A Sermon preached on July 20, the
sixth Sunday after Pentecost, at St.
Augustine’s Church, Wiesbaden
Isaiah 44:6-8, Romans 8:12-25, Matthew 13:24-30,
36-43, Psalm 86:11-17
One of the
things we were taught in preaching classes at seminary is that it is the
preacher’s job to find and proclaim the Good News in the lesson or
lessons of the day. Sometimes this can prove to be more difficult than others!
Where is the good news in the parable of the “Wheat and the Tares” as the weeds
are called in more traditional translations? Unless you are really sure that
you are the wheat and not the weed there does not seem to be much good news in
this text about judgment, about people being thrown into “the furnace of fire,
where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Mt. 13:42), which is one of
Matthew’s favorite phrases by the way. Just what sort of kingdom of heaven is
that?
Well for one
thing I think judgment can be good news. There is evil in the
world and there are evildoers and I for one do hope and pray that God will put
the world to rights and that he will judge. But remember this is a parable not
an exact description of the last days, and we are neither wheat nor tares. We
are human beings, made in the image of God. And thankfully God is the judge, or
to be more exact the Son of Man, Jesus, God’s Son. As far as I remember Jesus
was remarkably forgiving to all the “weeds” he encountered: tax collectors,
beggars, lepers, prostitutes, foreigners …. And somewhat less forgiving with
the pompous and self-righteous elite. The delayed judgment of the parable, the
willingness to wait until the end of the age is a sign of God’s compassion and
mercy. Unlike plants, which do not change their nature, humans do and can. We
have free will, we can change, and we are not pre-destined to be good or bad. And
it is God’s intention that we have that opportunity to change for the good, and
not just once.
Anyway, I don’t
believe that judgment as such is the main point of the parable. It is about
delayed judgment: about patient waiting and about tolerance. The servants are
impatient and intolerant. They want a squeaky clean field, without any untidy
weeds and they are willing to be radical in cleansing the field to achieve this
aim. The master on the other hand is patient. Don’t tear out the weeds he says,
“for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let
both of them grow together until harvest.” (Mt. 13:29-30) Over the centuries
there has been a constant debate about whether the Church is only for the pure,
the holy or for all people – including those who sin, fail, and doubt. When
Christians were first persecuted, and some renounced their faith to save their
lives, there was huge discussion about whether they could be let back into the
church again. So to use a famous quote, is the church “a hospital for sinners
or a museum for saints?”[1]
Well looking
around the room I would hope it’s more the hospital! In fact the church is always
a mixed body of saints and sinners, and those roles change over time. None of
us are always saints, nor are we always sinners. Tares are not any old weed. They
are very difficult to distinguish from wheat, at least until fully grown and
mature. That’s why no one can usurp divine judgment, or judge prematurely. We
don’t know what people really are, nor do we know their true potential, only
God does. In his first letter to the
Corinthians Paul has a similar message: “So pass no premature judgment; wait
until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what darkness hides and disclose
our inward motives.” (1 Cor 4:5)
Waiting patiently
is difficult and tough. It’s not what our society teaches: buy now, pay later
is the message. Buynow.com is even the name of a website! Don’t delay, don’t
wait – there may not be another chance. This is not new. The Jews of Jesus’ day
were also waiting impatiently for the coming of the Messiah who, so they
believed, would overthrow the Romans and liberate Israel, who would make it
clean and pure again. Jesus’ parable, the first of a series of parables about
the kingdom of heaven, speaks against both this impatience and intolerance.
Looking at
Paul’s letter to the Christians in Rome it seems that the early Christians were
impatient too. On the one hand they had much to look forward to, what Paul
calls the “glory about to be revealed to us.” And on the other hand the present
times were less than pleasant, full of suffering as Paul also mentions. In a
wonderful image Paul tells them that not only are they waiting for redemption,
but all of creation is too. “Creation waits with eager longing for the
revealing of the children of God.” (Ro. 8:19) In Paul’s view humans had been
put in charge of creation as good stewards once already, but messed it up. You’ll
find the story in the first 2 chapters of the Book of Genesis. But as renewed
and redeemed humans living according to the Spirit, and not the flesh, we will
be able to fulfill the role as stewards that God has always planned for us.
That is what creation is looking forward to so much.
We humans too groan
inwardly in eager and impatient anticipation. Having received the first fruits
of the Spirit, we just can’t wait for the rest of the harvest. But we must. We still
have work to do. God’s gift of the Spirit is given to us not only for our own
transformation, but also to work through us to bring about the transformation
of the world. “Groaning and waiting, eager but patient,”[2] is
how the author Tom Wright describes the characteristic Christian stance.
Patience, along
with love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, fidelity, gentleness, and
self-control is listed as one of the Fruits of the Spirit in Paul’s letter to
the Galatians (5:22-23). Patience is often also described as a virtue, but one
that is supported and sustained by the three supreme Christian virtues of faith,
hope and love.
We need faith
to be patient. Faith is the knowledge of and the trust in the one who has
promised us redemption and renewal, God. We have seen God act in Jesus’ life,
death, and resurrection. Jesus revealed God’s nature in his own and through his
teaching. God works in us through the Holy Spirit. Being able to trust in God
allows us to be patient.
We hope
for what we do not see, Paul writes. What does it mean to be glorified? (Rom.
8:25) How will the righteous shine like the sun in the Father’s kingdom? (Mt.
13:43) We don’t know exactly, but the images that both Paul and Jesus use,
indicate that is something to look forward to. Perhaps we will shine like the sun
because we finally realize our potential as God’s image and reflect that glory.
One promise, one that we can work on now, is that as God’s adopted children and
heirs, we will be able to share in the Christ’s saving rule. So hope is the
expression of what we are patiently waiting for.
Patience is also
about waiting for others and about forgiving other people’s failings, just as
we hope that they will forgive ours. This is where the virtue of love
comes into play. Love allows us to accept the other as he or she is. Love
allows us to forgive. Love allows us wait patiently while the other person catches
up.
Patience is of
course a virtue we are being asked to practice a lot right now here at St.
Augustine’s, as we both wait for, and work towards, a final decision about this
church’s future. And by this church I mean both the people that make up the
church and the building we use for our worship, ministry, and mission. “How
much longer will we have to wait?” was one of the questions asked last week at
the vestry forum after church. That was also one of the questions we could not
answer. But that should not stop us using this time of patient waiting
beneficially: working on our own growth and transformation, on helping those
entrusted to our care and love, and on continuing to build up this community
with the help of God’s Spirit that offers love and enables reconciliation. Then
we will be better able to use the resources God gives us, and while we may not
yet shine like the sun in the Father’s kingdom, we will still glow a little as
we reflect God’s love and glory into a world that needs them so much.
Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment