7/18/99
"In the Garden" -
Genesis 28:10-19a, Romans 8:12-25, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
(view lectionary notes for this text)
The parable of the wheat and the weeds seems, at first, yet another teaching of Jesus made simple for us by his wonderful stories and analogies. We recognize quickly the message for us: there are good people in the world, represented by the good seed. And then there are the not-so-good people - they are the weeds in the world. We are instructed not to put them in their places ourselves, but to wait for the harvest - the Judgement Day. Then we, the wheat, will be taken to heaven, and they, the weeds, will be thrown into the fire. Simple, right?
Unfortunately, not. As soon as we begin to look at the parable more closely, we find problems with our understanding. First, we hear that the owner has sown the wheat and the 'enemy' has sown the weeds. Why didn't the owner have his servants sow the seed, a normal duty they would usually perform? And even more perplexing, why does an enemy need to plant weeds? Anyone with gardening experience knows that weeds grow quite easily without being intentionally planted. But this is just the beginning of the peculiarities. The seed sown by the owner is always referred to as 'good' seed. What other kind of seed would a gardener sow? The adjective seems unnecessary, unless it bears some greater significance. And finally, at the crux of the parable is the command by the owner not to tear up the weeds - they will be dealt with at the harvest. This is perhaps the strangest aspect of all. Normally, gardens are weeded not just once, but several times during a season. A few good plants might be pulled up accidentally, but in the end the seeds produce stronger and healthier plants after a good weeding. What a strange command by the owner then, to have the servants let the weeds run their course.
At each turn, we find the parable is not as simple as it seems. We don't notice these oddities at first, but when we do, we are left questioning. What is Jesus really saying to us? What happened to our simple message? What does this parable mean for us? Let's return to the problem of who is sowing what. The servants do not sow the good seed in the garden - that is done by the owner alone, with no protests or helping hands by the workers. The coming wheat with all be the fruit of the master's efforts. However, when the weeds appear, so do the servants. They are quick to point to the owner - "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?" The servants then offer to gather the weeds, to protect the good seed. The master refuses. The servants, not there at the planting of the seeds also don't know the right plan for the growth and harvest of the seed.
Now, we can see ourselves more clearly in the role of the servants. God, the Creator, is the sole planter of good seeds, not only in seeds of life, but in seeds of blessing and success. We do nothing to create these gifts, to earn this grace. Like the servants we are silent while the good seed is being sown. Content to attribute our happiness to our own hard work, a creator seems a vague memory. That is, of course, until a weed develops in our garden. Losing a loved one, being a victim of hatred or violence, or even dealing with someone backward thinking, who weighs down our goals. Suddenly God is remembered. Didn't you bless us God? Why then am I facing troubles? Why have I been hurt? Why do I have to deal with this person? We don't mind letting God sow the good seed in our gardens, but we do mind the weeds. We want to tear it all up at the first sign of disruption.
Like the servants, we are suddenly ready to get involved, not realizing that God is prepared for the weeds, not realizing the God has a better plan. "Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then has it weeds?" Though the servants to little to acknowledge their master as the sower of the good seed, don't they quickly decide that he is likely the sower of the weeds? Or, if the owner did not sow the seeds himself, surely he is just letting the weeds grow, doing nothing about them, which makes the servants quite anxious. However, we know from the parable that the 'enemy' is the sower of the weeds, not the owner, though sometimes we act ignorant of this fact, like the servants. How often do we question God accusingly when things go wrong, sure that God has planted these messes in our lives.
But finally, we can accept that an 'enemy' has done this - an enemy has created all the evil in our world - all the bad things in our lives. Jesus tells us that the enemy is the devil, and together we breathe a sigh of relief. It is the devil that causes all the weeds in life. We can stop doubting God's actions, and start tearing out those weeds, now that we know how they got there. But wait - just who is this *devil*, anyway? We know we aren't able to grasp all of the mysteries of faith, but we can see beyond the devil as a scary monster just as we can see beyond Creator God as the metaphorical man in the garden. The devil represents something bigger in the world. The devil is the evil, malice, hatred, and anger around us, but if the devil is personified, it is unfortunately most often personified in ourselves. As the saying goes, we can be our own worst enemies. We, ourselves, are frequently responsible for the weeds in our gardens. When the servants were uninvolved in the sowing of the good seed, were they also negligent of the care and upkeep of the field? Did they water it, tend it, or protect it?
The parable does not give us this specific information, but we can look to our lives for these examples. If God blesses us, with good seed, how do we respond? How do we care for our garden? For the seeds of love, compassion, and kindness we receive, do we tend to them so that they grow and produce? We become the enemy, the sower of the weeds, when we ignore our gardens and hoard our blessings. So, perhaps instead of doubting God?s actions, we must begin to doubt our own. The servants wanted to tear out the weeds from the garden, but the owner knew that this would only destroy the good seed as well. Though most gardeners weed their fields regularly, it seems there is just something about wheat that makes this hard to do. The wheat and weeds become so intertwined, so close together, almost hard to tell apart without damaging both weed and wheat. You can't really separate them until they are full grown, ready for harvest. This is the hardest and most important lesson for us. If the wheat represents the children of God, and the weed represents all causes of evil and all evildoers, what does it mean if we all mix in together until we are fully grown? What does it mean if you can't tell the good from the bad? If we, the servants of God, set out now to tear up the weeds in our garden, who would we point out?
The startling message is that we would be tearing up ourselves. We cause evil, because we are imperfect, because we are human, because we make mistakes - we have many reasons, but it does not change the fact that we make the weeds in the garden. We ignore God, we take our blessings for granted, we do not follow God's will. It seems hopeless... but then we remember that God protects us. God says wait - lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. God says wait - my garden is not yet full grown, not yet developed, not yet ready. And we are thankful for God's grace. For the Gardener's wisdom. A parable which appears to urge the faithful to wait for Judgement Day is transformed into a parable of hope, that urges us to recognize good seed, to tend our gardens, and to beware sowing weeds in our lives.
In our reading from Romans, Paul says, "creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God. For the creation was subjected to futility by the will of the One who subjected it in hope. For in this hope we were saved." So, we anticipate the harvest, hoping that we have grown, hoping that we have tended our good seeds, so that we may lay our fruits at the feet of the gardener.
Let us pray: Creator God, we are your servants. Put us to work in the garden. Teach us to be patient and caring keepers of the good seed. And help us be receptive to the will and wisdom of you, the gardener of our lives. Amen.
Response: Our closing hymn, "Nearer, my God, to Thee", is often thought of as a hymn of mourning, sung at funerals. However its original context is a retelling of Jacob's story from our reading today. At Bethel, Jacob declared, 'Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it,' and so his relationship with God developed from that point, as he became aware of God's presence in his life - in his garden. As we seek to be nearer to God, we too can be made aware of God's hand in our gardens.