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July 20, 2008

Rik Rasmussen

Proper 9A - RCL

To read the lessons for the day click here:

http://www.io.com/~kellywp/YearA_RCL/Pentecost/AProp11_RCL.html

Genesis 28:10-19a

Psalm 139: 1-11, 22-23

Romans 8:12-25

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Jesus put before the crowd another parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, `Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?' He answered, `An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, `Then do you want us to go and gather them?' But he replied, `No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field." He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!"

Let us pray,

Make us glad, we pray you, gentle God,

to give each other your loving care;

make us happy to receive it.

May there daily grow within us

a generous, trusting spirit. Amen. (from the New Zealand Prayer Book)

In today’s Gospel reading we have another parable about seeds. Last week we heard about the scattering of the seeds where some fell on rocky ground, some on the path and some in fertile soil. Lynell told us last week she read that parable as one showing the reckless generosity of God. A generosity that is willing to let the seeds of humanity land where they will with the expectation, that even in the rocky places, there might be life. Today we have the story of the wheat and the weeds.

Many of us probably can’t relate all that well to the agrarian imagery in today’s gospel. Like many people in America today I did not grow up on a farm. The closest I come to worrying about weeds is in my almost annual vegetable garden or in my lawn. And it does not help that our English translation took a very specific word in Greek and translated it into the generic English word “weed”. The weed in question is now known as bearded darnel. It is a very close cousin to wheat and when both plants are small they are virtually indistinguishable. It is not until both plants start to set seed heads that you can tell them apart. By that time the roots of the two are so intertwined that you cannot pull one with out damaging the other. So what is a farmer to do? Wait patiently until the harvest and separate the good from the bad.

If you where to look at my back lawn most people would probably comment on the number of weeds that are growing among the grass. There is only one place in the yard that has the kind of grass that some of our neighbors grow. You know, the kind of grass that grows in the commercials or on the manicured lawns of many a proud lawn owner. But when I look out I don’t see weeds. You see some of the weeds are actually violets and in the spring our lawn blooms in a wonderful display and purple and white. So even a “weed” that is very distinguishable from the lawn is, to me, not a weed

Jesus explanation of the parable at the end of the Gospel is clearly about the end of times. He tells us that at the end of time the evil ones will be gathered up by God’s angels and cast into the fiery furnace and good will be gathered into heaven. One thing that I read in this Gospel reading is that it is God’s Angels that will gather the harvest and segregate it not man. The reason is that, like the weeds in the parable the good and evil are hard to tell apart until it is time for the harvest. We cannot tell what is a weed and what is a good plant.

Pastor Edward F. Markquart in his Sermons from Seattle reflects;

“At the heart of this story about the weeds and the wheat, Jesus is clearly telling us that there is a final judgment and a final separation of the good from the bad. And his clear revelation about the final judgment is to motivate us to live lives that God would approve of. This parable is to motivate us to live a godly life; to energize us to be the kind of people God wants us to be. The motivation of the threat of hell isn’t politically correct but it is still real.

A second theme that we hear in this parable of Jesus is that only God is to judge; we human beings are not to. It is God’s responsibility for making the final judgment calls.

In a baseball game, the pitcher, catcher, batter, and coach can argue all they want; but the home plate umpire makes the final calls and final decisions. No matter how much the players froth at the mouth, it is the umpire who makes the call. Those are the rules of the game.

And the rule of the game of life is that God makes the final judgment calls. We don’t. We may froth a lot at home plate; we may froth a lot about what we think are close calls; but it is God alone who makes the final judgments.

And that was the mistake of the Pharisees; they thought they were in a good position to make judgment calls about other people, and Jesus didn’t like their judgments.”

The church and, I would dare say, society is still full of Pharisees. People who are so sure that they can tell a bearded darnel plant from the stalk of wheat before either one is bearing fruit that they willing to risk it all and pluck out the “evil” from their midst. They are going to “help” god’s angels and clean up society and make it easier for the angels to do their work at the end times. Many religions and societies want to segregate the evil from the good. To relegate those that are different to the fiery furnace. There are factions within our Anglican Communion who will not meet with the archbishop of Canterbury at the Lambeth Conference because they are afraid that the Archbishop has invited the weeds to grow along side the wheat. To try and appease the bishops who are so sure that they know what God’s people should look like, and are so sure that their reading of the bible is correct, Archbishop Rowan excluded Bishop Robinson from the conference. But this exclusion has not appeased anyone. For some the church must remain orthodox, whatever that means, but to them it seems to mean that they are willing judge the fruit of the harvest before the harvest has come. They think they can recognize evil in others and are not willing to even meet with them to see of the fruits of their hearts are indeed good. Is that really the place of the church? Or should we let everyone into our communities? As I see it the church is like the field in the Gospel story. We should welcome everyone and not judge one another until it is time for the harvest – and the harvest is up to God.

Now I do not think that this means we turn a blind eye to evil amongst us. I believe that we are clearly called to call out injustice in the world - to call out evil acts. To me the evil acts are those that show we are clearly not loving our God with our whole heart, mind and soul and are not loving our neighbor, all of our neighbors, as our selves. It is when we see people being excluded because of what they look like, who they are or where they live that we are commanded to call the world up short and model the love that Jesus called us to model. We are not called to judge who is evil and who is good by their appearance in the field of life. That is clearly Gods job.

As Pastor Markquart said: “Thank God we don’t have to make those final judgments. That’s God’s job, and God can have the job for that matter. I wouldn’t want to be the final judge. I don’t have the wisdom or the stomach for it, and I don’t think you do either.”

As I see it our Gospel reading calls us to leave the harvest of good and evil to God but warns us at the same time that we are to cultivate good within our hearts. That there is a consequence to following evil but we can turn and do good. This world is so full of weeds that look like wheat and beneficial plants that look like weeds both figuratively are actually! So what are we to do? As I see it we are to nurture everyone around us, perceived weeds and wheat alike. To look for and nurture the good where we find it, even in the most unexpected and unusual places and to help it bloom. After all if I removed the weeds from my lawn in the summer I would not be blessed with a wonderful bloom of purple and white in the spring.