Science
RCL Year B • Sermon • Submitted
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Every kid that has every gone through public education that I know of had to do their 5th grade science experiment. How many of you remember doing their science experiment when they were in 5th grade, it doesn’t have to be 5th grade, but you remember doing one? You know the one I’m talking about. It’s the one where you spend so much time coming up with your hypothesis and doing the experiment, creating a board that has the 3 sides to it, and you have to show it off in front of the entire school. How many of you remember your science experiment?
My science experiment was rather unoriginal as I tested how important photosynthesis was for plants to grow. I had several different plants in various stages of light from direct sunlight, partial, indirect, artificial, and no light. I ran my experiment for a while and found out what was the optimal amount of light for each variety of plant.
When I told Bekkah I was going to talk about science experiments she told me that hers was all about water filtration and the different mediums that can be used to pull out the impurities of water to make it as pure as possible and safe to drink. She started talking all about it and remembered a lot of things about her experiment and the experience as soon as I mentioned it to her.
Another popular science project that has endured the ages, but has also changed as science has changed is what is the best medium for plants to grow? There is regular soil, organic soil, enriched soil with various minerals, rocky soil, clay, moss, and hydroponics.
What is interesting about these three experiments that I mentioned is that each of them contributes to the success or failure of plants. You have the light in the first experiment, the water in the second, and the medium or soil in the third. Although each one is important, it is also important that all of them work together in harmony to create an environment in which the plant is able to grow and thrive.
Think about all the companies that have invested copious amounts of money into that very research and experimentation to be able to have crops yield their absolute maximum so that they can then sell them and feed people. I know that while I was growing up my grandfather used to always talk about the soil mixture and minerals that needed to be added to help his vineyard grow and produce hearty grapes each season. I had no idea what he was really talking about at the time, but I know it was something that occupied his attention every year during the growing season. Testing the soil and adding things to it to make sure the vines had the right amount of nutrients to grow.
I’m convinced that the reason why we do fifth grade science experiments is so that we can understand the scientific method, but also so we can look around and see how what we do in a small scale is what helps make our plants grow to the best of their ability or helps us understand how the things we use work in our lives. So science experiments are important for us to do to help us understand how the world works and as I mentioned for plants water, soil, and light are very important.
I don’t know if Jesus ever did any science experiments or if he and his family had a garden growing up, but we see that in Jesus understands the importance of soil when it comes to growing plants that yield a good crop. Seeds need good soil to first take root and then are able to grow. Different types of medium will let a plant grow but either the nutrients aren’t there or there’s nothing to take root to allow them to really grow and take hold of what is most important.
The reason I say all of this to you is because King Herod had the opportunity to become a plant that yielded a good crop. I read somewhere that the struggle that King Herod has today can be directly related to the parable of the good soil and when I read that it kept speaking to me and I felt that it was important for us to talk about it today.
As we read from our text today we can see the real struggle that King Herod has with John the Baptist. We can see that besides preparing the way for Jesus John the Baptist also had declared to Herod that his marriage to Herodias was not lawful. It was lawful in Rome but it was not lawful in the eyes of the Israelites whom he was ruling over. It was because of those conversations that Herod’s wife Herodias had Herod arrest him and put him in prison. It would have been easy for Herod to have killed John, but something inside Herod caused him to fear John because he was a righteous and holy man.
The word for fear, here is the same word that we use when we talk about the fear of the Lord. Meaning that Herod wasn’t afraid of John, why would a king fear a commoner, but that he had awe and reverence for John because he was a holy man. There was something in Herod that made him see John as holy and that there was something more to him than simply a zealot that wanted Rome removed from power.
So instead of killing him, which he could have easily done, he simply locks him up, but instead of locking him up and throwing away the key, Herod instead goes down to the prison to visit him. Whenever he went to visit him John would talk to him and Herod enjoyed the conversations they had. He was puzzled and perplexed by what John told him, but nevertheless he listened to what John had to say and he protected him from being killed by anyone.
All of that leads me to believe that John had planted a seed inside of Herod and it was starting to grow inside of him. There was an opportunity for soil to be present. We talked about a month ago about the seeds this church planted in the kids who attended VBS here, and although the situations are very different, this is what is happening to Herod when he continues to meet with John.
So when I read that this story of John the Baptist and Herod could be paralleled to the parable of the sower I re-read it and saw all the connections that I just shared with all of you. The problem is that Herod continued to live in the life that he had always lived and it was that part of his life that gave way to the death of John the Baptist. Herod continued to hold on to those things that were harmful to his truly understanding John and God’s relationship with him. Instead of seeking the light that God provides he chose shade and darkness instead. Instead of finding good clean water to grow by, he instead chose the unclean water he had always been using, and instead of taking root in good soil he chose the thorns. In we see Jesus explains that it is the cares of the world, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things that come in and choke the word away and in the end that plant yields nothing.
Doesn’t that explanation fit Herod perfectly? He knew John was righteous, he protected him instead of killing him and he chose to come and listen to his teachings, but when it came to a birthday party with his friends and family he gave into the pressures of society and what he was comfortable with and went with that instead of following what John had been teaching him.
Today’s story of John the Baptist and Herod give us a real example of what it means to grow in good soil, and thanks to all of our fifth grade science fairs we have a good idea of what good soil is like: it nourishes us and provides us with all the nutrients we need. And as we see from our New Testament reading from , we see how God has adopted us and how through Christ we have obtained an inheritance, and we have done that by setting our hope on Christ.
Will we face trials and temptations like Herod did? Of course we will. But when we choose to be surrounded by one another, by this body of Christ then we have the strength from those around us, from the light, the soil, and the water that nourishes us to keep us strong in our faith and our commitment to living out the life God has called us to live.
May you be blessed by God who has blessed us in Christ Jesus with every spiritual blessing we could ever need, and always hold onto and realize that we have been claimed as God’s own through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ who is our good soil and whose gospel of salvation had made us complete in him.
Go and grow in God’s Word.
Amen.