July 23, 2023 – Pentecost +8A; Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43

[Jesus] put before [the crowds] another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’ ”
 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!”

Amy Jill Levine, the Parables of Jesus

Religion has been defined as designed to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable. We do well to think of the parables of Jesus as doing the afflicting. Therefore, if we hear a parable and think, “I really like that” or, worse, fail to take any challenge, we are not listening well enough. Such listening is not only a challenge; it is also an art, and this art has become lost. Down through the centuries, starting with the Gospel writers themselves, the parables have been allegorized, moralized, christologized, and otherwise tamed into either platitudes such as “God loves us” or “Be nice” or, worse, assurances that all is right with the world as long as we believe in Jesus.

With those words ringing in your ears…..we encounter the parable of the Wheat and the Weeds. We must ask the question, whose job is it to weed? Yours? Mine? Someone else? Now by weed, we could be talking about weeding your garden, your yard or your plants hanging inside. Weeding can be exhausting — and painful — your back hurts, your knees hurt, your neck hurts, your hands hurt, and you usually are sunburned. As such, soon you decide to spray poisons — which often just kills everything, not just the weeds — or at least it kills the potential of new growth.

But when it comes to the church then who is responsible for the weeding? Again now I am not talking about weeding the flower gardens around the church. Instead we are talking about weeding out evil, negativity and hate. And in the church, there are so many effective poisons:

Words are poison

Rumors are poison

Silence is poison

Avoidance is poison

Personal attacks, public and private, are poison

Sometimes in our relationships in life, we reach a fork in the road and the way forward becomes ambiguous. Clarity is suddenly masked by a cloud of indecision. The choice forward is presented, but the GPS system is not working — and as such, discernment becomes that much harder. I believe this is often the case why some couples date for seven or eight years before they get married. They keep hitting forks in the road, and instead of being bold and selecting the obvious, they sit and wait, hoping they might receive a revelation — masking their hurt — trying too hard to weed while, instead, they should be learning to endure together, supporting, loving and forgiving, talking, showing compassion and compromise. 

The workers from our parable ask “Should we weed?” The answer they receive is “No. The risk is too great — the good might be torn out with the weed. Just leave it as it is — the weeding will come in the end of days.”

This, my friends, is what we are told that the Kingdom of G-d is like. And since Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth, Jesus describes our reality — we are the church of Jesus, which is to be the manifestation of the church universal — workers in the Kingdom of G-d. And for now, our job is not to do weeding — we are instead to stand side by side — wheat with weed. We do not determine the weeding schedule — only G-d can do this.

And Jesus models this behavior for us — throughout his ministry. Jesus did not weed out the woman caught in adultery. Jesus did not weed out Peter when he denied him three times. Jesus did not weed out Thomas when he was not there when Jesus appeared to the other disciples on the day of the resurrection. Jesus did not weed out his disciples when they abandoned him before the crucifixion. And Jesus did not weed out those who crucified him — asking the Father to forgive them instead.

Our calling is not to weed – it is to love.

Pastor Dave

July 22, 2023 – Psalm 90

“Lord, you have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God. You turn usback to dust and say, “Turn back, you mortals.” For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past or like a watch in the night. You sweep them away; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning;in the morning it flourishes and is renewed; in the evening it fades and withers.For we are consumed by your anger; by your wrath we are overwhelmed.You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your countenance.For all our days pass away under your wrath; our years come to an end like a sigh. The days of our life are seventy years or perhaps eighty, if we are strong; even then their span is only toil and trouble; they are soon gone, and we fly away. Who considers the power of your anger? Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due you. So teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart. Turn, O Lord! How long? Have compassion on your servants! Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, so that we may rejoice and be glad all our days. Make us glad as many days as you have afflicted us and as many years as we have seen evil. Let your work be manifest to your servants and your glorious power to their children. Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and prosper for us the work of our hands—O prosper the work of our hands!”

For a thousand years in your sight are like yesterday when it is past or like a watch in the night.

In our 21^st century society, our lives can be spent at such a frantic pace. We hope to accomplish more today than we did yesterday. Or perhaps it is a necessity to try to get as much as possible done just to keep up with life. As such we often can find ourselves lifting up our heads wondering when it will all be over. Every day is a race. Slowly our strength ebbs, and exhausted we collapse in the dust only to realize that from dust we came and irrevocably to dust we will return. Our hearts begin to despair at the hopelessness, meaninglessness, and futility. Psalm 90 clearly describes this conundrum of human life and yet gives a word of hope to the existence and purpose of all.

What does the Psalmist ask? “Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us and prosper for us the work of our hands—O prosper the work of our hands!” We could say the Psalmist is talking about vocation. While I may toil and toil in work just to make enough money to pay my mortgage or rent and to put food on my table, that work can sap all of my hope and strength each day. But vocation for mammon is different from my working for Jesus. Vocation is rooted in the Latin vocare, meaning “to call,” which “implies a relationship to the one who calls us.” So while choice of career is often our choice, our vocation is related to how Jesus calls us to work, for Jesus. In other words, our meaning in life should not come only through what we do for money, but through following the vocation or calling that G-d calls us each to do in our efforts to love G-d and our neighbor. And while working for mammon may sap our hope and strength, working for G-d can renew that same hope and strength.

Prayer

Eternal Father of our mortal race, in Jesus Christ your grace has come upon us. For his sake prosper the work of our hands until he returns to gladden our hearts forever.

Amen.