Sermons
Living in the Fields
BY THERESA MCCONNELL |
July 20 , 2008
Matthew 13.24-30, 36-43
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; 25but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27And 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?” 28He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” 29But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30Let 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.” ’
Jesus Explains the Parable of the Weeds
36 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.’ 37He answered, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen! (NRSV)
I’ve titled this sermon, “Living in the Field” but it could also be “Who’s Getting in the Kingdom?” Here’s a poem, Who’s in Heaven?” that will set the stage for our reflections on the parable of the weeds and the wheat.
Who's in Heaven?
I was shocked, confused bewildered
As I entered Heaven's door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
By the lights or its decor.
But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp--
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics, the trash.
There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.
She, who I always thought
Was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well.
I nudged Jesus, "What's the deal?
I would love to hear your take.
How'd all these sinners get up here?
God must've made a mistake.
And why's everyone so quiet,
So somber? Give me a clue."
"Hush child," said He. "They're all in shock.
No one thought they'd see you!"
That’s how it is, isn’t it. We don’t always see ourselves as others do.
Last week we heard the Parable of the Sower, answering the question raised in Chapter 12 of Matthew, “Why do people reject Jesus and enter into conflict with him?” (Jensen, Preaching Matthew's Gospel, p. 118 from CrossMark website, http://www.crossmarks.com/brian/matt13x24.htm). The answer from the parable was that seed of the kingdom sown by Jesus fell on different types of soil and some produced fruit and others did not.
This week the parable is asking the question about weeds/evil in the kingdom of God. Or as one minister puts it, “This week the emphasis is on the ‘enemy’ (vv. 28, 39) or "evil one" (v. 38, see also vv. 19, 49) who produces faulty faith” (CrossMark, ibid). Another scholar says,
The parable of the sower portrayed normal sowing operations and an abnormal harvest. This parable (the weeds among the wheat) describes normal sowing but then an act of subversion... Here in the parable it suggests all is not rosy with the kingdom of God. There is an enemy. (Loader, lectionary website for Pentecost 10, July 20, http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/lectionaryindex.html).
Here’s the question: Who is the enemy? What are we to do about it?
At first there is some relief in the interpretation that the enemy is the “devil”. We think to ourselves, “Not much I can do about that” and “The enemy is not me”! We may have to look again when we examine the literal meaning of “diabolos” (the word translated devil)… “- literally means ‘slanderous,’ and then ‘the one who slanders’ -- and that does not have to be limited to a supernatural being. (CrossMark, Matthew 13.24-30, ibid.). In fact in I Timothy 3.11 it is used to refer to “malicious talk or gossip”.
It’s easy for us to assume the position of the person from the poem who when entering heaven wonder why all those other folks are there. We are reminded of our own blind spots and how easy it is to want to rush out and pull up the weeds from the garden! We think we know the mind of God and can just rush out and take care of the problem. We also may think we know the mind and heart of others – their intentions, their character, their thoughts, and their heart. We become stuck in the way we perceive people, their actions, and our response to them. We filter their actions through our preconceived ideas.
Let’s look at what Kenneth a. Halsteadin his book, From Stuck to Unstuck: Overcoming Congregational Impasse, has to suggest to us:
Essentially, stuckness is trying to solve difficulties of living and working together in community in ways (usually the same old ways) that make things worse by creating self-reinforcing, vicious circles.
Note of explanation: That is, you and I respond to difficulties in the same ways we always have so things turn our as. We expect behaviors mean certain things and respond to them in that way whether it is accurate or not. The cycle continues.
The problem may get worse right away (when a fight escalates)
Note: You adolescents have never seen anything like this at school have you? Youth who keep trying the same way to solve problems end up in fights because they keep doing what does not work.
or seem to improve at first and get worse later (when we try to cover up and ignore pain, only to experience symptoms of repressed pain later).
Note: We’ve all done this at some time or another. We try to just ignore a hurt and it gets covered up inside of us until some small thing happens and we really over-react…we’ve all done this at some point in time. It’s about repressed pain that has simply jumped out when not expected.
In either case, when things get worse, more of the original solution is tried, and the cycle continues. [p. 5]
Later he quotes from another source a much simpler definition and cure: "The (attempted) solution is the problem!" so we have to "Do something different!" [p. 19] (CrossMarks, ibid.)
I don’t know how you feel about “blonde jokes” but this one helps illustrate our situation.
On the first day of training for parachute jumping, a blonde listened intently to the instructor. He told them to start preparing for landing when they are at 300 feet.
The blonde asked, "How am I supposed to know when I'm at 300 feet?"
"That's a good question. When you get to 300 feet, you can recognize the faces of people on the ground."
After pondering his answer, she asked, "What happens if there's no one there I know?"
That’s us, isn’t it? Sometimes to get different results we simply have to “do something different”. We have to refrain from running out into the field to yank up the weeds – God will take care of that in “God’s time”. We are challenged by this parable to never “write people off” and “never cease to have compassion”(Loader, ibid).
Tall order some days, huh? What if we put the challenge in the positive form? Rather than thinking about what “not to do” let’s take to heart Luther’s suggestion on what “to do”. Luther put it this way, “We are to fear and love God so that we do not betray, slander, or lie about our neighbors, but defend them, speak well of them, and explain their actions in the kindest ways."
Defend them,
speak well of them,
explain their actions in the kindest ways!
I challenge you to this practice for one week. Every time you want to blame someone else for something or speak ill of their behavior, practice defending them, speaking well of them and explaining their actions in the kindest ways.
This practice is a true challenge to let God be God. Let God deal with the alleged weediness of others!
This does not mean avoiding challenge and confrontation, but it does mean: never ceasing to have compassion, never writing people off. We see it in Matthew's approach throughout the gospel, which is very confronting. Even the advice on discipline in 18:15-18 is surrounded by the plea that the straying sheep not be abandoned (18:12-14) and that sins be forgiven 77 times (18:21-22). For very practical reasons we also acknowledge we cannot really know all that is going on in another human being. We have no right to act as if we do. ' (Loader, Ibid.).
None of us have the right to act as if we really know all that is going on in another human being – we are called to be compassionate and not to write others off. We are all living in the fields and sometimes we are the weeds. Hopefully, in not yanking up the weeds, the wheat can live and outgrow the weeds. In God’s time we can be healed of the weediness that lurks in our own lives. In the meantime, we act with compassion toward our neighbors:
Defend them,
speak well of them,
explain their actions in the kindest ways! (Luther, CrossMarks, ibid.).
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