EDITOR'S NOTE: On Oct. 23, 2021, I was ordained as a minister of word and sacrament in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and installed as pastor at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. I also served the same church for four years from October 2017 to October 2021 a synodically authorized minister. The journey together these past four years has been an amazing one, full of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on July 26, 2023.
This week's gospel text: Matthew 13:24-30, 25-30
The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat
24 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while everybody was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 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?’ 28 He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he replied, ‘No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 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.’ ”
25 but while everybody was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 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?’ 28 He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he replied, ‘No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 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.’”
The message:
I’m curious … if you are truly honest with yourself, would you find yourself more comfortably in the shoes of the field owner in today’s gospel?
Or would you more likely associate more with being the workers in the field?
In other words, if you had gone out to the field this morning, and found that someone snuck into it, and distributed a bunch of bad seed among the good seed, how would you feel?
Would your first impulse be to jump right to work, thinning out that bad weed in an effort to protect the investment of your crop?
Or would you have the insight and the patience to stand back and say … “No, let them grow together until the harvest. We’ll take out the weeds then.”
So, what do you think? … Whom would you identify with first? … I know my answer.
Sometimes, I think, as faithful people … judgment comes easy.
After all, from the time we are littlest of kids in Sunday school, we hear story after story about the Ten Commandments and living purely and that our goal is to earn our way through our good deeds into heaven.
I mean … we want to be the good seeds, right? … That is the life that we are groomed for from the earliest of our faith formation. … To be the good seed. … The ones God wants to keep and to join him in heaven.
And so, in our limited capacity as humans, I think that learning the patience that the field owner possesses in this gospel … is a challenge.
As faithful people … we want to be good seed; we want to be surrounded by good seed; and we expect everyone and everything else around us to be good seed too. … Right?
That seems a righteous and worthy desire … What’s wrong with that?
But in this parable, Jesus is trying to help us understand that that just is not the way of this world. … That even as faithful people he wants us to understand that good and evil … simply will coexist in this world.
God understands that … and for whatever his reasons are, he’s OK with these circumstances. … Good and evil living together.
And God has NO intention of weeding out the bad seed until the harvest.
But for a lot of us … that’s just a very hard lesson to accept … isn’t it?
After all … God, this just isn’t that hard … There are the bad weeds right there! … They’re in plain sight. I can point them out to you! … Just pluck them out!
As a faithful person, don’t you find yourself screaming that internally sometimes? … Maybe often? … I certainly have to own up to that behavior.
And I know that the fieldworkers in this parable today were exhibiting that kind of behavior when they asked the field owner: “Then do you want us to go and gather them?”
They KNEW which were the bad seeds. They were confident of it!
In other words, again, just like us … Hey, God, the bad weeds are right there! … We can see them! … Just let us go pluck them out so that us good seeds that can thrive!
How presumptuous of us all … right? … How presumptuous of me, a field worker in God’s vast field … to know who or what the good and bad seeds are! … Right?
But I do it. … And I do it often. … Maybe even when I’m not trying to.
Every time I pass judgment on someone else’s worthiness. … Every time I pass judgment on someone else’s attributes. … I’m doing it.
Oh, there certainly is an inner me that absolutely knows who the good and bad seeds are. … If I am completely transparent with you … I can own that I believe that I know who and what is the good and bad seed in God’s field.
How presumptuous of me!
That’s what Jesus is trying to tell us in this parable after all.
Faith Family … It’s not our job to select the good and bad seed. … Not our job to identify it, pluck it out and get rid of it. … Not our job. … None of that.
Despite our own desires, God allows good and evil to coexist in our world. … In this big field we call earth, there are going to be those who are faithful and those who are not so faithful.
Jesus is telling us that it’s none of our worry who they are. … Our job … is just to get out there and tend to them all regardless of the designation we, ourselves, place on them.
And God’s promise to us is … that God ultimately will sort out the good and the bad seed during the harvest. … Using God’s criteria … not ours.
See, being human … We say we believe that patience is a virtue … but in reality … we don’t have time for that! … Am I right?
God, let’s get to it! … We see the bad actors. We know who the faithful are! … Let’s weed that field.
And all God does is caution us to mind our business.
Faith Family … Despite knowing our role in God’s earthly kingdom … it’s easy for us sometimes to overstep our bounds. … Right?
After all, God gifted us a brain and intellect … and we simply know right from wrong. … Using that brain and the intellect we are taught, we know who and what the bad seed is! … Right?
But in that arrogance we forget that we are not God … we are not the field owner … and frankly we don’t get to set the criteria between bad and good.
Rather, our job is to set out to work every day in God’s mission field -- in the world around us -- and tend to all of the seed … and accept with humility that it is God who will ultimately judge the good and the bad during the harvest.
Not us … not our job.
Now, hopefully you find that comforting rather than disconcerting … because after all isn’t far easier to lead a life of serving all the seeds than to be the one tasked with judging their worthiness? … And that is the Good News for this Wednesday, July 26, the Eighth Week of Pentecost. … Amen
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