the other four. He may have even been the intentional cultivator of that stupidity. But the point is, this bully defines the culture instead of an honor amongst them all.
-----A bully is not so stupid as to think “tilling” the people is unnecessary for maintaining the cult of his power. But his coming to power amongst a people cultivated in grace and respect and honor and love for one another requires stupefying them into believing culture needs no tillage, no watering, not even a seeding, but only “Do your own thing, man!” “Hey dude! Got another dooby?” It’s a rope-a-dope. It deconstructs admiration for the culture of mutual honor - America’s past culture - so the bully can culture the people to his own needs. So, when the heat of the people’s newly taught selfishness has sufficiently parched the cultural top soil into cracked clods, weeds, and rat turds, the rat will finally put his hand to the cultural plow. He knows his particular culture requires his particular effort. Effort will pay him well, since the people long ago forgot to respect their culture of mutual honor. Let’s call this process a “cultural exchange”.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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