Sermons from St Faith's
The Wheat and the Weeds
Jackie Parry, 20 July, 2014
I’m looking
forward to going to the Southport flower
show this year. Actually, I’ve never been but
I’ve heard wonderful things about the beautiful
flowers and plants on display and I hope to have
some inspiration for my little gardens, when they
are eventually tidied!
Mind you, have you seen my front garden? To
say it’s a bit of a mess would be an understatement;
the grass has grown so long and the bushes so large
that my neighbour recently joked with me that he
thought there may be some lions hiding in there,
because it looks more like a jungle than an English
country garden! I’m waiting for my son's
friend, who is a landscape gardener, to come and
sort it for me, but as usual, he is taking his time
and in the meantime, my garden is getting more and
more out of control! But he has promised that
he will sort it soon. All I can do is wait and
be patient.
And that is exactly what the farmer in today’s
gospel reading has suggested to his servants; don’t
pull up the weeds, wait a while longer! This
probably caused confusion because the bad weeds may
well destroy the good wheat, and possibly nothing
will be saved when the time comes to harvest the
land. But that is what they do; they wait.
I’m not a very good gardener, but I do appreciate
the beauty of flowers and the hard work which goes
into nurturing the plants. Beautiful plants
which have grown from tiny seeds. Seeds often
so small that when you drop them into the ground
they seem to disappear, but if carefully looked
after, they will germinate and grow stronger.
Then, when fully grown into glorious flowers, these
will also produce seeds which can be planted which
will grow against into beautiful plants the
following year, and so on. The journey, the
cycle of life, continues.
The kingdom of heaven can come into a person’s life
through something as relatively tiny as a seed: a
very small kindly action, a brief word of
encouragement, an insight shared leading to a moment
of seeing things differently. We might also
keep in mind that seeds grow in their own time and
space. I remember when my sons were at primary
school, the children planted some tiny seedlings and
the teacher told them these would grow into
wonderful trees and they hoped to encourage
squirrels to nest in their branches.
Unfortunately the children didn’t understand that
time was needed for this and they became very
impatient when, after a whole week, the seedlings
had only grown about an inch, and there wasn’t a
squirrel to be seen anywhere! Their teacher
explained that it takes time for things to grow, and
a lot of nurturing was required during this time to
encourage the trees to grow to maturity and their
full potential.
Only time brings things to maturity.
Similarly, the parable suggests we cannot hurry the
growth of the kingdom. When a seed of faith
has been sown, people need time and, given all that
may go wrong, that weeds, or temptation (sin), may
sneak in, people continue to need tender care, love
and support, in order to grow and develop in their
faith, and trusting in a loving God. As we know,
Jesus used parables, ordinary stories, to teach
about spiritual truth, although some parables were
not always clearly understood by the listener.
However Jesus does in fact explain to the disciples
the meaning of the parable regarding the wheat and
weeds, making it very clear that, come the day of
judgement, the good will be collected together and
the bad will be cast away.
But, looking deeper, it’s not all that this parable
means. We can see that there is another
dimension to this story. I noticed that the
farmer doesn’t say to pull the weeds out straight
away, but to leave them there and let them grow
amongst the wheat. The good and the bad are
mixed together. What good would this do, you
may ask? Jesus is, in fact, referring to the
fact that evil can be found anywhere and everywhere,
in the world. Good and evil will always be
mixed together until the end of time, and can be
found in individuals and institutions alike.
Evil, or sin, often creeps in during the darkness of
night, hiding in the shadows, silently growing and
destroying the good.
Once discovered, the urge is to immediately cut it
away, but in the parable Jesus warns that sometimes
it might be best to wait until the time is
right. If the good roots are still young and
delicate, then they could easily be destroyed by the
thorns which are nearby. He wants us to trust
in his judgement, and give the good seed time to
grow stronger, even though there is a risk they
might become entwine with something thorny.
But remember, Jesus is the one who went around
Galilee setting people free from the power of evil
spirits which were dominating their lives; He is the
one who cast evil away, and people around witnessed
this and were able to recognise the power of God in
personal transformation.
God respects and loves ALL people. He knows
that temptation is often stronger than good
intentions and that time is sometimes required to
enable the good to shine through, and the weeds to
be transformed into something beautiful.
Understanding this helps us to see the importance of
patience, support and pastoral care of ALL people,
and not to cast away those in society who do not yet
understand that the Kingdom of God is close at hand.
The Kingdom was present in Jesus and this was his
gift to his followers then, and to us now. But
we know only too well that, even in our own time,
here and now, the kingdom is not yet complete; there
are still weeds and rocky grounds to contend
with. There are many divisions in our world
and evil exists, but with the power and grace of God
we, as the church today, the body of Christ, are
called to spread His word to all people, allowing
His love to shine through us, and revealing just a
glimpse of the Kingdom of God, which He promises for
all those who to turn to Him.
Jesus’ prayer is that God’s kingdom will come on
earth. The challenge to us is that we must not
retreat inside our walls, but respond to Him with
two commitments. The first commitment is to God, to
let the seed of his love grow in us as we seek to
follow him every day; and understand that we may
have to face our own rocky ground, our own weedy
temptations, and the crushing tread of opposition.
The second commitment is to the world. We, as
the church, are those who are called to show that
God’s word is faithful and cannot fail. That
He will accomplish His purpose and in time will
transform many weeds into plants which will bear
fruit for His Kingdom.
We shall know we are doing the work of the kingdom
when we see kingdom things happening:
a person being healed;
a child being fed who might have
gone hungry, and being protected and not abused;
a law being changed in response
to work with a pressure group to defend a person’s
rights;
an act of neighbourliness that
gives joy where there might have been none;
a campaign so that a person
living in a distant country will be treated with
justice;
more people recognising God as
the Saviour of all mankind.
It is through a thousand ordinary activities, acts
and words (seeds) of love in the world, which
reveals Gods Kingdom amongst us, on earth today. But
when Christians fail to express their commitment to
God, and their commitment in the world, then they
(we) may become as weeds in the world. The
Kingdom is a process of transformation on earth
today, which requires our time and effort to help
create a better society for all people. So let
us also have patience and encourage the good to
grow, even amongst the bad, but in the power and
glory of our loving God.
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