ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE

Exarchate of Parishes of Russian
Tradition in Western Europe

Two Ways to Imitate Christ

Sermon preached by Bishop Basil of Amphipolis at the Parish of the Annunciation, Oxford, 12 October 2008

Luke 8: 4-15

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Today we heard the Parable of the Sower, and in order to understand this parable, we have to imagine what it is like to be a peasant farmer in Palestine. This is very hilly country and unless you are quite rich you do not have access to land that is level and flat and easy to take care of. Walking on the hillsides, there are small fields, where there are paths, and fences and stones everywhere.  This parable takes us right back into that context.

What is interesting in the action of the sower is that he makes no great distinction between these different qualities of land – if it is good land, if it is the path, if it is thorns, if it is rock – he sows everywhere. He has a job to do and he does it. The task is to sow the seed. He knows right from the start that some will not respond, some will not grow – and he knows the reason. Yet he accepts that: he accepts this as something which is in a sense beyond his control. This is why Christ can say, ‘Let him that has ears to hear, hear.’ – because some have ears and some don’t have ears to hear.

Before we become upset by that, let us realise that even the Apostles do not have ears to hear: they do not understand the parable to begin with. This does not bother Christ, however. He takes them aside and explains it to them. He lets them know the inner meaning of what he is trying to say – and what he has sown in a ‘broadcast’ fashion. It is interesting to see that in this sense he follows the implications of his own parable as he explains it to the disciples – in other words he works to bring forth fruit with patience – en hypomonê – or , as in the NRSV – ‘with patient endurance’.

He does not criticise the Apostles: he just works with them and brings them along – and in this way he accepts the given-ness of this world, the given-ness of his disciples, whom, he says in the Gospel of John, have been given to him by the Father (Jn 17:6).

In this sense, Christ’s position in this world is no different from our own. We all exist within a given-ness over which we have no control. Christ, too, is called to live in particular circumstances, and n the midst of those circumstances he listens to the Father and he carries out what he hears the Father tell him. But he also knows – just as St Paul knows – ‘that it is God who gives the increase’ (1 Cor 3:7). He is able to say – even at that point, at the point of his teaching and reaching out to those whom he calls to himself, ‘Thy will be done’. Let the Father’s will be done among these people.

Here is a way in which we can all imitate Christ: by our acceptance of the given-ness of this world and by our acceptance of the will of the Father for us, calling us to be a certain type of person in this world – and also an acceptance of the result of our efforts to follow out the will of God. This, too, is something given by God.

Let us return to the beginning and look again at this original scene. What does this parable actually tell us about Christ? It tells us that for him the perceptible world was the medium of revelation. It actually reveals and brings to our attention the nature of the Kingdom of God. The apostles are given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God, but Christ sees them first in this world. A mystery is something which not only conceals but also reveals. For example in the mysteries of the Church, the bread of the Eucharist is in one sense ordinary bread, but for those who can see – for those who can perceive – it becomes the food of the Kingdom. In the same way with the wine taken as the blood of Christ, this is ordinary wine, but what is concealed – and revealed – is in fact eternal life. The world itself as Christ sees it reveals to us the secrets of the kingdom. He says, ‘Look at the lilies of the field’. They do nothing at all, ‘and yet Solomon in all his glory is not arrayed like one of these’ (Mt 6:28). He is talking not simply about the lilies of the field, but about the glory of God which it is our vocation to enter into.

He looks at a grain of mustard seed and sees in it a revelation of the Kingdom – or the leaven that a woman puts into bread or the net full of fish that brings in both good fish and bad. You can see these realities only if you already know what the Kingdom is like, and this is something that Christ does know and therefore he can find it in the world.

So there are two ways in which we can draw near to Christ, on the basis of today’s Gospel. One is in his acceptance of the given-ness of this world, his acceptance of his task in it and his acceptance of the given-ness, by the Father, of his disciples. And we can imitate his ability to see in this world a reflection of the mysteries of the Kingdom. So let us then, knowing what we know, and having seen what we see, try to be alive to the presence of the Kingdom, and to find in that awareness the strength to follow the path of Christ.

Amen