The Mercy of a Patient Farmer
Pastor Mathew Magera – 7/10/16 – Sermon 175
St. Thomas Lutheran Church, Trufant, MI
To God be the Glory!
Grace and peace to you from
God our Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Have you ever been told a
joke and by the end of it, you didn't get it? Somewhere along the line you miss
the point and by the end when the punchline comes, you're somewhere else
completely and can't really see how it was supposed to be funny. Other people
around you are laughing and you almost want to join in just so they don't make
fun of you for not getting it. Then, later on, after thinking about it for a while
it finally comes to you, it makes sense, but instead of bursting out laughing
like others did earlier, you just subtly say to yourself, "oh yeah, I get
it, that's pretty funny" and move on. Jesus isn't telling a joke when he
tells this parable but it's very possible we've missed the point and if we
think about what his main intention is we might be less than excited when we
finally figure it out.
So, what do we get out of
this parable? The stage has been set. The farmer sows his wheat and then in the
night the enemy sows his weeds. The farmer and his servants have an exchange
about what has taken place and they ultimately ask if they should go and pull
them up. The farmer says "no". Ah ha, something worth noting. What
farmer would say this? This has to be the point. If the weeds are left too long
and they seed, that field is going to be plagued with weeds again and again.
Instead, the farmer says, "no, because while you are pulling the weeds,
you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.
At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them
in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn."
Okay, we've found the point of the parable. We want to get rid of the weeds in
the field but God is saying that He will do it on His time and that at the
harvest those weeds will be taken care of, burned! The wheat will then be
brought into the barn. Good parable, Jesus! Be patient because God is going to
do something about it on his time, great!
Is this how you read into
this parable? Are you starting to think I might say that this isn't the point?
You're guessing correctly. I don't think the point of Jesus' words in this
parable is to focus our attention on the harvest and the burning of the weeds
and the storing of the wheat. Yes, that is an ultimate end of the story much
like last week's parable of the sower has the ultimate end of seed falling on
good soil and producing a crop. But, just because the end of the parable seems
to resolve the action doesn't mean that the resolution is the point. Often
times it's not. So, let's go back to the beginning. The stage has been set. The
farmer sows his wheat and then in the night the enemy sows his weeds. The
farmer and his servants have an exchange about what has taken place and they
ultimately ask if they should go and pull them up. The farmer says "no,
because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.
Let both grow together until the harvest." Let's stop right there. Let
both grow together. Let both grow together. We've already said this doesn't
make sense and it is usually that which doesn't make sense to us that tends to
be where we need to focus. Let both grow together. I mean let's just imagine
Jesus telling this parable and getting to the end and every erupting in
cheering saying, "Yeah, burn the weeds!" I picture Jesus doing one of
these, palm hitting his head while just shaking it. They missed the point.
Okay, the weeds are going to be burned at the end of the story, that's all good
and fine. We know God is in control and will work it all out in the end, yeah
yeah yeah. But, how does that change the way we live right now?
There was once a family that
lived in the rural country in central Michigan. A mom, dad, and their son. For
their son's birthday, they put their money together and decide to drive down
around Lake Michigan and take a family vacation in Chicago. None of them had
ever been out of Michigan before, much less a big city like Chicago. So, the
times comes and they start their vacation. First stop, the Willis Tower, like
many Chicago tourists. They walk inside and are planning to meet some friends
from the area but surprisingly, traffic was easy and they got there early. So,
they stood around in the lobby and waited. As they were there, the mom went
into the gift shop and the two guys stood and looked and something quite
peculiar. An elderly man walked over to a set of double doors, pushed a button
and they opened. He walked in and the doors shut behind him. Not more than a
minute later the doors opened and out of this tiny room comes a young business
man as fit and handsome as can be. The father and his son looked with
curiosity. Before the doors shut, an elderly woman walked in. The doors close
and not more than a minute later the doors opened and out came a beautiful
young woman. The father and son stood there speechless, eyes wide open and jaws
dropped. The son finally spoke up and said, "Dad, what kind of room is
that?" The father said, "Son, I have no idea, but you go run up there
and hit the button and I'll push your mom in."
Change. Away with the bad,
keep the good. And do it as quickly as possible. Uproot the weeds, no matter
the cost. Get rid of them. Go down to the store and get as much weed killer as
we can get. We want God to deal with this right now. Instead we are told
"Let both grow together."
Okay, so the weeds and the
wheat have to grow together. How do we do that? Do we even want to do that?
Whether we want it this way or not, this is what we are told. Now, if we
remember the weeds and the wheat look very much alike, so knowing the
difference one from another is near impossible. But, while this is impossible
we sometimes claim that we can tell the difference. We know who the weeds are
without even guessing, we say. We are quick to accuse and offer threats. I
can't tell you how many times I look on social media and see things like, "Hillary is this" "Trump is
that" "Obama is that other thing." "We need to kill the
terrorists before they kill us." I mean, some of these messages are purely
negative, hateful and harmful and some of them come from people in this church.
It's not our duty to decide who is a weed or not so we need to stop treating
people like weeds. I’m not saying we can’t disagree with someone but there is a
point where disagreement transforms into something else. In a place like this,
God's house, have you ever been treated like a weed? Has someone ever looked at
you or said something to you or made a comment that is hurtful or degrading or
might have even made you question whether or not you wanted to come back to
this place? You're too young to be pregnant. You shouldn't be living together
if you're not married. You need to put more money in the offering plate. You
shouldn't wear that to church. Divorce is a sin. Suicide is so incredibly
selfish. Do we really think that these comments are appropriate? We need to
stop treating people as if they were weeds. Pushing someone away like that is
like you going out into the field and pulling up that weed for all to see, not
realizing that you're hurting the crop by pulling out good along with it. We
need to stop treating people like weeds. Don't think that we are immune to such
things either. I know we are a friendly and welcoming church, probably the best
I've ever experienced and I know people who can attest to that, but we also
have people who have been treated like a weed at one point or another in their
time here whether it be recent or way far back and we just can't treat people
like that.
Not only do we need to stop
treating people like weeds, we need to stop being like weeds too. One thing about
weeds is that they take up most of the sunlight and their roots drink up most
of the moisture. We need to stop thinking "it's my way or I’m leaving.” We
may not even realize we’re thinking this way. And I'm not saying that all of us
are like that, but this is an attitude that will stagger the physical and
spiritual growth of the church. Purposely not including somebody because you
don't like them, giving the silent treatment, ignoring others, I mean, these
are not the messages and vibes we want to be giving out and are very childish.
Please don't prevent someone or something else from growing just because it's
something you don't care for. We want to encourage growth in every way we can.
Now, all that I've said so
far has either come across as fantastic advice or like I'm stepping on toes. It’s
either motivating or quite convicting as parables can be sometimes. But, I’m
going to take it even further. When this parable says, "Let both grow
together" it means more than what we might think it means. It is one thing
to hold a grudge, ignore somebody, and just live together, whether it be at
church, at home, at work or at school. But, it is something else completely when
we really consider the words of the parable when it says that the weeds and the
wheat grow together. Let both grow together. Not just to occupy the same space,
but to grow together, using the same sunlight, the same moisture and growing.
What would it take for us not just to occupy the same space together but to
grow together? It's at this point we might realize we are in need of a little
help. Earlier I had asked if you had ever missed the punchline of a joke and
that considered that when you eventually got it, it wasn’t the same reaction
that everyone else had. Oh, yeah, funny. This is the feeling we might get when
we begin to discover Jesus’ point in the parable about growing together. We
might not be so excited about it.
If we are going to solve
greater problems in our world like terrorism, the bashing of democrats or
republicans, the increased violence over black lives matter and the police, if
we are going to solve these greater problems it needs to start first in our own
communities. It needs to start first in our homes. It needs to start first in
our churches. And it starts by imitating our Lord Jesus. My sermon title today
if you noticed it is, "The Mercy of a Patient Farmer". The fact that
the farmer in this parable can look out into a field full of wheat and weeds
growing in the same space and say, "No, don't pull the weeds" is an
act of mercy. If there is a chance of any good wheat being pulled up, God says
"no, don't pull the weeds." That means that God is having mercy on us
even when we don't deserve it. When we treat people like weeds, when we become
weeds ourselves, God is looking down on us and having mercy because of the good
that is there. God wants us to turn from our weedy habits and embrace the wheat
that he planted us to be. God has mercy on us and God is patient with us. We
should therefore have mercy on and be patient with others.
We are going to have our
ups. We are going to have our downs. Sin has been sown in and around us and
because of that natural habit we become its victim making ourselves and others
appear to be weeds. But, Jesus is giving us a godly model to imitate, that of
mercy and patience. He shows mercy because of his love for us. He doesn't want
to lose a single one of us. We are grateful for the farmer's advice not to pull
up the weeds because he doesn't want a single one of his wheat plants to be
harmed. We are grateful for the farmer's patience that even though the weeds
can take sunlight and moisture and multiply like rabbits, he continues to wait
out those times when we exhibit these behaviors. We are grateful for the care
he takes at the harvest to separate the weeds from the wheat. We are grateful
that God gives us the opportunity to love like him as the weeds grow with the
wheat, calling us to exhibit mercy and patience because we are all broken people.
There is a poem written by
an English professor named Stanley Wiersma about an alcoholic named Benny that
regularly attended church. He had been disciplined privately by the church for
his sinful behavior and then in a public way that did not use his name.
Eventually it was announced publically that it was, in fact, Benny who was
being disciplined. This went on for three years and eventually the church got
fed up with his struggle with the bottle that they gave him a deadline. When he
was unable to clean up his act and repent of his alcoholism a date was set for
his public excommunication. Benny attended his own excommunication, sitting in
the midst of the congregation as the pastor read the standard form that
indicated that he and the church should have no further association. Though the
Pastor might have thought Benny's attendance to be in protest, it was not.
Though the congregation might have thought Benny's attendance was an act of
stupidity, it was not. Benny sat there and continued to attend as regularly as
he did before until he eventually died from liver disease. Like Jacob wrestling
with God and saying, "I will not let you go until you bless me" Benny
wrestled with God and the church. His presence was saying to everyone "I
will not be cut off as though I do not exist. I am God's child, all right.
God's naughty child, but still God's child: Benny."[1]
If you have ever been
treated like a weed or acted like one and felt guilty for it, please don't
leave the church. Benny offered the sentiment that we need to hear that we are
God's children. We are not perfect, perhaps not anywhere close at times but we
are God's children and we are here to grow together, through the spats, the
feuds, the grudges, the gossip, the disagreement, and the conflict. We are
meant not to just live together as a community, merely occupying the same
space, but to be patient and merciful to each other and to literally grow
together through these experiences. So, our foundation must be Jesus because
without Jesus there is no one from which to learn these qualities. Only by him
and the forgiveness that he offers us are we able to then go out and imitate
the same. For if we can imitate Christ by growing together as a community, our
unity and solidarity can be used as a model for the community, the nation and
the world. And what better qualities does our nation and our world need right
now than a little patience and mercy? The farmers says to us again, "Let
both grow together." So, let's do that. Let's grow in faith together. Let's
grow in love together. Let's grow in mercy together. Let's grow in patience
together. Let's grow in Christ together. To God be the glory, now and always.
Amen.
[1]
Sietze Bunning, Purpaleanie and other Permutations. Middleburg, Iowa: The
Middleburg Press, 1978, pp. 55-57.