Wheat and Tares

Jesus took his stories from scenes and activities of everyday life, and they’ve spoken powerfully through the ages and are still so relevant to us today,

He drew from things that were familiar to his hearers to lead them to things, which had never entered their minds. He spoke powerfully then, and we pray he will speak powerfully to us today as we reflect upon his words, and that through this Eucharist his presence will be felt among us.

Let me tell you first a modern day parable.

There  once was a woman…

(The story of woman on a train on her way to a shopping trip, who when she discovered her shopping money £20 was missing from her purse, looked suspiciously at the lady on the train opposite her, and assumed she had taken it.

So she opened the woman’s purse, saw her £20 there and quietly, without waking the lady took it back and did not make a fuss. She simply got off at her stop, and enjoyed spending her money that day.

Unfortunately when she returned home, her husband was quick to ask her how her day had gone so well considering she had left her shopping money on the kitchen table and gone without it.)

…she began her journey well that day. . .

she ended it painfully, riddled with guilt and weighed down by her own sin.

A woman who was basically good, did something quite wrong.

Doubt and accusation had been sown in her mind, and she acted out the evil, which in turn affected someone else.

Our gospel today has similar things to say.

Here we see that an enemy has sown rogue seeds in a field of wheat…

Firstly..JESUS IS TEACHING US HOW DIFFICULT IT IS TO SEPARATE THE WHEAT FROM THE DARNEL, GOOD FROM EVIL …

The weed he speaks of is the bearded darnel( lolium temulentum)      and why the wheat could not be separated…(looked so similar)

Explain why the darnel could not be pulled out, even when the crop was mature (roots entangled)

Explain about the threshing (darnel seed a slate blue, could only be taken out after the final threshing, sorted by women when seed spread out on tray)

THERE IS EVIL IN OUR WORLD, ( NOT A GEOGRAPHICAL EVIL, WHERE ONE NATION IS GOOD THE OTHER BAD, OR ONE FAITH IS BAD AND ANOTHER GOOD, OR ONE PERSON IS COMPLETELY GOOD THE OTHER COMPLETELY EVIL)

JUST AS GOD SOWS GOOD SEED WITHIN EACH OF US SO THE ENEMY SOWS EVIL AND NONE OF US IS IMMUNE OR EXEMPT FROM THE TEMPTATION TO DO WHAT IS WRONG!

 We can all find ourselves caught up in the web of sin. E.g. lies, dishonesty,  anger and resentment.

There is also a COLLECTIVE evil, where we so easily fall in to line with structures which persuade us that IT IS necessary to bomb innocent people, that poverty will have to be put on hold and wait its time to become history, that its fine not to act just yet about global warming…

Collective evil, says its OK to take revenge; to stigmatise and smear a whole community because an evil minority has caused others to suffer, that it’s OK to carry out ethic cleansing and exterminate, that it’s OK to snuff out the life of another.

If we take for granted, perspectives without questioning them, and without seeing them for what they are; AND if we don’t speak out, we are colluding with them!

A PARABLE LIKE THIS SHOWS THAT FOR THE MOMENT EVIL AND GOOD MUST CONTINUE TO LIVE SIDE BY SIDE, UNTIL THE FINAL JUDGEMENT.

JUDGEMENT MUST WAIT UNTIL THE HARVEST. AND GOD WILL BE OUR JUDGE!

UNTIL THEN HERE WILL BE TERRIBLE TIMES AND MUCH SUFFERING TO BE ENDURED BEFORE THEN, LIKE THE PAINS OF LABOUR IN OUR ROMANS READING.

Secondly, THE REAPERS HAD IMPORTANT QUESTIONS TO PUT BEFORE THE MASTER.

(where have the weeds come from? Do you want us to gather them in?)  They may not have received the answers they were wanting to hear, but it was acceptable to ask them, and it’s alright for us to ask them today.

The main ones that have puzzled humankind throughout the ages are to do with pain and suffering.

Why doesn’t God protect the innocent?

Why does he save one person, and allow another to die horribly?

Why does God allow suffering?

Why does God not punish the evildoer, zap him, thwart his plans?

We would love to have these questions answered. There is no easy answer to them.

St Paul in 1 Corinthians 13 tells us that now we see but a poor reflection, then we will see face to face. Now we know in part, then we shall know fully.

I work with children….and not long ago, I was asked a million dollar question by a high school pupil,

It was just before the war in Iraq..it was this

‘Why don’t adults talk their problems through, in the way they tell us we should do when we have an argument in the playground?’

A question like this puts the question of pain and suffering in perspective for me, as a Christian.

Why do we blame God for evil, when we humans are the perpetrators much of the time?

We can’t seem to solve our own problems with each other?

We believe that the other person is wrong, and we don’t accept we can be at fault

We are the ones who can put right wrongs and evils, and we don’t.

Thirdly there is a lesson here, not to act hastily,  to always be on our guard.

If the reapers had had their way they would have destroyed the wheat in the pulling up of the tares, not only destroyed it, but also its potential and possibilities for more growth.

 People can make BIG mistakes in life, and later redeem themselves, and do beautiful things for God. I think in particular of John Newton, formerly a slavetrader. (explain)

Conversely,  someone may have lived a truly good and honorable life, and wreck it all because of sin….

Look at what has been said this very week, about some of the suicide bombers, from their friends perspective. They can’t believe they did such things, they were such good people, such good sons, so friendly…

Yet look at the damage they did…

Who is to know God’s purposes. He is the judge, and will judge each person according to how they have lived their lives.

We must not be ‘judges’.

How easily we label others, dismiss their arguments, pay no heed to their words.

How easy it is to judge others, when there but for the grace of God go you and I.

We must allow God to work his purposes out,

It’s important to seek to transform the one person we CAN do something about…OURSELVES! And make God known to others.

In Romans, IT SAYS THAT ALL CREATION IS EAGERLY AWAITING God’s children to come into their own! For revelation, insight, understanding, enlightenment.

But let’s go back to the story I first told you when I began this sermon…

A simple question…

What SHOULD that lady have done? I can think of a few, what would you have done differently?

• Made up her own mind instead of listening to negative thoughts and not been so hasty to rush to judgement and power,

•  She could have refused to act with a ‘tit for tat’ mentality, to believe the best of the other person and not the worst

• She could have stopped just thinking about herself and her own needs…

KINGDOM THINKING is to aim to become wiser, stronger, and more effective for God.

To be aware of our own failings and do something about them?

to follow Jesus’ way of thinking and acting, and to grow mature in the faith and spread our best message, and pass on his good news.