Year A

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Our Patient God

There are definitely times when we can distinguish good folks from bad folks. The movies make it simple for us by dressing the good and the bad differently and in some cases you can tell by the music being played. When the bad person comes into the picture, the music may sound rather sinister. Some people in real life determine that Christians are the good ones and that the bad ones, the ones who cause all the trouble in the world, are those of other faiths or of no faith at all. Yet, there have been many times when we look back at history, we have seen Christians carry out atrocities against others. Discerning who are the good folks and who are the bad folks becomes increasingly difficult.

Our readings today make some sharp distinctions between good and bad. The text from Second Isaiah clearly separates bad idols from a good God and attempts to persuade the people to make their witness to the Lord in the face of the Babylonian Gods. In the second lesson, Paul distinguishes sharply between a life in the Spirit and a life in the flesh, the first obviously good and the latter bad. And clearly the gospel from Matthew recognizes that even within the church good and bad exist side by side. So how do we deal with such distinctions or as we might say today, when do we apply “Weed and Feed” and when do we not?

It all began because Jesus’ critics were concerned…furious would be more like it. Jesus was calling people to follow him, even outsiders…people who had no idea what the Jewish laws were all about. Newcomers, slaves, women, and later Gentiles and foreigners would be added to the list; people with shady pasts, some with criminal records; lepers, and poor people. According to his critics and the religious leaders, things had definitely gotten out of hand so they got together and said, “We’ve got to do something.” What does Jesus do…he tells a story, a parable about the kingdom of God, as he often did. This parable where Jesus compares the kingdom to someone who sowed good seed in the field is the second one in this chapter, and the second of two “seeds” parables. The first is the very familiar parable of the sower and the various kinds of soil that we heard last week. The parable today takes a slightly different track.

A farmer tills his field and sows seeds in it. While the farmer slept an enemy came and sowed some very different kinds of seeds in the field. It was hard to tell the difference at first. But when the wheat came up there was also poisonous weeds. In desperation, the workers were ready to pull up all the dangerous plants. But the owner shook his head. “Leave them.” At harvest time I will take care of the weeds.” The workers shook their heads and walked away. Jesus explained that you cannot pull up the weeds without pulling up a great deal of the wheat. And you can’t always tell the weeds from the wheat because they are rooted together. Better to wait until the wheat and the weeds are all mature. Then, when the harvest is taken the weeds can be sorted from the wheat and thrown into the burn pile.

By the time that Matthew wrote his Gospel, with this parable in it, the missionary activity of Paul and others had established congregations of the church in many parts of the Roman Empire, and so “the world” indeed was the field for sowing the gospel. By then, the church had also realized the “enemy” was not only on the outside, but right within the church itself. Right within “the family” are those who do not put the concerns of the kingdom first and foremost. In fact, some are even opposed to the mission. Matthew sought to address this growing concern, within the young Christian community. Namely, he wanted to address the question of how did these people get in the church anyway. Christians in Matthew’s community were contemplating purging their less devout members. It does sounds very similar to the critics and religious authorities of Jesus’ day.

His original point in the parable, New Testament scholars agree, was to affirm that matters in life are murky enough that human beings, even faithful ones, are not able to discern the weeds from the wheat. That there are weeds everywhere and we are all a mixture of good and evil.  Even in the church, God’s purpose, our purpose and the purpose of life is often hidden. Paul talks about patience in his letter to the Romans and perhaps our parable today is a lesson in patience along with a lesson in judgment. We cannot take matters into our own hands. We should not make premature judgments. We are imperfect people in a not-so-perfect-world. We only know partial truths and judgment belongs to God. Yet, it is tempting to make judgments about those who are “wheat” and those who are “weeds.”

Our Lord’s earlier word of caution “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged,” is good to keep in mind. We also need to keep in mind God’s promises that we are not forgotten by God in our work for the kingdom. And we can take courage from Paul’ s word that assures us that the Spirit of God is quietly at work even in the midst of conflicts that seem to have no resolution. Yet, we want immediate resolution. We want to see progress toward a final answer. In our world today, we are not sure about tomorrow let alone next week. What Christ calls for in this parable is judgment, patience. “Christian patience,” writes theologian William Barclay “is not a grim, bleak acceptance of a situation but it may be the hardest lesson of all to learn, how to wait…when nothing seems to be happening, and when all the circumstances seem calculated to bring nothing but discouragement.”

The landowner in the parable tells his servants to be patient and wait until the harvest, when they can see the difference by the fruit that is borne.  We church folk are to leave judgment about who is wheat and who is weed to God and remember we are to be patient with ourselves and our brothers and sisters everywhere. It helps to remember our hope and our help is with the One who is in charge of the harvest. There may be a multitude of weeds but there is also wheat that did not come up on its own. We planted those wheat seeds. And because God is stronger and smarter than the weed-sowing enemy and because of our faithfulness, the power of the seed will do its work. God can even take the weeds of life and recycle them into meaningful products. God can even take the troublesome weeds in our lives and in our time and bring something redemptive out of something so destructive.

The parable today illustrates the wisdom of God’s delay in bringing his kingdom to final fulfillment. Jesus’ followers, then and now, walk away from this parable with an understanding of why things are the way they are, an insight into the God who neither abandons his compromised field nor rashly purges it, and a harvest that is to come. This is good news for us today. In a world where seeds of hatred and injustice are daily sown, the parable affirms that God is still in charge and the plants are still bearing fruit.  And so with the joy that comes of the harvest of eternity, we can go back into the world, confident in our growth in God’s love. Then will the righteous shine like the sun in the kingdom of their God. “Let anyone with ears listen!