Tilling the Soil of the Kingdom
The origins and purpose of this Substack.
The description of this site conveys my hope that it will eventually become more than a place for my occasional musings, and will develop into a resource for other Christians, particularly Church leaders who are in positions of trust where they are called to comment—whether from the pulpit, in the classroom, bible study, or simply in the context of their personal relationships—on the world around us. It is driven by several interests of mine: preaching, scriptural exegesis, cultural commentary, as well as history and sociology. As such, I expect the content of the main channel, The Gospel Plow will be fairly eclectic, but with a common purpose: helping Christians engage with our society and culture in faithful ways. This site will be about the blade of the proverbial plow entering the earth of our society in ways that encourage the recognition of the Kingdom, and the flourishing of all people in the context of the common good for which we are called to work.
The title of the main channel, “the Gospel Plow” was inspired by two things. The first, a bible passage that has always struck me, Luke 9:57-62:
“57 As they were going along the road, someone said to him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ 58And Jesus said to him, ‘Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.’ 59To another he said, ‘Follow me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ 60But Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ 61Another said, ‘I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.’ Jesus said to him, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.’”
The other inspiration is an old gospel or bluegrass song that exists in multiple versions—even Dylan recorded one on his debut album in 1962—known as “Gospel Plow.” My favorite version is a less well known version from 2007 by Chance McCoy and the Appalachian String Band:
Lord, I went to church one day, for to hear them shout and pray All to hear the preacher plow that Gospel Plow. Hold on, hold on, keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on The preacher said I must repent, so right down the aisle I went Keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on. Hold on, hold on, keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on. I've never been to heaven but I've been told, It's a first-class city and the streets are gold Keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on. Hold on, hold on, keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, All them prophets is dead and gone Keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on. Hold on, hold on, keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on. Paul and Silas bound in jail, Had no one to go their bail Keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on. Hold on, hold on, keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on. A Paul and Silas began to shout, The jail was opened and they walked out Keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on. Hold on, hold on, keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on. There was Peter so nice and neat, He wouldn't let the savior wash his feet Keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on. Hold on, hold on, keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on. Peter grew anxious and he said, Wash my feet, my hands, my head Keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on. Hold on, hold on, keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on. I got my hand on the Gospel Plow, I won't take nothing for my journey now Keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on. Hold on, hold on, keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on. Keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on. Hold on, hold on, keep your hand on the plow, and you'll hold right on.
Both the challenge of the scripture and the energy of the song seem fitting to the cultural moment I believe we find ourselves in. The last several decades have become more and more divided in our society—not just in the United States, but representatively so here. In part because of these divisions, the call to faithfulness rings more clearly and more significantly for Christians, as does the fact that faithfulness will make us strange in the context of our culture—and yet the means of that faithfulness become ever more elusive as Christians find ourselves divided against one another just as our host society is.
This Substack therefore has the challenging—some might even say grandiose or impossible—challenge of helping to navigate these cultural waters. Or at least, allowing me to extrovert my attempts to navigate them.
What will this look like? Because I believe Christians cannot address systemic or societal issues effectively unless we do so from the midst of our tradition and a place of prayerfulness, The Gospel Plow will include sermons, comments about homiletics, cultural criticism and observation, historical notes that might be of use as we interpret the times, and so on. The other channels I hope to develop initially are The Parson’s Porch, and Ignoring the Fly. The Parson’s Porch will be a place for conversations—audio recordings or videos primarily—with guests who will engage in friendly and fruitful conversation about the topics on The Gospel Plow as well as life and ministry in general. Ignoring the Fly is a title taken from a comment made by John Donne about the difficulty of prayer, where he notes:
I throw myself down in my Chamber, and I call in, and invite God, and his Angels thither, and when they are there, I neglect God and his Angels, for the noise of a fly, for the rattling of a coach, for the whining of a door.
—John Donne 1572–1631, LXXX Sermons (1640) 12 December 1626 ‘At the Funeral of Sir William Cokayne’
On this channel I will share thoughts and resources about prayer, especially regarding the ways of inculcating the habits of prayer. It is these fundamental practices that will enable us to face any challenges.
I do not expect the content of this site to be overly produced—the regularity will be the thing—and I intend to engage it as a means of keeping myself both accountable and engaged in these foundational acts of Christian prayer and reflection, and hopefully, ensuring that my engagement with our unsettled times will begin in that place that is settled for us Christians: our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and his faith in us and faithfulness to us (as my New Testament Professor used to unpack the work pistis Christou does in the New Testament).
So, let’s put hand to plow together, and get about tilling the soil of the Kingdom.