Preaching from the lectionary as I do has its limitations. After all, the there are various forms of lections, RC, Episcopalian but I have always used the Reformed Lectionary. It has its limitations and quite often we re-hash the old things of the past, years a, b and c come around so often that in my seven years here – I have used all the years at least twice and all the readings associated with lectionary have been heard at least twice by you.
Quite often, all too often I am tempted to break away abandon the discipline and it is a discipline. Many don’t use the lectionary, some view it as RC, some view it as not expressing God’s word and others like myself see it as a measure of keeping us on track, on the proper path as it is all too often, far too easy to deviate and stray into areas that we are not often comfortable. For instance, I have been in many churches when the preacher has began talking about abortion and regardless of my own personal views or biblical views, I am a man and therefore I truly don’t believe I have the right to lecture or direct on the issue. Anyway it is a complex and emotive issue, a minefield and I am not terrified to enter into the debate, just unqualified because of my gender.
Politics, now that’s an area that I really enjoy and whilst I have my own personal, private political views, I try to keep away from party politics if I can, but that’s not easy for everything in life evolves around politics and we are all politicians, for we hold views on everything; from the price of a loaf of bread to the price of a litre of petrol, to the waiting time to see the consultant or whatever.
Indeed the whole bible is about politics in one form or another, regional, personal, cultural, theological and religious politics. Our bible is composed of two halves, the first half is Jewish, the Torah, the second half is the Septuagint, the Greek New Testament. Two different cultures, with often contradictory context and bringing the two together are God and Jesus and that’s another political hotbed for some!
Whilst I am prepared to preach on political situations, the environment, global economy, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and do so without fear, as I have said many times, I would never do what some of my colleagues do and stand up here and tell you that I think you should vote for this party or that party, perhaps the exception would be the Monster Raving Loony party. Partly because with politics these days, sometimes the Loony Party is the only colourful group in politics and part of their manifesto is to abolish gravity and make those members of gangs paint every third house in Britain purple. The idea being that they spend so much time painting and getting the paint off themselves they have no time to be out with knives. Sounds reasonable to me and what if the whole of Britain looks like Balamory, it will only add colour to our sometimes dull lives. The abolition of Gravity kind of gives it away though, they are not a serious political party but I do like their take on painting purple every third house! My personal favourite is introducing piranhas as an Olympic sport; see how fast we obese people swim that lake! Now that would be a real spectator sport!
With all this frivolity and humour, where does it seriously lead us with our lectionary reading today? As I stated earlier, the lectionary can be so constricting but there are times we can think outside of the box and reflect on a passage from the bible, disregarding the books, the commentaries written by scholars and think for ourselves, as we beg the question of what the passage is really saying to us.
One can well imagine how this parable might have functioned in the earliest Christian communities perhaps as caution to those who envisioned a perfect Church, to those who sought to cull their numbers from time to time by raising the standards, adding additional rules and qualifications for Christian membership. But the parable also suggests grace and non-judgment and becoming a welcoming, inclusive community of faith. Good seed, bad seed, wheat and darnel, the farmer and the enemy, God and the harvest all connect to create a powerful story that may well confront our own views and visions of what the worshiping community is supposed look like in the world!
It also highlights the frivolity of the message, the irony that Jesus delivers a sermon and uses a parable and like us, his disciples move in doors and ask him, “Hey what did you mean out there?” Of course if you look at the book of Matthew, you can see that at this point Jesus has used a lot of parables in one session and so they have good reason to be perplexed, but Jesus explains it to them and I think he does it pretty well, but again it is in parable form.
13:37 He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man;
13:38 the field is the world and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one,
13:39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.
13:40 just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.
13:41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers,
13:42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
13:43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!
Jesus is telling them about the church, the infant church having to grow, small in number and like the mustard seed, through time they will flourish but on the way they will encounter difficulties.
You may recall some months ago, I delivered a sermon about people within this congregation and others having ‘seen’ an angel nearby. It was met with a degree of discomfort, some finding it hard to swallow, others totally dismissing it as the teachings of a heretic or madman, yet something in this passage vindicates that retelling of other’s experiences.
For Jesus is talking about the end of time here but not in a negative way, he is telling us that we must grow first and let God make judgement, we are the field, he is the sewer and God will do the reaping.
In some ways it vindicates that fateful morning past, because Jesus tells the story of the devil working in and amongst the field and if we are the field, where the seeds fall, then it is clear from what Jesus says that there are weeds being planted with other motives by those with no heart for the Gospel.
I always try to reassure my colleagues that a successful church, one with a healthy attendance and plenty of action is a church where the devil is working hardest! The more successful the church, the stronger the presence of the devil and he can come in many formats but it is sometimes difficult to differentiate between the frivolous and the still small voice, echoing the feelings of the majority. Just like the loony party, when they came up with the idea of all day drinking and votes for 18 year olds – these are now law in most of the UK, at what point does the frivolous motive become the mainstream thought?
At what point in our church life, has the devil taking the frivolous weed and planted it in the field, only to infect the other weeds?
This parable represents the present and future state of the gospel church; Christ’s care of it, the devil’s enmity against it, and the mixture there is in it of good and bad in this world, and the separation between them in the other world. So prone is man to sin, that if the enemy sow the tares, he may go his way, they will spring up, and do damage; whereas, when good seed is sown, it must be tended, watered, and fenced.
The servants complained to their master; Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? Perhaps he did; whatever is amiss in the church, we are sure it is not from Christ. Though gross transgressors, and such as openly oppose the gospel, ought to be separated from the society of the faithful, yet no human skill can make an exact separation. Those who oppose must not be cut off, but instructed, and that with meekness. And though good and bad are together in this world, yet at the great day they shall be parted; then the righteous and the wicked shall be plainly known. May we be found of that happy number who is separated into the good wheat.
Amen
