I thought about this passage a lot earlier this summer. You see, my wife and I bought a house in the city of Lancaster last year. It’s a great place: plenty of room; it’s not too old, so everything works; great location; great mortgage. The whole nine yards.
But the young couple we bought it from didn’t know very much about maintenance. They did the day-to-day stuff, but seemingly never invested the time to go beyond that. So we had a lot of scrubbing to do inside, and a lot of weeding to do outside. We’ve been working at it little by little.
Well, I don’t want to kid you. I’m no farmer. I don’t even know that much about gardening or lawn care. I like to think of myself as a putterer, meaning I waste a lot of time in the yard pulling weeds and muttering darkly.
It’s a hobby.
It’s more than a hobby. It’s an obsession. I’ll get out there and spend three hours weeding the same ten feet of lawn. I want to make sure every stinking little weed is gone. Meanwhile, the borders aren’t edged, the grass isn’t cut, and all I can talk about are the ding-danged weeds, and how they’re everywhere…my wife thinks I’m nuts, for good reason. The only trouble, of course, is that the weeds really are everywhere, which gives me plenty to be obsessed about.
The upshot is that between having a lot of stuff that needs to come out and somebody who really, really wants to make it come out, there’s plenty of holes in our yard. Big, ugly brown spots, just bare earth. And the question becomes: what do we put there?
One spot in particular was giving us trouble, where we’d pulled up a dead bush. We’re thinking and thinking, and then one day in K-Mart, we see a tube of wildflower seed, and the lightbulb goes on. I mean, what the heck. It’s only $3.99, and anything looks better than what we’ve got. So I sprinkle it on, and we get lucky: it rains for a couple of days. Then it’s sunny and warm, and voilà! We’ve got sprouts coming up… At which point, my wife looks over at me and says: “How do you know which ones are the flowers, and which ones are the weeds?”
The answer of course is that I don’t. Wheat and tares, dear, wheat and tares. You just have to wait until it starts to be obvious. Even then, as Jesus points out in his parable, it’s no easy matter separating the two. Sometimes you reach down to snake out a weed, and you come up with a handful of roots from the very plant you’re trying to save.
Weeding, of course, is not just something that people do in their flowerbeds or their wheat fields. It’s something that we do in our communities, as well.
Who among us has been a part of a community, and has not been tempted by the thought that if person X or Y were no longer also a member, how much better off the community would be? There are people who just plain don’t get it, and it’s only human nature to want to avoid having to deal with them. So if we could just fire this person, right? Or if that person would just move away, we’d be okay! It doesn’t matter where you are: it could be at work, it could be at home, could be at church. Wherever there’s a group of people, some of them will be grumbling about some of the others not pulling their weight, and from there, it starts.
Sometimes it’s necessary. We’ve all known situations like this: somebody needed to be fired at work, or thrown off the football team. Sometimes, they’re just not meshing with the rest of the group. Other times, they’re actually causing problems, and need to be removed for everyone’s benefit. It’s no use worrying about how situations like this arise; they just do, like weeds popping up in the lawn. The weeds crop up, and you deal with them, because you have to. That’s simple.
But the danger in that simplicity is that it’s also human nature to want to know right now who’s a weed and who isn’t.
It’s as if we see all the little sprouts, and we can’t be patient enough to wait to see which one is which. We want to get down to weeding immediately, and have it all taken care of. Which of course means that we want to be the ones making the decision. We want to be the wheat. We want to be the good seed. We want to be the righteous, and shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father.
We rush to judgment, in other words, because we are concerned about the outcome. We want to make sure that we make it in with the wheat, instead of being cast out with the weeds.
Jesus’ parable is a caution about just such a rush. As he points out, it is not ours to judge. That comes at the end of time. Make no mistake about it, the judgment is coming–but not just yet. And because it’s not coming just yet, we need not be anxious about the outcome. It will happen in God’s time, which is to say at the right time, and the judgment will fitting, whatever the circumstance. Whoever is in, will be in. Whoever is out, will be out.
We don’t need to worry about it.
More obviously, it can be destructive to judge too quickly. Sometimes we need that particular stalk. Sometimes we need that particular person. Put things up–or out–too soon, and you could be wasting something of great value.
And for what? To assure ourselves that we too are things of great value?
Jesus’ cautions to us couldn’t be more relevant today. In particular, I think of them as I read about the decision made at the UCC’s General Synod to affirm same-sex marriage.
For, whatever you think of that decision, whether you agree or disagree, it seems only prudent to stop and listen to what our Lord and Savior has to say here. Even if you believe that same-sex marriage and those who would advocate for it are the one and only Enemy, even if you believe these things are the biggest stumbling blocks to salvation in all the Christian church, even if you believe them to be singularly weedy, and deserving of fire at the end of the age, you must recognize I think that we will not do the judging, and it may not shake out just the way we expect it to.
In that light, Jesus’ advice to take it slow and easy on the weeding seems only commonsensical. “In gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest.”
Now, just so we’re clear: I am not here to tell you that you must or should do or believe anything. You will have to discern for yourselves how to react to the situation.
All I can tell you is that as you make that discernment, you need to take Jesus’ words here seriously. A rush to judgment on this or any other matter has the potential to pull up the wheat along with the weeds, and He seems to feel that that would be a real tragedy.
Nor should we allow this caution to overshadow the other message of the story, which is that being too concerned with judgment can take our mind off where it needs to be. If you look at the stories that surround this parable, they are filled with people (and things) living life simply and joyously, free to take risks without fear or anxiety. But if all you can think about are the weeds–which really are everywhere–it’s pretty difficult to do that.
And really, who needs it? Who needs to live life in a constant state of suspense about who’s “wheat” and who’s “weed”? Who needs to spend all their time worrying about who’s in and who’s out? Especially in church. Haven’t we had enough of that?
It’s better, I think–and I believe the gospel bears me out on this–to spend our time living from love at our centers than fear at our edges. Because the danged weeds will take care of themselves. Our job, according to Jesus, is just to do the best we can with what we have, and to be confident enough in ourselves that we can allow ourselves to step back every once in a while and enjoy the flowers blooming all around us. Amen.
in Mahanoy City, Pennsylvania, up in coal country.
Honestly, I’m going to leave some of this out. Sometimes it’s just not the right time to be in people’s faces.
Now this desrreves a hearty AMEN!!!!
Community weeding…hmmm….
will take care of themselves.”
I love that line. To me, it says that the “bad” ones will eventually reveal themselves because it is in their very nature, they can’t help themselves. I feel that is very true about this Bush administration, they will reveal their true nature to everyone, a process that is already starting.
Thanks PastorDan
“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?” Alexander Solzhenitsyn
One of my favorite quotes. Loved it ever since I took a class on Reinhold Niebuhr back in seminary.
This was very interesting to me in a personal way. I am a member of a Board of Selectmen for my town. This is a very old form of government, we have a town meeting, and we elect three people to run the town (the law says, conduct the prudential affairs of…). Two years ago we had an election (we elect one member of the board every year for a three year term) in which a relative newcomer to the town ran against three people no one really wanted. She was a Democrat, had served as a ballot clerk, retired from the phone company, a union steward there, and a lesbian in a committed relationship.
Well, she turned out to be rather a difficult case. The other two of us had much more experience in the town, so we let her take it easy the first year. Besides the select board, we also serve on the planning board and as liaisons to various other boards and committees. As time went on, she started to come in to town hall and interfere with the employees there, taking sides in disputes, and undermining the authority of the town administrator, upon whom we count to run the day to day operations, and who does a great job, IMHO. Then she started taking the sides of townsfolk in their disputes with the town, and not doing her homework first to find out what the laws say and what we can and cannot do. It got really bad, and I was very worried about staff resigning and lawsuits, etc.
Now there is very little that can be done to get rid of such an elected official in NH. They have to have been convicted of breaking the law, I think felony, or they have to be declared insane. So there really was little to do but wait.
Two weeks ago she resigned. We had asked her to serve as the representative to the Planning Board, and that is a very hard job. We are being assaulted by a wave of development and the planning board puts in long hours. The other two of us had done our stints for several years and it really was her turn, although I hated to do it to the good volunteers (no pay) who serve on that board. Her reason for resigning was that the time commitment was too great.
So, a weed weeded itself out. Now we have to find a replacement. Will be know a weed when we see it?
First let me say amen to your sermon. Secondly let me add that the Gospel of Thomas contains the same parable, albeit in shorter form. Third I respect all religions, even those of which I do not partake 😉
However waiting for the “harvest” to separate the weeds from the wheat is a little bit different from actively participating in something, which sanctifying homosexual marriage clearly is.
Again, I’m not saying the UCC is right or wrong, because that’s for the UCC to decide. But it’s a different thing altogether for one to say to wait until the end of time for judgment when by the very act of sanctifying an act, one is making a judgment.
One last time for anyone reading this – I’m not condemning or judging their decision, just saying that it must be acknowledged that they are making a judgment by marrying same sex couples. Deciding to marry polygamists would be another judgement, or deciding not to, as the case may be.
Pax
You know, I saw the GoT parallel in one of my commentaries, and meant to check it out. My bad.
I understand what you’re saying. Seems to you that affirmation is an active stance, not a passive one. I guess there’s two things to tell you: first, Matthew has this concept of an “active waiting” for the eschaton that’s really not found in any of the gospels.
Second, the way I was framing it in my head, at least, is that in order to take the active step, you must first be about to take the passive one. Which is to say, if you can’t withold judgment, you can’t affirm, if that makes any sense.
Fair enough 🙂
Pax
from this is that it’s up to the Gardener to determine the difference between the wheat and the weeds — it’s not the wheat’s decision to make, or even the servants. We can’t tell at this point the difference, so instead of condemning others as forever separated from the Divine, we should leave that up to God.
And what is a definition of a “weed” anyway? It’s a plant that’s in the wrong place, choking the growth of other plants. A dandelion in the middle of a tulip garden would be a weed, but in a whole field of dandelions would be perfectly in place, ready to be gathered by those who know how to use the bounty. Out here on the Left Coast, there have been big arguements about what to do about non-native plants choking out the native growth. The plants in themselves are not “weeds”; they’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time. That person that you feel is a hinderance may just be in the wrong place or wrong position; there are plenty of people who are great workers who end up making lousy bosses. There is a place for all of us in God’s creation — the trick is to find it.
I’m keeping good thoughts for you today, PD…let’s see if I can remember the prayer that our emeritus rector says before he starts his sermon:
“Hinder thou these words, O God, if they be not Thy Will;
but if they be Thy Will, breathe on them and make them live,
through Christ our Lord, Amen.”
I don’t know if I got the words exactly right, but it’s a pretty close rendition.
Blessings and peace to you and the Mrs….
This reminds me of something I learned while working at a small (less than 30 people) software company. There was a woman who did administrative and accounting duties who was abrasive and had a bit of an honesty problem (nothing major, but she would do things like take food from our lunches in the fridge and then try to say, “Oh, I thought this was for anyone”).
What I noticed was that the rest of us in the office seemed to get along better than we ever had before she was hired. She gave the rest of us something in common to grumble and talk to each other about, and this somehow improved the communication and the comradery in the office.
My theory was proven when, a month or so after she left the company, I realized that the group had already singled out a new “common enemy” – a very pompous, rigid, humorless engineer who’d always been a minor, but ignorable, irritant. He was smart, and he worked hard, but he treated everyone else like a bunch of developmentally-challenged kindergartners. I left that company shortly thereafter, but last I heard he was still there, making everyone miserable as well as making them a team…
Sometimes “bad” causes “good” – how’s that for a conundrum?
Yes, that’s a well-known aspect of systems. The person you’re talking about is called the “identified patient”.
I replaced just such a person at my wife’s office–my so-called day job. She was extremely disruptive and destructive, and after six months, everyone’s still kind of amazed how much smoother things go around the office.
As a gardener by trade I remember being taught in horticulture class that “a weed is a plant out of place”; maybe the analogy holds true for our weedy coworkers and neighbors, that they haven’t found the places they fit yet, where their weaknesses become their strengths. I really do want someone who’s anal working on the engine of that commercial jet I’ll be booking a flight on and what better place for the overly (to us)sensitive person than a care home or daycare center?
I recently took (and highly recommend)a mediation class and learned that there are methods to deal with difficult people and situations in a way that folks get heard and can often get their needs met through collaboration instead of compromise.
The really big tenet that draws me to Jodo Shinshu Buddhism is that compassion and liberation are not denied to anyone regardless of their actions. The thought of a love so great that it encompasses all takes my breath away. Of course we try to lead wholesome lives, all the while knowing we will fail repeatedly in some respect. The phrase we use is “grasped, never to be abandoned”.
So today you’re the “weed” in the neighborhood and tomorrow I’m the gigantic pain-in-the-ass at work. It really never ends as long as there is more than one person in any one spot. But we can try to see what’s truly going on before we evict people from our presence-maybe there’s another way…
Namaste.