Sermon on the 21st Sunday after Pentecost. -Met. Korniliy (Titov)

Before the Ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ into heaven, He gave the apostles the commandment to go forth to preach, in order to convert the entire human race to the Christian faith: “Going, teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Mt. 28, 19). An unspeakably difficult task the Lord entrusted to His twelve disciples, whom He chose not from among the most wise and noble, but from fishermen—simple and little-educated people. But by the grace of the Holy Spirit, it was given to them to comprehend the Divine teaching and themselves to become teachers of others, to go to all ends of the earth and to conquer the unyielding hard-heartedness of the Jews, the reasoning of the Greeks, the crude power of the Romans.

What weapon, then, did Christ give to His disciples, sending them into the world for such a great battle? He wanted the apostles to take with them neither sword nor spear, and even neither bag nor staff; He commanded them to take with them the Holy Gospel and with it to pass everywhere: “Going into all the world, preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mk. 16, 15). And their preaching was heard by the whole world, the Church of Christ was raised up, and faith in Christ shone forth. The heirs of the apostles—the teachers of the Church and the pastors—spread the Word of God to all ends of the earth: “Their sound went out into all the earth and their words to the ends of the universe” (Ps. 18, 5).

Thus, the only weapon by which impiety was conquered in the world and the knowledge of God was spread was the Word of God. The almighty Word, which was born from the Father of Wisdom, created everything: heaven and earth, the visible and the invisible. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (Jn. 1, 1). “By the word of the Lord the heavens were established and by the spirit of His mouth all their power” (Ps. 32, 6),—thus sings the prophet David. The Word of God is life, salvation, and resurrection for those who accept it with faith, as Christ says: “Amen, amen I say to you, that the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and having heard will live” (Jn. 5, 25). And so, we see that the Word of God is life and power, “The word of God is living and active” (Heb. 4, 12).

“I will open My mouth in parables,”—says the Lord through the prophet (Ps. 77). Simple examples of parables Jesus Christ brings in order to set forth hidden wisdom in simplicity. Parables are a treasury of reason, a source of the knowledge of truth. “The wise will listen and will increase knowledge, and the understanding will find wise counsels,”—it is said in the Bible about the parable (Prov. 1, 5). The parable makes the inaccessible accessible, the complex—simple, the secret—manifest. “Meditating in the law of the Most High, he will seek the wisdom of all the ancients, and will be instructed in prophecies. He will seek the hidden things of parables and will live in the enigmas of parables,”—says the wise Sirach (Sir. 39). The entire history of humanity is like a parable that shows the providence of God for our salvation. The Gospel parables give us instruction about eternal life, spiritual health, strengthening, and correction of the mind. Parables teach us high morality, humility, mercy, and other virtues.

But inattention to the Gospel word can be condemnation for us if, having heard the parable, we reject with a cold mind its wisdom and instruction and do not bring forth good fruit, as the Lord says: “He who has ears to hear let him hear” and “Take heed how you hear” (Mt. 23, 3). We hear the words of the Gospel with our ears, but does this word reach our heart? And if it reaches, then, touching it, does it revive us, bring some fruit, and will we live according to this Divine Word? After all, knowledge is not good in itself, but when it is applied in deed, it brings its useful fruit. “For not the hearers,”—it is said,—“but the doers of the law will be justified” (Rom. 2, 13). Today’s Gospel parable speaks to us about the various actions of the Divine Word on the hearts of people.

A sower went out to sow his seed. When he sowed, some seed fell by the way and was trampled, and birds flew in and pecked it; some fell on rocky places, where there was little earth, it sprang up at once and having sprung up withered, because it had no moisture and did not send roots deep; some fell among thorns, and weeds grew and choked the good shoots; some fell on good earth and brought abundant fruits. (Lk. 8, 5-8).

The Lord explained the meaning of this parable “About the sower”: the seed is the Word of God; the sower is Jesus Christ Himself and those who preach the Word of God; the earth is the human heart, a good heart is good earth, and an evil, impure one is barren earth.

Let us pay attention, brethren: the Lord did not say that He went out to plow the verbal fields, to harrow the earth or to pull out wild and weed grass, that is, to prepare our hearts and souls. The Lord expects from us that we ourselves will prepare our soul for the acceptance of the Word. Therefore the prophet John the Forerunner calls us: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight” (Mt. 3, 3). Our preparation begins with repentance, confession, with abstinence from evil deeds. But to those who do not wish to prepare themselves in this way for sowing and bringing forth fruits, the Lord threatens judgment: “Every therefore tree that does not make good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Mt. 3, 10). These words are a sentence for those who live in sin, do not repent, and do not bring forth good fruits. Such will be uprooted from this life and the future one and sent to the unquenchable fiery hell.

Those listeners of the Word of God who listen to it only with bodily ears, without heartfelt attention, are likened by the Lord to the earth by the road. Usually the earth by the path is trampled and hard, and the scattered seeds do not sprout. These are those listening, to whom afterward comes the devil and takes away the word from their heart, so that they do not believe and are not saved. Why does he steal and carry away, since these seeds anyway lie on dead earth? The devil knows that the soul can come to life, come to itself, and the seed then can sprout. But the devil distorts true faith, clutters the seeds, mixing into them falsehood, which he introduces through heretics and various sectarians. So also the devil himself tried to tempt Jesus Christ with a word torn from the context of the Bible. When from the desert he lifted Jesus onto the roof of the temple and said: “Throw Yourself down from here,” for it is written: “He will command His angels concerning You to guard You, on hands they will bear You, lest You strike Your foot against a stone.” And if instead of the Lord there had been a person having in the soul thorns of pride, thirsting for flattery and praises, then he could be tempted and throw himself down. But the Lord answered the tempter: “You shall not tempt the Lord your God” (Mt. 4, 7). Therefore we also will be “quick to hear,”—says the apostle—but mainly “to fulfillment” (Jas. 1, 19).

Further the Lord speaks about the seed sown on stone. To stony soil are likened the souls of people who are carried away by the preaching of the Gospel, sometimes even sincerely and pure-heartedly, find pleasure in listening to it, but they are not able to change their way of life, to depart from their favorite sins that have become habitual, to wage battle with temptations, to endure any sorrows and deprivations—in the battle with temptations they are tempted, fall in spirit and betray their faith and the Gospel commandments.

The heart hardened and stiffened in sinful habit is incapable of nourishing the root of the seed, which withers; and it is said: These have no root. The hearts of such people are not warmed by love for God; as with ice, they are bound by self-love and pride. And although such people can speak about virtue, but the Word of God cannot deepen into their hearts and bring good fruit, and the Word in the soul of the self-loving withers as soon as a sacrifice of truth, righteousness, and virtue is required. And in the first centuries of Christianity, and after the schism of the 17th century—the unsteady in faith and in love for Christ and truth, subjected to heavy persecutions and sufferings for the name of Christ, sometimes fell away from the faith. But our pious ancestors-Old Believers in firm faith brought and multiplied the fruits of the piety of Holy Rus. In the present time, when there are no open persecutions for faith, torments for the name of Christ, the spread false values, sinful customs, prejudices, frivolity, seductive entertainments and pleasures remove and tempt many Christians from the “narrow path” of following Jesus Christ and fulfilling His commandments. Brethren and sisters! Let us remember that, having decided to seek the Kingdom of God, we must not “turn back,” but to the end be faithful to the Lord Jesus.

And, finally, the obstacle to the fruit-bearing of the Word of God—thorns of vanity and worldly pleasures. “And other seed fell in the midst of thorns, and the thorns grew and choked it.” This happens from cares and wealth. But not the necessary worldly needs are called cares and condemned by the Savior, and not wealth is the cause of the fruitlessness of the Word of God. Both do not hinder either listening or preserving and fulfilling the word of the Lord. But only vain attachment to the earthly and temporal hinders, which fills and entangles, like thorns, our heart, suppressing in it the actions of the Word of God, chokes in it every good feeling, leaving no time and opportunity for satisfying spiritual needs. Even more dangerous thorns—these are our passionate attractions, which the Savior calls “pleasures of life.” Their root is found in the depth of our “fallen” nature, in the depth of the sinful human heart: “The law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and captivating me by the law of sin,”—says the apostle Paul (Rom. 7, 23).

The fruits of these thorns are the works of the flesh, about which the apostle says that those doing them “will not inherit the Kingdom of God” (Gal. 5, 20). Those relaxing themselves with gluttony and excess in wine-drinking and entertainments vainly accept the Heavenly seed—the Word of teaching, because they will not be able to appear as a fruitful field for God. Saint Gregory Palamas writes: “We know that when there is much moisture in the fields, they are not able to bring fruit. So also the heart immersed in pleasure and intoxication, in fornication and impurity, is impossible to bring fruit worthy of God. Let everyone who because of a passionate and pleasure-loving life has nurtured thorns and weeds of sin, through repentance pull them out by the root and thereby prepare himself for the perception of the saving seed, and, having accepted it, grow and bring fruit—eternal life.”

Thus, it is obvious that for abundant fruit-bearing of the Word of God it is required not only to listen reverently and accept it, but also necessarily to prepare and cleanse one’s own heart, so that it is capable of cultivating fruits of holiness and righteousness. In the parable the Lord says: But other seed fell on good earth, and sprouted and brought fruit a hundredfold. And those on good earth, these are they who with good heart and good, having heard the word hold it and bring fruit in patience.

There are people whose heart is deep, which was plowed deeply—by suffering and compassion, mercy and love, grief and deprivations. In such a heart the seed of the Word of God takes root, as on good earth, it sends deep roots, which, like with moisture, are revived by the experience of the virtuous life of this person, sprouts and brings fruit.

One must not think that for good people the devil does not try to steal the treasure of the Word of God sown in their hearts, and would not want to cool their hearts with self-love, to choke with the thorn of vanity and fleshly lusts. Those about whom the Lord speaks as about good earth try to deepen in their heart the Gospel word, applying efforts for crushing the heart’s hardness with fear of death and God’s judgment, moisten the sown word with tears of contrition about their sins. They with attention and prayer reverently meditate on the Word of God, with repentance, the fire of love for God and fiery desire for eternal life in the Heavenly Kingdom burn in themselves unclean thorns of passionate desires and attractions to worldly vanity.

The Lord requires from the listeners of the Word attention: “He who has ears to hear let him hear.” But how many Christians today hear the Word of God, but do not attend to it, do not fulfill it and do not correct themselves. We must beware lest for contempt of the word of God that terrible spiritual hunger overtake us, which kills not bodies but souls, about which the prophet Amos says: “And I will send hunger on the earth, not hunger for bread, not thirst for water, but hunger for hearing the word of the Lord” (Amos. 8, 11).

Let us think about the words of Christ: “Take heed how you hear!”—let us reflect how we hear: is the seed sown in vain, not for judgment and condemnation for us—or for eternal life? Let us think what our soul represents? Where does the grain of the word of Christ fall? Into the thorn of worldly vanity, which chokes it and kills? On stone, where it grows and dies from sinful heat and heart dryness? Or by the road, whence the wind of little-faith and carelessness carries it away and where it will be plundered by the predator, the enemy of our salvation. Or will the seed fall into a good heart? And if our heart is not fruitful, then let us set before ourselves the question: how then to crush the stone of little-faith, how to revive the dried-up soul scorched by sin, how to warm the heart cooled by self-love?

Our life on earth is short, the time of sowing and bringing fruits is little. Our life will pass, and we will stand at the threshold of the judgment gates, and then it will be terrible to appear with nothing. The farmer who did not labor in time to cultivate the earth awaits hunger, for without labor there is no harvest. Every careless Christian who has done little good and has not labored for the salvation of his soul awaits a bitter fate. Let us fear the terrible consequences of laziness and carelessness. Let us in patience labor and learn, repent and pray, so that for the short days of our life to bring fruit a hundredfold, to reap for us eternal life and inherit paradise bliss according to the promise of the Lord, Who says: “Blessed are those hearing the word of God and keeping it” (Lk. 11, 28).