Weeds or Wheat? It's God's Call

[This sermon was shared during worship with the people of Saint Matthew Lutheran Church in Logan, Ohio, this morning.]

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
A few years ago, a woman approached me with a concern. She told me that her father, by then in his seventies, was suing a woman whose car had brushed his in a mall parking lot, where he sat waiting for his wife. Even though both he and his car were fine, he claimed to have suffered physically. The daughter said to me, “This is the last straw for me! My dad has always gone to church, been on the church council, gone to Sunday School. But he’s also always tried to shaft other people in order to get some advantage. He even pushes people out of the way in order to be first in a check-out line. But I hadn’t realized how horrible he was until he sued this poor young woman who nicked his car. How can he call himself a Christian?” When she asked me that, I remembered an old saying: Just because the mouse lives in the cookie jar doesn’t mean it’s a cookie.

That, in a way, is one of Jesus’ points in today’s Gospel lesson. He’s had another run-in with the Pharisees, those holier-than-thou religionists who may have secretly doubted that God was good enough for them. As you know, the Pharisees didn’t like it that Jesus hung out with notorious sinners or that He said that prostitutes, thieves, extortionists, and even Gentiles could have places in His kingdom when they renounced their sins and followed Him. The Pharisees would have preferred for Jesus to renounce sinners and left it at that.

Instead, Jesus tells a story--a parable or, an allegory, really--to explain His actions and to guide all who follow Him and who might, like the Pharisees, sometimes feel tempted to look down their noses at others. The weeds planted by the farmer’s enemy in Jesus’ story, called darnel, are poisonous plants that look like wheat.

In his explanation of the allegory, Jesus designates what each character or element represents. He is the farmer. The good seeds are those who follow Him. The enemy is the devil. The bad seeds are those who follow evil. The harvest is the end of this world when Jesus will pronounce final judgment on us all and the place where the bundles are burned is hell.

In today’s post-modern world, we may feel squeamish in asserting the reality of hell. Jesus feels no such reticence. Nor does He shy away from speaking of a final judgment, one which all people will face. According to Jesus, those who repent and believe in Him will be with Him in His kingdom. Those who spurn Him will live with the separation from God they daily choose.

But Jesus today reminds us that only He will judge people’s fitness for His kingdom, not you and me.

There may be mice in the cookie jar of Christ’s Church. Those imprisoned by things like selfishness, egotism, materialism, and greed may look no different from those set free by the grace, goodness, and love of Jesus Christ. But until the day of judgment, the God we know in Christ is intent on letting His enemies and His friends live side-by-side, affording each equal opportunities to know and follow the Savior Who died and rose for us.

A man once asked me if the real point of Jesus’ words for us today isn’t, “Live and let live.” But that isn't the way of life to which we're called as Christians.

Jesus, for example, gives explicit instructions on what you and I are to do if we feel that a fellow Christian has sinned against us. Ultimately, if the whole church affirms that we have been sinned against and the one who has harmed us refuses to repent, the Church is obligated to bar such a person from the fellowship of the Church until they do repent.

Live and let live isn’t what Jesus commends. As every Lutheran Catechism student knows, Jesus has given to the Church “the keys of the kingdom.” That the means that the Church has the responsibility to declare Christ’s forgiveness to the repentant and Christ’s condemnation to the unrepentant.

But we are to exercise care in our judgments about others, especially toward those who aren't part of the fellowship of the Church.

Christ didn’t call the Church into being to act as God’s vigilantes, pointing out everyone’s else’ faults. We have different tasks.

Pastor Leith Anderson tells of calling ChemLawn to take care of his suburban lawn, infested with weeds. It was so bad that they rejected working for him. One member of his church said that he would completely remove his old sod and start a new lawn. It was an offer Anderson was almost ready to accept when a one-time farmer offered some advice: Don't worry so much about getting rid of the weeds. Just grow the grass, and the grass will take care of the weeds.
The Andersons took his advice. After a couple of years, the lawn looked just as good as anyone else's in the neighborhood.

As I see it, the Church and we Christians are called by Christ to be about two main tasks: Growing in our own faith in Christ and helping others to experience Christ’s love through our words, actions, and lives.

We grow in our faith when we seek each day to consciously thank Jesus Christ for dying and rising for us by loving and serving in His Name.

We motivate others to want to follow Christ when they see us doing our best to loving and serving in His Name.

A friend of mine once invited some neighbors to attend worship with him. He was excited when, after several invitations, these neighbors, who had never been part of a church, showed up one Sunday morning. He was even more excited when they kept attending. He thought that his heart would pound out of his chest the day the neighbors made public affirmation of their faith, the kids were baptized, and they joined the congregation.

Two of the children were members of my friend’s Sunday School class and he was amazed to see how they took hold of faith in Christ for themselves. The family were part of that church for several years and then, for no apparent reason, left. They weren’t in worship or Sunday School. They stopped being involved in service projects.

My friend never felt that he could discuss things with this family. He would see them in the neighborhood and they would pleasantly say, “Hello.” But that was it.

Then, a few years later, a pastor ran into my friend and said, “The Smith kids have started coming to our church. They both mention what an impact you had on them. You can tell that you imparted a real love for Christ to them!”

Not long ago, my friend received an email from the youngest of his neighbor’s children. He affirmed what that pastor had told him and went on to say, “By the way, I’m starting seminary in the fall. Thank you for introducing my family to Jesus. He is everything to me!”

For years, whenever my friend considered his neighbors, he may have been tempted to feel like a failure and to see his neighbors lost to God forever. But he didn’t have to wait until the judgment day to have Jesus’ message for us today boldly underscored: Keep sharing the Good News of Jesus with others. All those people you see as weeds may, because you prayed for them, served them in Christ’s Name, and shared Christ with them, turn out to be wheat that will be gathered into God’s kingdom for all eternity.

Judge not: Christ can use your faithfulness to turn weeds into wheat and mice into cookies. After all, if God can do that with you and me--especially me, God can do it with anybody! Amen