If you happened to be in church last Sunday, it wouldn't even have to be here at Prince of Peace since many congregations follow the same lectionary, you would know that last week's gospel was a parable about seeds also....
Of course, this week we get the added bonus of weeds growing alongside the seeds as a fun metaphoric twist. Despite the fact that the image of the 'seed' is overused by Jesus (trust me, we will get our fill of seed imagery in the next few weeks), this parable raises some of the most challenging and problematic issues in theological thought.
Where does evil come from?
What punishment exists for those who do evil?
And what shall we do about evil?
Not easy questions. Not questions I can adequately address in a 10 minute sermon. It's also fairly clear from this parable that it's not my job to place myself in God's position.
However, like the disciples, there are plenty of circumstances which I feel I can accurately determine what is good and what is bad - the weeds and the wheat. In our scripture today, the disciples already know what they think about the 'weeds' that grow in their midst and they have a pretty clear idea about what should be done with them.
Rip them out. Makes perfect sense. However, despite their natural inclinations, almost if they know this isn't what Jesus would advise, they beg Jesus to explain the parable of the weeds. Whether they realize it or not, when they do this, they are asking Jesus explain himself to them, asking how to follow in his footsteps.
When Jesus first tells the parable He voices our assumptions: If there are weeds growing with the wheat then we should pull out the 'bad' things. Somehow we assume that we are able to discern with the certainty of God what is 'good' and what is 'bad'. Or even more to the point, who is 'good' and who is 'bad.'
But Jesus cautions us, "Just wait, let the two grow together. At harvest time the weeds will be removed first and then the wheat will be gathered. But the servant didn't understand..."
Which is funny because a farmer would understand. A farmer would wait until harvesting time to deal with the weeds, because otherwise the wheat would be destroyed. The farmer knows patience is crucial when it comes to bringing about good things.
We, us, the servants of God....we aren't always patient, cautious, or tolerant.
And sometimes we aren't patient, cautious, or tolerant in the name of God!
We want God to do this then we will be more faithful.
We want God to fix that and then we can have joy.
We want God to help with whatever and then we'll have peace.
We want God to rip out the weeds in our lives and God doesn't work that way.
God waits. God is patient. God is tolerant. God is a farmer - cultivating good things from His fields.
Notice...the weeds and the wheat aren't in different fields; they aren't on different planes; they aren't on different sides of the world. Same field, same soil, same farmer.
So, I want to explore this truth that there's no separation between the weeds and the wheat. When Jesus uses such a general image He opens it up to having many possibilities in terms of symbolism: individuals or rulers or communities or countries. But, regardless of symbolic assignment, the crux of the parable is they are co-located.
Why does God allow the 'bad' to mix with the 'good'; the 'undesirable' to be close to the 'desirable'? We expect Heaven and Hell to be separated, evil and good to be distinguishable, and there to be no gradation between light and dark... But that isn't how it is in this story.
Ironically, that isn't how it is in real life either. Jesus must know what He's talking about.
If I were to say to you where is Hell on Earth right now? Where does sin lurk right now? Or who embodies evil? What would you answer? We all have our own personal thoughts. Some of us would agree and some of us wouldn't.
I was listening to a radio broadcast the other day from Mosul and there was this interesting exchange between the news reporter and two unidentified Iraqi men about the difficulty of getting food and water to aid those in need. So, the sheikhs gathered tens of thousands of dollars from rich businessmen and brought food and water across the country.
The reporter asked why the government isn't supplying those things and one man's answer was, "They're poor. They do the best they can."
Another man's answer was, "They're thieves. Thieves."
Is the government corrupt or not? Doing the best they can or not?
Are the intentions of those providing water and food pure or not?
Is the city liberated or not?
From the perspective of many this place is a living hell, overgrown with weeds of many different types. But there are also stories, from the very same field, about American and Iraqi forces working together to treat civilians who are wounded, malnourished, and traumatized.
This place is certainly not heaven on earth, but it's also true it's not completely subsumed
by hell either. It may be overgrown with evil, but it's not without new buds of hope sprouting forth. Although, maybe only the farmer can see that...
When I was a kid I did something that probably all of you have done. I would pick flowers and bring them to my mother, because, you know, she was the best Mom on the planet. And while I was gathering up my bouquet of 'lovely flowers,' I would also find what we called wishing flowers. I'd take a deep breath and blow on those big puffy flowers. But some people called them weeds or Dandelions.
Which are they? Flowers or weeds? I mean, when you're 5 years old....dandelions are good and beautiful, right? But as we grow up we learn they are weeds. But when my child brings me one...it's a flower, not a weed.
Sometimes just crossing from one field into another turns one from a plant into a weed.
When picking a 'field' to talk about, I picked Mosul because I felt it would be less controversial and still allow us to access the hard truth of this parable: most of us began learning the rules of who belongs and who doesn't belong, who is good and who isn't, who deserves to die and who doesn't, at a very young age, almost by osmosis.
As I said at the beginning this is really a hard parable when you begin applying it to everyday life. Our understanding of God pushes us hard to look for life among the dead and to recognize that God is very near those who are in the midst of hell. That God lives among the weeds.
Our whole faith is grounded in a cross - one of the most hellish, evil, and insidious devices ever planted on the earth. I'd be hard pressed in differentiating the line between heaven and hell, good and bad, evil and just in relation to the cross.
On the cross, when Jesus says, "You'll be with me in paradise," heaven is the 'with me' part. The death part is the hell part. We participate in eternity with every breath and heartbeat, every kind word or selfish act, which is why we don't just pull up the weeds.
In the strange world of this parable, separation is graciously postponed because it just may be possible for weeds to become flowers. It's not too much to hope for, perhaps: that a noxious sinner like me could also, in God's plan, be a place of transformation for someone else. The cross says it is possible, and more astounding than that, it's true.
Jesus believes that all people - all races, all sexes, all ages, all
religions - can live and grow together without one choking out the other. We are all wheat - bread for the world.
Amen.
