The Importance of the Third Article of the Apostles Creed

Over the years, as I’ve read our Gospel text for today I find myself thinking about my not quite so green thumb. Growing up, my grandma spent hours and hours in the flower beds that surrounded my grandparents home. I would help now and then, but inevitably I’d end up wandering off to do some project with my grandpa…because I thought that hammers and saws were more fun than dirt and worms, and I still do. When this story was taught to me as a young child in Sunday School I remember wandering why the sower didn’t do a better job preparing their flower beds, and for that matter why the sower wouldn’t make sure that all of the seeds went into the flower beds. After all, if the sower would just sow the seeds into the flower beds all they’d have to do is water them with some Miracle Gro and watch the pretty flowers bloom. As I grew I gradually became aware that the seeds were the Gospel and the different places they were sown represented different types of people, but the implications of what that meant didn’t start to sink in until I much, much older. So let’s look at these different types of places the Gospel seeds are sown as if they were people.

In the first category we have the “the path people” who hear the Gospel, but don’t understand it. For some of these people the concept of the Gospel may be so incredibly foreign that they can’t even comprehend it, and for others it may be as simple as the message not sinking in. In preparing my sermon for this morning I looked up how many times a person needs to hear a message in order to understand and act on it. I found an article on the subject written by Marton Jojarth, the Director of Commercial Operations for Google’s Cloud Platform. According to the research he found “people show a preference for a thing, an idea, or a message, if they are familiar with it.” So if the seed is the message of the Gospel people would need to be familiar with it to understand and act on it. Which means repeating the message to prepare fertile ground in which to sow the seed, or the Gospel message. Also from Jojarth’s article, “studies show that the effect of hearing a repeated message reaches a maximum at between 10 and 20 exposures.” That’s a lot of repetition. So it’s no wonder that the Gospel message shared to one of these people is so easily snatched away from them.

In the second category we have the “rocky ground people” who hear the Gospel and immediately receive it with joy, but because their joy has not roots it dies off quickly. Now asking y’all a question when we’re worshipping virtually can feel a little weird, but I’m going to do it anyway. How many of you have started something that you were really, really excited about, then didn’t follow through or quit in less than a year? My guess is that a great many of us have done this. I know I definitely have, in fact I’ve got the yarn to show it from learning how to knit. See I love to create things, so I’ve got everything you need to knit, crochet, paint with acrylics, sketch with pencil, colored pencils, or pastels, scrapbook, do some basic sculpting, make some jewelry, create sand art…well you get the point. And while I pick up some of these artistic activities from time to time, the one that has stuck is sketching. The reason? Well among other things I draw when I pray, I draw when I journal, or even in my daily planner, I draw things that have cultural importance to me, and I draw things for people I care about. If you take a look at any of my sketchbooks you will inevitably find Celtic knots, crosses, and medicine wheels in every one of them, because each of these are part of my roots. Without roots the Gospel message can easily wilt away in a persons life, particularly when it gets difficult, just like with me when learning to knit socks took more time than I was willing to give it.

In the third category we have the “thorny people” and in my opinion probably the thorniest category to talk about. I’ll be completely honest with you, I feel like I’m most at risk of being a patch of thorns, or actually being a patch of thorns at times, if I’m not in the good soil category. You see the Gospel doesn’t promise us a comfortable life, or a life of popularity or being held in high regard. During Jesus’ time on earth it was those who were powerful, popular, and comfortable who were most threatened by Jesus’ radical show of love and acceptance. And I’ll be honest, it’s difficult to go against popular opinion when that opinion contradicts the radical love Christ; or when the world makes idols out of people or things like comfort, symbols, convenience or wealth. I’d to be to stand up here this morning as your Vicar and tell you that this isn’t something I struggle with…but if I did that, I would be lying.

In our final category we have the “good soil people”. For all of you gardeners and farmers, these are the nutrient rich soil people. These are the people who hear the word, who understand, and who practice it faithfully. These are the Christians that you know are Christians because of how they act, not because of what they say. For me, one of these people was my Uncle Steve. He was never one of those Christians who sat in judgement of others, or made sure they told people they were a Christian who always went to church and gave faithfully. Nope. He just lived out the love of Christ the best that he could each day. When he died unexpectedly of a heart attack nearly five years ago we knew there would be a decent turn out for the visitation and funeral…but we really had no idea. Around 1,000 people showed up to his visitation, so many that the visitation went an hour or two past the time it was supposed to end and they still have to turn people away. And by the way, is was a cold and rainy night in November in upstate New York. That is bountiful yield on seeds of the Gospel. Each person had a story about an instance of life impacting kindness and empathy that Uncle Steve had shown them. That is a “good soil person”.

Now we’ve covered each of the categories where seeds are sown in our Gospel message today. And to be honest, if we stopped there I would walk away feeling pretty down. Because of all the people I’ve met and known in my life only a very small percentage of them fall into the “good soil” category most of the time, and no one I’ve ever known, including my Uncle Steve, has ever fallen into the “good soil” category all of the time. Because we are human beings. We are made in the image of God, but we are not divine and thus unable to attain perfection. So where does that leave us?

Well here’s a simple fact. None of us, no not one, are capable of being good soil from our own abilities or choices. We are captive to our sinful nature and unable to do good apart from liberation by the Holy Spirit. And we have been liberated by the Holy Spirit and are in Christ Jesus. Now you might be thinking, what do you mean by being liberated by the Holy Spirit? I know lots of Christians who aren’t very nice, or who you would never think are Christians. Well, that liberation can be found in our liturgy and Creeds. That liberation can be found in our actions and priorities. Each week before our first reading I say, “God Speaks to us in scripture reading, preaching, and song,” each of these are places that we find the Holy Spirits liberation. Our liberation from sin by the Holy Spirit is found in the Apostles Creed. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the life everlasting. Church isn’t a place we go or a community we’re a part of so that people know we’re good. Church is the body of Christ, which when we are active participants trusting in the Holy Spirit for guidance our soil becomes better for the seeds of the Gospel. Our soil is made better by the forgiveness of our sin, when each day we die to our sinful nature and are raised again in the newness of Christ. When God is at the center of our lives, when we are reliant on the Holy Spirit our soil is made better. Pray that we may each become better soil, good soil for the seeds of the Gospel in our world.

AMEN.