5th Sunday after Pentecost

Last week I spoke about weediness. Being soil that was a bit weedy. And this week, the parable takes it a step farther. Now we are being compared to the weeds themselves, or perhaps the wheat.

Then again, maybe it is both. Just as we could be weedy, rocky, shallow, and good soil, so too can we be weedy and wheaty.

But first, I’ve got a little story about weeds. Now I told you that I have no green thumbs, right? Well that’s true. And though Elisabeth and her roommate Meaghan did an amazing job in the front garden, it is now a bit overgrown. I’ve watched a few things pop up quite magically and have been delighted to see what springs up. There were these really ugly plants that looked brown and dead. It turns out, they were rose bushes! My bad. And then there were these other plants that were hearty and green and I liked. My friend Kristi came over and pointed to it and said, “That’s a weed.”

And I’m not the only one. My friend Angel has a garden plot. And due to her busy summer schedule, it got a bit overgrown. So a good Samaritan came along and weeded it for her. But she posted a rather snarky thank you note on her Facebook stating that whomever weeded her garden should know a bit more about plants because the special plants that she drove 700 miles to get from her Mother in Law were dug up and then her pricey hyacinth bulbs were left to rot in the sun.

So really, I can’t blame the master in this parable for telling his slaves to lay off the weeding of the field. Actually, the parable seems to suggest that the plants and weeds look quite similar. So whether or not their roots are intertwined beneath the soil, I am sure that even above soil, the slaves would pull up the wheat anyway. The point is, the slaves can’t do it. Whether this is due to their lack of green thumbs or the similarity of the weed to the wheat, I can’t say. But I know they can’t do it.

Which is a pretty handy little lesson for us. A reminder that we aren’t called to decide who among us is wheat and who is weed. Perhaps under our surfaces, the roots of both intertwine deeply.

And really that’s the whole idea of being both a saint and a sinner. Within us, all the time, is the capacity to be both saint and sinner, wheat and weed. Instead of seeing this text as a black and white proclamation that some are saved and some are damned, let’s choose to see God’s grace instead.

Because grace is what keeps the wheat in me growing. What illuminates that saint part of us that is all wrapped up in the sinner part of us. And really, it’s what makes us human – living with them both. There’s this passage from Ecclesiastes that speaks to this tension or paradox. Let me read it for you.
It Is Impossible to Be Truly Good
15 In my useless life I have seen both of these:
I have seen good people die in spite of their goodness
and evil people live a long time in spite of their evil.
16 Don’t be too right,
and don’t be too wise.
Why destroy yourself?
17 Don’t be too wicked,
and don’t be foolish.
Why die before your time?
18 It is good to grab the one and not let go of the other;
those who honor God will hold them both.

And really, if the wheat and weed are in us by their roots, we don’t even need to hold them. They’re a part of who we are. Most days, this keeps me going. On the days I feel like the most perfect driver on the streets, inevitably, I will swerve or run a stoplight or cut someone off. The humbling process happens quickly for me. As soon as my halo starts shining, I am reminded that I’m a sinner, too.

I’m sure you’ve heard of the artists Lady Gaga. You most likely know her for her crazy outfits and huge fan base. We call ourselves Little Monsters. Yes, I like Lady Gaga. Anyway, there’s this song called Judas. And one line in particular fits so well. She says in the song, “Jesus is my virtue. But Judas is the demon I cling to.” She goes on to sing about being in love with Judas. It’s catchy, I promise.

But there’s truth to that. It’s the pull in all of us that is both good and bad. It’s those roots in us that are both weeds and wheat.

Of course, it can also go the other way, too. On my weedy days, I get reminded that I’m wheaty too. On the days when my house isn’t clean and the laundry isn’t done and the “worry ball” is growing exponentially larger, I feel like an utter failure. There’s nothing I can do to be worth anything to anyone on days like that. I think it is like that groaning that Paul talks about in our 2nd reading.

And yet, somehow, God reminds me that I am God’s child. We are God’s children. We are with Christ. We have the holy spirit. And that’s so deeply planted within me that it is impossible to remove. I’ve been baptized with water and Spirit. I’ve been fed the bread of life. What can stop me now?

And maybe that’s what our faith journey is: a walk through a field of wheat and weeds. At every turn and every step, we must encounter both together. One keeping us humble, the other lifting us up. Like our days that are filled with joys and griefs, our lives are filled with struggles and celebrations.

Here in this place, we walk through that field together. Experience the ups and downs of life together. Many have described this church as family. And today, we welcome a few more into our family and invite them to grow with us.

I’ll leave you with one last image. My friends Justin and Kari Eller were visiting this last week from Bolivia. They are our ELCA Missionaries there. And Justin made a comment about this text. He said that the wheat and weeds grow up looking similar. The only way to tell the difference is to see which is bent when it is grown. The weeds stand up tall. It is the wheat, heavy with its grain, that bends its head low.

This is the very image of service and the image we most often see of Christ on the cross. As we strive to live like Christ and to be that wheat, Jesus calls us to bend our heads in service to one another as we share God’s love by caring for all.

This entry was posted on Sunday, July 17th, 2011 at 12:07 pm and is filed under Sermons. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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