Homily For Friday July 27, 2012
Matthew
13:24-30 Parable of the weeds among the Wheat
What kind of crazy farming manual did
we just hear in the gospel?
Its crazy At least to our modern sensibilities. In our time we want to do everything to
maximize our yield. With todays
technology we do things differently. As
a botanist who spent some time in my life working on genetic engineering of
crop plants I would look for round-up resistant seeds to plant so I could use
round-up to kill the weeds. Or I would
look at better living through chemistry to find a selective herbicide to kill
the weeds. After all if we let them grow
along with the wheat they will compete for space, nutrients and water and
reduce our yield. Thankfully this
parable is not a guide to modern farming practices! But more importantly God’s farming practices
and God’s economy is upside down compared to ours.
How many of us as leaders in our congregations
or in our denominations look out and see the weeds growing with the wheat? How
many of us see the evil in the world and want to do something to eradicate it? We ask ourselves what could we have done as a
society to prevent the shootings in Colorado last week? How can we prevent murderous dictators from
creating genocide? We really do want to
help God and help Society. But how? Surely it must be ok to lock away evil. To go about our societies and make sure that
we are safe. The problem is that evil –
like the tares in the parable – look an awful lot like the wheat before it is
ripe. Who and how do we judge?
In addition to looking at societal
evils, or weeds, we sometimes look into ourselves and see that perhaps there
are parts of us that we should excise and burn.
Am I too impatient with those around me who read scripture literally
when in comes to same gender blessing.
Or do I, as a gay man, not pay enough attention to what scripture says
in regards to relationships – so much so that I don’t look to see what good
news might be part of that scripture?
As we all gathered here these past
two weeks we have learned about scripture, congregational leadership tools, liturgy
and preaching. We have set at the feet
of some of the leaders of the church to hear what they have to teach us and we
have sat with each other to hear what our different contexts can teach each
other. There have been some wonderful
discussions in classes and over an adult beverage or two! We are probably all zealous to go back and
put into practice the things we have learned this week. To tell our fellow worship leaders what they
are doing wrong. Or to use some of the
practical theology tools to fix our dysfunctional congregational systems. As Susanna is fond of saying “Do try this at
home” and I agree with that with one
little caveat. That what we are called
to do is sow good seeds in our endeavors to fix the church. Not to go home and
rip out the tares and to throw them in the fire.
Elizabeth Johnson , a preacher from
Luther Seminary , said “Jesus' parable makes clear that any
attempt to root out the weeds will only do more damage to the crop. This has
played out far too many times in congregations and denominations, with some
determined to root out anyone who does not agree with the "right"
interpretation of Scripture, liturgical practice, or stand on a particular
issue. There are also those who pronounce judgment on people outside the church
-- on people of other faiths, for instance -- declaring them to be destined for
eternal damnation. Whether judgment is focused within the church or without, it
does serious damage to the church and its mission.” (http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?lect_date=7/17/2011&tab=4)
It is our job to plant the good seeds not pull
up the tares! It is, however, our job to occasionally shake up the
system. To jolt ourselves and our
congregations or other systems out of the status quo.
When the slaves asked about pulling
up the tares the farmer told them to let them be lest they also destroy the
wheat. You see the weeds that are
translated as tares look very much like wheat until they are mature. It would be easy to mistake a stalk of wheat
for a tare before it is ripe. Likewise I
think it is very hard to judge who or what is evil in our midst or even
sometimes what is evil in ourselves before it is ripe. It is not that is does not matter. It is important to call out evil and dysfunction
when we see it. But it is not our jobs ultimately
to judge. That is for God. God in the fullness of time, as our liturgy
says, will be the ultimate judge. That
annoying cranky person sitting in the pew may look a lot to our eyes as a tare
that needs to be plucked out of our congregation but perhaps we are wrong. They may well have a good reason to be
cranky. If we wait for the harvest at
the end we may discover that they have characteristics that actually help bring
God’s reign of justice and peace to the earth.
Even if they are annoying to us.
Likewise we should take care of suppressing too soon the parts of our
own selves that we want to excise. What
looks like weeds now may indeed be a skill or a characteristic that will
ultimate help in our leadership.
What a strange farmer our God
is. So unlike ourselves especially in
the 21st century. We want to use all of
our tools, especially the ones we have learned about this week, to help bring
in the kingdom of God. We want to rip up
the tares and grow our church. But that
is not our job. Our job is to sow good
seeds and to try and not worry too much about the weeds that inevitably sprout
up with the good.
As we return to our local contexts I hope
there is one tool especially that we will continue to use. That we will continue to have conversations
with each other. To bounce ideas off our
fellow classmates – the new friends that we have made and the friendships that
we have strengthened over these past two weeks.
Let us use our technologies not to find ways to rip up what we perceive
as weeds but to reach out to each other.
To find ways to plant good seeds.
To help each other with the tools and patience to leave it to God to
make the ultimate decision as to what is a weed in our congregations, our
denominations and in our own lives. We
may just be surprised that the weed is actually wheat once it ripens.
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