CELC The Ninth Sunday after Pentecost

The Ninth Sunday After Pentecost – July 17, 2005

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Do you have questions for God? You know…the questions you will ask when you finally meet God face-to-face at the banquet table in the kingdom yet to come.

I have questions. One is: I would like to meet Martin Luther. A second is why my brother died so unexpectedly at age 31. This past week I thought of a third. I want to ask God how the Japanese beetle came to be. I want to know how God could create such an annoying pest. At least they are annoying to me as I have to deal with them before they consume the tree in our back yard.

These are but a few of the questions you may have for God. Today’s gospel lesson adds one more: Why God, do you let the weeds and the wheat grow together? Why God, do you allow evil to continue in this world when what we want is only the good?

Like the question I have about my brother dying such an untimely death, God has not answered why evil is allowed to exist with good, why the weeds are allowed to grow in the field with the wheat.

You can probably give a number guesses and rationalizations as to why they exist together, but the bottom line is that God has decided it will be this way. You can take up the question with God. God simply says that at the harvest it will all be taken care of, so don’t worry.

But we just don’t seem able to trust God. We want an answer now: why is there evil? Why not pull up the weeds right now? Why wait until the harvest?

God’s permissive will leaves us at odds with God.

It is true, though, that God comes in Christ to gather in the wheat, to have the harvest. The good news of today’s Word from God is that by the grace of God in the cross of Jesus you are wheat worth saving. In the life, death and resurrection of Jesus, in the cross, God has made you wheat that is worthy of the harvest. How merciful and forgiving our God is, even when we would question God.

It is good to be the wheat. Thanks be to God that we are made wheat through the cross of Jesus.

So, with that good Word of grace and mercy before us allow me as the preacher to meddle a bit. You know how it is; as long as the pastor is proclaiming the love of God everyone is happy. When the preacher turns to how the Word of God addresses our lives that are full of weeds, well, some call that “meddling.”

So, let me meddle.

Since it is God’s good will to allow the weeds to grow up with the wheat, then let it be so. I say that because most of us are not godly enough to judge who the wheat is or who are the weeds. Judging who will be which at the time of the harvest is God’s doing.

But, we love to do it, don’t we? Judging others seems to be a sport that rivals golfing at the British Open. Isn’t it just great fun to spend so much time on the phone complaining about all “those” people, you know, the “weeds?”

There is a true story told on video about Paul Keller. He is an arsonist now in prison for more than 100 counts of arson accumulated while he lit fires all over the state of Washington. One of the fires he lit was his Lutheran Church. The church was horribly burned to the great sadness of the congregation. After Paul’s arrest his pastor went to see him and forgave him for his terrible act of arson. Pastor Rouse realized it was only through granting Paul forgiveness that the bitterness and resentment in his own heart would be healed.

As the story of this amazing moment of forgiveness unfolds, Paul Keller himself points out how judgmental he had been, and he knew other people would be as well. When Pastor Rouse came to visit him with the love and forgiveness of God, Paul Keller was overwhelmed. Paul could hardly believe that someone, even a pastor, could forgive him rather than judge him.

You see, we know ourselves and our tendency to jump to judgment regarding others. It is unfortunate because God will take care of separating the weeds and the wheat at the great harvest. We don’t have to worry about deciding who needs to be judged. There are other opportunities for us. While you wait for harvest God brings, love one another in the grace and mercy of the cross rather than judge one another. Amen.

Pastor Robert F. Holley