Thursday, July 16, 2020

Gospel text for 19 July 2020



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!”

Reflection        Jesus is the master gardener. In the garden,  the proverbial kingdom of God on earth, he encounters people turned toward God – the wheat, and he encounters people turned away from God – the weeds. People for God and people against God all growing up together in the garden of God’s kingdom.

The question is not, “Where did the weeds some from?” with its implicit search for someone or something to blame. The meaningful question is, “How did Jesus interact with the weeds?”

Never did Jesus pull on his gardener’s gloves, yank out the weeds and torch them. Though many weedy humans would plot to test or entrap him, Jesus never aimed to destroy them. Quite the contrary.  Jesus forgave their sin, cast out their demons, or at the very least he left them alone.  

Jesus devoted himself to cultivating the whole garden by teaching and preaching to great crowds, broadcasting  the seeds of his wisdom everywhere he went (see last Sunday’s blog post) without judgment or sorting the weeds from the wheat. 

Who knows how many weeds – how many sinners were waving in those crowds.  It didn’t seem to matter to Jesus. Ever so patiently he repeated his stories over and over again to the crowds, and he explained their meaning in great detail to the disciples. Jesus did not pull out the weeds. Patiently he preached to the weeds because in the weeds he saw the seeds of God’s kingdom on earth.

So what response is this meant to elicit from us?

I think we humans spend a lot of time being impatient with the weeds –wondering where they came from – why they are so stubborn and who is to blame for their presence.  We speculate as to their intentions (do they want to strangle or choke us?) We judge them and convict them. We tare them from our midst and throw them away.

Perhaps Jesus is suggesting that our time might be better spent if we nurtured the wheat and looked through his eyes to see the seeds in the midst of the weeds which  for me is very good news because frankly… some of the time I am not quite sure if I am a sheaf of wheat or a shock of weeds. 
At every principle worship service together, via zoom or facebook live, we make a general confession. And the thing is, we don’t ask for forgiveness for being ill-willed, for lying, cheating, deceiving, not even for stealing or murdering. We ask forgiveness for not loving God with our whole hearts and not loving our neighbors as our selves. Our sin is failure to love. Our sin is seeing and treating our selves and our neighbors as weeds.

Is there anyone in this garden who has never been a weed, not even for a minute?  OK then – let us pray

Merciful God, look with favor upon us, your weeds, see through your eyes of compassion our desire to be good seeds for your kingdom. Give us eyes like Yours to see the seeds of goodness hidden in the hearts of our own weedy selves and the weediness of others. For the sake of Your kingdom, have mercy on us and forgive us that together we and all people of all nations might cry, “Abba, Father, Thy Kingdom come.” Through Jesus the Christ we pray. Amen

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