Fr.Vladimir's Sermon Delivered on the 21st Sunday after Pentecost, November 9th, 2008:

Ever since I started preaching, I was constantly trying to press upon the listeners what is probably the most important thing in Christianity, and that is: the fact that Jesus Christ is the center of our life. He is the Core of our life, and He is the heart of the redemptive plan of God. You do not make Him Center; He is the Center. You do not make Him Core of your life; He is the Core of you life. You do not make Him the Savior; He is the Savior. That is the fact whether we like it or not. Just as it is the fact that a new President of the United States is elected, whether we like it or not, that is a fact.

Now, some may say, if it is fact that our lives revolve around Jesus Christ, than, why it is not obvious to everybody? And here is what I believe will help shed some light on that. Namely, everyone in this room believes something. Everyone in this room has a world view. EVERYONE IN THIS ROOM IS A THEOLOGIAN. The question is whether or not you are a Biblical one. This is where we have the most disagreements in the Church. Unfortunately, the churches are filled with too many theologians and too many strong personalities.

Recently I heard on the radio a rather funny story about two brothers in a church, one was an attorney and the other was a businessman. Both were wealthy, but at the same time they were always in opposition to the preacher; to them it was fun to be in opposition. Now, because of their wealth, they appeared to be influential, and because of that people were trying to be good friends with them only because of their money, and many admired them only because of their wealth and their position in the society. But the preacher, although he himself admired them as well, as their pastor he would not hesitate to confront them when necessary. Of course, the wealthy and influential brothers did not seem to like that. And, given that the group of people who surrounded the two brothers was extremely materialistic and with them every conversation was always brought to the level of money and wealth even with their pastor (at times unnecessary, but sometimes even very shallow and inappropriately not hesitating to even fabricate their own agenda), of course, everybody in the congregation was nice to them; because if they were not, they would have been bullied by the loud group who always went around and gossip. Basically, that was their agenda. They thought that the Church is the place for that.

At the same time, the pastor was always trying to preach the Word of God and He was always faithful to the Gospel, but that did not seem to be what the loud group wanted to hear. Now, since they did not like what they hear from the preacher, they started saying, He does not even know what he is talking about. Who listens today these old stories anyway? We heard them all and they do not work. He is alone, and we are in majority who disagree with him, thus we are correct. He talks about the Bible while we live in the 21st century, and this is not really how we have accustomed to live. Let's make our own little Haven where we will organize and run things the way WE want. No one knows better than we how the things should be organized. After all, who is he to tell us what are we to do?

Thus those who were loudest in the congregation went after the money and influence and started stirring the pot. But the preacher continued to preach the Word of God, and he stayed faithful to his message from the very beginning, and as it is often the case where the Word of God is preached, the congregation started to shrink. Along the way, many were confused about what is actually happening. Many were scandalized by how some were treated. Others did not want to be involved in any way and said "we do not want to have anything with the church politics", as they sympathized with the preacher, but at the same time they did not want to stand on the way of the loud opposition. Many had very unpleasant experience with them. And those who really tried to do something god and noble for the Church were always dismissed by the loud group, because that was not on "THEIR AGENDA". And so, if you were part of that community, you did not have much of a choice. And the preacher was very sad with the situation which seemed that whatever he would try to do, it would have been misrepresented and reversed in a way that the two wealthy and influential brothers together with their friends wanted.

But it came to pass that the attorney, one of the opposing brothers, died. Now, the businessman, came to the pastor and said: Pastor, here is the deal. Obviously, you need financial help in order to keep this church alive. And you see that the church is not being supported enough by the regular income and without ME and my wealth this church will close down. Why don't we do the following: "I will help you financially, if you promise me that you will say at the funeral, in front of everybody, that my brother was a saint. Now, the pastor was very torn. On the one hand, he was consistently faithful to the Gospel message from the very beginning and as pastor he cannot say things that are not true, but on the other, in order for the congregation to survive they very much needed the money for the Building fund, and the offer by the wealthy brother seemed to be the only way out of the financial nightmare. And he decided. He said to the businessman: "O.K. I will do it. I will say that your brother was a saint, but you gave YOUR WORD that you will help the church." And the wealthy brother said: "Do not worry! What I promise I always do. I always keep my word." And the preacher said: "Thank you. So do I."

The time of the funeral came and at the service the pastor started the sermon saying: "The person which we are burying now was the most difficult and the most negative person I have ever met in my life; he was an attorney and as such he knew how to manipulate with people and misrepresent the facts. I never saw him to have true friends. He literally destroyed our congregation and in fact, there are no words to describe how bad and evil he was. But comparing to his brother who is with us today, he was a SAINT."

Although funny and entertaining, this story brings us to the parable of the sower and the seed which is today's Gospel reading and which talks about the sower who sowed the seed on four different types of ground: 1) there is wayside ground, which stands for the shut mind. We sometimes say of a person: "We might as well talk to a brick wall as to him." His mind is shut because of: a) mental laziness. Some people are so lazy that they refuse to think. Socrates found this. He wanted to make men think, and so he went around the streets of Athens with his disturbing questions until men thought of him as a kind of boring and strange person. And because they did not want to think, they in the end sentenced him to death. Another reason for a mind to be shut is: b) mental arrogance. There is the attitude of the man who thinks he knows everything already, and that he has nothing left to learn. That was the attitude of the Pharisees to Jesus. They did not want to know anything that Jesus had to say because they thought they knew it better, and he was inferior to them because they were more powerful in the society. This is the spirit which begets intolerance and which shuts the mind to truth. And there is also c) mental fear. It is quiet possible for a man to shut his mind, either consciously or unconsciously, to what he does not wish to be true. The Psalmist (Psalm 53:1) says: "The fool says in his heart there is no God." He denies the existence of God, not because he is intellectually convinced that God does not exist, but because he does not want God to exist.

2) The rocky ground stands for those whose faith is shallow. In Christianity it is always necessary to think things out and to think things through. There is a saying: "It is not easy to be a Christian; but it is easy to start." It is not difficult to have our feelings affected in such a way that we are deeply moved and attracted by Christ. But unless we go on to think things out and think them through, whenever some storm comes, or when difficulties arise, faith is likely to collapse.

3) There is the thorny ground. This stands for the life so crowded with other things that Christ gets crowded out. The best commentary on that is a kind of parable which a nameless prophet told to King Ahab. He told how during a battle he had been left in charge of a prisoner. He was told that if the prisoner escaped his own life would be forfeit. But he allowed his attention to be distracted and the prisoner escaped; and his excuse was, "As your servant was busy here and there, he was gone" (1 Kings 20:38-40).

It is possible to be so busy living that we do not think how we are living. It is possible to be so busy doing things that we forget the necessity of prayer and quietness and devotion and study. And it is by no means always things which are bad in themselves which crowd out the most important things. It has been said that the second best is the worst enemy of the best. This is a warning that life must not be so full of other interests that the main interest is neglected.

4) Finally, there is the good ground

To make the long story short, for His disciples, Jesus was the most wonderful person in the world, who spoke with wisdom and authority they have never heard before. And, yet, in spite of that, (or rather because of that, as the Pharisees questioned His authority saying, by whose authority is he saying these things?) he was being met with growing hostility, and it was clear that a great deal of His preaching was going for nothing. So, it is clear that Jesus spoke this parable mainly to meet the spoken and the unspoken question of His disciples, "Master, why does so much effort produce so little result?" The meaning of the parable then becomes, NO MATTER HOW MUCH SEED MAY SEEM TO BE WASTED, IN THE END A GREAT HARVEST IS SURE. And there is a great truth here. It is true that no farmer would refuse to sow his seed just because he knows that some of it will be wasted. He knows that even if some of the seeds never grow, nonetheless a harvest will result. Thus, we should never be discouraged even when nothing seems to be happening. Just before 1640 a young man called John Harvard emigrated from England to America; he was one of the most brilliant scholars in this country; and all predicted the brightest future for him. In America he lived for only one year and then he died. When he died he left a little over 700 pounds and a collection of more than 200 books to a new university in America. That University became Harvard University which now has more than 10000 students. The death of John Harvard looked like waste but it produced an abundant harvest. So then this parable teaches that even if much effort seems to go for nothing, the harvest is sure.

My dearly beloved brothers and sisters, let us then not be discouraged by the size of our community, as we are a small missionary parish, but rather, let us try and spread love, honesty and good will first among ourselves, and than among others also. Even if it seems sometimes that there is no progress made, still the harvest will be abundant as we heard in today's Gospel. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of The Holy Spirit. Amen.

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