Weeds and Wheat. Genesis 28:10-19a Matthew 13:24-30, Rev Christopher Turner

Transcription

1 1 Weeds and Wheat Genesis 28:10-19a Matthew 13:24-30, Rev Christopher Turner When I began my farming apprenticeship as a Flower Grower in the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne, my first job was, much to my disappointment, weeding the greenhouses. Whilst this seemed very tedious to me at the time, as I learnt my trade I began to appreciate the importance of keeping the crop free of weeds. Weeds compete with the crop for water and nutrients. Weeds harbour many species of pest that feed off the crop and ruin the harvest. So, throughout my career as a Flower Grower, even when I was managing the farm on behalf of my employer, I was engaged in the task of weed management. What I learnt however, was that no matter how many workers you put to the task, no matter how many liters of deadly poison you spray, you are only ever managing, never eradicating weeds. Weeds will grow in spite of the farmer s best efforts to eradicate them. Jesus parable, drawn again from the experience of rural life, seed planting and harvest, is amongst the hard sayings of Matthew that are eschatological. What will happen to this mixed up world in the end. Thus the image of harvest, depicted beautifully here by one of the fathers of impressionism, Camille Pissarro, is for Jesus and the disciples, the image of sorting out what is wheat

2 2 and what is weed and disposing of each according to its kind. It would be perfectly understandable for us to adopt a very harsh and judgmental attitude to the world on the basis of this passage. We could comfortably conclude that all non Christians will be sent to the flames of hell, and many Christians do conclude just that. But in order for us to read the parable of the weeds among the wheat it is imperative for us to prepare our hearts to read it from a particular perspective. This way of reading the bible falls under the heading of hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the art of interpretation. We may begin by asking what the text meant for those who first received it and we move carefully towards asking what the text means for us today. Often our experience can guide our hermeneutics. For example, Christians who live in situations of desperate disadvantage have often questioned the way powerful Christians have interpreted the bible. In response to dominant interpretations they have determined that they will read the bible together and employ what has become known as a hermeneutic of suspicion. The hermeneutic of suspicion determines never to simply accept previous interpretations of any text but to question those interpretations and demand that the text be read and interpreted in light of their experience today. Radical forms of Liberation Theology were formed in this way in Latin America during the 1970 s and 80 s. Today I am inviting you to read this passage with me, not with a hermeneutic of suspicion but with a hermeneutic of humility. Elements of the biblical tradition can guide us with a hermeneutic of humility. Today just two gospel parables will guide us. Matthew 7:1-5 is a classic part of the Sermon on the Mount Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. 2 For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3 Why do you see the speck in your neighbour s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your neighbour, Let me take the speck out of your eye, while the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour s eye. The person who is aware of their own shortcomings cannot be a hypocrite. The old charge levelled against Christians in Australia that they are just a bunch of hypocrites arose from the perception that Christians viewed themselves as

3 3 morally superior. This saying from Jesus encourages us to approach the matter of sin and morality with humility. The other parable that helps us here comes from the gospel of Luke 18: He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous and regarded others with contempt: 10 Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax-collector. 11 The Pharisee, standing by himself, was praying thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other people: thieves, rogues, adulterers, or even like this tax-collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give a tenth of all my income. 13 But the tax-collector, standing far off, would not even look up to heaven, but was beating his breast and saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner! 14 I tell you, this man went down to his home justified rather than the other; for all who exalt themselves will be humbled, but all who humble themselves will be exalted. The self awareness of the Tax Collector is at the heart of his prayer. He does not hold others in contempt because he is deeply aware of his own failings. Jesus calls his attitude humility and teaches those listening to him that humility is very close to God s heart. On the basis of these two sayings we are going to approach today s text with a hermeneutic of humility. That is, we are going to approach the text, hopefully, with a sense of what it is saying to us first before we use it to cast judgement on others, if indeed we ever use it to judge others. Today s parable follows on closely from the parable of the Sower, which Belinda has shared with you. Jesus continues his lesson from the agricultural setting so familiar to the crowds who are listening to him. The parable of the weeds and wheat is given by Jesus as instruction on the nature of the kingdom of heaven, which for Matthew is the same as Mark s Kingdom of God. It is a dramatic parable. The Sower sows the wheat, the enemy sows weeds amongst the wheat. The Greek word used for these weeds referred very specifically to a noxious weed that looked very similar to wheat in its early stages of growth. By the time the slaves recognise the weeds it is too late and the Sower wisely advises them to be patient and allow the Sower to determine the right time for the harvest to be discerned. In the same way that Jesus interpreted the parable of the Sower for the disciples he interprets the parable of the weeds and wheat for them. The Sower is the Son

4 4 of Man (Jesus himself), the field is the world, the good seed the children of the kingdom and the weeds are the children of the evil one. In the eschaton, the fulfilment of the kingdom of heaven, the children of the kingdom will be gathered in and the children of the evil one burned away. This parable is unique to Matthew, though a similar message can be found in Mark 4: We know that Matthew s faith community were struggling to know what to do about the fact that their message about Jesus and the kingdom of heaven was not being accepted by all of the Jews who heard it. Why can t they see it? What do we do now that only some of us can accept Jesus as the Messiah? Matthew s reply to these early questions of identity is to encourage the young Christian community with this parable of Jesus that teaches patience and trust in the determination of God to overcome evil by affirming the good. Clearly for Matthew s community those who accepted the gospel of Jesus as the Messiah were the wheat and those who rejected it were the weeds. What does this parable mean for us today? There are those who would not hesitate to read this as a clear indication that God is going to send unbelievers to hell. As we find in the Baptist Union of NSW statement of What Baptists Believe Rewards and Punishments in a Future State God has appointed a day of final judgement for the world. At that time Jesus Christ will judge every person and each will receive reward or punishment according to their deeds. Those judged righteous, in their resurrected and glorified bodies, will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. I want to invite you to consider that a hermeneutic of humility will steer us away from interpretations like that one. A hermeneutic of humility demands that we first ask what this parable might have to say to us as a community of those who follow Jesus and indeed to us as individuals for whom every day is engaged in spiritual growth and discernment. Let me have a go at interpreting this parable through the lens of humility.

5 5 The kingdom of heaven is the shared inner life of the community of disciples. And here I am going to unashamedly proof text that statement with Luke 17:20 Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed; 21 nor will they say, Look, here it is! or There it is! For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among (or within) you. As a community of human beings we are aware of the conflicted nature of our lives. We are created in the image of God and there is much in us that is good. Yet we are aware of our own limitations. We are related to God and yet we are also estranged from God. God is daily at work in the lives of those who follow Jesus, sifting carefully to discern that which is good and related to the eternal life of God and that which will be cast aside or redeemed through the refining fire. The Apostle Paul attributes this work to the Holy Spirit. Rom 8: Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27 And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. 28 We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose. We are not called to become moral police, sorting out and rooting out evil from the lives of our neighbours. We are not called to root out evil from amongst ourselves. We are not called to judge one another using measures of purity, nor are we to relegate one another to hell when we deem one another to be outside the kingdom. We are called to a life of contemplative discernment. The prayer that enables us as a community to become quiet and still before God and to listen deeply for the movements of God s gently sifting spirit in us helping us to discern in our own lives that which is drawing us deeper into God (the wheat) and that which is hindering us from being drawn deeper into God (the weeds). And when we, with humility, discern the truth, that to eradicate the weeds from our lives is an

6 6 impossible dream but to walk in the humility of a discerning spirit is to walk in the way of God, then in the midst of our weed filled lives we may still cry out with Jacob s cry, Surely the Lord is in this place and I did not know it! We do not look for the kingdom of God amongst the morally pure, for there is no such person or community. We look for the kingdom of God in the humility of the person or community that can discover the work of the spirit in amongst the wheat and the weeds of their lives. And we as people of Christian faith will fall into error if we think that the spirit only works in us. I think we can afford those who are not within the church the grace of believing that the Spirit of God is working in the same way in the hearts of all human beings. Clearly, as a human community, when real evil is discerned amongst us, the justice of God rises up within us and we work against such evil. But this is not the work of a moral code. This is the work of the divine Spirit in the human life. So in essence I am inviting you to see this parable as a call to the gathered disciples today, to become still in collective contemplation of the movements of God in your inner life together. Amen.