Untitled Sermon (2)

Intro

I begin today’s reflection on the readings with a bit of a foreword: this sermon is going to be an unpopular one. It’ll be unpopular because of the message that Jesus teaches us today; not everybody will be saved. Not everyone will get to experience the joy that it will be to get to be in the presence of almighty God. Many will not experience this unspeakable joy because they remain “children of the evil one,” as St. Matthew tells us. And they remain children of the evil one because they fail to recognize Jesus for who he is, thus preventing the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit to transform them into a redeemed creature, capable of being in the presence of the Almighty.

This is no moment to gloat. This is not the time to boast in our own self-righteousness. I am not attempting to draw comparisons between us, those of us who consider ourselves in Christ, and “them.” I am also not attempting to speak on the process by which people are condemned. There are many theories throughout the Tradition from saints that to put one above any other would be unwise. Rather, I aim to present a restrained-but-faithful interpretation of the Scriptures before us, true to Tradition of the Church, for the purpose of tethering our hearts to the hope that Jesus Christ inaugurated through his death, resurrection, and ascension, which is guaranteed to us through the precedence of the Holy Spirit in our midst, and culminating in his imminent Second Coming in glory, the general resurrection, and ultimate judgment

I would like to call your attention to a few things. Notice how St. Matthew points out that the man is sowing good seeds, as if a farmer would intentionally sow anything less than what he would consider the best seed, especially if that was his livelihood. His enemy, then, comes while they sleep to sow tares, or weeds, among the wheat. Sleep is not considered a good thing in the Bible, it is symbolic of spiritual unawareness. That’s why we get the advise to keep awake while the Son of Man comes like a thief in the night. Think about the apostles and their sleep at Gethsemane. Sleep is symbolic for spiritual unawareness. So it was while they slept, that the man’s enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat. So after some time, the good seed that the farmer planted grew, but the tares or the weeds grew alongside them.

All too often, the bad things from this world are but a corruption of those good things that God gave us as gifts. Food is good and to have what we need is a very good thing, but to over-consume to the point of waste becomes gluttony. Having equality of opportunity to thrive and to achieve success in a competitive world is a good thing, but to do this at the expense of others, or to find joy at other’s misfortunes, very quickly becomes envy. So, many times, what we consider evil things, are really just corruptions of all of the good things that God gave us for our use and our enjoyment, that through them we may know the good character of God. So it is with humans. We are the capstone of creation; though we were endowed with every good thing – the image and likeness of our Creator – evil corrupted our minds and our souls, that to stay in the presence of a perfectly holy God became simply impossible. We became estranged from the one who formed us from the dust, and who, because of his overflowing love, breathed life into us, giving us being and meaning.

Therefore, it was so that the good creation of God became corrupted with the parasite of evil. In our limited, human understanding, we might wonder if God truly made a good world, a world that reflected his own perfect goodness. Like the servants questioning whether or not the owner of the field sowed good seed, as if anyone would intentionally sow bad seed into his own field. It is nonsensical. But we do wonder, we question often whether or not God actually created a good world, and even wonder if God is even good, especially in the face of the unspeakable evil that many of us know of may have witnessed. I am a millennial, so one of the if not the biggest generational or cultural reference that I know is 9/11. We may also wonder why God simply doesn’t snap his fingers and rids the world of all evil. I confess that I ask myself the same question most days. I wish that he would. Much like the hasty servants, I sincerely desire that God’s good creation is able to grow and to fulfil its purpose freely. However, I think this parable offers us way to think about this problem.

You see, God doesn’t desire mere obedience. God doesn’t doesn’t desire empty worship. Though he is worthy of worship because he is all good, what God desires most is the love of his creation. He desires that his creation would desire to be with God. To simply snap his fingers and destroy evil would mean that he would never allow for his creation to repent. Moreover, if love is the operating principle behind everything, it cannot be coerced, it cannot be forced, but it needs to be freely given. If I prevent my wife from leaving at gun point then it is not that she loves me, but that she is forced to be around. That is not love, that is coercion. And coercion is a corruption of the good, freely given love which produces our common association. Therefore, like the danger that is presented in the parable, to gather up the tares before the harvest threatens to uproot the wheat also. Hence, in his gentleness, the owner of the field forbids his servants to gather the wheat and the tares before the harvest. To rid the world of evil might risk destroying those who, over the course of their lives, would have seen the goodness and glory of Almighty God, felt his love, repented of their sin, and accept their salvation.

Therefore, both the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest, when it becomes time to separate the wheat and the tares. The harvest is the appointed time when, in God’s providence, our Lord will come and judge the world, extricating evil from this creation once and for all, and gather once again all of his good creation to himself. It is not until the harvest that the tares and the wheat are separated. So it is with the creation. Not until the Second Coming of our Lord can evil be perfectly separated from God’s good creation. However, notice that it is not the eager servants who eventually gather the harvest and separate the wheat from the weeds, but the reapers. It is not you and I that are tasked with making the judgement, but it is God alone who judges. Furthermore, it is neither you nor I who are tasked with the actual harvesting of the field, but God himself who harvest the field. Notice that the task of the wheat is simply to grow. Their job is to exist, to be wheat. The task of humanity is simply to be human, to live through the tragedy of life, knowing that the one who comes to gather the harvest is coming, and he will do it in such a way that he will protect the good wheat, and will destroy all that seeks to choke it.

Too often, we are like the anxious servants, who would ruin the entire harvest because of our desire to not see evil remain among the good. I think, more aptly, Jesus encourages us to see ourselves as the wheat, being, existing, growing seed, and patiently growing even alongside weeds. After all, we are but humans, and, as Jesus says, the reapers are the angels. Once we’ve finished our course here on earth, we will be equal to the angels, but, for now, we see the world with our human understanding. God orders that not until the harvest should the wheat and the tares be separated. This is indeed a great mercy. For in our own sighing and groaning at the evil present before us, we testify to the goodness and mercy of almighty God, allowing those in whom evil remains – evil being the state of separation betwen them and God – to know that they are also redeemed, transformed, and justified by the blood of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Yes, through our own desire for the good things of God, and through the patient suffering of this life, help people be transformed from tares into wheat. We cannot transform people’s hearts. Only the Holy Spirit can do this. Thus we toil and stumble through this life, living forever in the hope that it is by mercy that all who desire to be with God, will be with God. Those who desire eternal life will have it.

Only God, the one who spoke the entire universe into existence, has the power to change people’s hearts. God changes people’s hearts, giving them hearts of flesh and taking away their hearts of stone, to the end that we might desire to be with him, not out of some sense of self-preservation, but because we see him for who he is, as a God who is worthy of worship, and because we feel his unending, infinite, and unconditional love for us. For while evil might remain in people’s hearts until the end, it will not be God’s doing, but because of their own foolishness and hardness of hearts. It is only those who wish to remain weeds that remain weeds. The weeds then, at the harvest, will be gathered and thrown into the fire.

My friends, let us together live our lives in the hope that is set before us, looking forward to when the owner of the field sends his reapers who can make no mistake, and we are gathered together, knowing that it is because of his great goodness and mercy that all of those who wish to know God, can know God, and that they can know God through trust in that the Son came and freed the universe from the bondage of sin, and that the Holy Spirit is active, even now, to turn people’s hearts, testifying to he hope of eternal life.