Grace and peace to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The text on which this morning's message is based comes from our Gospel lesson (Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43; the parable of the wheat and tares) read earlier.

There are many other human organizations that do good works in our society today. The Geary County 4-H fair has started. Children can learn many skills that enhance them and our society by being in groups like 4-H or scouts or Boys and Girls Clubs. Adults can be in many helpful, society enhancing clubs and groups. I love the name of the "Optimists" club and I applaud the good that they and the Kiwanis and Lions and American Legion and Modern Woodsmen and other such groups do in Junction City and the U.S. Churches too can do things that enhance society, showing good will to our neighbors, etc. But our Gospel lesson today reminds us that we belong to a group, the church, in which the stakes are much higher than cleaning roadsides or providing scholarships….. For the church the stakes are eternal, eternal life and death. We have not joined this organization on our own, but were called into its membership by God himself. He has planted his good seed in his field. We who trust and follow him are his wheat. Jesus Christ, truly man and truly God, came to sacrifice Himself as a ransom for our sin. We are not wheat because we are somehow intrinsically better than the weeds, the tares of this parable. Romans 3: 23 "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." We are wheat because the Holy Spirit has called us into a life of faith in Jesus Christ and his expensive ransom for us. He has called us into this life through the mystery of His Word and His sacraments which bring us forgiveness. He continues to patiently wait for more people to come to Him in repentance and trust

The text this morning says that one day—we do not know when—but it asserts that one day the ages of earth will end. There will be a final judgment when God separates those whom he calls wheat and those whom he calls weeds. The one will be brought into the kingdom of their Father and the other will be thrown into the fiery furnace. Now you might ask me, "Pastor, do you really believe that there will be an end of the ages and a final day of reckoning?" I could give you a lot of educated answers about the meaning of Jesus' parables, and "End Times" theology called eschatology. But let me let me answer you directly. Yes I do. I believe that a judgment day is coming. God's Word, the most trustworthy message we have, says so. The idea of a final Judgment Day followed by an eternal heaven or hell seems alien to this permissive culture. In such a society, it sounds strange to hear about a final Judgment Day and eternal punishment and weeping and gnashing of teeth. Jesus told a simple parable or story to illustrate the truth about Judgment Day, and the patience of God until that day. These stories were designed to be familiar to people who depended on agriculture. A farmer planted good wheat seed in a field. But under cover of night, an enemy came in and planted weeds. At first no one noticed. There was a common weed in Palestine called bearded darnel, which was a common curse of farmers. Those of you who are farmers, you might think of it as similar to "Cheat" or "Johnson Grass," but with a poisonous fungus attached to it. In its early stages it looked just like the wheat. But when both had "headed out" or produced seeds, the two could be distinguished by color. Then the darnel had to be separated from the good grain because of its poison. The farm hands came to the owner and asked, "Do you want us to pull the weeds?" "No," said the owner. "If you try, you might damage the grain in the process. Let the weeds alone. At harvest time we will separate the two." God our Savior is patient, (1 Timothy 2) "and wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth" (The previous paragraph was modified from a selection in e-sermons.com) An older pastor in his 70's related this story to me this week, a story that powerfully illustrates the gravity, the significance of our Gospel lesson, and the patience of God in Christ Jesus. My friend was the pastor of a congregation in another state decades ago when the peace of his congregation was interrupted. A long-time member and leader in the church began to show signs of the dreaded disease of Alzheimer's. He came to tell the pastor that his wife had left him and had moved in with another man. This pastor was aghast. The wife had also been a long-time member and leader in the church, but was now publicly breaking the 6th commandment, committing adultery. The pastor went to her to tell her of God's Word about these issues (probably from places like Matthew 5, Matthew 19 and 1 Corinthians 7). When she would not listen he went along with a few of the elders to help call her to repentance. This process went on patiently, as privately as possible for six months. Then when she refused to repent and be restored to her husband, the congregation met, voted and publicly excommunicated her. It was a difficult thing to do, but faithful to God's Word and Way.

God's patient waiting ensued. The Holy Spirit used the Word of God to work on her heart. Three months later this woman came to the pastor's study. The publicness and unanimity of the congregation's proclamation of God's Word through the excommunication had, through the power of the Holy Spirit, taken its effect. She repented of her sin and was welcomed back into the congregation and the forgiveness of sins that comes through the Lord's Supper. But in the mean time, she had divorced her first husband and married the man she had begun living with 9 months earlier. He was not a Christian, but had himself become interested in learning more about this faith in Jesus Christ and why it was so important to her and those in the congregation. He began to receive instruction in this Christian faith and was baptized and confirmed in their congregation a few months later. The woman and her new husband felt a responsibility to her first husband, now in failing health. They took him into their home, and the two of them cared for him until he died. A few years later both she and the second husband died as well. As this older pastor said, because their congregation took a faithful and patient stand in God's Word three people were now in heaven with their Lord. From an earthly perspective, two of those three looked like tares (weeds) for a time. But the power of the Holy Spirit, using God's Word turned those lives toward Jesus in repentance and eventually joy. (This true story comes from Rev. Dr. Louis Brighton, retired professor at Concordia Seminary).

There are many good human organizations that benefit our society today. But on Judgment Day all those other human organizations will cease. But this group, the church, to which you have been called by a patient God, this group will continue forever. In this church our Lord daily and richly forgives all our sins (Small Catechism), calling us to share God's Word with each other, to share together our need for daily repentance and forgiveness. Here our Lord shows his patience with us and we can be patient with each other as we wait for our Lord's return. We pray a prayer I take from the last verse of our sermon hymn (#495 - Come you thankful people come)

"Even so Lord, quickly come;
to your final harvest home.
Gather all your people in,
Free from sorrow, free from sin.
There forever purified,
In your garner to abide
Come with all your angels come,
Raise the glorious harvest home.
Amen.