“Where Did These Weeds Come From?”
Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43; Romans 8:12-25
Rev. Patricia D. Barth
July 17, 2005
The servants of the master cry, “Where did these weeds come from?!” Sound familiar? Anyone who has a garden or even a small patch of yard can appreciate today’s gospel story. Who has weeds in their yard? All of us! My yard is practically all weeds. Wysteria, ivy and many things I don’t know the name of ran amok while the house sat empty for ten years before we moved in, and we never caught up! If I have a little time and my back isn’t hurting too much, I go outside and call it “gardening”—but it’s never anything but clipping weeds!
The master tells his workers “Wait. Be patient.” Wait for the wheat to grow together with the weeds, lest the wheat be harmed and accidentally pulled up with the weeds. When the harvest is complete, the wheat will be gathered into the master’s barn; but the weeds will be bundled and burned. The image of burning may remind you of our modern-day throw away society, we burn weeds and leaves and other undesirable organic matter (at least we used to before we understood it damaged the air). But in a society that must use all of its resources, burning the weeds is useful, providing heat for warmth or cooking.
“Where did all these weeds come from?” The story of the wheat growing amidst the weeds is a metaphor for the human heart, too. We each possess certain virtues— kindness, creativity, the ability to love, intelligence, compassion, selflessness—all sorts of wonderful things, a whole garden of virtues. It’s effortless, admiring our little plots of virtues, we’re so proud of them; and feel they are the result of our own hard work. It’s so easy to forget that all virtues are gifts of God. We love because God first loved us. We create because God created us in God’s image. We can be selfless sometimes, only because we worship the One who gave himself up to death on a cross for us. God planted, and tended all of our good qualities, and it is the Master Gardener that gives them growth.
In our little gardens of God-given virtues there are also some ugly weeds growing. Hypocrisy, cruelty, hatred, prejudice, selfishness, pride, envy—these are just a few of the bad plants that have a tendency to spring up unbidden. “Where do these weeds come from?” It’s tempting to answer what the master said to his servants—“An enemy has done this!’ In other words, the devil. Wouldn’t that be just too convenient! “It’s not my fault, the devil made me do it.” No. It’s not the devil. In the 50’s and 60’s there was a strange and wonderful, sometime political, comic strip about a possum called Pogo. In reference to racism, Pogo said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.” It’s only us! We’re the ones that can’t get along with each other, who put ourselves in the place of God, who blame our faults on others.
And to make it more difficult, many of our human sins are really gifts of God, good things, that we have twisted and turned around, or carried to excess. The same plant, which is good in proper amounts or in the right location, is considered a weed if it grows in the wrong place, like my wisteria. I love the part that grows up a tree and blooms prettily. It’s just the part that comes up all over the yard that I consider a weed.
For example, there is the gift of Eros, God’s love passed on to us as the loving designed for a committed relationship, which somehow expresses itself in one night stands. Or the healthy enjoyment of food and drink that goes overboard into gluttony. Or the positive self-esteem that turns in on itself, and becomes narcissism or pride. Sometimes we’re quick to pick out differences between us and our fellow humans, and assume that people like us, whoever that “us” is, represent the normal and the good. And people not like us are bad. That’s the foundation of prejudice, the good human feelings of fellowship with people like ourselves that, carried to extreme, can turn into racism or homophobia. No wonder it’s sometimes hard to tell the weeds from the wheat!
Don’t get me wrong. There is evil in the world today. And I believe there is a something like a concentrated source of evil like the devil. And, as Christians, we are called to confront evil when we see it clearly. The actions of the Janjaweed in Sudan, who rape and murder and drive people from their homes, is evil that must be stopped.
But the Janjaweed are an extreme case; moral choices are not always so clear. Each human being is a mixture of weeds and valuable crops growing together.
The weeds in our own patch are usually harder to see than the ones in our neighbor’s back yard, aren’t they? There’s an all too human tendency to judge others, and a lot of that judging goes on in churches. We claim the moral high ground too easily, whether we are liberal or conservative. Root it out! Dig it up! Get rid of that so and so! We humans love to play God, don’t we? I used to belong to a church that was highly conflicted; there had been pastoral sexual misconduct, and there were a lot of people who were difficult. I got off the phone really disgusted one time, and said my husband, “That church! It’s full of, full of, …” I searched for the just-right, truly awful word that would express my anger. But my husband finished it for me: “People! That church is full of people!” And so it was.
We live in an imperfect world, and we are imperfect people. Our faces are not yet shining like the sun. Only God knows the workings of the human heart, and what each person has experienced and is going through. In the end, only God knows which is weed and which is wheat. Jesus will sort out the good from the bad when he comes again.
Until that time, our job is just to tend our own little plots; to broadcast the good seed of God’s love, and then wait, eagerly, yet patiently; for our God; our God who is merciful and gracious; slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Amen
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