Sunday of the Fathers of the 7th Ecumenical Council
Epistle: II Cor. 11:31-12:9, Hebrews 13: 7-16
Gospel: Luke 8:5-15, John 17:1-13
We all desire to be the good soil described in today’s Gospel, “fruitful and fulfilled.” Jesus is not saying, as is sometimes the interpretation given by Protestants, that we have no participation in whatever soil we are cast. Rather the three soils represent the common dispositions of man toward God.
It’s not enough for us to baptized and chrismated. There’s no ‘automatic ticket’ for us to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. As Orthodox, we understand that salvation is not a momentary act or decision, not a one-time verbal confession. Instead, it is a life-long journey and relationship of communion with God, learning, growing, healing, and participating more and more in the life of the Holy Trinity, growing in service and learning to love Christ and His Church more and more.
If we’re not growing, we’re losing ground, we’re losing our salvation. Just like a plant, which this parable brings to mind, it cannot stay neutral: either it is growing or it is withering and dying, being choked out by all those ‘thorns’. So it is with our souls.
We can never afford to be complacent about our faith or take it for granted while we’re still drawing breath. If, God forbid, we depart from our faith, we can just as easily find ourselves among the thorns or on the rocky soil—and that by our own choices and disposition.
In Matthew’s Gospel account of the same parable, the rocky soil is represented as a “wayside,” that is, a way that is over-trodden and therefore, hard, impenetrable. Spiritually, this type of person is barren because they have chosen the broad way, which, as St. Cyril of Alexandria says, is “trodden by unclean spirits and by Satan himself”… “their hearts are sterile and unfaithful.” Hard words for hard souls.
The thorny soil is described as those indifferent, who possess a faith that is “simply a matter of words,” according to St. Cyril. “They have a religion that is without roots, for when they enter the church they are happy to see so many assembled and they readily take part in the sacred mysteries…” But, he concludes, “when this kind of person goes out of the church he immediately forgets the holy teachings he has heard there.”
But the good soil represents those, as Christ says, who hear the word and understand it, who indeed bear fruit and produce: “some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Matt. 13:23) Good soil is worked more easily, is fruitful, full of life, and therefore, yields more. St. Cyril comments that those who sow on the rich soil are those who are “rich and fruitful… yielding fruit a hundredfold… Good and beautiful are the words who take deeply into themselves the seeds of the Word (Christ), and keep them and tend them with care.”
Ask yourself what soil you are. Are you the thorny soil that is filled with good intensions, sees some growth, but then gets preoccupied with the things of the world and has that growth choked out? Are you the rocky soil, which hears the word of God but because you’re not open, find that the Kingdom of God cannot take root in your soul to grow you? Or, are you the good soil, which hears the word of God, is obedient, and cooperating with the work of God in your life through the Church and yielding fruit in your life as a result? The fruitful heart is a giving heart, a servant’s heart, which is rich toward others and sees his abundance—spiritually, physically, as an opportunity to give back to God of the richness and spiritual treasure He has entrusted to him.
Our growth in Christ is dependent on our willingness to come outside ourselves, to love and to serve, to be fruitful in giving of ourselves and our means. There’s no such thing as a “do it yourself” approach to Christianity, or being a Christian without the Body of Christ, the Church. We’ve already heard of the misery to be found on the wayside, the rocky soil that’s heavily trodden by our world. Christ God calls us to the narrow path, the straight way.
Our relationship and koinonia with God is never just about us and God, but about us, God, and His Church. Love, by definition, involves us being in a relationship and communion with our brothers and sisters in the Church is to help build up the community as a whole, both for our own nourishment, as well as the strengthening, healing, and growth of others as well.
The good news is, that whatever soil we may be, it’s not yet too late to change our disposition. It’s not yet too late to become the good soil if we are not already. God gives us the tools in the Church to change us, mold us, heal us—make us thankful, make us fruitful.
If we’re vigilant in growing, the weeds and the thorns will not be able to choke us out. If we’re seeking Christ first and His Kingdom, we won’t find ourselves on the rocky soil. God desires for each one of us to be saved. Regardless of our personal sins, sickness, and struggles, there’s a place for you and me in the Kingdom of Heaven—IF, we’re willing to cooperate with the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives to continue to heal and to grow.
Likewise, in order then to remain the good soil, each one of us has to be vigilant in persevering in our faith, disciplining ourselves to pray, to seek God, to bring Him into the midst of our struggles with our passions, making use of all the tools of salvation, and learning to be fruitful, good stewards of those blessings and abilities that God has entrusted to us.
We are the fruitful soil if we take Christ’s teachings to heart and return to God a portion from that with which He has blessed us, a portion of that which God has entrusted to us in a spirit of thanksgiving—this goes for our gifts, our time, and our treasures. This is the spiritual purpose behind our current gathering in of pledges: it’s an opportunity for growth in faith.
Coming outside of ourselves, loving, serving, giving, together we will grow, heal, and build up Christ’s Church. We will be the fruitful seed that sprang up on the good soil, yielding a crop a hundredfold. We will strengthen our witness in this city and grow in spirit and in numbers as a living witness to God’s love, power, healing, and glory. Join me in praying that we may be this faithful giving, living, witness of Christ’s holy Church, yielding a hundredfold.
