Jesus’ parable about nature addresses who and what harms us and who and what nurtures us. “The seed sown on the path is the one who hears the word of the Community of God without understanding it, and the evil one comes and steals away what was sown in his heart.” “But the seed sown on fertile soil is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”
The evil one in the parable, meaning an adversary, harms us by opposing goodness, even by destroying goodness. Adversaries destroying goodness are targeting nature itself. Trump, members of his cabinet, like Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, and their capitalist cronies are destroying seeds and soil and all the many good gifts nature provides. Their destruction of nature has been in the news of late concerning AI data centers but is longstanding, widening, and escalating. They’re destroying our ability to care for nature by taking Native lands and by opening up sacred lands for oil and gas drilling and the extraction of minerals in places such as Alaska, Oak Flats Arizona, Chaco Canyon New Mexico, Bears Ears Utah, and others. They’re eradicating nature-based jobs as well as jobs in research facilities, those funded by grants, and those keeping records across government departments designed to maintain care for nature and care for our food and healing medicinal sources (e.g. Agriculture Department, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Environmental Protection Agency, Food and Drug, Fish and Wildlife, Interior, National Oceanic and Atmospheric). They’re destroying energy sources as well as analysis, codes, conservation, and compliance for any type of energy and its efficiency (e.g. electric, gas, nuclear, water, wind) in any type of setting (e.g. businesses, farms, houses, military). They’re also destroying alternative energy production through budget cuts, defunding or terminating programs, and giving taxpayer funds to developers to abandon the programs, at the same time they’re currently fixated on the rapid growth of energy draining AI data centers which are destroying rural, forest, and wildlife habitats with massive structures and electrical transmission lines that generate air and noise pollution and drain millions of gallons of water. Overall, they’re destroying a clean earth for clean living by safeguarding nearly every toxin (e.g. arsenic, herbicides, lead, mercury, pesticides, radiation) vomited by nearly every corporate polluter (e.g. coal, chemical, oil) of air, ground, and water, whom they are pardoning and dismissing lawsuits against their corporations while prohibiting our ability to prevent and prepare for toxic accidents and they’re doing so globally because the cumulative effect of their harm is destroying the earth’s climate, which they deny they’re doing as they withdraw from climate treaties and oppose U.N. actions for global environmental safety.
In South Dakota last week, Trump and his destructive cohorts celebrated the U.S.’ ‘Freedom 250’ birthday on a people’s land who know all too well the destruction done to nature, to them, and to any treaties agreed to, the Lakota Sioux. Their Pahá Sápa – the “heart of everything that is” – is now called the Black Hills and their peak Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe – Six Grandfathers – is now called Mount Rushmore. In his speech, Trump denigrated people we can describe as “seeds sown on fertile soil.” Amber Torres, Walker River Paiute Tribe member, reminds us that Native people have “endured constant assault on our spiritual health and wellness.” In the face of what she calls Trump’s “Destructive Era,” she and other Native American seeds are nurturing fertile soil in communities across the 50 states. Close to 400 Indigenous groups comprise The National Congress of American Indians. Though their activism is routinely met with increased surveillance, criminalization, and violence, they’re challenging Trump’s assaults. In addition to challenging all the many assaults listed above, they’re also challenging the Smithsonian Institute removing “stolen land” and “genocide” from its narratives and challenging Trump’s border enforcement and deportations. Jacob Johns of the Akimel O’Otham and Hopi nations is part of A Wisdom Keepers Delegation, “a global group of Indigenous knowledge holders and Earth protectors” who regularly participate in UN climate change negotiations. He reminds us that “being in solidarity with each other is of utmost importance.” Amidst destructive cohorts who try to steal nature away with individualism and capitalist development, Native people offer community itself as our sacred seed and sacred soil.
Prayer: Beautiful Spirit, we are one with each other and nature.
Question: How am I a seed and what is the fertile soil I am nurturing?
July 12, 2026 Gospel Matthew 13:1-23 Fifteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
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