Lectionary 16 Proper 11, Year A
Grace Lutheran Church
Lakeland, FL
July 19, 2020
Gen 28:10-19a
Psalm 139:1-2, 23-24
Romans 8:12-25
Matt 13:24-30, 36-43
Grace to you and peace from God and from our Lord, the risen Jesus Christ. Amen.
This week is the second in a series of three in which Jesus is teaching the crowds and his disciples through parables. Images that teach us something about life in Christ, about the kingdom of heaven. Some are easy to understand – or so we think – and others are very confusing. I think we have often treated them as a simple allegory – this image means X, that image stands for Y, therefore Z. And that may be the case. But in almost every one of them, there are layers of meanings that we can mine. Or there is a new angle from which we can look at it. Or just as a whole new design appears when we turn the kaleidoscope a notch, so we can see something new in something that has seemed so familiar.
Today’s gospel may be one of those. A parable that seems fairly simple in its words but the larger teaching may be anything but simple. I think that is the case today.
Jesus tells us about a farmer who plants wheat in a field. Then while everyone was sleeping, the field was sabotaged by an enemy who planted tares, or weeds, in the same field. As the seeds grew, the farmer's servants saw what was happening, and they wanted to rush out and start pulling the weeds.
Now before we go any further, it's important to understand that Jesus is talking about a particular kind of weed that is very common in the Middle East, called Bearded Darnel. It looks almost identical to wheat, so much so that it is sometimes called "cheat weed." Not only that, but it survives by wrapping its roots around the roots of the real wheat, and competing for nutrients in the soil. In fact, the easiest way to tell the wheat from the weed is to wait until the grain ripens.
Of course, the problem the farmer faces is what to do about the weeds. If he sends his servants out to pull the weeds, they will very likely kill a lot of the good wheat as well. After all, it's very hard to tell the difference between the wheat and the cheat weed, and their roots are all tangled together anyway. And so he decided to simply wait until harvest time. Then the stalks of wheat will bend under the weight of the grain, while the tares will stand up taller, making it easier to tell the difference from the wheat and the weed.
Like so many of Jesus' parables, this parable has been studied and explained in lots of different ways over the years. In fact, the entire second half of our reading today was Matthew's own explanation where he seems to say, "Look. There are two kinds of people in this world, good people and bad people, wheat and weeds. And when the time comes, the Good people are going to live with God, and the Bad people are going to be burned." And that explanation works for a lot of people. It has the benefit of being a pretty simple explanation, and lots of people like that.
But I rather think it is just not that simple. You see, it is very easy for me to read this parable and say, “Thank goodness I’m the wheat and not the weed!” It’s very easy to see the weed in that other person over there and not to see the weed in my own life. Maybe you have this challenge too. Our lives are rather like that farmer's field, where it is hard to distinguish the good choices we could make – the wheat – from the bad ones we are faced with all the time – the weeds. I wonder if things aren't just a little more complicated; less black and white, and maybe with more shades of gray.
I find a couple of other things to be interesting in this parable. The place where this seed and weed is growing is “the field” – this field is the place where the kingdom of heaven is located. The kingdom of heaven has come into the whole world – the whole cosmos. The kingdom of heaven is not our own prized possession. The kingdom of heaven is not a separate segregated purified place. The kingdom of heaven comes among us.
Second, I noticed that in the parable, the farm workers were very eager to go out and separate the wheat from the weeds. But the owner said, “Wait. Wait and see. Let’s make sure that we don’t weed out that which is really wheat. And, by the way, there are special ones who will have that task – it is not yours to do. Wait.”
As Lutheran Christians, we recognize the teaching that each of us as Christians are declared righteous – sparkling white, pure white – in God’s sight and at the same time we are sinners and we know this painfully well. My friends, please don’t ask, “Am I wheat or am I weed?” That is not the question to be considered.
Instead, remember that in baptism God makes God’s mark upon us – we walk wet. And day after day we walk remembering the waters that claimed us for God. Because of these waters, we don’t need to worry about who is wheat and who is weed; we don’t need to worry about whether the weed in us will overtake us. We simply can let the wheat grow as we take steps that will nourish our life in faith.
I’d like to share with you some wisdom from a Cherokee legend:
An old man was teaching his grandchildren about life. He said to them, "Two wolves live inside me. One wolf represents fear, anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.
The other wolf represents joy, peace, love, hope, sharing, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, friendship, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The wolves are constantly in a terrible fight inside me. This same fight is going on inside you, and inside every other person, too", he added.
The Grandchildren thought about it for a minute and then one child asked his grandfather, "Which wolf will win?" The old man replied... "The one you feed."
I would ask that you consider now the ways that you feed the wheat in your life…
Worship, prayer, service to others, meditation, Bible Study, personal sharing with another, asking questions, resting, listening for answers.
This is what we as the community of faith, the very Body of Christ, at Grace do as well. We worship, pray, remember, serve, study, speak, listen, rest, rejoice all in the very ordinary-ness of our lives, even in the time of pandemic. In all of this we feed the wheat.
Thanks be to God!
