Stories and rumors, facts and riddles seem to fill the social media, airwaves and newsprint these days. There is a lot of terrible things happening even as we speak—threats and finger pointing over all kinds of potential, explosive situations. From harmless children trying to find a safe place to live to the death of innocent passengers on an foreign airplane, there are days when it just seems a little beyond crazy out there.
“I’ve never seen the world in such trouble!” This is a sentence one might hear in a number of ways. It seems that the present time is always the worst time, at least, until the next tragic event comes along. What are we to do?
In this Sunday’s Gospel lesson (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43), our Lord appears to be teaching His friends about patience. To those who are listening to His story, Jesus uses illustrations that will speak to the heart of most all who are present. In that part of the world, people relied on farming as their main source of income, so, Jesus told a parable about another sower, that is, another farmer.
There is a type of weed that when first planted, it looks just like the sprout of the wheat plant. Even to the watchful eye of the farmer, she or he cannot tell the difference. So – how do you know when to pull the weeds and leave the good plants that will produce wheat for food?
You wait.
You let both grow together.
When both reach maturity, you will know which is the good plant and which is the bad. The bad you will then pull up so that the good plants can grow and flourish.
That is the way, the patient way, of the farmer.
I could never be a farmer. I couldn’t because I am too impatient. I like things that I need and I like them now! I don’t like to wait. Do you?
Maybe God is the farmer in this story. And, just maybe, He is the one who will decide who gets pulled and who gets to live and flourish. In my understanding of divine judgment, that’s pretty much how it goes.
Our God is just and will root out all evil and help the good to grow. Only – God went about it in a very different way that the world thinks. God through Jesus rooted out the power of sin and evil; by His death, He destroyed the potential for our sin to win out over us. Instead, Jesus took our sin upon Himself, and, with His blood, He liberated us from the bondage that the devil had on us for a very long time. Like the farmer in the story for this Sunday, He did everything possible for the wheat to grow. He took away everything that could hinder its growth. Jesus – the Messiah – set us free!
We are called to be patient farmers, caretakers if you will, of this earth and one another. What God teaches us today is in order to make it all work properly, we have to be patient. We shouldn’t be so quick to judge any one or any situation. If you’re like me you’ll want to run into just about any situation and try a quick fix so that you and others can move on. What we’re likely to find is that just putting a band-aid on something doesn’t always solve the whole problem. It’s often much deeper problem than that. Once more, it takes lot of patience.
Love one another. Look past their faults. Be forgiving and not judgmental. Offer kindness and care. Swallow our pride. Grin and bear it! (No one ever said it would be easy; if it was easy then everyone would be doing it!)
And remember, God loves you and so do we!
Pastor Jim