[Propertalk] Words of great wisdom from the Big Island

[Joe Parrish]

        There is an amazing little thing in this passage that we don’t notice unless we can read it in Greek. It is the Greek word at the start of the farmer’s instruction: “Let the wheat and the weeds grow together.” It is that word “let” or “permit” or “allow”. The same Greek word  also means “forgive”. This is not just a passive ignoring of the problem. It is an active naming and forgiving of it. We are not called to pretend that the wheat and the weeds are no different. We are not called to refrain from calling for repentance and change. We         are         called to refrain from attacking what we think might be weeds. And most importantly we are called to actively forgive and to suffer the ongoing presence of those whose attitudes or actions seem to threaten our comfort or wellbeing. We are being told that the means to purge the community of malice and pettiness and nastiness is not through the violence of weeding, but through the grace of courageous forgiving and accepting.


Words of great wisdom from the Big Island
Nathan Nettleton of Laughing Bird, 2005



http://www.laughingbird.net/ComingWeeks.html
 


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