Let Anyone With Ears Listen!

Ann Beaty

Fellowship Hall
Tarrytown United Methodist Church

July 17, 2011

Text: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

The story today begins much like the scripture from last week by using the images of a sower and seeds. In this story, we are told that a sower has sown good seed in his field for a healthy wheat harvest. But, in the dark of the night, an enemy has come and sowed weeds among the wheat. “So when the plants came up and the grain was ready, then the weeds appeared as well.” (13:24-36)

This parable would have been understood in Matthew’s community. It was not uncommon in that day and time that after a days farming work was done, and everyone had gone to sleep for the evening, an enemy would come and plant weeds in the field. This may sound strange to us, but it really wasn’t unusual in that context and culture. William Barclay writes “that even to this day in India one of the direst threats which a man can make to his enemy is ‘I will sow bad seed in your field’".

I also learned in doing some research that a little botanical knowledge is important here. The weeds referred to in this story, as translated from the Greek, are a species of rye-grass called “darnel” that closely resembles wheat and was plentiful in Israel. These were toxic weeds. The Jews actually called them “Bastard Wheat” because they so resembled the bearded wheat they were trying to grow and yet caused great harm to the crop.

In the early stages of its growth the darnel looked identical to the wheat. A person could not tell the difference between the two until they both came to a head. By that time, the roots of the weeds were so intertwined with the wheat that if someone tried to pull them out, they would pull the wheat up too. The only way to get rid to the darnel was to wait until harvest time to separate the two.

In the parable, when the householder’s slaves discover the weeds, their first response is to question the quality of the seed. “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” (13:27)

When the master replies that an enemy has sown the weeds, the slaves are anxious to take care of the problem, to root the nasty weeds right out. But the master restrains his servants, saying that in gathering the weeds they would uproot the wheat along with them. He orders them to let both grow together until the harvest. Then he will send out his reapers to collect and burn the weeds and to gather the wheat into his barns.” (13-28-30)

Whatever else it might be, this is a parable about judgment. It is pretty clearly a warning against being quick to judge what we might determine in the world to be “wheat” – what is good; and what we determine to be “weeds” –what is bad. In fact, the parable says it isn’t our place to judge at all. I think it is true that like the slaves in the parable, we are sometimes impatient and quick to judge. How many times have we judged something early on as not worthy only to discover that with loving attention and patience, it turned out to be wheat instead of weeds.

When I first moved to Austin I rented a condo for a couple of years where I made some small attempts at keeping a few potted plants on my front and back porch. I wasn’t very diligent in taking care of them and after the flowers were long gone and the green leaves or stems were wilted or brown, I would often throw them in the dumpster thinking they were dead – or certainly on their way to death. I actually felt a little guilty when I did it – a part of me wondered if I was giving them a premature funeral, but I didn’t want to take the time to care for them and to wait to see what would happen.

I learned later that my neighbor (James) would pull my failing plants out of the dumpster and because he knew what to do – pruning, food, watering and in his willingness to be patient and wait – he would grow them back into beautiful plants. I would see them later looking lovely again on his porch! He finally just asked me to give them to him when I was ready to give up on them and he would take care of them. It would save him a trip into the dumpster!

I think we do this same premature and quick judgment in our congregations and in our world: Sometimes we are quick to “root out” anyone who does not agree with what we consider the “right” interpretation of Scripture, or stand on a particular social or moral issue. There are also times when we pronounce judgment on people outside of the church – or people of other faiths, for instance, because they don’t believe the way we do.

I don’t think I am being to harsh to say that In general, we, as a society, find it difficult to be tolerant, much less respectful, of those who are different from us. I know I do it – often without even questioning it. We judge how other people raise their children or judge people based on how their children “turn out” – whatever that means. We have judgments about what other people spend their money and time on, and any number of other things that don’t fit with what we determine to be “right”. I have my opinions and values and I think I’m right – meaning the other has to be wrong.

This external dualistic thinking about who and what is good in the world and what God is calling us to do is one way to come at this parable – the idea being that there are weeds and wheat (good and bad) in the world and the message here is that we are not the one to judge at the harvest.

But, it seems to me that is not the only way to look at this parable. I also believe that it is much more personal than all that. It seems to me, because I believe it to be true in me, that each one of us carries within us the presence of both wheat and weeds. Maybe as we move through life, we become the wheat and the weeds together in our living. Maybe we grow in the garden of our life with both and the roots do get just a little intertwined.

I think we all have “shadow” sides living within us –not necessarily something we would use such strong language as “evil” to identify, but those parts of us that get repressed because we don’t want to know them. I heard one preacher refer to it as the “garbage can of the soul” - the place where we try to toss our unexamined greed, selfishness and variations of what we refer to as the “obstacles to God’s grace” – anything that gets in the way of that flow of God’s grace in our lives: hate, greed, laziness, pride, lust, jealousy, gluttony – some forms of which we can never seem to rid ourselves.

Psychologist Carl Jung believed we need to learn to recycle our trash. By acknowledging our garbage and knowing it is always there, we are better able to understand ourselves, to grow and to act with true compassion towards ourselves and others.

Just as we are learning to compost so trash isn’t a big problem, examining our shadow side is healthier than trying to pitch our sins into the hefty bag.

Perhaps this trash and recycling metaphor is a modern translation of the wheat and the weeds. Whether we are talking about weeds or garbage, it is a caution that our quest for purity can lead to wrong ends when we ignore what is in our own souls.

But beyond that, this parable isn’t really talking about what WE are to do with the weeds in us or in the world. It’s talking about what God will do with the weeds and the wheat in the end times.

Here again the graphic description given in our scripture today: “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.”

How does God decide about the wheat and the weeds? How does and how will God’s judgment come? The reality is – we don’t know. Helen reminded me this week when I was talking to her about this scripture that one thing is clear in many places in scripture about the end times: We go to God. What happens at that point is not clear and different passages of scripture give us different images of what that might look like. Some scriptures talk about the need for repentance. Some say that we will be divided into various groups – sheep and goats. Some say that nothing can separate us from the love of God. The reality is we don’t know for sure.

Throughout history, many Christians have developed a fear mentality about what will happen at the end times. Some of that is based on images from scripture. Some of that is based on messages from preachers. Some of it is based on contemporary novels – books written that speculate about the end times based in fear – scenarios of who will be taken and who will be left behind.

But, in this parable, we are given a different image of the end times and it is not fear-based or works based or grounded in anything we might do. We trust that God will take care of it. Does it mean we don’t have responsibility to live lives faithful to our vows and commitment to discipleship? Of course not, but this parable reminds us that whatever the “final judgment” is about, it is about love and the image here is that God will take the weeds in us and burn them in a fiery furnace. That is grace – unconditional love - the message that ultimately…. God wins.

The last phrase of the scripture says: “Let anyone with ears listen.” Let anyone with ears listen to this message of God’s ultimate and un-ending love. Let anyone with ears listen to the message that we can trust God to take care of us.

Let anyone with ears listen to the message that Paul gives us in Romans: “Nothing can faze us because Jesus loves us. I'm absolutely convinced that nothing—nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable—absolutely nothing can get between us and God's love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us.

We can’t really comprehend that depth and the height and the breadth of that love. And that is okay. We don’t have to. We just have to accept it and trust God’s ultimate love at work now and in all the future to come. Amen.