Proper 11 - Year AGoo

Welcome Statement

Good Morning Church,

Recall that last week, we listened to Jesus tell the story of the different seeds and where they grew. This week, another issue in Jesus’s parables is being addressed. Weeds. Before we get into this parable, we will look to Isaiah for a short proclamation about God’s sovereignty. This will help remind and humble us with some clarity of God’s nature, so we are prepared to accept the wisdom in the parable of the weeds.

Old Testament Reading - Isaiah 44:6-8

Isaiah 44:6–8 NRSV

Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god. Who is like me? Let them proclaim it, let them declare and set it forth before me. Who has announced from of old the things to come? Let them tell us what is yet to be. Do not fear, or be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? You are my witnesses! Is there any god besides me? There is no other rock; I know not one.

God Alone is all there is

Consistently in the Old Testament, YHWH is understood to be the only God with any credence, strength, and ability. Paul speaks of this fact that other Gods are not real, they are not in any objective sense, a part of our reality, at best they are idols, at worst, they are means with which the accuser confuses and distracts people:

1 Corinthians 8:4 NRSV

Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists,” and that “there is no God but one.”

God’s Prophetic Witness

God and his lineage of prophets, are the only prophets with any grounds. Other prophets from other religions will predict dates and times, and what the people want to hear, but God’s prophets point to a different, cause and effect way of thinking. Rather than guessing dates, they are advised directly by God on what will happen if the nation of Israel does not get its act straight, or if the Church fails to be a witness to others. This is why we can say the lineage of prophecy has not ended, because we with the holy spirit, can point out, with reasonable clarity, what will happen if X occurs in the church, then y will occur. Prophets who are guessing dates are not God’s prophets, the true prophets are the ones able to see the undercurrents of human behaviors and actions, and translate that to moral outcomes that could or will happen. The point of a Prophet is to help a nation or people turn around, not give guarantees about what they want to hear. This is why we can trust Jesus, he’s telling us the truth whether we want to hear it or not.

New Testament Reading - Matthew 13:36-43

Matthew 13:24–30 NRSV

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.’ ”

Matthew 13:36–43 NRSV

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!

Son of Man

The Son Of Man is jesus, sons of man is of course a commonly used phrase in the bible, but the point here is Jesus is the true sun of man, the perfect Adam. The field is the world

Living alongside Weeds

The important point jesus is telling us here is, this world is fallen, and as such, weeds will grow, certain weeds will outcompete in height, but the wheat will dig its roots deeper while the weeds are shallow growers. By giving the wheat time to deepen its roots, it will be unaffected by the weed pulling come harvest time. It is true weeds will stunt crop growth, but that is not a reason according to Jesus to rip the weeds out. Now I’m sure modern farming has different ways of dealing with this now, the point of the parable is based on the present understanding of agriculture in that time period, to help people understand their role. We are called to live beside the weeds, To be a witness to Good, and rebuke the evil around us. But at the same time, God has asked us to not spew poison or herbicide towards the weeds. This is a strange thing. I saw a Methodist pastor write an article recently about speaking on justice in humility, and I think this is an important point. We can get on our soapbox as a church to the injustices around us, but if we fail to give ourselves a look in the mirror and also confidently stride as if we have never committed a sin, we risk losing our credibility. The church that can look inward, is a church that can confidently look outw

The Nuclear Option

When the weeds get out of hand around my house, Instead of wanting to pull them out, it can be easy to grab the jug of Spectracide and just go to town trying to get things out of the way. Instead of pulling individual weeds we might grab the weedeater, and get a bit too aggressive at cutting down weeds. Maybe we get fed up we light a torch to it even! I mean I hope you don’t do this, but there is a point to what I’m saying. To be clear what Im saying next is not in scripture, but I imagine the following responses from the servants. Some might say, we shouldn’t have to try to keep caring for the wheat and be stuck with these weeds, so some servants might pack up shop, go start their own wheat business together, where they will have a much smaller harvest, even if there are no weeds because of their own due diligence. In their culling of weeds, they gladly pull up the wheat, and their harvest get smaller and smaller. This is the church concerned with ideological and cultural purity, one that forgets the Church is going to attract sinners. To be clear, in this story, the Weeds are clearly identified as doers of the evil one, but one thing is, the servants would not have the same eye for weeds as the master, they might mistake a wheat sprout as a weed, and inadvertantly stop a sprouting faith short. This is not productive. It is also not productive for the servant who is fed up to have a tantrum, and torch the entire field with gasoline, or herbicide, some wheat might survive the herbicide, but who wants that stuff in their food? (I recognize the reality that they have to be used, my point is, there is balance).

The Coming Harvest

So what are we left with? Is the church to just become a passive bystander? No, we are called to protect the wheat, that much is clear, there are definitely cases where we must defend the downtrodden and poor from the weeds encroaching on them, but those scenarios are clear, almost with a perfect clarity because of how outrageous the weed is becoming. But Jesus is clear, we are not to violently uproot these weeds, we are to focus on caring and protecting the wheat, so that the master when he comes to harvest, has the fullest possible harvest. This feels counterintuitive, but it will help people see we are serious about our counter-cultural way of living, of loving neighbor, serving neighbors, and ultimately, glorifying God. When we stop reacting to every single weed that crops up in our life, and instead, choose to focus on the good, we show there is a way to stop being so torn up about the things that are wrong, because we noticed the forest from the trees, yes, there is a lot of weeds, but wow is this harvest going to be huge. Some people would rather cull the weeds early even if it harms the harvest, because the ugliness of the weeds ruins their perfect aesthetic of what it means to be a pure Christian. This is not productive, it is harmful to the body of believers. The reality is, regardless of your denomination or faith in Christ, We are all in this together, this isn’t some sentimental feeling, it’s a physical reality. I do not have Christ all to my self, there are Baptists, Lutherans, Orthodox, Catholics, Pentecostals, and many others who all share in this love of Jesus. We are called to point out the weeds, even the ones growing in our own church planted by the evil one, and Paul does give us rules on how to address those, but we cannot try to cull the entire field of weeds, more will sprout, and we will eventually widdle down to one or none in terms of wheat. This is again, not intuitive for our minds, we would rather just deal with it get it over with, rather than wait a season (or multiple seasons rather), but Jesus is calling us to patience, something our hearts don’t naturally want.

Closing Statement

I’ll close with this example. In my own work, I take personal pride in having a strong sense of how to engineer software, how to group things, how to organize it intuitively, how to follow the practices of what I see as a craft, like someone doing wood working, electrical work, or housebuilding might. But there are a lot around me who see it solely in the lense of a paycheck, and as such, do not take the same care or pride in it, and sometimes, just add to the problems because of that. Some its just becuase of their own individual abilitiy, others its because of their coasting in life attitude.

It is easy for me to want to write all these people off, saying things like “did they really get the same degree I did? How did they pass?” etc. But the reality is, I have my own shortcomings too, there are things I still need to improve on, and I am pointing out the branch in another’s and ignoring the log in my own. Let your work and labor for the lord, whatever it is, be the representation and focus of God’s glory and justice, rather than fingerpointing and blaming. We can blame others all we want in the health of our church, but the reality is, God is still with us, he hasn’t abandoned us, in fact, he’s waiting for the proper time for the final harvest, and we are called to trust him in that. That does not mean passivity, he is still asking us to continue to seed more good wheat, and by doing so, we will outpace the enemy. The enemy will laugh with all of his weeds growing so quickly, but in the end it will be Jesus with the final laugh, as his wheat harvest grows so abundantly, that the weeds can no longer keep up, and eventually lose steam. I don’t know when this time will be, but I know if we hold faith in Jesus, and even if we fail on our part, Jesus won’t, Jesus will still come to break bread, and heal wounds, he will still come for us, to bring us home, someday. Let Us Pray

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, adfs asdfa

Amen.

Doxology / Benediction / Closing

As you go out these doors, give thanks to God that he is still giving us time to grow, yes this means we must live alongside the weeds, but by doing so, we learn how to become hardy to life’s pressures and troubles, like Job, we learn to trust God in the whirlwind, we learn that Jesus truly is what he says he is, our Lord, the Son of Man. Go out with that knowledge, and do not fret, for it says in 1 Corinthians 15:58

1 Corinthians 15:58 NRSV

Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

May you Have a Blessed Sunday, and rest of your Week! Amen!