The Hopeful (and Joyous) Heart
Mathew 13:1-9; 18-23
But Jesus said there was some seed that fell on a fourth kind of soil: Good fertile soil. And in season a great harvest came forth and produced a hundredfold.
It is interesting to note that Jesus mentions this last. It is last because it is the thrust of the story. True, there are failures, but the good news is that there is also victory. Jesus explained that this last example was meant to be the person who hears the word of God and acts accordingly. Thank God for this person is the hope of the world.
Some years ago, CBS ran a Sunday morning show called “On the Road with Charles Karault.” Many of you remember the human-interest stories featured there. Charles Karault, who happens to be an ordained minister, although of what denomination I am not sure, drove around the country finding enjoyable stories about people. In the very first episode he returned to Stanton, Virginia where 12 years earlier he happened upon a beautiful rode side park. He stopped to discover that behind it was fifty acres of what he called the most beautiful park he had ever seen in America. There were winding paths with tulips that were heathy kept, and in between the scores of large oak trees were literally hundreds of azalea bushes and ferns of all sizes and kinds. As he walked through this park, he said that he began to wonder about the battalion size maintenance crew that must have been hired to keep it up. Much to his surprise he discovered that it was the work of just one man---an 83 year-old man.
The gentleman owned a nursey in Stanton. His parents had raised him to believe that if you don’t leave this earth a little bit better place than when you came into it, what is the purpose for your having been here. So, this park was his gift to life. He had worked on it for twenty years not. But since he was a widower and had no children, Charles Karault asked him what will become of your lovely park when you are gone? I am afraid, he said, the weeds and the thorns will come into it and take it over.
Anyway, here it was twelve years later and for the first story for his new program Charles Karauralt decided to go back to Stanton and see just what had happed to that park. He knew that the old gentleman died four years after they had taped the original story. Some people had sent him a news clipping. He wondered as he drove down the road, had the weeds and thorns indeed taken over the garden.
Much to his surprise and total delight, however, he discovered that the garden was intact and more beautiful than ever. What had happened?
Just a few months after he had filmed the original story a Korean lady drove by and stopped at the park. She too was met by the kindly old man. She said that she didn’t really want to go through the entire garden, but he insisted. A few weeks later, after she had returned to her home to the West Coast, the gentleman called her and pleaded with her to come and live in the guesthouse. He told her that when he was gone, he wanted the garden to be hers. The idea appealed to her, and she moved into the guest house. As she stood there with Charles Karault explaining her story, she said, next to my mother, no person in life ever showed so much love to me as the old gentleman did.
Charles Karault closed the show by saying that he would be pleased to know that weeds and thorns had not taken over his lovely garden. He concluded by saying, where the seed of love is planted only good fruit comes forth.
Maybe what Jesus is really saying to us is that goodness does have a chance in life. The way is hard; the obstacles are many; and granted more often than not, the seed of goodness simply withers away. But where good ground abounds, then there will be an abundant harvest. That is our hope and that is the good news of the Kingdom of God.
Questions to Ponder
Is your life bearing fruit?
What do you think is the hope of the world?
What is the purpose for you being here?
In His Service,
Terry Phillips
