Of Weeds and Wheat

Sixth Sunday of Pentecost – Proper 11 – Year A

July 20, 2014

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

He put before them 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!"

Over the last few years, Melissa and I have been trying to downsize our stuff, or should I say our junk. Over the years, we have both accumulated a fair amount of stuff. When we were single, and when it was just the two of us it wasn't too bad. Now that there are four of us, and the kids seem to never stop growing and getting more stuff of their own, we are rapidly approaching the point where something needs to give. So, we have been giving. A load here and there to Goodwill or St. Vincent's, a dumpster load (or two) to the landfill, selling things here and there.

There's something that feels wonderful about cleaning things out, getting rid of things you don't need to keep around. All of us likely have shirts in our closets we haven't worn in the last few years, shoes that haven't seen the light of day in a long time, pants that we haven't been able to fit into since the last millennium. I know I have books on my shelf that I haven't glanced at in ages, and they just sit there year in and year out. We have a couple of end tables just sitting in our basement – one of these days we'll actually get around to selling them. I have stacks of sheet music from my days in college that I should probably sort through and then get rid of the stuff I'll never ever play.

I know when I clean a room, and am able to fill up a garbage bag with trash – papers, magazines, it feels amazing; like you actually accomplished something. You look at a room that's been picked up, and you feel good. There's nothing like a clean, picked up house that makes you just feel calm and at ease. There's something to be said for how a messy and cluttered home makes your whole demeanor and spirit a little messy and cluttered. An organized and cleaned up house can make even the worst chaotic day feel a little bit more controlled.

Cleaning up and disposing of things isn't just about houses and rooms though. It's also about other parts of our lives. Many of us have habits that we cling to that we would be better off disposing of. Sometimes it's doing things we know aren't good for us, sometimes it's not doing things we know are good for us. Do we really need that meal super-sized? How many smokes have you had today? When was the last time you went for a walk? What about having a nice salad for dinner tonight?

One of the things I have come to learn in life is that it's important who you surround yourself with. If you surround yourself with positive people, with people who are gracious and kind, people who challenge you to be better, you will likely be happier. But, when you surround yourself with people who are negative, with people who are overly negative, with people who don't inspire you, you aren't really going to get anywhere and the life you are living may not be all that fulfilling. Sometimes, it's necessary to do the painful thing and slowly move away from friends and associates that rub you the wrong way, that make you see life more negatively, that hold you back rather than challenging you to move forward. Sometimes, it seems like you have to clear out your friend list to make space for more positive things in your life.

All of us know the damage that can occur in an organization or group when there is a problem person present. You know who I mean, the person that is always complaining, the person who can find fault with everything and everyone, the person who you avoid sitting next to at meetings. This is the person about whom you honestly have to wonder what they are doing as part of the group most of the time. If they really hate it as much as they seem to, why don't they just leave? Maybe we've been in that situation, and done what was necessary to get them to change their behavior, or maybe we've even forced them out, fired them or made them quit.

Last week, our text was about the sowing of the gospel seed everywhere without regard to if we think the seed will grow or not. This week, our text seems to be about what can happen when you do that. You've been out sowing seeds everywhere, and growth is beginning to happen. New faces are showing up, lives are being impacted, everything seems to be going awesome. Then, something happens. In the midst of the wonderful grain that is sprouting, a weed appears. A growth appears that is deemed far from desirable, taking of the nutrients of the soil and water, stealing light. What to do?

This is the situation that Jesus is addressing. Well, it's probably more likely that this is the situation that Matthew is addressing. Most scholars and theologians think the writer of Matthew has put words into Jesus' mouth to speak to a growing situation in the early church. One of the realities of the early church was that it was full of disagreements (so, it's a lot like the church today!) People went back and forth arguing about how much of a role Judaism was to have, whether or not Jesus was God incarnate, was Jesus coming back tomorrow or was he already here. There were arguments about how people were supposed to live their lives – balancing the whole in the world but not of the world thing. And when there were disagreements, people often took sides. And in taking sides, they declared one side as being correct and the other side as being false. There was one perspective that was good wheat, and the other side a noxious weed, one planted by Jesus and the other obviously planted by the enemy. What to do? Obviously, you get rid the weeds! Except, that isn't what Jesus says.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could easily divide the world into good and evil, saints and sinners, wheat and weeds. But it's not that simple, the world isn't that simple, and neither are each of us. We are all a mix of saint and sinner, as Paul says striving to do what we know we should do, yet so often failing and doing what we know we shouldn't. Saved from sin, yet not saved from sinning. That's the reality that we all know and live. We know the difficulty that would come if we were asked to divide up the good and bad, wheat and weeds around us.

The reality is that it is difficult, if not impossible to truly judge another persons actions and motifs. We cannot know what is within their hearts. This parable is a word of caution to all of us that we should not be too quick to divide up the world into categories; into “us” and “them”. We should be aware of our tendency to gather together and label as “weeds” the “them” around us, assuming they are destined for being burned up and destroyed. Just as in the parable, we can far too easily label and gather up good wheat in our desire to clean up, to remove the weeds. And once you have removed, it can be very difficult to replant.

This is the reality that is found in many churches and worshiping communities. There are multitudes of people who have been chased from churches by well-meaning folk who have determined they are weeds that need to be removed. They speak of being burned by the church, not God, but the church. They speak of the hypocrisy and treatment they received by the “good Christian” folk, who probably felt they were doing God's will. Yet, in their actions they have turned a fellow child of God away, casting them out into the refuse pile, treating them as worthless and without purpose.

So what are we supposed to do? What are we to do when we encounter someone who we disagree with, someone who we are tempted to label as a “them” to our “us” in the church? First, seek not to judge, seek not to divide. And then come together with them in conversation. In the eighteenth chapter of Matthew we find some words of advice, “If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one. But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” (Matthew 18:15-17)

So, the thing we have to reflect on is how Jesus treated the gentile and the tax collector. Did he exclude them, did he run them out of town? Of course not, one of his disciples was a tax collector – Matthew wasn't it? One of the things that is missed in most English translations is the way in which Jesus speaks of the weeds and wheat growing together. Just about every single translation tells us to allow, to let, to permit the weeds and wheat to grow together, but the Greek word is aphete, a word that is usually translated as forgive. Forgive them to grow together.

A few centuries ago, in the late 1700's there was a plant feared for it's poison, for it's ability to kill those who ate it. The juicy red fruit was avoided at all cost, and in fact it was rumored that an attempt was made to kill George Washington by secretly including it in his food. Today that fruit has become a treasured part of our diet, something that almost everyone who has a garden has in their garden. What is this killer fruit? The tomato! What gave the tomato such a horrible reputation? Well, it was observed that when wealthy people ate it, they soon became sick and died. Why? Well, the acidity of the tomato was high enough to pull the lead out of the pewter plates that many people ate off. The wealthy were poisoned, they died of lead poisoning, and the tomato was blamed.

It took years for the reputation to disappear, for the worth and value of the tomato to be seen. The tomato didn't change, it was our perception of it, our treatment of it, the way we thought about it that changed. I think all of us can agree that a beautiful part of our diet would have been lost if our ancestors had simply cast it off as a worthless weed, if they had not found a way to forgive the reputation the tomato had.

The Bible tells us that God sends both sun and rain on the righteous and the unrighteous alike. If God shows such generosity of spirit, can we do any less? Can we find it within ourselves to let God be the gardener who is in control, and not try to make the decisions of the gardener our selves? There are without doubt times when cleaning house, removing the unnecessary, the garbage in our lives is beneficial. But, is doing that within the church the right thing to do, even if it might be beneficial to us, to the church? Is it God's desire that we pull out the weeds amongst us? Or is God's desire that we forgive, find ways to love them in? I'm pretty sure I know what the answer is. May God give us the ears to listen, and the depth of love necessary to respond. Amen.