[Propertalk] Fwd: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Proper 11A

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From: Judy <judy_boli at ecunet.org> 
Date: 07/19/2014  4:10 PM  (GMT-05:00) 
To: propertalk.topic at ecunet.org 
Subject: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Proper 11A 
 
Dear Friends,

 

This Sunday’s sermon is entitled “The Wheat and the Weeds” or “Sorry, I Didn’t Recognize You!” and deals with the gospel (Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43).  Here it is:

 

Today we have one of the most valuable of Jesus’ parables, “The Weeds and the Wheat”- so very usable for sorting out our lives, our relatives, our friends, even our enemies and making decisions about what to do about them.  In fact, it’s one of the two parables of Jesus that has given the most guidance for us in our feeding ministries through the years.  The parable of Jesus separating the sheep and the goats in Matthew 25 (“Whatever you do for the least of these my sisters or brothers, you do for me.”) informs us WHY we bother to help those experiencing hard times in their lives.  This one answers the question that so very often surfaces: what should we do about people when we think they are just trying to rip us off?  I’m talking about the kind of situation in which we’re not sure- there’s no clear-cut case.  Sometimes it’s like we’re between a rock and a hard place.  Christian people have entrusted us with their money to use for feeding the needy.  This means we are managing God’s money, so we really want to take care of it for him and use it as he would want us to use it.  Then here comes someone asking for food.  Maybe we’re running low.  Whatever- if we give it to this person, perhaps a more needy family will come along, and then we won’t have anything for them.  Do you see the problem?  This is when we remember this Jesus parable and follow the rule: “If in doubt- feed.”  This parable offers three levels of insight- not only for decision-making for our feeding ministry; it also offers insight for decision-making for our lives. Let’s look at it.
 
The first level of insight involves how we relate to other people.  Most of the people listening to Jesus tell his story were farmers or at least gardeners, so they were extremely familiar with plant care.  As you recall, often Jesus would make up a story that was very similar to something that had really happened in the lives of his listeners, so perhaps they knew someone with a wheat field who had an enemy vandalize his farm by reseeding his wheat field with poisonous darnell seeds.  Did you notice how the farmer told his farmhands not to pull up the weed seeds because they would uproot too many young wheat plants in the process?  He said this for two reasons.  First, it’s next to impossible to tell the difference between wheat and darnell when the plants are young.  Second, the roots are so intertwined; damage would be done to the whole root structure of both plants.  Good advice, not only if you have a garden with wheat and darnell growing together.  Good advice also if you are trying to decide if you should tell someone off and kick them out of our feeding ministry, our church, your family, or your life.  I’ve got a story for you.  There is a story about a guy who falls in love with a beautiful woman and begs her to go out with him. “Be serious,” the woman says. “You’re fat, bald, ugly and your wardrobe is atrocious!”  So the guy goes on a diet and loses 80 pounds and starts working out at a gym. He gets a hair transplant and plastic surgery. He even buys himself a new wardrobe. Finally, he goes back to the woman and asks her what she thinks. “What a hunk!" she says, and she agrees to a date.  So he arrives at her door with a limo and driver. She emerges from her house radiant, promising him a never–to–be–forgotten evening. As they walk together toward the limo, lightning strikes the man. So now he’s lying on the street dying, and he cries out, “Why now, God? Why now, on the happiest day of my life?”  God answers. “Sorry, Sam. I didn’t recognize you.”  Now friends, if God Almighty didn’t recognize him, what makes us think we can know enough about a person to judge them!  Did you notice the Psalm, how God reminds us that he knows everything about us, he knows our hearts, and there is nowhere we can hide from him?  God knows the hearts of every single person, but the problem (or blessing) is- we don’t.  We don’t know what is in someone’s heart.  We don’t know why they choose to do what they do.  That’s why Jesus says to wait and leave the judging to God.  Not only don’t we know all the facts, something else is involved.  Plants don’t change from poisonous weeds to useful wheat, but people do.  We are a jubilee church, a second chance church.  God gives each of us many chances, and so must we.
 
Let’s look at the second level of insight- how we relate to ourselves.  An anonymous author said, “There is so much good in the worst of us; and so much bad in the best of us that it ill behooves any of us to find fault with the rest of us.”  Remember last Sunday how we heard St. Paul lament about how hard it was to live for Christ.  How he kept doing the things he didn’t want to do and not doing the things he wanted to do?  (Romans 7: 18-19)  Our job is to love other people and stop worrying about their sins.  Jesus himself reminded us to stop worrying about the tiny splinter that is in our neighbor’s eye when we have a huge log in our own eye!  It’s the weeds in our own lives we’re supposed to worry about.
 
This brings us to the third level of insight we can derive from this parable- the weeds.  Did you notice that God could use even the weeds?  Fuel was scarce in Jesus’ time.  Darnell plants made great fuel for cooking and warming cold hands and feet in miserable weather.  Who made weeds anyway?  (God.)  What is a weed?  (A plant made by God growing where we don’t want it.)  Has anyone noticed the cement area that used to be part of a deserted parking lot?  It doesn’t take long before the weeds have almost broken up the cement.  Give them and the earthworms a little more time and that hard cement will be returned to soft, fertile soil.  There’s nothing like a mess of weeds, mistakes, regrets in our lives to soften our hearts and help us understand other people and their difficulties better.  It’s the weeds, the mistakes, the “OOPS” that force us to replan our lives and lean on God and our Christian friends for power, support, and regrowth.
 
So weeds and wheat- be patient with them, don’t be too quick with judgments, check your own life, and watch for how amazingly God turns weeds given over to him into wonderfully beautiful flowers.
 

For anyone who is interested, this sermon and updated African-American wisdom statements are posted on our parish’s NEW WEB SITE under “Sermons & Stuff”. The address is: http://www.stpaulsepisag.org .

 

Blessed preaching,

Judy Boli

St. Paul's Episcopal Church

Saginaw, Michigan

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