Wheat and Weeds

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham
at St. Thomas' Episcopal Church, Springdale, Arkansas
July 20, 2008; 10th Sunday after Pentecost, Proper 11, Year A

(Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43) – Jesus put before the crowd 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!"
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In gathering the weeds, you would uproot the wheat along with (the weeds). Let both of them grow together.

We all live in a field of ambiguity. That’s our lot. Not only is the world outside of us complex and ambiguous, our inner world is also full of both wheat and weeds; virtues and vices; insight and ignorance. So, we’re told... Be patient. Be gentle. Accepting and trusting.

Those who heard Jesus’ parable would have been familiar with something that is not so evident to us. The weeds are what is now called "darnel," a plant that is virtually indistinguishable from wheat until the wheat comes into head and begins to produce its grain. In this parable the slaves of the householder believe that the owner will want them to go out into the field and get rid of those pesky weeds. They are willing to dive in there and pull out the bad stuff. They are not even aware that they don’t know the difference between the good wheat and the bad weeds.

What a great metaphor for the human condition. I experience myself as a person with values and goodness who is also a person of ignorance and faults. Sometimes, I don’t know the difference. I remember as a child explaining segregation to a friend from Ohio. She was from up North; she just didn’t understand. I showed her the "black cafe" and how the black people liked to eat together. They ate different food than we did, I explained. You couldn’t get buffalo fish around the corner at the "whites only" restaurant.

I can still hear the sound of the voice of that sincere, certain, knowing little boy, lecturing my Yankee friend. I treasure that memory. It reminds me how easily I can still be sincere, certain, knowing... and wrong. And it helps me be a little more tolerant when I hear sincere, certain people say stupid things that I know are wrong. I’ve been there; done that.

"Let both of them grow together until the harvest." Jesus invites us to accept the ambiguity of life and live with it. We don't necessarily know good from evil. So, refrain from aggressiveness. Surrender being judgmental. Watch. Wait. And do everything you can to preserve whatever is good.

It seems like this lesson has two directions, two levels. The first is within ourselves. You are a field in which God has sowed good seed. God has created you in the image and likeness of God’s own divinity. And you are also a source of self-centeredness, fear, and sometimes even evil. Don’t obsess about your faults. Sometimes it is your failures and weaknesses that will motivate your willingness to give up on prideful self-sufficiency so that you might surrender willingly to the gentle love of God. See yourself modestly as an ambiguous being. And relax in the confidence that God is letting you grow so that nothing that is good within you will ever be lost. God is willing to endure your endless foul-ups in order to rejoice over every grain of your goodness.

The other level of this parable speaks of the exterior world with its people and complexities. Jesus invites us to live without anxiety in a world of wheat and weeds. You don’t have to try to fix people; you don’t have to change the world. Trust God. Leave the judgement of others to God. Author Wayne Teasdale says, "We can only judge others if we can fulfill two conditions: that we know the other's heart totally, and that we love them unconditionally. Only God can possibly meet these two conditions, therefore only God can judge." (The Mystic Heart, p. 123)

Teasdale offers Father Paul Fitzgerald as an example. Father Paul founded a lay monastic community in New Hampshire. Teasdale says that Father Paul "took the long view of human development. He had a very deep faith that God was in charge, and so (he) was unwilling to take the prerogative away from the divine." He accepted others as they were, even if they were obviously wrong, and he let nature take its course. "(He) replaced the desire to control with the desire to accept and to serve." (Ibid)

How much more loving and peaceful might we be if we gave up judging about weeds and wheat? After all, who are we to know the difference? The good is sometimes camouflaged among the evil. The beautiful can be hidden in the ugly. What would we be like if we took the long view of human development, replacing the desire to control with the desire to accept and to serve?

There is a woman who is the friend of a colleague of mine. During the Christmas season she loves to go to Nordstrom to experience the holiday energy. She was on the third floor when the elevator opened, and out stepped a filthy, dirty bag-lady. Her hair was matted and there was dirt on her skin. She wore a grimy dress and carried a gym bag with a soiled bra handing out dragging on the floor. The woman observing was wondering if someone would call security to usher this lady out when an attractive saleswoman walked up and spoke to the bag-lady saying, "Excuse me. Can I help you?"

"Yeah. I want a dress."
"What kind of dress?"
"A party dress."

"Come with me." And they walked together over to the dress department and then into the section with the party dresses. For several minutes they talked -- which dress would go best with her eyes; which would look best on her. The saleswoman measured to get her correct size, left, and returned with three party dresses, taking the woman to the dressing room. The woman telling the story said, “I sneaked into the room right next door so I could hear what would happen.”

The bag-lady tried on dresses and they talked about how each dress would look at a party. This went on for about a half-hour. But finally, the bag-lady said, “I don’t think I’m going to buy a dress today.”

"That’s okay,” said the saleswoman. "But when you do decide to buy a dress, do you promise to come back here and let me try to help you?" (audio tape by Tony Campolo, Loving the Son)

That is a woman who has given up the desire to judge, to control, to fix. She's replaced that with the desire to accept and to serve, to love her neighbor as herself. When you take the long view of human development, you can trust God to nurture all life. And who knows? Someone we thought was a weed that needs to be pulled up and thrown away, might surprise us and mature into something lovely and fruitful.