"WHEAT SHOULDN'T WORRY ABOUT WEEDS"

In our Scripture reading today, we heard yet another parable – a story that Jesus told in order to make a point about God and our relationships with God and one another. Last week we heard about seeds being sown in different kinds of soil, and I shared with you my own less-than-stellar, one-time attempt at being a gardener.

Today's story is also about growing plants, but in this story we can assume that the soil is good and well-prepared and that the gardener actually has some skill.

This parable of Jesus has traditionally been called "The Parable of the Weeds" or "The Wheat and the Weeds." Some people know it as the story of "The Wheat and the Tares" – because a "tare" was a kind of poisonous weed that looked very much like wheat until it was fully developed.

What we really heard were two different pieces of Scripture. We heard a story, then we heard an explanation of a story. Traditionally, the second part – the explanation – has been used to talk about the "final judgement" of humankind, including lots of scary warnings about the burning-in-fire fate of the weeds!

There's a slight technical problem here though. The first section we heard – the story – is a parable...a story that is told to make a particular point. It's not something to be analyzed to death but to be heeded for the "bottom-line" lesson it offers.

The second section we heard – the explanation – makes the story into an "allegory": a device in which every literal character, object and event represents an idea or moral principle. You can recognize the allegory when the text says that the one who sowed the seed is Christ, the field is the world, the weeds are evil people, the one who sowed the weeds is the devil and so forth.

This morning I want us to consider another angle on this traditional understanding of this story. You see, the consensus of biblical scholars is that the "explanation" of Jesus' parable was actually inserted after the original text had been written. The reason for this may have been an attempt, not so much to understand the parable, as to offer explanation and hope to a church community that found itself surrounded by many enemies within their culture. Thus, the focus on judgement at a later time in which all those nasty weeds will be burned up – at least a small reassurance to the struggling early Christians – became the primary understanding.

But the central element of the parable Jesus told is the sower's patience and grace. Rather than endanger the wheat growing up with the weeds, the farmer chooses to let both weeds and wheat continue to grow side by side. The farmer refused to do anything that might injure the wheat just to be rid of the weeds. The farmer's concern is to tend to the field patiently, knowing that the obvious differences in the wheat and the weeds would eventually become clear; then the farmer will bring harvesters in to deal with the situation.

Tradition has made this story all about judgement in a far off future. But you see, when Jesus talked about the realm of God – of heaven and of "heavenly" things – He didn't speak in future terms; He talked in the present, about the here and now. Thus, His story is not just about what is to come, but it's also about what is unfolding in people's lives in the here and now. This story is a teaching about non-judgement among us here today.

This lesson teaches that the future and what becomes of people and the unfolding of final events rest in God's hands, not ours. We are not the sower...nor are we the harvesters. You see, we don't have the ability to be harvesters because, like the servants in the story, we can't tell the difference between the weeds and the wheat.

The weeds Jesus referred to were poisonous to people but, in the growing stages, looked identical to wheat. If the servants had tried to rip out the weeds, they would have also ripped out good wheat. When we try to judge people and label or categorize them, we don't really know what we're doing. We take a surface glance at others and think that somehow we know just who they are and what they're all about. And, in doing so, we cause significant damage to others. I'm not sure which human attribute that reflects more: arrogance or ignorance.

Look at what's happened in this country since last Sept. 11th. People of Arab descent or Muslim faith have become suspect at every turn. Can any of us honestly say that, since last year, we have NEVER taken a second glance at an "Arab-looking" man or a woman wearing a head covering and veil? Well, maybe you haven't...in which case you're a better Christian than I am.

In our humanness, we want to be the ones to decide who is good and who isn't...to determine the meaning of others' actions or decisions. We want to be harvesters, deciding who's a weed and who is wheat. But it's not our job to be harvesters! We are called and equipped to be CULTIVATORS.

Our role in this "growing field and final harvest" scenario is not to worry about who the weeds around us are but to make sure that we are growing as healthy, golden wheat for God. Now that doesn't mean we can – or should – never exercise our spiritual insight about situations or behaviors that are harmful and detrimental to ourselves or others; this is not a call to just sit back and let bad things go on or to let negativity reign. BUT...we must remember that there is a big difference between discernment and judgement. God's goal for us is to recognize that we have been planted as good seed...and then to live that way, encouraging and demonstrating for others how to be good wheat, too.

I don't think I've ever been any more proud of this church than I was this past Thursday evening as I sat outside behind my apartment building in my car listening to the radio. I was sitting out there because I couldn't pick up the signal for station KDHX inside my apartment. I was listening to a program called "Out Spoken" – a weekly show that focuses on g/l/b/t issues.

The guests for Thursday's show were 3 of our church's leaders and the topic was...well, mostly US. Staff members, Rev. Sue Yarber and Felicia Scott, and Board member Mike Henley answered the host's questions and shared information about this church, about homosexuality and Christianity and about their own individual faith journeys for the entire one hour show. I sat in my car smiling and feeling so wonderful as they spoke...each one of them eloquent, poised, knowledgeable, down-to-earth and positive!

So often when people in our community speak about issues around faith or religion, the tone is harsh, even hateful, and filled with judgement against those we perceive to have judged us. But these 3 leaders never said a disparaging word about others; they simply shared their personal perspectives and understandings...without sounding hateful or angry. Actually, they sounded quite relaxed and happy and content with themselves and one another. THAT is what we desperately need to cultivate in this community.

We each need to ask ourselves, "What am I cultivating with my words and actions?" "Am I becoming ripened wheat...or am I acting like a weed?" It's interesting to learn that when the parable we heard talks about an "enemy" coming in to plant weeds, the word actually used there literally means, "slanderous" as in "malicious talk or gossip." And let's be honest here – isn't gossip the source of many of the bad seeds that get planted among us?

I couldn't help being amused this past week by a couple of fairly harmless "gossipy" episodes I encountered. On Tuesday I went down to inform my landlord – who does not attend this church – that I would be moving at the end of September. Turns out...he already knew. It seems he learned all about it the night before when he was attending the Cher concert! In a separate incident, a person who has visited this church maybe a couple of times "learned" all about where I was moving and why from a church member – before I had announced my plans to the congregation as a whole, AND the entire story was completely inaccurate!

Now I have no delusions about the fact that "people talk." I simply invite you to ask yourself, in all times of "sharing": "Is this true? Is it loving? Does it need to be said?" None of us will pass that test perfectly all the time...but it surely might cut down on the simply inaccurate gossip we spread or, in some cases, the truly false and mean-spirited slander we speak.

We're supposed to be cultivators of God's realm in this world. Nothing can prevent God's good seeds from being planted and growing strong more than our failure to act and speak in ways that reflect the goodness and love of God. If any one of us confines our "Christianity" to only an hour or so on Sunday mornings, not only are we not doing the work of Christ, but we're actually actively preventing God's loving purposes from being made known in the world.

Theologian Karl Rahner put it this way: "The number one cause of atheism is Christians. Those who claim to know God, yet deny God in the way they live, is what an unbelieving world finds simply unbelievable." Perhaps the best way we can cultivate God's garden is to keep our mouths shut and live like Christ told us to. If we all did that, the Gospel would be so powerful and attractive that the realm of God would grow up and overtake everything else.

Jesus' lesson for us today is, "Don't look at your sister or brother and ask, ‘What are they doing?' Look at yourself and ask, ‘What am I doing?'"

Jesus' encouragement for us today is that the present and the future rest safely in God's hands and, as people of faith, we know how the story ends!

Jesus' promise for us today is that God is both the sower and the harvester. We don't have to be...we were never meant to be. We are free to keep growing contentedly as healthy, golden wheat without worrying about the weeds around us. What a blessed relief that is! Amen.

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