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Sermon on Wheat and Weeds

WHEAT AND WEEDS

TEXT: MATTHEW 13:24-30  

THE SCRIPTURE ~ MATTHEW 13:24-30
The kingdom of heaven is like this. A man sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
The owner's servants came to him and said, "Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?"
"An enemy did this," he replied.
"The servants asked him, 'Do you want us to go and pull them up?'
"No," he answered, "because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: 'First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.'"

JESUS' STORIES ~ THE PARABLES ARE OPEN TO INTERPRETATION
During the month of September, I'll be preaching on stories Jesus told. These particular stories are called parables. They're odd, kind of oblique vignettes-symbolic, metaphorical, mysterious, open to interpretation. Just the opposite of the kind of preaching that most of the clergy do. We're more like the nun in the satirical musical, "Sister Mary Margaret Explains it All For You." We'd consider ourselves a failure if we just left things up in the air like Jesus did. Why, sometimes, when people scratched their heads and asked, "But what does in mean?" He'd just shrug his shoulders and say, "Let those who have ears, hear."

Well, since I'm not Jesus, I'll yield to the temptation of interpreting. Sister Judy Brain explains it all for you. Well, not all, since this has to be a short sermon, but I'll touch on a few points.

JESUS STARTS WITH WHAT PEOPLE KNOW ~ FARMING
First: Notice how Jesus meets the people where they are. He uses an agricultural metaphor. A lot of his audience would have been field hands and laborers. Not the owners of the field, surely, but people who knew a thing or two about farming.


I know a thing or two about gardening so I feel like I'd make a good case study for his audience. And frankly, this thing does not sit well with me. I'm a compulsive weeder. I like the look of a crisp flower bed and I know that weeds suck nutrients away from the good plants. You've got to grub them out of there. The basic premise of this parable offends me as, I think, his hearers would have been offended.

But that's the point. Jesus is not writing an article for "The Wheat Farmers' Journal," he's trying to get our attention so we can hear him say something about the kingdom of God.

A PARABLE THAT TELLS US SOMETHING ABOUT THE IDEA WORLD ~ GOD'S REALM
And, that's the second point. This is a parable of the Kingdom. A metaphor for the way the realm of God operates. In other words, it sets out an ideal. What is that ideal? It is a difficult one: Let God be the judge. Don't you be deciding what or who is wheat and weeds. Leave that to God.

I remember when the Iraq war started, I saw a bumper sticker that said, "Kill 'em all, and let God sort 'em out." Jesus says exactly the opposite. Let 'em all live, and let God sort 'em out.

WE ARE NOT CAPABLE OF JUDGING
Scholars have pointed out that there is a weed in the Middle East called darnel. It looks exactly like wheat. So perhaps this is one message. We're not capable of judgment. We cannot tell the difference. Anthony deMello tells this story:

A family was enjoying a day at the beach. The children were swimming and making sand castles. A old lady appeared, her gray hair blowing in the wind and her clothes ragged. She was muttering something to herself as she picked up things from the beach and put them into a bag. The parents called the children from their play, and drew them close. "Stay away," they warned.
As she passed them, bending down every now and then to pick things up, she smiled at the family. But her greeting wasn't returned.
Only later did they learn that the old lady made it her daily task to walk up and down the beach, bending down to pick up bits of glass so children wouldn't cut their feet.

We're not capable of judgment.

We cannot tell the difference between wheat and weeds. We don't have eyes into the soul; we are not God. The church has set itself as judge before and it is a history of shame. Women who were healers and wise counselors were burned as witches, devout Jews and Muslims were slaughtered for valuing their faith as much as we value ours, black people were banned from worshiping in white churches, gay people are still barred from full participation. We were mistaken about who was God's beautiful nourishing wheat. And we were the weeds. God will judge us for that.

FOCUS ON GROWING GOOD, NOT ON NEGATIVITY
Second: Since parables don't have to make logical sense, there is also the exact opposite lens by which to view this. We do live in a world where evil thrives. And, in many cases, we know how to identify it. But God is not so concerned with rooting it out as God is with keeping the good wheat crop growing and producing. Attacking the weeds can disturb the growth of the wheat. Oh, I think that is such an important lesson. I've been to churches whose primary focus was on identifying and condemning sinners and preaching against things. I think it's much more important to be able to identify what we are for. I think this also follows for personal and communal behavior as well.

When you live with a bunker mentality imagining that the enemy is all around us and that our whole purpose is to root it out, it creates a negative impact on individuals and communities. It makes us suspicious and fearful. It has an affect of closing us in, rather than opening us up. We've seen that happen in our country since 9/11 and we've seen how rooting out the weeds has destroyed the innocent.

BAD THINGS HAPPEN ~ EVEN TO GOD
Third: This parable offers an interesting glimpse into what is probably the biggest religious question: Why do bad things happen?

If God is the farmer in this story, and even God does not have control over what happens to his life's work, God's field of dreams, how can we expect that we will escape adversity? You can almost hear a subtle accusation in the farm hands' question: "Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?" ... "Why didn't you check the seed before hand and make sure it was pure?"

"An enemy did this," is the answer, as if God is helpless against this incursion.


THE PARABLE EXPLAINED
A few verses later, the parable is explained. Most scholars believe the explanation is not the words of Jesus, but a commentary by Matthew who is trying to strengthen his church against enemies within and without.


THE ENEMY
It's this part I don't like. Matthew says this parable warns us not to judge others, but it does promise us that God will judge us all. Everything is not one big mush of moral relativism. There are consequences. I don't take burning the weed as a literal figure of hell, but it is an image of the triumph of good over evil.

Matthew's interpretation identifies the enemy as "the devil." The Devil is the one who sowed the bad seen in the night. I'm more theologically at home with "an enemy." I don't believe in the God/Devil dualism that posits an alternative force for evil-John Milton's Satan figure that is every bit as glorious and powerful as God. But I do believe that there are many enemies of the good. And I believe that we can find their seeds in our own backyard wheat fields-seeds of anger, resentment, dishonesty, greed. Preachers can talk about rooting these out, but it seems to me that in this parable, Jesus tells us that if we live in the kingdom of God, we'll concentrate instead on growing the good.

THE GOOD
Paul helps identify what that good is: Whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, whatever things are of value; if there be any virtue, ... think on these things. " And he would add, Act on these things." (Philippians 4:8)