24Jesus
put before the crowds another parable:
“The
dominion of heaven may be compared
to a man
who
sowed good seed in his field;
25but
while everybody was asleep,
an
enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat,
and
then went away.
26So
when the plants came up and bore grain,
then
the weeds appeared as well.
27And
the slaves of the householder came and said to him,
‘Master,
did you not sow good seed in your field?
Where,
then, did these weeds come from?’
28He
answered,
‘An
enemy has done this.’
The
slaves said to him,
‘Then
do you want us to go and gather them?’
29But
he replied,
‘No;
for in gathering the weeds
you
would uproot the wheat along with them.
30Let
both of them grow together until the harvest;
and
at harvest time I will tell the reapers,
Collect
the weeds first
and bind them in bundles to be burned,
and bind them in bundles to be burned,
but
gather the wheat into my barn.’”
36Then
Jesus left the crowds and went into the house.
And
his disciples approached him, saying,
“Explain
to us the parable of the weeds of the field.”
37Jesus
answered,
“The
one who sows the good seed is the Son of Humanity;
38the
field is the world,
and
the good seed are the children of God’s dominion;
the
weeds are the children of the evil one,
39and
the enemy who sowed them is the devil;
the
harvest is the end of the age,
and
the reapers are angels.
40Just
as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire,
so
will it be at the end of the age.
41The
Son of Humanity will send his angels,
and
they will collect out of his dominion all causes of sin and all evildoers,
42and
they will throw them into the furnace of fire,
where
there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
43Then
the righteous will shine like the sun
in
the dominion of their Father.
Let
anyone with ears listen!
The
gospel of the Lord.
-----
This
week, as many of you know, I was at the Proclaim Gathering for continuing
education and renewal. The theme
this year was Healing the Violence, which was particularly poignant in light of
our texts for today. Isaiah with
God speaking to a people in exile, the psalmist’s prayer for help while
surrounded by a band of violent people, the labor pains of all of Creation in Romans, and a pretty violent parable with burning bundles and “weeping and
gnashing of teeth” in Matthew.
As
in the texts for today, so too in our lives, violence is all around us. Physical violence is perhaps the
clearest, but even so, domestic and sexual violence can hide behind closed
doors, long sleeve shirts, and makeup, going unnoticed by many of us. The economic violence of a system in
which unemployment and underemployment are required, tax loopholes for some,
inadequate pay, and lost jobs are all closer forms of violence to many of
us. The violence of language is so
easy to slip in and out of that we may not even notice the harm language can do
in ignorance, abuse, and harassment.
Violence
in its many forms is no stranger to us or to God. In fact, we hear in Isaiah as God proclaims a different
identity, a different way. As the
Israelites prepare to leave their exile and return home, God calls them to come
out, to boldly proclaim their faith—their trust—in one God, an anomaly among
the dominant, polytheistic culture surrounding them in their exile. As they prepare to go home, God
recognizes the importance of claiming their identity as worshipers and children
of our one God in the face of oppressors who worship many gods, reminding them
of why they are going home.
It
reminds me of Harvey Milk, a gay city-county supervisor in San Francisco in 1978,
as he called LGBTQIA folks to come out to their friends and family, to challenge the
homophobic Proposition 6 that was going through California’s State Senate. Milk called on folks to come out
because knowing people who are LGBTQIA is how sentiment changes and homophobia is
challenged. That is God’s call through
Isaiah and through Matthew to this church today as well: to come out about the
God in whom we trust.
When
Jesus introduces parables, he frames them in two main ways: he either says what
the dominion of heaven is like or he
says what it may be compared to. We don’t always pay attention to this
difference and so parables like the one for today can be alarming when compared to Jesus’ other
teachings. Words matter and Jesus
isn’t telling us what the dominion of heaven is like, instead, Jesus is comparing the dominion of heaven with the parable he tells.
The
dominion of heaven may be compared to this parable of black and white theology
from a judgmental “Master” God. In
the parable, especially as many have historically interpreted it, Jesus is the
Master of slaves, sowing the seeds to grow the wheat. But when has Jesus ever identified as this kind of
Master? After washing the
disciples’ feet in John 13:13-14, Jesus says, “You call me Teacher and Master—and
you are right, for that is what I am. So if I, your Master and Teacher, have washed your feet, you
also ought to wash one another’s feet.”
And later on in Matthew, Jesus says “So the last will be first, and the first
will be last.”
So
the dominion of heaven may be compared to a theology and worldview in which God
exists to exert power over all else.
This other theology separates people into good and evil. There is no “a little bad” or “kind of
good” or “messed up a few times.”
Instead there are “children of God’s dominion” or “children of the evil
one,” and never the twain shall meet.
As
the parable continues, we wrestle with who gets categorized as which. Who is pure evil and who is pure
good? And then what happens at the
harvest? In the parable, at the
harvest the weeds are collected and bound into bundles to be burned. And the wheat? It is also collected, first into the
barn, and then to be put into the fire—after all, this was how they cooked in
the first century, without any of our microwaves and electric ovens.
So
in the world of black and white theology, in the end, all is subject to fire
and all is consumed. But the
dominion of heaven is such that the Master, the Son of Humanity, enters the world
as a baby, God-with-us, servant of all.
The Son of Humanity doesn’t send messengers to do the dirty work of
picking and choosing who counts as evildoers. The Son of Humanity enters into the field, growing with us,
bridging the gap we create between wheat, which we decide we want, and weed,
which we decide we don’t want. And
Jesus’ own self will be cast out for the love of humanity.
And this is the dominion of heaven—a God who joins with us. The Son of Humanity who casts his lot with humanity. That is the church we belong to, the dominion of heaven in which we find our resting place, and the community of faith about which God calls us to come out.
In
Isaiah, our God, our Sovereign, Redeemer, and Rock is the one who comes to us
with grace and a love that claims us as God’s own. And if this is true, if this is the loving God in whom we
trust, then why would we keep quiet?
With a gift as great as God’s love, how can we not proclaim it?
How
can we not come out to our friends and neighbors about the love and care we
experience here and which God has for them; the radical welcome and hospitality
that say people with immigration papers and without are welcome here; people
who are unemployed, underemployed, employed full- or part-time, retired, in
school, and homemakers are welcome here; people who have known and survived
violence are welcome here.
This
is too good not to share. How
could we keep the joy, love, and community of this fellowship from others? How can we not share it with them? How can you not come out and proclaim
God’s love for all of the hurting world—including yourself and including your
neighbor? Will you come out?
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