July 23, 2023
St. Andrew Church
Rev. Anne McAnelly
First Lesson: Romans 8:12-25
12 So then, brothers and sisters, l we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13 for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15 For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. 18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23 and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25 But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
Second Lesson: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-42
24 He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 And 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?’ 28 He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 Let 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, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”
36 Then he 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.” 37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 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, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!
Last week we talked about gardening and how God plants seeds and some of those seeds fall in different kinds of soil. Some seed never take root but is carried away. Some seed fall in rocky soil thriving for a while only to wither away when tested. Some seed produced a bountiful harvest. I asked you what kind of soil are you? We also heard about the older gentleman who cared for a garden as his gift of love for the world and we were invited to share our love with the world as well.
This week we see the struggle a gardener has with weeds. Once again it is a parable about the kingdom of heaven. This time instead of varying soils, we have two different planters- the sower who plants good seed and the evil one planting weeds. Now before we conclude we are the good seed, it is important to note that this parable is about God’s judgement at the end of times, not the good and bad people we encounter today. Of course, we want to be the good seed, the children of God, but there is more here to explore.
One commentator writes, “On its surface, there is not much to be said about this parable except make sure you’re not a weed, because one day the weeds will be thrown into the fiery furnace. The weeds are all those “who do evil.” Oops. That’s a little disconcerting. All “who do evil.” Where does God draw the line? Murderers? Rapists? Adulterers? Thieves? Does fibbing on your tax returns count? How about gossiping, particularly if it borders on bearing false witness? How about the sins of omission? What about those who ignore their neighbors who are in need? How about those who give only a pittance to God after God has been so generous to them? Where is the line drawn? Could it be that Paul was right when he said in Romans 3:23, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God?” Of course he was. What is our hope then? Is it not that the blood of Christ covers all our sins? I don’t know about you, but a fiery furnace doesn’t appeal to me, and if that day comes when God begins pulling weeds I certainly don’t want to depend on my own virtue. Having said that, however, we need to take this lesson seriously” (Sermons.com, King Duncan). I think you know by now I am not a fire and brimstone preacher. I really don’t like the “Repent or bum in hell” theology. I usually avoid this part. Yet this passage includes burning and gnashing of teeth language. I struggled with what to make of it. Does it mean we will bum in hell? Will hell be a place of eternal fire? So I dove into this language. Matthew used weeping and gnashing of teeth at the conclusion of five parables referring to judgement, including the one we read this mommg.
There are two ways of thinking about this. First is the one where hell, eternal damnation and the consequence of sin go hand and hand. Gnashing of teeth is viewed as an image of pain and suffering. Burning is a reference to hell. Weeping is tears of pain. All of that can be possible. But it presupposes a literal view of hell, not an understanding of “Gehenna” which is the word often used to describe thewalley where the trash is burned outside of Jerusalem.
The other view I like better. Weeping can be for pain or joy which we know from our own life. Gnashing of teeth is a reference to anger rather than pain. Sort of like when you grind your teeth when you are mad. In the Psalms, King-David refers to his enemies: Like godless jesters at a feast. They gnashed at me with their teeth (35:16). In Acts, describing the unbelieving Jews, we read, “When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him (7:54 NIV). So maybe gnashing of teeth means anger rather than eternal pain.
Yet what about the burning? We are told, “All the causes of sin and evildoers are thrown into the fire.” This brings to mind the eternal fires of hell. But the word for bum means to quickly bum up and disintegrate, like the chaff thrown in the fire (Lk 3: 17). The burning would be quick, not eternal. I was fascinated to learn that the same word was used when Moses saw the burning bush. You remember it burned but was not consumed. There is a word for burning and then there is another word for burning up, consumed. The weeds are thrown in the fire and are consumed. This means we will not bum in hell forever, should we be judged unworthy. And that weeping and gnashing of teeth do not mean eternal torment. Just to bring this point home, not a single one of these parables is about how to go to heaven when you die, or how to tell if you are truly a Christian. Rather it is about how God is working in the world and this parable tells us that there are good seed and bad seed being planted. The seeds of God are planted by the sower and we learned last week the seed is the word of God. But there is also the bad seed planted by the evildoer. But it is not our job to pull weeds, to judge everyone we meet by God’s teaching. Jesus says to let the wheat and weeds grow together because pulling up the weeds may uproot the good seed. How true is that! If we focus on what everyone else is doing wrong, we miss the way God might be leading us to grow in a new direction. Did you like how we all got lumped in with the good seed! Jesus wanted the wheat and the weeds to grow together. Some say because the weed damel looks a lot like wheat and can only be identified when the wheat matures and turns golden. Also, the weeds are burned because damel is poisonous so it cannot get into the food supply. Yet let’s not get too attached to who are the weeds and who is the wheat.
Edward F. Markquart tells this story, “When I was a young man, during my seminary days my ideal congregation was The Church of Our Savior’s in Washington, DC. Among my peers and friends, that congregation was the ideal, the inspiration, the model to which we aspired. It was a small congregation of 200 people who renewed their spiritual vows each year. Their vows were to tithe, to attend Bible study every week, to pray every day, to be politically active for the poor every week. And they signed on the dotted line every year. These people were committed. That was my ideal community in those younger years. But not anymore. Maybe I have matured. But now, I want a community that is wide open to all people, including the uncommitted, the half committed, the lukewarm, the confused, the puzzled, the materialists, the messed up; the addicted, the afflicted: we are all welcome here. We want weeds and wheat in our church and besides, I am no longer sure which is which and who is who, as I used to be as a younger man. (Sermons.com, Weeds and Wheat). So rather than pull weeds and be judgmental maybe we should examine our own life and see how we are faring?
One of my favorite theologians, Mr. Rogers, used to say: “Have you ever noticed that the very same people who are bad sometimes are the very same people who are good sometimes?” It reminds me of a story called, “Two Wolves.” It goes like this:
“An old Cherokee once told his grandson about a fight that was going on inside of him. He said it was between two wolves. One was evil: Anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, gossip, resentment, and false pride. The other was good: Joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. The grandson thought about it for a moment and then asked his grandfather, ‘Which wolf do you think will win?’ The old Cherokee replied, ‘The one I feed.”‘ (Philip W. McLarty, The Parable of the Wheat and the Tare).
Let’s not worry about hell, or try and pull weeds around us. Instead let us be mindful of what part of ourselves we feed and what God is calling us to do to bring more love and peace into the world. After all, the world is the field into which the good and bad seed is planted. Amen.
