Here we have the parable of the weeds, and so I have a sermon of the weeds. This is for all the weedy ones out there. You’ve been looked at like a weed, like you don’t belong. You’ve been told in no uncertain terms that your presence is unwelcome. For all you weeds out there, welcome to God’s field. You’re in good company. Jesus was the weediest guy of all, growing where he wasn’t wanted, asking all the wrong questions, haning out with all the wrong people, his message spreading like weeds, his following growing like weeds, despised and uprooted, yet nothing could keep him down and though they thought they had destroyed him, he poked his head back up again as any weed will do and went back to work, spreading and challenging.
I’ve been a weed, a woman
getting an education, speaking her mind, refusing to stay in my lane, refusing
to do all the housework, refusing to be the secretary of whatever boards or
committees I serve on, rejecting inappropriate comments, standing up to
bullies, and not being a nice girl. I
have been questioned about where the lead pastor is and whether I am
qualified. I have been told I don’t
belong. But I am a stubborn weed, and
when someone disrespects me, I grow up stronger, because I am who God made me
to be and I can do no other.
Martin Luther was a weed growing
up in a religion that planted in neat rows and controlled people with fear and
by a few holding the keys to unlock the word of God—by keeping the scriptures
in Latin that most people couldn’t read.
But Martin Luther was more afraid of God than the Roman Catholic Church,
which is to say he respected God, he put his faith in God rather than the
church hierarchy, and he changed the world.
I’d say Spirit of Life as a
church is rather weedy, and I mean that in the most generous way. This church is made of people who wouldn’t
sit obediently in rows and listen to abusive pastors. This church is made of people who think for
themselves. This church is made of
people who say it like it is and not how others want to hear it. This church is stubborn and full of spirit
and life, just like the name says.
Many of you know you have been
considered weeds. You’ve been
mocked. You’ve been the outsider. You’ve received those looks that say you
don’t belong. You’ve been disregarded
because of the pickup or motorcycle you drive, the clothes you wear, or the way
you talk. You’ve been disrespected and
assumptions have been made about you. But
God says it isn’t for anyone to say but God.
God says we’re going to wait and see.
We’re all here growing together and what someone thought was the truth,
might not be the way God sees things.
Weeds are simply plants that are
unexpected and unplanned. They take
their chances in bare soil where light and water are plentiful. They don’t need to be babied and coddled like
cultivated plants often do. They grow
where they are and spread far and wide, and give God glory in their flowers and
seeds and fruit.
Next week we get the parable of
the mustard seed, a weed that gets praised, a misunderstood weed. Actually that reading comes right in the
midst of this one. Did you notice that
this Gospel reading skips a couple of verses?
Those verses are the mustard seed and the yeast. It cracks me up that this parable says that
weeds are planted by the evil one, then a couple of verses later the mustard
seed weeds get compared to the Kingdom of God, then the explanation come. I doubt very much that Jesus explained this or
any parable because he liked people to think for themselves and explore the
many meanings. I have a strong feeling
this was added later because it makes people uncomfortable not to know the
answer.
According to the scripture, it isn’t our job to identify the weeds or
remove the weeds. We don’t have the
perspective God does. When it is up to
us, we damage the roots trying root out the problem. When it is up to us, we misidentify weeds, we
don’t see their potential. When it is up
to us we rush to judgment.
I’m on several gardening sites on Facebook and every day people ask for
plant identification and whether a plant is a weed or not. I have found that it depends on who you
ask. Even bindweed has a close cousin
that is not a weed, and I have to say the flowers are so pretty. Some plants that might be considered weeds
are edible, some you can make tea from or medicine. There is even a grain that grows up in
people’s yards and if we were hungry enough or resourceful enough we could
harvest it, grind it, and make something delicious and nutritious from it. It depends on how hungry you are and what you
consider food. And certainly God, who
created the plants that we call weeds, has a different perspective about what
is useful and what serves God’s purposes.
God is the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end. God sees the big picture of what is
what. We have no idea the long-term
plans and insights of God who has seen many harvests, many weeds.
There’s something very refreshing about stepping back and letting God be
God. Don’t be so hasty to decide what’s
what. Someone you thought was a weed
might surprise you, might teach you something.
And isn’t it refreshing when you meet that person that assumes the best
about you and sees your best qualities
and appreciates you for who you are.
These scriptures relate to today
in that our job is to wait. Waiting is
all we can do. Waiting can be really
hard sometimes. I know I’d rather rush
on to the resolution, to the next thing.
But right now, I am sitting without any answers, and all I can do is
take a long hard look at my life and see if I can learn something about
myself. What I see there isn’t
pretty. I see that I have placed my
trust in my financial security, that I don’t pay enough attention to my own
emotions until they overwhelm me, that I don’t know how to pay attention to my
own needs. What I see is that I really am a
weed sometimes. [AB1] I
lose my temper. I have trouble letting
go and forgiving. I yell at my kid and
don’t appreciate all my blessings. I am
a sinner. Thankfully, that’s not news to
Jesus, and it’s not going to stop him from loving me.
Jesus died for even me. He claimed me as a sheep of his own fold, a
lamb of his own flock. He’s left the
other 99 to come find me, a sinner, a weed.
Jesus, the only wheat, fell as grain from the stalk and was buried for 3
days and sprouted again risen to new life, bringing all of us weeds with
him. We are simultaneously saint and
sinner, because of what Jesus has done for us.
We are each a field of weeds and wheat growing up together and Jesus
will sort that all out. Jesus will
eventually separate out what in us was sown by the evil one and then the
harvest will come and rejoicing and glory.
I am waiting. Jesus is waiting. Creation is waiting, with eager longing. And what are we waiting for? We’re waiting for the fulfillment of Jesus’
vision, the promise of the restoration of all Creation. Sometimes I am waiting in dread, because all
I can see is my own and others’ sins making a mess of everything. But the promise and good news of this
morning, is that what we are waiting for the glory of God to be revealed, for
creation to be set free from bondage to decay, our adoption as God’s children,
the redemption of our bodies. We’re
waiting to see what we cannot see, that God is at the beginning and the end and
the center, and that God means good for us all.
We’re waiting to see that we’re all connected—that my well-being is
wrapped up in your well-being, and the well-being of the poor and immigrant,
and the well-being of the earth. We’re
waiting to see what is lasting and what will fade away, what will die. We’re waiting to see each other as God’s
precious children, instead of dividing ourselves all the ways we do, by
political party, by race, by socio-economic status. We’re waiting in hope rather than fear,
because God’s promises always come to be, even though sometimes not on the
timeline we have in mind. We wait with
eager longing, because what Jesus has promised is good and he is with us
anticipating the joy of the reunion when he gathers us all together in love.
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