Jack Hardaway
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One of my favorite all time bands over the years has been The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. I enjoy them as much for their name as for their music. The Nitty. Gritty. Dirt. Band. Their first greatest hit collection is called 20 Years of Dirt. I love that title! Their second greatest hit collection is like unto it, get this, its called More Great Dirt! It just makes me smile.
I guess if they ever do a worst hit collection it would be called Bad Dirt, or The Worst of Dirt.
As all gardeners know there is good dirt and there is bad dirt and there are various states of goodness and badness betwixt the two, and technically its soil not dirt, but The Nitty Gritty Soil Band lack that certain something.
Bad dirt: nothing grows there. It kills whatever is planted, or it twists and sickens. Most of us have struggled with spots of bad dirt where what we plant just slowly lingers or withers.
Then there is good dirt: it is like magic, it is a miracle. Whatever is planted, it just grows and flourishes. The smallest most insignificant thing, the forgotten, the lost, whatever it is, once it finds its way into this good dirt it becomes something significant, something lush, something that provides shade and home for others. The greatest hit collection.
Like the mustard seed. Or like David, the youngest child, left out, left behind and forgotten to tend the sheep while the older, the accomplished, the important go off to become King. But then the surprise, the prophet seeks out the smallest and forgotten child and anoints him as the next King, God’s chosen.
Good soil makes everything flourish, a little seed, a forgotten child.
To what can we compare the Kingdom of God?
Dirt. Really good dirt. Where everything grows. Where everyone grows, no matter how small or insignificant or forgotten. And who knows what these little beginnings will become? It’s pretty much guaranteed to be a surprise.
Jesus announces the arrival of this really good dirt.
Jesus is like really good dirt. He makes everything and everyone grow into so much more than we expected or dreamed or hoped.
What kind of dirt do we plant our lives in?
The miracle soil of God’s Kingdom?
Or some tired piece of earth that just withers and forgets and ignores.
Imagine a church that runs around grabbing everything and everyone and planting it in this really good dirt just to see what happens?
Some go about this business of planting methodically making sure nothing and no one is forgotten.
Some are willy-nilly and go about planting playfully with great longing just to see what happens next.
Some see the pain all around them and take that pain to the kingdom garden to see the new life grow from what was dead and dying.
This is what God is like. Good dirt. Really good dirt. Miracle earth.
When we get God right then we all grow in new ways. When we get God wrong, then we are like plants withering in bad soil. It is a good way to test the soil, to test and see if we are worshiping God or just another idol that chokes the life out of the world.
There is good dirt and there is bad dirt and there are various states of goodness and badness betwixt the two.
And then there is miracle earth.
It even raises the dead.
That is what God is like.