Today’s Gospel is so important that I’ve chosen to concentrate on it this morning. The Church also commemorates today the Fathers of the 7th Ecumenical Council, but perhaps we can look in detail at that commemoration on another occasion.

One could say that the parable of the Sower is the quintessential parable. It talks about the Word, (Our Lord Jesus Christ), and his reception in the soil of our hearts. This parable sums up the whole Gospel.

In Greek, parabole literally means “throwing alongside” and has come to mean illustration, analogy or comparison; and in fact, if you look at many of the parables that’s what you’ll see – comparisons. The kingdom is like this, like that. But there is more to parables than comparison. They can contain material that is puzzling, even confusing. Parables often require that a person looks deeper into the story to find its meaning.

When explaining this parable Jesus says: "The knowledge of the secrets kingdom of God is given to you, but to others I speak in parables so that “though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.” This is a pretty baffling statement. Is Jesus deliberately talking in riddles so that people won’t understand? What does he mean by the “the secrets of the kingdom of God”?

 The Greek word for “secrets” here is mystēria, mysteries. In our tradition when we speak of mysteries we don’t mean puzzles or esoteric knowledge. We mean things that are true, things or which we have a real experience, things that require a deeper engagement with God and a shift in understanding and preconceptions. It’s the word we use for Holy Communion, Baptism and the other “sacramental” ways in which we turn to God and receive his grace. It’s also a word that resonates with the eschaton, the coming judgement and renewal of the world. Mystēria point both to the presence of God’s kingdom in the present world and in the world to come.

It’s striking that the words of Jesus: ‘but to others I speak in parables so that “though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand”’ are included in all four of the Gospels – so they can’t be a riddle that we can safely overlook.

Jesus is quoting from the sixth chapter of the book of Isaiah which is a key text in the Bible. Isaiah sees a vision of God in the Temple – a vision that we commemorate almost every time we pray, and certainly at every Liturgy. “ I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.  Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”

God’s holiness is so overwhelming that Isaiah feels he will not survive, but a seraph comes with a coal from the altar to touch his lips and he hears: “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” (Words said by the priest after he has received Holy Communion and in some churches said aloud over the people at the blessing with the Chalice.)

Then Isaiah is given the message to take to the people: “Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

Isaiah prophecies judgement on the people and on the land. But, as always in the Hebrew Scriptures, judgement and mercy go together. The chapter ends: “But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.” The holy seed is a promise of renewal.

By quoting this passage from Isaiah in his explanation of the parable, Jesus emphasises that the parable is not to be understood from the reference points of the world, but from the reference points of God’s kingdom: holiness, judgement and mercy. To live in a way that is characterised by holiness, judgement and mercy we need a change of heart – a radical change of heart. He says the same thing in a more challenging way in John 12: “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” 

The change of heart is so radical it amounts to a death, but a death that happens for the sake of new life.

C S Lewis explains this in his book Mere Christianity: “It may be hard for an egg to turn into a bird: it would be a jolly sight harder for it to learn to fly while remaining an egg. We are like eggs at present. And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.”

Accepting that the old ways of our heart have to die would be impossible without the overwhelming love and mercy of God. St John Chrysostom comments on this parable that the Sower behaves strangely, casting precious seed in places where no sensible farmer or gardener would ever put them – rocks, paths and places already full of weeds.

St John Chrysostom says that although this makes no sense in actual soil, in the case of people’s hearts it it’s a different matter. For as the sower makes no distinction in the land submitted to him, but simply and indifferently casts his seed; so Jesus Himself too makes no distinction of rich and poor, of wise and unwise, of slothful or diligent, of brave or cowardly; but He goes unto all. And how can it be reasonable to sow among the thorns, on the rock, on the path?

With regards to the seeds and the earth it cannot be reasonable, but in the case of men’s souls and their instruction, it is abundantly praiseworthy.  For it is impossible for the rocks to become earth, or the path not to be the path or thorns not to be thorns.  But in regards to men’s souls rocks can change into rich land, paths are no longer trampled upon, and thorns may be destroyed, and therefore he sows abundantly.

Today, what are the rocks in my soul that need to change into rich land so that the mysteries of the Kingdom of God will be seen?

Given by Mother Sarah