Our Lord presents to us today in vivid terms a parable about us. He compares us to the seeds sown here in this parable. Now, I’m an avid gardener, so when I hear this parable it brings to mind all kinds of practical triumphs and pitfalls of gardening and I say to myself, that sounds like my garden—and sometimes there are parallels in this parable with our church or the college ministry, or, our own lives.
One of the things I particularly enjoy about gardening is what results from all that careful planning, preparing, designing, tending, weeding. It’s not all those difficult and tedious aspects of gardening though that are the rewarding part. Rather, it’s getting to see the “end result,” the fruit of my labors. What brings me the most satisfaction is those few moments, here and there—not as often as my schedule allows, when I can say, “thank you, Lord, this is beautiful how it’s all coming together, how the birds are enjoying the plantings, how beautiful the butterflies are, etc. Thank you, God, that I’ve been able to have a part in this procreative activity. What do I need to do next.” Just like with our relationship and communion with God, the true gardener is never satisfied, but is always thinking of how he can make his garden more fruitful.
Every gardener knows, that all the work in the world, won’t produce good results though unless the garden cooperates. In other words, there are other factors involved in how ‘successful’ or beautiful a garden is. I do my part, but the rest, in a sense, is up to the garden: I can’t control the environment, but I have to know how to respond to the challenges that my garden faces. If the garden goes too many days without rain, I have to water it; if I don’t get out and weed often enough—my perennial problem (no pun intended)—then the good plants are smothered.
Gardening has close parallels to pastoring: The work is hard: lots of ‘watering’, patience, tending, ‘weeding,’ warning, encouraging, admonishing. In the end, however, all the pastoring in the world, won’t result in spiritual fruit unless the ‘flower,’ in this case, ‘you all’ choose to be on good soil, taking in the right nourishments, availing yourself of the watering, tending, caring, taking in the ‘food’ that you and I need to grow and be fruitful.
Each one of us, is, in a sense, one kind of the seeds that Christ illustrates for us in this parable and we’re invited today to examine just what kind we are. Am I the seed on the wayside, on the rock, among the thorns, or, am I the seed that fell on good ground, sprang up and is yielding a crop a hundredfold, sixty, or thirty?
The question isn’t as passive as it first suggests. There’s no predestination implied here. Christ God is the ‘perfect gardener.’ He comes to us in His great love and mercy as the Sower of the seeds. You and I in a sense find ourselves in the ‘soil’ we’re in based on our choices, our free will. When we keep ourselves at a distance from Christ and His Orthodox Church, we are, in a sense, choosing to be the seed by the wayside; we’re easily trampled down and devoured by the culture—maybe not in such dramatic ways, maybe just in ‘safe,’ mundane ways: working all the time, not going to church to worship God the Holy Trinity, not making time to learn and grow, not making time for our daily prayers—our soul withers and dies.
St. Cyril of Alexandria says of those who are on the wayside that they are just like it, “hard and unyielding” (Sermon on the Parable of the Sower). Where stubbornness and pride are, there is a ‘wayside’ in the soul that prevents growth in the knowledge and love of God.
Similarly, we can become the seed that fell on the rock: initially, we get excited about the faith, a new church, but then we can let our worldly preoccupations and sins deprive us of the spiritual ‘water’ that Christ God gives us through the Sacramental life with Him. We can take our focus off of Christ, trust in ourselves, and become wrapped up in our anxieties and fears, forgetting that we meet Christ by coming outside of ourselves, our egos and self-focus to love and to serve.
Some may find themselves like the seed that fell among the thorns. These likewise are choked by worldly cares that surround them, seeking to please those in the world out of fear of the world’s condemnation, but not possessing the holy fear that leads to prioritizing the things of God, putting Him first in our lives.
So that you and I may be like the seed that fell on the fertile soil, we must, as St. Cyril urges, “drive away from our minds all worldly cares” (ibid). In this way, through repentance, taking each thought ‘captive’ to obey Christ (II Cor. 10:5), we can become the seed that brings forth fruit from our lives, serving and giving back to God, building up His Church in our own lives, our families, in our own church, and in our community where we witness to the truth of Christ that is within us and which liberates every man and woman who puts their trust in Him.
God is always fulfilling His part, but our response to Him is up to us. To become that fruit-bearing seed on the good soil, St. John says we must be obedient. We submit ourselves to Christ and His Church, knowing that through the Church, God has given us all the tools we need to be deified and grow in our participation in the life of the Holy Trinity, the only Life there is.
That life, as Christ teaches us here, always involves us producing fruit. Salvation is never just something between me and God alone; instead, it always involves you and I bringing forth fruit, coming out of our self-focus to love and to serve. The degree to which we do so—some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty, as Christ puts it—depends on our willingness to let God work in us and through us.
This is why our focus on our time, talents, and treasure comes to us at this time of year, at harvest time, as we consider what return, how much fruit we will give to God for all His bounty toward us, spiritually and physically, for the building up of ourselves in faith and our church, so that through our faithful witness, others may come to the good soil of Christ’s Church and the fullness of the life in Him as well.
May we be open, obedient, and trusting as we continue to avail ourselves of Christ’s grace, love, and healing, returning to God from the blessings He has entrusted to us. In doing so, we can be confident, “that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (Phil. 1:6).
Fr. Robert Miclean
Holy Archangels Orthodox Church
Sunday, 13 October 2013
Parable of the Seeds
Epistle: II Cor. 6:1-10
Gospel: Luke 8:5-15
