День Седьмой. Alexey Uminskiy
YouTube
Fr. Alexey Uminsky on the Parable of the Sower: God sows His Word in every heart
5:20
Fr. Alexey Uminsky preaches on the Parable of the Sower, opening with God's words to Adam before the expulsion: the earth will bring forth thorns and thistles, and you shall labor by the sweat of your brow; you are earth and to earth you shall return. The parable is precisely about this earth, which the Lord compares to a trodden path, stones, and thorns growing on the land.
The sower in the parable is a strange figure because an experienced sower chooses only good prepared soil, yet this sower scatters seed on the path, on stones, and among weeds where it is useless to sow. The seed obviously perishes in such places, but the strange sower does not stop sowing; the Lord explains to His disciples that this sower sows the Word of God.
The Lord Himself interprets the parable: when the seed falls into bad soil it perishes, birds peck it, cares of life choke it, and only good soil brings forth fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. The good soil must be found in us, in that same earth of which the Lord said it brings forth thorns and thistles; the seed is sown as divine hope that a person may work on heart, soul, and mind by the sweat of the brow to become fertile ground.
The Word of God is not only the Lord's teaching or commandments but the Word who was in the beginning with God and was God, He Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word. Christ is not afraid to sow Himself by the wayside, on stone, among thorns, anywhere at all, only to save man, to find man, and to give every person, despite hardness, trampled state, and lifelessness, the chance to live with Him and have eternal life.
The post also mentions a new project of reading books with Fr. Alexey, but the sermon itself centers on the call to become good ground for the divine seed.
Key moments
- The speaker begins with God's words to Adam before the expulsion: the earth will bring forth thorns and thistles, and you shall labor by the sweat of your brow; you are earth and to earth you shall return.
- Today's parable, the Parable of the Sower, is precisely about this earth, which the Lord compares to a trodden path, stones, and thorns growing on the land.
- The sower in the parable is a strange figure because an experienced sower chooses only good prepared soil, yet this sower scatters seed on the path, on stones, and among weeds where it is useless to sow.
- The seed obviously perishes in such places, but the strange sower does not stop sowing; the Lord explains to His disciples that this sower sows the Word of God.
- The Lord Himself interprets the parable: when the seed falls into bad soil it perishes, birds peck it, cares of life choke it, and only good soil brings forth fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.
- The good soil must be found in us, in that same earth of which the Lord said it brings forth thorns and thistles; the seed is sown as divine hope that a person may work on heart, soul, and mind by the sweat of the brow to become fertile ground.
- The Word of God is not only the Lord's teaching or commandments but the Word who was in the beginning with God and was God, He Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, the incarnate Word.
- Christ is not afraid to sow Himself by the wayside, on stone, among thorns, anywhere at all, only to save man, to find man, and to give every person, despite hardness, trampled state, and lifelessness, the chance to live with Him and have eternal life.