A sermon by Senior Minister John B. McCall, July 20, 2008
Psalms 37:1-9
Matthew 13:24-43
Today we consider the second of two parables in Matthew that use the image of that miraculous relationship of sower, seed, soil, and harvest. This is also one of only two parables in which the author, or some unknown editor, has explained each of the elements. Literally speaking, then, this becomes an allegory in which each element has one and only one parallel in our daily lives.
Most commonly, Jesus told his parables and then let them stand on their own, reminding us that sometimes the most powerful lessons come from the simplest messages – a reminder to anyone who would dare to preach!
Jesus was talking about the Kingdom of God – the way things will be when all of creation reflects God’s holy will. He even said the Kingdom is already among us, but it’s not yet fulfilled. At best we can only catch glimpses: the occasional grace moments, the signs of redemption, and the amazing healing of broken spirits and damaged relationships.
If we listen carefully we’re reminded that God’s realm is not a democracy or even a republic. It’s a kingdom. God is absolute and is absolutely loving. We are God’s people and if we have our wits about us we stand in awe and trembling when we encounter the Holy.
Here he told his disciples it’s like a farmer’s field where the servants planted wheat and tended it as it grew. One day they came in and announced there were lots of weeds among the wheat. The farmer immediately surmised that an evil neighbor had sown the weeds during the night. The servants then asked whether they should try to pull out the weeds. The wise farmer told them it was better to wait until it was harvest time, then clear-cut the fields and toss aside the weeds.
Even in the kingdom of heaven weeds and wheat grow side-by-side. Good and evil grow together, even to the point that their roots entwine. You can’t root out all the bad from among the good because you can’t tell one from the other until the harvest.
Ask a gardener who planted purple loose strife among the flowers, hoping to brighten the patch. Then the weeds are so entwined you just can’t pull them out without destroying the flowers too.
Ask a botanist about the Kudzu vine that was introduced from Japan in 1876, as a way to control soil erosion in the southeastern US. And look at the devastation of hundreds of thousands of acres of forests.
Ask the skilled surgeon who operates to remove a malignant tumor but has to acknowledge that there’s a high risk of either leaving some of the cancer or harming some of the healthy tissue.
Ask a military commander ordered to root out the terrorists who knows they look just like the ordinary law abiding citizens, so no one can tell for sure who’s who.
That’s the way the world is, friends.
In Ecclesiastes we read “I’ve seen the world as it is: an evil person who lives to a ripe old age and a good person who dies young; a day filled with joy and a day filled with tragedy – God has placed one right next to the other in such a way that we just can’t tell what will happen next.”
How can we live hopefully in this world where good and evil flourish side by side? First, we must remember there’s evil in the best of us, and good in the worst of us.
St. Augustine once wrote:
If only it were all so simple. If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were only necessary to separate them from the rest of us, and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being….During the life of any heart this line keeps changing place: sometimes it is squeezed one way by exuberant evil, and sometimes it shifts to allow enough space for good to flourish. One and the same human being is, at various stages, under various circumstances, a totally different human being.
You might think he was talking about a two year old who can be an angel one moment and a devil the next. But it’s true of adults as well, though over time we learn to manage the swings a little better.
Good and evil in the same heart. Could it be that a terrorist loves his wife and children with tenderness? Could it be that I, generally a pacifist, could be moved to violence in defense of those I love? Could it be that some of you who worship every week have padded your time card or expense report, or have violated the sacred promises you made to another before the altar?
To live in our world, we must first acknowledge that good and evil, darkness and light live side by side, and can’t be easily isolated.
This leads to the second bit of wisdom. Remember the old aphorism is true: all that’s necessary for the forces of evil to win the world is for enough good people to do nothing.
Too many of us throw up our hands in despair and simply say “it’s no use – I may as well turn a blind eye to the suffering, a deaf ear to the cries, a cold heart to the misery.”
No! Acquiescence to evil is NOT God’s way. Giving up, giving in, turning away, selling out – these are not the road to the Kingdom of Heaven.
We must speak the truth in love to each other and must not fall silence for fear of offending. Good and evil live side by side but we can usually tell which is which. And we know that sowing bad seed finally brings a bad harvest.
Thirdly, we must remember that we’re not alone in our battles with evil. As the Psalmist so beautifully reminds us: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me…”
For me that’s the only true comfort. Everything else can (and will) fall apart. When nothing holds or works as I want it to, the only place I can rest is in God’s unfailing love.
This life is tinged with sadness, darkened by evil, buffeted by sorrows. So we may get into the habit of only seeing the weeds, the evil, as if that were the whole of life. Remember to see the joy, the love, the goodness. Do you make the time to live fully?
Scripture is filled with advice:
• never let the sun set on your anger;
• return to no one evil for evil;
• don’t worry about tomorrow. It will have plenty of worries of its own.
• When the proverb says “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you die,” it’s not being grim. It’s telling the truth.
• Give thanks to God for all of it.
Make time to celebrate, to give a hug, to say “I love you,” to offer an apology, to play, to extend a warm handshake, to smell the roses.
We know that good and evil live side by side in the world, and even in our own hearts. And we can trust absolutely that God is ready and able to sort it all out when the harvest comes.
In the meantime God calls us to live abundantly in spite of it all. The answer to our longings and our questions can come only in faith, faith that God loves us and will hold us, and even weep with us when we are overwhelmed with it all.
(Invitation to silence)