7/21/02
"Wheat and Weed" -
Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24, Matthew 13:24-30, 36-4
(view lectionary notes for this text)
In our gospel lesson today, we find ourselves in the midst of Jesus' many parables, these gems of wisdom he used to communicate to a crowd that was uneducated, unschooled in the language of the religious folks. In the parables, Jesus communicated in the language of the people, using farming and shepherding metaphors that connected to the common people. Yet somehow today, in our educated society, all our knowledge just seems to separate us more from understanding the parables set before us. What does Jesus mean by talking about the weeds and the wheat?
As usual, Jesus uses the parable to convey a message about the Kingdom of God. "The Kingdom of God is like" "The kingdom of God may be compared to..." Again and again Jesus tries to give a glimpse of God's kingdom - indeed, the core of his message is that God's kingdom is near, right at hand. How does this story about wheat and weeds tell us about the kingdom of God? One theologian writes that through the parables we receive notes of encouragement: we get glimpses into God's reign and we can see the hand of God at work. "Ordinary eyes could never get this glimpse on their own," he says. "The believer, who turns an attentive ear to these parables, can catch a sense of how God is among us. However, Jesus reminds us, we need to have ears to hear. Hearing is a figure symbolizing our active faith." So let's look at this parable with ears of active faith.
The parables Jesus shared used familiar metaphors for the crowds, but there was usually a twist - something unusual in the story. It was in this unexpected element that the crowds knew to listen for the heart of the message. So what is so unusual about this parable of wheat and weeds? One pastor suggests that the crux - the surprise of the story is in not letting the weeds be pulled once they are discovered. In fact, the Levitical law says that it is actually unlawful to have a field with two kinds of seed in it - a field with wheat and weeds together was ritually unclean. The slaves in the story want to remedy this situation as soon as possible by pulling up the weeds, leaving the wheat as the sole, pure seed in the field. The sower won't permit this however, reasoning that the process of weeding would result in destroying some of the wheat by mistake at the same time. This is a surprise: everyone who has gardened at all knows that its important to get the weeds out, even if it means sacrificing a healthy plant or two here and there. In the end, as long as there is still a good sized crop left, what's the loss of a few good plants? Afterall, the parable of the sower, just shared by Jesus earlier in this same conversation, talks about how weeds and thorns can choke healthy plants out of existence. Yet, the parable's message is clear: God tell us not to weed the field - the wheat is too precious to take the risk of destroying it by mistake.
But isn't this frustrating news - we can't do anything about the weeds? We can't clear out any space in the garden around us until God does it for us? Yet, thank goodness - thank goodness weeding isn't going on in the field today, because there are some days when I feel more like weeds than wheat. Thank goodness I don't have to show my fruit today, because there are some days when I don't feel like I'd have so much to show. Thank goodness we aren't in charge of weeding in one another's gardens, because there are some people I know would love to weed me of everything that irritates them. Thanks goodness we aren't in charge of weeding, because some days I'd be tempted to treat as weeds others who I really love and cherish. Thank goodness God sets out our tasks for us: what is our role is, and what our role isn't. Our role is to bear fruit, to grow strong, to resist being choked down by weeds around us. Our role is not to uproot that which grows near us, our role is not to inspect our neighbor's fruit, even when it smells rotten to us. One writer shares, "We want immediate and visible signs that assure us we are on the right side and, more importantly, that God is on that side with us. But Someone else is giving orders and is in charge of the field, the planting, the growing and the harvesting. It seems that sorting, weeding, rewarding and punishing are not our concern." Jesus' parable is in fact one of mercy for us: there's still hope for us - it's not set in stone how things will turn out yet. There's still time for us to change if we feel we are too much like the weeds, not much like the wheat. Yet Jesus takes us even deeper.
Think back to the parable again, to the question of ritual cleanliness, to the issue of why the sower wouldn't want to cleanse the field by weeding it of the bad. Jesus' shows us that though the slaves thought the field was unclean because of the weeds, the sower wasn't concerned about this matter. The sower was concerned about protecting the wheat from destruction. The slaves were ready to weed, to clean up, even if it meant letting some of the wheat perish along with the weed. The sower was willing to risk the presence of weeds rather than sacrifice any healthy wheat. For me, this is a powerful message of how God feels about us - imagine that you are the wheat - what if your field was weeded, and you were uprooted, along with the weeds, and destroyed, even though you were a healthy plant. What if you were overlooked by God, deemed unimportant when compared with the prospect of ridding the world of evil? What if individual humans, just one person in a world full of people, what if each one of us wasn't counted as worth very much? What if God didn't see us as something worth saving?
But thanks be to God - we hear over and over again that indeed we are worth counting - we are worth saving, even if it means letting the unclean weeds grow around us, God will not overlook us. Our other scripture lessons today prove to us loudly and clearly just how much value God puts on each of us as an individual. In Paul's letter to the Romans we hear the parent child language that describes our relationship with God: we are the children of God, adopted as God's own and therefore made like Christ. "We are children of God," says Paul, "and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ." God would adopt us as God's own children! In doing so, we become heirs, heirs to God's kingdom, recipients of God's grace. How much God loves and values us.
In the Psalm we shared in our morning worship we find another message of God's boundless love for us. The Psalmist writes, "it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them--they are more than the sand; I come to the end--I am still with you." God knows us inside and out, knows all about us - and is still with us, always and everywhere. No wonder this God is not willing to risk our destruction, just to get rid of some weeds. We are too precious, too loved.
And so what do we do, with the knowledge that we are loved and valued, with the knowledge that we are not responsible for weeding around our gardens? What does God ask of us in return? Good seed bears good fruit, and our good fruits, our strong healthy wheat, is returned to God, gathered in to the God's barn. We should tend to our own fruit, our own wheat. We can examine our own lives, and use the seed that God plants in us to bring forth and produce that which will further God's reign on earth. We grow in strength and in the comfort of knowing we are loved, we are worth saving, we are God's children.
Let us pray: Gracious God, you who formed us and knit us together, you know us so well, you know our intricate parts. You know all that we are capable of doing through the gifts - the seeds - that you plant in our hearts, our minds, our lives. Help us care for our seeds, that we might bear fruit that spreads your kingdom through all the world. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.