SERMON CNR 1060
PENTECOST 5a Mosman 17 July 2011, 9.30am
Gen 28:1-19a; Ps 139:1-12, 23f; Matt 13:24-30, 36-43
“PARABLE OF THE WEEDS”
Matt 13:24-30, 36-43
1 BACK TO THE GARDEN
1.1 From the Parable of the Seeds
This is our 2nd week into the gardening season.
Last Sunday, we would have heard Matthew’s account of the Parable of the Sower, or more accurately the Parable of the Seeds.
After all it was about what happened to the seeds.
That was Matthew’s introduction to the feast of parables of the Kingdom of Heaven which today follows last week.
These parable will crop up again until the final parable of the Sheep and the Goats towards the end of chapter 25.
1.2 Why I am not a gardener
Many of us will have heard these parables often enough to have worked out how similar this Parable of the Weeds is to that final parable.
It’s the same problem.
How do you tell the weeds apart from the wheat?
The adults in my home life decided when I was a boy that I should get stuck into gardening.
In those days, little boys had to start off, not by planting, that was the grown-up’s privilege, but by weed-pulling.
I tried my hand at some weeds but they were tough and hard for little boys to pull out.
There were other green things nearby that were much easier to pull out so I started pulling them out with much more enthusiasm.
Besides, they were conveniently in neat rows, not higgled-piggledy like those tough things.
An adult in my life came to hover over me and I looked upwards to receive well-deserved praise.
High-pitched agitated tones were not what I was expecting.
“You’ve pulled out all the plants I put in just yesterday!”
My budding career in horticulture came to an abrupt end and my fingers have none of that green tinge you would expect of normal gardeners.
2 GETTING TO THE DILEMMA
2.1 Weeds just show up (Matt 13:25)
When reading this parable, I’ve always wondered why it was necessary to put in the bit (v25) about enemies coming in to sow weeds.
Weeds just seem to show up in gardens.
Maybe they were here beforehand all those centuries before we occupied this country and began growing things we liked.
Maybe they came from seeds that from overseas aboard the old sailing ships or their cargo.
I’ll let you tell me about the weeds in your garden over morning-coffee even though I know you won’t ever want to let me loose in it.
2.2 Finding the classroom culprit
The parable is not so much about weeds but that hard fact that not only are they sometimes hard, to me at least, to distinguish them from the real thing, but hard to separate out without damaging the growing plants.
We would be living under a rock if we’ve not experienced this dilemma sometime.
We’ve been in a class in school when one student, generally a boy, of course, gets up to mischief.
The teacher comes in, sees the disruption and the damage, calls for the little miscreant to own up, and then listens to the longest innocent silence heard in that classroom for ages.
What does the teacher do?
With no one to punish, and the teacher’s authority at stake, the whole class is kept in, or misses out on that promised trip next week.
Should the teacher have punished the whole class because that little weed couldn’t be found out, or should have the teacher ignored the whole incident?
Any teachers here can tell me the answer over morning coffee?
2.3 Human Shields and Collateral Damage
Worse still are the war situations and the collateral damage that comes with them.
What should one do when a dangerous enemy is using human shields?
How can one ensure that one’s bullets are marked with “enemy only” on them?
Close to home, my father was a bomb aimer on Lancasters in WW2.
How could he ensure that his bombs landed on the military targets without some innocent person getting in the way?
3 GETTING TO THE HEART OF THE GOSPEL
3.1 The Barbary Sheep
This is the heart of the Parable of the Weeds.
How does one punish the guilty without affecting the innocent?
How does one punish a bad parent without the child still suffering?
You may try to reassure me that the final Parable of the Sheep and the Goats will help me tell the difference.
After all who can mix up a merino with an angora?
Last time I visited the Zoo down the road, I saw this beastie with curved horns and a long beard perched up on the top of a large rock.
“What a magnificent goat,” I burst forth.
I then read the sign – “Barbary Sheep”.
Perhaps I should have stuck to horticulture.
3.2 Portia to our Shylock
It always amazes me how Jesus came to this dilemma so early in his life and ministry.
He puts the brakes on our passionate rush to judgement.
He becomes the Portia to our Shylock.
More than that, rather than inflict judgement that would harm the innocent, he was prepared to endure it himself.
Within the heart of the dilemma lies the heart of the Gospel.
4 WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
4.1 Groans of Frustration
Where does this leave us on this cold winter’s morn?
In his Letter to the Romans, Paul writes about the groans of frustration that we all go through.
And we go through them, even when we seek what is good, but evil keeps using that good as its shield.
The Book of Revelation reminds us when the archangel Michael is used to conquer the dragon of evil, that only spiritual power can overcome this super-human sabotaging force of evil.
4.2 Sorting out the dilemmas
Paul reassures us that we have been adopted by God himself.
This leads us open to receive something of the wisdom Jesus himself showed, to receive that continuous growth in maturity of the spirit that will help us recognise more of these dilemmas before we fall into those traps.
In all, we are helped to love beyond the anger and to await those times when dilemmas can be eventually sorted out.
Meanwhile, garden in peace!
AMEN
