Whenever I baptise someone into the Christian faith, I always make a point of clearing up what seems to me to be a great misunderstanding about baptism. Most people seem to think that being baptised makes someone a Christian and that is simply not true. I’m sure that, in part, comes from the fact that these days everyone, including the Church itself, calls the sacrament of baptism, ‘Christening’, a word that, I think, implies that we are making Christians of people when we baptise them. But what we’re actually doing when we baptise someone is making them a member of the Church, and that does not automatically make them Christians. To be a Christian is to be a disciple of Christ. It’s to try each and every day of our lives to follow the teaching and example of Christ. But to do that we need to know what that teaching and example is, obviously. And so we baptise people into the Christian faith by making them a member of the Church where they can learn what Jesus said and did and by that, learn what it means to be a Christian and, hopefully, progress along the road towards becoming one.
Being a Christian then, is about discipleship, it’s about following Christ. Coming to church is a very important part of being a Christian but that isn’t all there is to it, and that alone isn’t enough to make us Christians. Being a Christian is about taking what we do and learn in church, out into the world, and putting those things into practice in our daily lives. And a very big part of doing that is sharing our faith with other people; letting them know that we are Christians. It’s important that we do that for a number of reasons. For one thing, Christians don’t have a monopoly on doing good works so that alone doesn’t mark us out as Christians, and if we do good works and people don’t know that we’re Christians, who gets the glory, God or us? And we also need to let people know that we’re Christians for the very simple reason that Jesus told us to in that Great Commission to,
“Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”
We’d find it very hard indeed to teach people about Jesus and bring them into membership of the Church without sharing our faith with them wouldn’t we? Impossible in fact. So as Christians, as disciples of Christ, we are called to share our faith with others.
Anyone then, who takes their Christian discipleship seriously does, and will have tried to share their faith with people outside the Church. And so anyone who takes their Christian discipleship seriously will find a great deal of personal experience being borne out in the Parable of the Sower that we read in this morning’s Gospel.
If we’ve taken this aspect of our Christian discipleship seriously, and shared our faith with those outside the Church, we’ll all have met and spoken about our faith to people who are just like those whom Jesus spoke about in the parable. We’ll have tried to share our faith with people who aren’t really interested. This is the seed we’ve sown that’s fallen on the path. We’ll have shared our faith with people who have seemed genuinely interested in what we’ve said, but the seed we’ve sown hasn’t really taken root. Some of those people might have even come to church for a while, but they haven’t done that for long. Very often these are the people who come to church for a short time and then stop because they say they weren’t getting anything out of it. This is the seed we’ve sown on rocky ground. Almost certainly some of the people we’ve tried to share our faith with will have said they’ll think about coming to church, but never have. Quite often these are the people who always have something else to do, they have too many other commitments and so they’re too busy to come to church. This is the seed we’ve sown among thorns. And, hopefully, we’ll have shared our faith with people who’ve started coming to church and become good and faithful members of the Church and disciples of Christ who’ve then gone on to share their faith with others. This is the seed we’ve sown on good soil and that’s borne fruit.
As I think back on my time as an adult member of the Church, I can think of times when I’ve experienced all these things. As both a lay person and member of the clergy, I’ve shared my faith with people outside the Church and, without wanting to sound boastful, I have sown seed in some good soil. I’ve spoken to people about my faith, and they’ve come to church and become good, faithful, confirmed members of the Church themselves. And I know that they’ve gone on to share their faith with others. I know that because people have told me that they’ve spoken to them about the Church and the Christian faith. I’ve sown that seed in different ways. Sometimes it’s been through chance conversations with people. Sometimes it’s happened when I’ve planned to speak to people about the Church and the faith, and that’s often been successful in bringing people back to the Church who’ve lapsed, whether that’s because of an argument and fall-out with someone in the Church, or the un-Christian, hypocritical behaviour of Church members, or perhaps even the Church itself. Sometimes I’ve sown that seed through a ministry I’ve performed, a baptism, a wedding, a funeral, through teaching courses, even through civic ceremonies I’ve carried out. I’ve sown seed in good soil in all these ways but, I said I don’t want to sound boastful, and I’m not being because I’ve sown more seed on the rocks and among thorns than I have on good soil, and the vast majority of the seed I’ve sown has fallen on the path. Or has it?
When we share our faith with people outside the Church, it can often seem as though we’re wasting our time. People, on the whole, don’t seem to be in the least bit interested in what we’re saying and even if they do show some interest, that wanes very quickly. Those who do come to church don’t come for long, and those who say they’ll think about it, hardly ever do come to church. In fact, despite what they say, they probably hardly give it another thought, if they think about it at all. So are we wasting our time trying to share our faith? Or perhaps I should say, have wasted our time trying to share our faith when what we’ve said falls on deaf ears, on the path, the rocks and among the thorns? It might seem that way but actually, no, we’re not and we haven’t.
In the Gospel, we read about Jesus sending his disciples on ahead of him into the towns and villages to proclaim the kingdom. And he says this;
“Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’ And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you.”
The prophet Isaiah tells us that peace and the good news of salvation, is God’s message to his people. This is what Jesus sent out his disciples to proclaim, and it’s what he calls us to do as his disciples today. But he says that if the message is rejected, that peace, that good news of salvation, returns to rest on the messenger. So when we share our faith with others, if they reject what we’re saying to them, any blessing that would have come to them by accepting the message, comes back to us. So in a spiritual sense, we can’t lose whatever happens when we share our faith. If people listen and come to faith themselves, that’s great. But if they don’t listen, we’re blessed simply for trying. So we haven’t wasted our time, whatever happens.
But also, we can never be sure what might happen in the future on account of us sharing our faith with another person. We might not see any immediate result from what we’ve said, but that doesn’t mean it won’t have an effect and a good result at sometime in the future. We might have sown a seed that will lie dormant until some more favourable soil conditions arise in the future.
And again, this is something I’ve experienced, and perhaps you have too? At times, people have told me that something’s happened in their lives, and they suddenly remembered something I’d said, perhaps in a conversation or in a sermon, something that they didn’t really think much about at the time but suddenly made sense to them and helped them to understand the Christian faith a little better and more clearly. And when that happened, when they gained that better and clearer understanding, the seed that I’d sowed some time before, sometimes so long ago that I’ve had trouble actually recalling when I’d said it, and even just what I’d said exactly, had taken a firmer root in that person. And these are people whom I still see to speak to. How often has that happened with people I don’t have contact with anymore? How many of those thousands, and it will be thousands, of people whom I’ve shared my faith with over the years could say the same thing? How many of the people you’ve shared your faith with could say it?
We never know just what will happen to the seed we sow when we share our faith with others. The seed may seem to have fallen on the path, on the rocks or amongst the thorns. But the seed we’ve sown my still be there, lying dormant, until some more favourable conditions arise later that will allow it to spring to life. So we should never think that we’re wasting our time or have wasted our time sharing our faith. We should share our faith because it’s what we’re called to do as Christians. We should share our faith because it’s what Jesus told his disciples to do and, as his disciples, we should do what he tells us to do. And we should share our faith because, whatever happens to the seed we sow, we can’t lose. If the seed we sow falls on good soil, we’ve gained a new member of the Church, or perhaps regained and older member, and goodness knows, we need to do that. And if the seed we sow falls anywhere other than on good soil, regardless of what may happen in the future, we gain God’s blessing simply for sowing the seed.
As long as we do share our faith, we can’t lose. We don’t come across many win-win situations, anywhere in life, so let’s share our faith and make sure that we don’t miss out on this one.
Amen.
Propers for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Trinity 6) 16th July 2023
Entrance Antiphon
In my justice I shall see your face, O Lord; when your glory appears, my joy will be full.
The Collect
Merciful God,
you have prepared for those who love you,
such good things as pass our understanding:
pour into our hearts such love toward you,
that we, loving you in all things and above all things,
may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
The Readings
Missal (St Mark’s)
Isaiah 55:10-11
Psalm 65:9-13
Romans 8:18-23
Matthew 13:1-23
RCL (St Gabriel’s)
Isaiah 55:10-13
Psalm 65:8-13
Romans 8:1-11
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Parish Church of St Mark Chadderton 