Sermon for July 19, 2020 7th Sunday after Pentecost House of Prayer Lutheran Church

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43; Romans 8:12-25; Psalm 86:11-17 Rev. Karl-John N. Stone

Back when I lived in Pennsylvania, I knew a pastor named Glenn Heasley. He loved to tell everyone about his favorite flower. Can you guess what it is? Not a rose. Not a tulip. Not a lilly. His favorite was…..the dandelion! He loved dandelions because as he put it, “no matter how hard you try to kill it, it keeps coming back to life.” For Pastor Heasley, the dandelion was a sign pointing to Christ’s resurrection and victory over death.

Of course, most everyone else thinks dandelions are at best weeds, and at worst a nemesis. Many people will go to great lengths and spend great sums of money to eliminate the humble dandelion from a perfectly kept lawn. On the other hand, there are also people who actually look forward to the dandelions’ reappearance every Spring because they like to eat the tender dandelion greens (especially when smothered with hot bacon dressing), or they like to make dandelion wine. Maybe dandelions are not as much of a weed as we usually make them out to be? In any event, you have a choice--cut them down and pluck them out before they take over your lawn. Or look upon them as gifts that the insects enjoy pollinating, and that people can even enjoy turning into food and drink.

Maybe that is one of the points Jesus is trying to tell us in this “Parable of the Weeds of the Field” which we heard today from Matthew 13. There is room enough in the world for both wheat and weeds, so don’t be so quick to judge. What if our perceptions and misperceptions prevent us from seeing things clearly. What if, in our rush to judgement, we end up pulling out the wheat along with the weeds? Then what would we have left? Besides, God will do a better job of than us of judging things properly in the end.

What if God has a greater purpose for the weeds to be there? It’s hard to accept that no matter what we do, we can’t control or manipulate God--even our own careful attention to deciding what is wheat and what is weeds will not make God love me anymore, nor will it make God love anyone else any less. It can be hard for us to see the purposes of God unfold within things, like weeds, that we don’t want to be there. But God is still at work.

There’s a story about “a wise man living on one of China’s vast frontiers. One day, for no apparent reason, a young man’s horse ran away and was taken by nomads across the border. Everyone tried to offer consolation for the man’s bad fortune, but his father, a wise man, said, ‘What makes you so sure this is not a blessing?’”

“Months later, his horse returned, bringing with her a magnificent stallion. This time everyone was full of congratulations for the son’s good fortune. But now his father said, ‘What makes you so sure this isn’t a disaster?’”

“Their household was made richer by this fine horse the son loved to ride, but one day he fell off his horse and broke his hip. Once again, everyone offered their consolation for his bad luck, but his father said, ‘What makes you so sure this is not a blessing?”

“A year later, nomads invaded, and every able-bodied man was required to take up his bow and go into battle. The Chinese families living on the border lost nine out of every ten men who went to fight. Only because the son was lame did the father and son survive to take care of each other… What appears to be success or a blessing can be a terrible thing; and what appears to be a terrible event can turn out to be a rich blessing.” [Emotionally Healthy Spirituality Day by Day by Peter Scazzero, p84-85]

So maybe Jesus’ Parable of the Weeds of the Field isn’t there to teach us, as much as it is to help us unlearn a few things. Like unlearning our human desire to always want to be certain about everything as fast as possible--this is the example we see in the servants in the parable, who want to pluck out the weeds right away. Instead God wants us to live by faith in Christ and his grace, mercy, love, and forgiveness which unfold slowly over the long-haul, and are always available to us even amid things we cannot understand.

Maybe Jesus told this parable to help us unlearn our assumptions about what is or is not worthy, or who is or is not worthy, to have a place among “the wheat”--and instead to trust God to reveal what is worthy in everyone and everything around us. Maybe this parable is there to show us that by hanging in there with each other through the difficult times, even with those who are different from us, rich blessings can take root and grow because we have a God who is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger, and full of kindness and truth. This is the God we know in Jesus Christ, who willingly gave himself for us upon the cross. This is the God who reveals that even a thief being crucified next to Jesus can be welcomed into Paradise; that even the weeds can be redeemed--that dandelions can be eaten as salad and drunk as wine, and even plucked and blown into the wind as a game.

With God, even the weeds can be redeemed. Because of that, our faith gives me the freedom in Christ to look at my own life and ask honestly in self-reflection: of the things growing inside my own soul, what is the wheat and what is weeds? What can I leave be? What assumptions do I need to unlearn? And because of who Jesus is, I can have confidence that God won’t condemn me for searching for the truth, even if I find that the truth is ugly and full of weeds--because God wants to redeem those weeds and turn them into something good. Even if I find that I have in some way--wittingly or unwittingly--contributed to someone else’s suffering or struggle, even that weedy truth can be redeemed by being turned into a desire to make things right, and to work for greater justice and love for all people.

With Christ, even the weeds can be redeemed--thanks be to God! Amen.