[Propertalk] Fwd: [propertalk.topic] 5th Easter from Matt 13

[Joe Parrish]

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-----Original Message-----
From: Fr HC Smith <howard.smith at anglican.org.au>
To: Propertalk <propertalk.topic at ecunet.org>
Sent: Wed, Jul 13, 2011 7:04 am
Subject: [propertalk.topic] 5th Easter from Matt 13


Friends,
Here are some notes towards a sermon on the Gospel for this week: Matthew 13 
.24-30, 36-43.
Howard
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*    Today we have a story in the Gospel about farming, from Jesus.
+    One way to think about farming is to see it as about growing things;
    -    farmers put seeds in the ground and then watch them
        grow till it’s time for the harvest.
+    But it’s not quite as simple as that, because sometimes
    things go wrong, and the question is what to do about it;
    -    sometimes the weather might not be right, too dry, too
        wet, or a drought;
    -    but sometimes someone else might do something nasty
        somewhere in the whole cycle from sowing to market;
+    Jesus’ story today fits in here, where some nasty person came
    along just after the farmer planted his seeds, and sowed a
    whole lot of weed seeds, secretly.
*    Jesus is telling us this story to show what God’s New World is like.
+    He teaches us that whilst what God creates is good, there
    are some people who aren’t happy with that, and try to ruin things.
    -    We can think about the whole world, or we can think
        about our own lives, and find the same scenario.
+    God is making a wonderful world where everything, and
    everyone, grows and works together nicely in harmony.
+    But there are some people who can’t stand all that
    goodness, and who want to ruin it by doing nasty things:
    -    hurting people, destroying things, making wars, being
        selfish, terrorising people they don’t like, and so on.
+    Some of these nasty things may even look like good things,
    in the same way that some weeds look a bit like good
    plants.  So I want to focus on what do we do about the nastiness?
+    We might think the best thing is to pull the weeds out;
    -    but God knows that we will often be mistaken;
    -    e.g. we will sometimes think that some people are nasty,
        but God knows they are OK deep down;
    -    or just think how often humans have applied the death
        penalty to someone, only to discover too late they were innocent?
+    So Jesus says: Don’t do the weeding yet, wait till the
    harvest, and then you’ll be sure, because God will know
    what’s really good, and what’s really bad.
*    Today’s Gospel suggests that it’s not my job to decide who are good 
people and who are evil people, because I’ll make mistakes.
+    What I can do is to trust God to help the good people to
    keep on going, to shine the light into those dull and dark places
    and one day God will shine the light of Christ to take the bad
    away.
+    Unless you are really bad and want to destroy God’s good
    life in you and in others, (you probably wouldn’t be here today)
    then don’t worry but trust God with your life and theirs.
+    God cares for all of us, and at the end of life will separate
    the good from all the bad stuff: the crop from the weeds,
    and God’s New World will be visible to everyone.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The Rev'd Dr H.C. Smith
Retired Anglican Priest
Orange NSW
Phone (+612) 6362 3375
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 


 
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