2013.10.13 Luke 8:5-15
Luke 8:5-15 (NKJV) 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. 8 But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold.” When He had said these things He cried, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” 9 Then His disciples asked Him, saying, “What does this parable mean?” 10 And He said, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that ‘Seeing, they may not see, And hearing, they may not understand.’ 11 “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. 13 But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. 14 Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. 15 But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.
Titus 3:8-15 (NKJV) 8 This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men. 9 But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless. 10 Reject a divisive man after the first and second admonition, 11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned. 12 When I send Artemas to you, or Tychicus, be diligent to come to me at Nicopolis, for I have decided to spend the winter there. 13 Send Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their journey with haste, that they may lack noth ing. 14 And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful. 15 All who are with me greet you. Greet those who love us in the faith.
今天的福音是耶穌基督的著名比喻，關於播種者，他出來撒了種子。 這對我來說印象非常深刻。 為什麼？ 因為福音說“神的道”，並不是像它在英語中被翻譯得很糟糕的那樣，被翻譯為“神國的秘密”，而是像希臘原文一樣，被翻譯為“神國的奧秘” 。 因為奧祕不是秘密，它是上帝的話語作為種子來到地球。 神的話語——這很有趣——不是一個理論。 例如，福音並沒有說有人出來分發聖經或某種理論的書籍，而是說種子落在地上，當然就溶解了。 所以神並沒有給我們一個教導，或只是一個教導──這個教導只是為了開始。 祂正在將自己賜給我們：神的話語出去，無所不在，就是你在聖餐中吃的東西。 福音所說的非常重要，種子必須被溶解，否則它就無法生長或被吸收。 所以基督教不是一種理論。 耶穌並沒有給我們一個理論或哲學；而是給我們一個理論。 祂正在將自己賜給我們。 播種者，其實是上帝，祂播種，祂到處撒種。 有人可能會說他不細心、不節儉，把種子撒得到處都是，浪費了種子。 但神會走向每個人，無論這個人是否接受他。
The Gospel today is the famous parable of Jesus Christ, about the sower, who came out and threw the seed. And this is very impressive for me. Why? Because the the gospel says that Word of God, not as it is very badly translated in English as the secrets of the Kingdom of God, but as in the original Greek as the mysteries of the Kingdom of God. Because the mystery is not a secret, it is the Word of God that comes to the Earth as a seed. And the Word of God – and this is very interesting – is not a theory. For example, the Gospel does not say that somebody came out and gave out Bibles or books of some kind of theory, but it says that the seed fell on the earth and it was dissolved of course. So God is not giving us a teaching, or only a teaching – the teaching is only for the beginning. He is giving us Himself: the Word of God that goes out and is everywhere, it is what you eat in the Holy Communion. And it is very important what the Gospel says, that the seed must be dissolved or it cannot grow or be absorbed. So Christianity is not a theory. Jesus is not giving us a theory or a philosophy; He is giving us Himself. And the sower, who is actually God, he sows and he throws everywhere. Somebody may say that he is not careful and not thrifty, that he wastes the seeds by throwing them everywhere. But it is God, who is going to everybody, regardless of whether this person is going to accept Him or not.
First, the Gospel says there are four different categories. In one the seed goes to the street and because there is no soil, the birds come and eat it, so the seed is wasted. And in the second it goes to a place where there is a little soil but there are stones under it so that it sprouts but soon dies. But it is better to explain these one by one because Jesus explained then that way. This one, the seed that went on the street, the birds were like the Devil or a demon, who comes and takes the Word of God and does not allow people to accept it. And we see this, especially in missionary areas, where the people don’t pay attention to the Word of God and they don’t follow it because a demon is doing his job. And it is very important that we must consider that we are not alone, and that there are demons also. We are not afraid of them, of course, and we do not care about them if we love God. But we must know that they exist, and especially in non-Christian countries like Taiwan, where there are so many other kinds of worship, including the worship of demons.
The second is very important because the seed grows, but there is something inside like stone. So I say it is very important that the Word of God, but only a little bit because it hits stone. And we must be very careful because, do we also have stone inside of us? How many people have a heart that is like stone? And they come with other people to the Church and then they use the Church their stony heart to throw people out of the Church.
There are many people who are Christians, but they think that Christianity is some kind of ideology, like national identity or political belief or the economic situation. And when there is temptation, for example they come to the church and the priest for whatever reason is not good, they say they will not come to the church again because the priest is very bad. I told you many, many times: you may hate me, but please you must still come to the church. You do not come to the church to see me, you come to offer yourself to Jesus Christ. This we have seen, people we have baptized, and they disappeared from the church, mostly for reasons that are not really very serious. And we are supposed to die for our faith, right? Always I remember the soldier who was arrested by the Chechen. He was 21 years old, he did not know theology, he had just been baptized that year. They cut his neck very slowly, for two hours, and he did not deny Jesus Christ.
But there is also another situation, in which the Word of God is growing but in parallel there are growing others. The Word of God, the seed, comes up but in parallel there are also thorns: the cares of this life. And gradually they grow faster than the seed and then gradually they kill the seed.
And don’t think that what I say has to do only with religious teachings. Some people may say, “This is all about the Church and who cares?” But it is the same with our relationships; the same with the love between husband and wife. If we don’t take care of our relationships, like we take care of our God, this relationship can be dissolved. Like with a flower, if we don’t give it the proper water and take out the bad seeds, the insects, then gradually the flower will be sick and probably die. So this is why I always I always advise people who are married, because marriage is a basic human relationship and the main human condition. In the Garden of Eden, human beings and everybody started from a marriage. If you say, “My work is very busy and I don’t have a lot of money,” yes it’s true. If you say, “I have to make my career” yes it’s true. If you say, “I have to take care of the kids” yes it’s true. But the most true is to keep this love because if this love is not working then the consequences are very bad.
This is the Word of God, but you see it is so easy to be a Sunday Christian. Some people think it is very strange because each time they come to church, palms are being given out. But this is because they come only once a year, on Palm Sunday. And this person thinks he is Orthodox. Orthodoxy is not just doing very long crosses, kissing the icons, or knowing some external behavior of piety. Orthodoxy is he who knows the Holy Trinity, who knows our dogmas as life, and who participates in the sacrament of the church.
But, you know, it is also good heart when people receive the Word of God, and then they grow and produce a lot of fruit, one hundred times more than the original seed. So what is judging us to determine if we really cultivate and produce something? And you can ask and when will I know this. I will not know this and God will judge me. After my death God will say if I or you produced something. Some people told me to write something in Wikipedia about my life and my work in Taiwan. But it is not up to me to write history. This should happen after my death.
But this creates a people, especially our Protestant brothers, who say, what? They say that one time baptized, I’m saved. I have seen many commentaries by famous Protestant scholars, that this is a very big problem for them. Because we see that in two situations the seed grew but it died later. And the only explanation that these Protestant theologians give is that people who are like the seed that grows but dies, these people are like those who are baptized, they are Christians but later they refuse the faith: they are not really Christians. But this is a very simplistic and illogical explanation.
And it is very important as I say to understand as an Orthodox person to understand that we don’t care to receive any Word from God, but to receive God as long as we are alive. We are not perfect we have our mistakes. This is why we repent, this is why we confess. And in spite of our mistakes and weakness, we still love God and come to the church to receive Him.
So all these things are the mystery of our salvation. It is the Grace of God and our response in a mysterious way. God is making the first step always. And we accept this step, and it is always like a cycle. And remember that we are seeds for our children and our beloved people, and we should give our lives to dissolve the seed for others.
The Epistle for today is also moving because it reminds us that the people of this time Artemas, Appolos, and all these people that the Apostle Paul names, some of them had jobs one of them was a lawyer. This is like our small church here. We will not write a Gospel, but the book in Heaven writes all your names an all your contributions by any way to the Church. Apostle Paul says something very important, that Christians must initiate some good jobs. Not to be like pathetic in the church, just listening and then I leave, I don’t care. The Greek word, proisthas , which means to take care, to start something, to do something and not just to say, “I’m a Christian, today I came, I received the Holy Communion, I listened to a service.
Next time we will talk again about doing something. At least here we try. On the internet we have so many videos, I say, send them to your friends. It’s not easy. In the past we had the books about marriage; I said to give them to friends and only two people gave them. So I cannot say to you anything except to pray for the Church and to do what you can for the Church by a good heart May the Holy Trinity protect all of us. Amen.
