Growing Among the Weeds
Pentecost 8, Proper 11
July 23, 2023
Fr. Tim Nunez
May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Meg embarked on a quest one spring, about 12 years ago. There was a new weed in our neighborhood. This wasn’t surprising because every year there seemed to be a new weed that would creep into our yard, along with all the weeds from prior years. Weed and feed only helps so much.
This new weed had a lovely yellow flower. It was very aggressive and would overwhelm whatever patch of ground it invaded, essentially wiping out the grass. I called our county extension office and they told me it was a type of pea vine called Lespedeza. It also gets used as an intentional ground cover, but it escapes. You can see it on Johnson just a half block towards Scenic Highway.
Most weeds aren’t too hard to pull and get the whole root with the plant. Not Lespedeza. It is a vine that runs in all directions and inter-weaves with itself. If you try to pull it, it just breaks off. And its roots run 8-12 inches below the soil.
Meg took this on as a personal challenge. She doesn’t give up easily. Day after day she pulled and she dug, and she dug and she pulled to clear about a 10’x10’ section of our yard. In order to get the weed she had to take everything, bare earth, bring in fresh dirt and re-seed with new grass.
But the new grass takes time to establish. And the worst part was that, having done all this intense and difficult work, the weed could, would and did invade that exact spot again. In fact, at times Meg found ground she had cleared invaded again almost overnight.
Jesus tells his disciples the parable of the weeds and wheat to address that same sort of frustration which has already arisen during Jesus’ ministry. Jesus is speaking the absolute truth in absolute love. He is demonstrating that truth in whom he welcomes, how he treats people, in his miracles especially of healing and in his unwavering faithfulness to the Father.
Even so, some people don’t get it. Not only do they not get it, some are actively opposing Jesus and doing all they can to inhibit him and his ministry.
And so, his disciples naturally rationalize that everything would be better if they could just weed out the problem people and focus on the ones who are receiving Jesus properly.
There are a couple of problems with that rationalization.
First, it is impossible for them to truly differentiate between the weeds and the wheat. Jesus is very clearly and continuously surprising them and everyone else by harvesting joyful, faithful children of God from among those their society has cast aside or cast down – the poor, the lame, the blind, the possessed, prostitutes and tax collectors. The disciples can only see with their own hearts and judge with their own minds – they don’t see past the surface and by weeding based on what they saw would surely and catastrophically ruin the harvest.
Second – there is the battle within the minds and hearts of those who ARE following Jesus, including their own. The Gospels are quite open and honest about the human frailties and failings of these disciples, including all of the twelve and even Peter himself.
The work that the Lord is doing within each of them is ongoing. In a given moment when they struggle or fail, they may appear as weeds, yet eventually they will become as first fruits of a glorious harvest. That same dynamic is at work in every man, woman and child on this planet. It is not for us to know how or when the Lord will make a tremendous change in someone’s heart.
Getting back to the illustration of our fight with Lespedeza, the comfort is clear. If I were able to tell Meg, with authority and assurance, not to worry about the weeds because they would be entirely and permanently eliminated, it would bring a peace that passes understanding to her heart.
This is true for us this morning as it pertains to the Lord’s work in our hearts, in his church and in the world.
On a world-wide level the Lord is very clear that his judgment and mercy will reign. This is of great comfort as we see the ongoing chaos and violence that threatens literally everywhere all the time. The evil done against the Lord, the evil done in his name, will be finished – judged, redeemed and/or excluded from the Kingdom.
Likewise, when we look at the disjointed frailty of Christ’s church, the unrelenting examples of human sin that damage his people so much within our common life, those too will come to an end. The Kingdom will be free of abuse and demagoguery of every kind.
In order for those things to be true, Our Lord’s promise is that our own sin, redeemed by his own blood, will be washed away never to return. We cannot carry our addictions, appetites, grudges and greed into the Kingdom. He’s going to extract every bit of everything that causes us to grieve Him, hurt each other and hurt ourselves and burn it away as fire refines gold. He will wipe away every tear. Pain and death will be no more.
These are the promises of your Lord. Let your confidence in them grow so that you can worship serve him now as he intends.
The vast majority of us have little to no effect on the wider culture, national or global affairs or what we might call the powers and principalities of the world. For us, the battle is very personal, right inside our own hearts and minds. It’s a lovely distraction to rail at the news when what Jesus call us to do is tend to our own hearts.
Paul makes it very clear. If we live by the flesh, we will die. If we live by the Spirit and put the deeds of the flesh to death, we will live. And note what Jesus said about that. In the end, all causes of sin will be collected and thrown into the furnace of fire along with all evildoers. So don’t be an evildoer, but also take heart that the causes of sin inside of you will be cleared away. Whatever is driving you anger, your greed, envy and so on will be taken away from you. Hallelujah!
And hold on to Paul’s assessment. It was true when he wrote it from prison and it is true now. “I consider that the sufferings of the present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.”
AMEN