The same is true for people who need to drive over an hour to work each day or taxi drivers who ferry people to their destinations. The margin of profit is getting narrower.

I have one particular gripe too: Why are we raising corn for Ethanol when people around the world are starving? Do folks (mostly men) need to drive Ford F-100’s or Dodge Ram 3000’s while people around the world simply long for the corn that provides food of all sorts? It makes no sense to me. Of course, I’m not in a position to change much of this, but if I were……..

Jesus speaks of food in the gospel for this 15th Sunday in Ordinary time, food not on the table yet, but out in the field. Now, Jesus himself was not a farmer as far as we know, but he surely watched farmers in the springtime of the year seeding their fields. He also knew that not all the landscape of Palestine was fit for planting. Therefore he points out to his listeners that the farmer who throws seed on dry, rocky, weed-prone soil cannot expect much of a harvest. The smart farmer, of course, will pick out a plot of good black loam, if it’s available, and know that he will eat well at harvest.

Now, at the same time, we must remember that Jesus was not particularly interested in good soil or bad soil or about good or poor harvests. Jesus was a story-teller and a crafter of analogies. Hence, what he is teaching here is a lesson on the power of the Seed-Word of God and the human “field” which awaits that seed. Jesus, natural parable-maker that he is, makes the point that if God’s word is to have any effect on our lives, we will need to have an open mind and a correct attitude. Otherwise the power of that Word will never germinate into something that will fully nourish our spirits.

I suppose it remains true for some of us, that the human seedbed is not always so well adapted to religious concepts or truths. There are just so many other secular interests: Television, movies, the daily newspaper. All are good and profitable, of course, for the person interested in how the world turns. But somewhere we might hope that the word of Jesus might also find a place among all these other interests.

I do know many people, for instance, who can pick up the New York Times and find many “gospel” articles on such issues as justice, peace, issues of immigration and others.

So perhaps we might need to say that the word of Jesus can be found in the scriptures but also in the pages of the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times or even in your local daily paper. If that’s the case, I’m sure Jesus would say, “Ah, now you’re getting the point.

The scriptures: Isaiah 55:10-11; Romans 8:18-23; Matthew 13: 1-23 or 13:1-9