Sermon from July 17th, 2005. The setting is an elderly population at a chapel service in the nursing home.
If you watch the news long enough, if you work in health care long enough, even, if you live long enough, you will undoubtedly say, “Oh my God, why?” It isn’t taking the Lord’s name in vain. It is the closest that we can come to verbalizing the question deep in our heart. “God, why would you allow something like this?”
Why did all of those people die in the bombing?
Why did she die so young?
Why does he come home drunk every night?
Why, why, God why?
Just one chapter before our readings today, Jesus and the disciples are roundly rejected by the religious leaders of the day. The disciples had picked some grain to eat on the Sabbath and they were rebuked by the Pharisees. The same day, Jesus went into the synagogue and healed a man with a withered hand, something which earned more harsh words from the Pharisees. Later, Jesus cast a demon out of a man. The Pharisees claim that it is because Jesus is in league with the devil. This all must have been very confusing for the disciples. A few chapters earlier he had sent them out in pairs, proclaiming that the Kingdom of heaven has come near. But if the kingdom of heaven has come near, then why won’t the Pharisees listen to Jesus?
Today’s Gospel lesson is a portion of a larger set of Jesus’ teachings about the kingdom. Last week we heard about different kinds of soil and the seeds which are planted there. There were seeds thrown along the path, on the rocky ground, among the thorns, and in good soil. This week, we have the soil issue straightened out, but now there are weeds among the good plants.
“Weeds” really doesn’t do justice to the kind of plant that Jesus was talking about. Many of you might be familiar with the older translation “tares.” A tare is a plant which for most of its life looks almost exactly like wheat. It is not until harvest time that one can clearly tell the two apart. And telling them apart is important work, because the tares which Jesus was speaking of are poisonous to humans. If you went out and tried to get just the grain before the plants had fully matured at the harvest, you were playing a very dangerous game indeed.
But we still haven’t answered the question: Why oh God, why?
The why my friends is because God has patience with us. God patiently endures the worst of us, in an effort to foster the best in us. Think with me for a moment on some famous people of the Bible:
Moses – a murderer chosen to lead God’s people out of captivity in
David ignores his vows to his wife and sleeps with Bathsheba, and then has Uriah the Hittite killed to cover it up. Yet he becomes a great king of
Paul was a man actively and intentionally persecuting the faith. He stood by holding the coats of the men as they took up rocks to stone Steven. Yet Paul became one of the greatest missionaries ever, a man whose writings we treasure and read as a part of worship.
The best example that I can think of is Peter. Peter is a hypocrite and a coward. He is cursed because he doesn’t want Jesus talking about being handed over to death. He is blessed because he speaks the truth about who Jesus really is. He is called a rock, and given keys.
God endures the bad in our lives in an effort to bring out the good. Sometimes this waiting is painful or even confusing for us. In the reading today, the servants wanted to go into the field themselves and try to root out the tares. But they are told not to do so, because uprooting the tares would also destroy the wheat. The sorting out of the wheat from the weeds will have to wait for the harvest.
In some ways we are all a little like Peter. In the field of our lives there is good seed, planted by God, in good soil, ready to bring for 30, 60 even 100 fold. But sadly, mixed in with those good plants are poisonous tares. If we are honest with ourselves and with God, we know that we are not fields of pure wheat. There is poison in our own lives, just as there is poison in the world. That poison causes pain. It causes that pain that we feel when we get the news of another bombing, or we find out about a loved one, who died too young, or when he comes home drunk and angry, again.
Our reading today doesn’t stop there. Jesus continues, telling us about the hopeful age to come. At the time of the harvest, the angels are sent out to remove from the world all that causes sin. They remove everything which belongs to evil, everything which dares to stand in defiance of God, everything which wounds us and grieves our hearts.
We look forward to that day when all that belongs to the forces of evil, including the evil in our own lives will be swept away to make room for the coming
On Friday afternoons, the Jewish community here at
And then, all that has divided us will merge
And then compassion will be wedded to power
And then softness will come to a world that is harsh and unkind
And then both men and women will be gentle
And then both men and women will be strong
And then no person will be subject to another’s will
And then all will be rich and free and varied
And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many
And then all will share equally in the Earth’s abundance
And the all will care for the sick and the weak and the old
And then all will nourish the young
And then all will cherish life’s creatures
And the all will live in harmony with each other and with the Earth
And then everywhere will be called
Some days we look out on the world, and all that we can see is the weeds. In those times it can be easy to lose heart, to throw up our hands, and to give in. But take heart, for as the disciples said, “the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”
It is my prayer for each of you this day that you would not dwell on the tares of the world, but that you would abide in the hope and the love of he who has overcome the world. Amen.
1 comment:
I like it a lot Dave. Good job. ~Henry
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