Morning Prayer: Shannon Cook Hymn of Unity *One Bread, One Body* Witness of Scripture: Matthew 13: 24-30 Anthem *Make Me A Channel of Your Peace* arr. Hayes/Temple. Emily Trnka, soprano; Jenifer Buyten, piano; John Riester, organ Sermon *The Surprising No*
Recorded on July 23, 2023
There is a nationally syndicated, weekly radio show called “You Bet Your Garden,” touted as an hour of ‘chemically free horticultural hijinks,’ and hosted by Mike McGrath. The call-in program offers ‘fiercely organic’ advice to gardeners. McGrath is a delightfully engaging host who obviously enjoys what he does, as he dispenses wisdom to help people solve their gardening conundrums! When someone calls the show, McGrath welcomes them enthusiastically and then asks from where they are calling because location matters when it comes to gardening. Once the problem is assessed, McGrath offers a thorough set of steps to resolve the situation. Most of the time the steps to be taken are so involved that it feels overwhelming, at which point it seems best to run down to the mini-mart and simply buy the vegetables you want.
Today, Matthew’s gospel treats us to a show about gardening. It is not a call-in show, but there are those who have some questions about a problem that has emerged in their garden. Jesus Christ is the host for this show, and contrary to Mike McGrath’s approach, Jesus’ response to the problem is incredibly simple; although as the inquisitors receive Jesus’s advice, it may well occur to them that his wisdom also sounds like horticultural hijinks.We realize that parables are one part comedy. They are meant to be fun; yet, in their disarming humor, Jesus is inviting people to question their assumptions and challenge their presumptions. Each of Jesus’ parables are revealing reformations and renewing reworkings—not because Jesus wants to re-move and reject everything, but because Jesus wants to reorient and refine what matters.
So, he tells a parable—another parable about life out in the farmer’s field.His earlier parable had been about a Sower who willy-nilly threw seed everywhere despite the agricultural co-op advising a different kind of sowing method. Today’s parable might be an extension of that first parable, and its storyline might lead some to say that while Jesus may have known to measure twice and cut once since he was raised by a carpenter, he does not seem to know much about raising a good crop or keeping a field of nice, clean, uncluttered furrows.Odd as it seems and purity perspective notwithstanding, Jesus works within the messiness that is life. Oh yeah, thanks be to God for that!
‘An Owner has good seed sown into a field’ Jesus begins the parable optimistically enough, saying ‘this is what the kingdom of heaven is like.’ It is a subtle but sure reminder that the kingdom of heaven is not limited to some sweet by and by but is in fact also right here in these earthen fields, because God is already answering Jesus’ prayer for the kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven. So, contrary to any whose sense of religion is escapist, Jesus says the reign of God is compared to seed in the field—in other words God’s sacred touch is here also. We can’t help but wonder if people might treat this world and each other better by remembering God’s prodigious seed is sown throughout. Benevolent Sower and good seed; but, soon enough there is trouble right here in River City. To no one’s fault, someone comes along and sows some weeds into the field, and they too take root and grow. Jesus refers to that someone as an enemy—Jesus does not have any trouble naming what is over and against his good ways. The enemy is anyone or anything that is anti to Christ’s ways of compassion and care, justice and equity. For a moment, the ones who had been working in the field ask a theological question—didn’t you give us good seed? In other words, aren’t you the Provider of all that is good and nourishing? Yes, said the Owner of the field—I gave you good seed, the best. However, for whatever reason, there are those who stir up trouble, forces that work hard to make good harder to work. At the end of the agro-theological lesson, the workers in the field—who we note have been employed by the Owner to sow good seeds (which if we are looking to apply the parable means we get to be sowers of good seed)—these same workers are now ready to expand their job responsibilities. After all, they have been hired to help with what is good, and so they are ready and willing to keep the good going, especially in the face of this enemy who is obviously out to make the good harder to grow. They are ready to start yanking, and for anyone who has ever pulled a weed, we know exactly how gratifying that can feel.
Since parables almost always have surprising, but not necessarily well-received turns to them, this parable accomplishes both with a surprising ‘no’ to the offer for a weed pulling detail. Wait, what…that doesn’t make sense. You go to all this trouble to plant what is good, and now you are going to let what is not good grow along side it? A brief dive into the language Jesus uses here is helpful. The kind of weed that gets sown into the field has a stunning resemblance to the wheat that is also growing in the field—in fact, they are indistinguishable to the workers in the field. The Owner is saying that the workers may not know as much about wheat and weeds as they think they do—at least not enough to go traipsing through the field ripping and tearing. What’s more, it is simply not in their job description because they don’t have the vision of the Owner. Well, that doesn’t play very well with those who are seeing this messy field that may even get messier. Come on Jesus, haven’t you ever heard of nipping it in the bud!
Parables are meant to engage and intrigue the imagination, and this one stirs a bumper crop of possibilities. For example, it is intriguing that once the workers see the weeds, that seems to become their focus. The field is still full of ‘waving wheat that sure smells sweet,’ but all they seem to notice are the weeds. That happens—people can become fixated on the negative, on what’s wrong, on what could be better, never quite satisfied, never quite enough, suspicious, adversarial.To be sure life is not perfect—the parable admits that; but neither is life completely imperfect. There is much goodness, there is a crop of wheat in the field—so don’t miss that. Another possible angle on the parable is to see each person as the field into which seeds are sown. Have we ever seen the field of a person’s life completely without weeds? To be sure there are those who produce prolifically so much that is good; but there are still weeds—or the way the apostle Paul honestly confessed it for so many – “I do not understand my own actions…For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” Life is wheat and weeds. To paraphrase something Jesus said, “Let the one of you without weeds cast the first stone!” We also note the workers, and who doesn’t love these workers, so ready to take care of the problem immediately. These workers are fine people, because they are fixers—see problem, solve problem. That is not a bad characteristic, and it is strongly reinforced in an age of immediacy and impatience, which is the environment we are all living in now. If something isn’t taken care of before 5:00 o’clock, then someone is failing, something is not working. Maybe, but maybe not. Getting in a rush to take care of a problem is not always the best method. This is a parable about the long game, a parable that counsels a soft touch and not a sharp sword. It also promises us that, frustrating as it can be at times, the weeds will be handled. It is God’s covenant, all appearances to the contrary at times, that as minister and 19th century abolitionist Theodore Parker once said, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
On the other hand, it is important to realize that this parable does not abdicate responsibility. Saying or doing nothing in the face of inequity is not the message. Maintaining an unjust status quo was never Jesus’ way, never the way of the faith in which he was raised. Jesus said and did plenty when it came to reforming and renewing…his was the voice of a prophet. But, as is this parable so was his life—he planted, but left the reaping to God in God’s own good time. Admittedly that seems odd, until we notice the enemy, who after planting the weed seed, simply went away. Why?Well, the enemy could count on people lathered up, marching into the field to start ripping and pulling and destroying, which is what ‘the enemy,’ which is to say whoever is anti to Christ’s way, will do. We don’t need too many crusades, too many movements of cleansing to realize how ugly religions of righteousness are tempted to become.
It is a natural impulse to want to extract the weeds, and there are always plenty of groups dedicated to doing that. What are we going to do about all these undesirables? Let’s get them pulled up and shipped out because ‘those kind of folks don’t belong here.’ The temptation toward final solutions is never far away. One of the reasons people can be so critical of Christianity in particular, and religion in general is that there have been and still are times when this parable has been completely ignored. All expressions of faith, including those who have decided to disaffiliate from any religious body—which can become its own form of arrogant self-righteousness—would do well to emblazon our collective consciences with Blaise Pascal’s wisdom—“People never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction.”
Perhaps that is why Jesus tells this parable. He knows how powerful religious conviction can be, and how destructive it can become when vision gets narrowed and certitude is idolized. So Jesus says—‘you really aren’t as good as you think at telling the differences between wheat and weeds, so don’t go ripping and tearing through the field—you will do more harm than good.’ ‘But, Jesus we only want to help you.’ ‘Yes, of course you do and there are plenty of ways to help.’ However, as for faith that is extracting, expelling, expunging, excommunicating, exclusionary, on today’s episode as told in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus responds with a surprising ‘no.’ You can bet your garden on that…even better, you can bet your life.