Weeding Your Garden

Pulling Weeds - Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Last week we talked about planting seeds. This week we're talking about pulling weeds. The two go together. Every gardener knows that planting seeds is the easy part of having a successful garden. It is much more time consuming to weed that same garden. And it's hard work. As someone has said: "When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant."

There is a corollary to that truth: "To distinguish flowers from weeds, simply pull up everything. What grows back is weeds."

I know if you look at my backyard…..there are plenty of weeds….Not just in the lawn, but in flower boxes are more distressing, more obvious & annoying.

We all know how annoying weeds can be. They seem to come from nowhere and are hard to get rid of.

They require toil & effort to remove…though pesticides can do it quite effectively…that is if you don’t mind a toxic approach.

So, the best way is to pull it from the root. But, that’s a lot of effort.

And…you can’t always tell what is what, at least when the plants are young.

Hence, the parable about the wheat and the “tares” or weeds. Tares is a more “old English” term that was used in the King James Version.

In Palestine at the time of Jesus, everyone would have been very familiar with the wheat plant. They also understood Tares, a particular weed that was quite prevalent.

Using these common elements of life, Jesus teaches about the Kingdom of God.

So, what was he probably referring to? Well…he does give an explanation in the second part of the passage.

Essentially, he was referring to what I call:
“Life Together”

That term was coined by Deitrick Boenhoeffer. Then later, by writer & priest Henry Nowen.

Each talked about the dynamics and challenges of “being together in community”. Think about it.

What are the ways that “weeds” can crop up…

1. Within the self. (The Shadow) (Evil within)
2. Within the inner community…or church.
3. Within the whole world.

Basically….weeds are considered evil, corrupt, problems, temptations, challenges.

Whenever we gather as a group, there will be dissention, people with different ideas, differences, other perspectives.

It’s easy to look around and cast a disparaging eye toward those who are different. We might even put them down or use some form of privilege to lord it over others.

But, who is to say who is the weed and who is the good plant?

It’s easy to be judgmental, hypocritical, mean.

Maybe Jesus wants us to be a little more gracious, a little more understanding about difference, a little more cooperative and patient.

Within a certain community, there might be differences….racially, culturally, perspectives, etc.

I think Jesus is saying…don’t judge. Who can determine who is a weed and who is a flower or plant? Only God knows.

Same thing with the larger population. With the larger society.

In Jesus’ time, it would have been easy to see the Romans as weeds.

The parable might have been about the weeds of different sects within the Jewish world.

The Wisdom of Jesus instructs:

We can’t determine who is evil; who is a weed; who is unworthy.

Ours is not to judge our neighbor. Ours is to live in community & be a light unto all the world.

You can’t always tell who is what. So, live in the world and let God do the sorting at the end of the age.

For example, One person’s Terrorist is another person’s Freedom Fighter. It might be easy to look at Arabs or Muslims or others and cast aspersions.
But, from their perspective, they see dominant culture as evil…as Empire and Corrupt.

Who’s right? Only God knows! Let the Divine do the judging. Have the Patience & Wisdom to see.

Finally…end with this story...You Need 100 Points

Thee is a story about a minister who had a strange dream. He dreamt that he had died and was trying to get into heaven. When he approached the pearly gates, St. Peter told him he needed 100 points to get in. Proudly the minister said, "Well, I was a pastor for 43 years." "Fine," said St. Peter, "That's worth one point." "One point? Is that all?" cried the minister. "Yes, that's it," said St. Peter."Well," said the pastor, "I visited lots of shut-ins." St. Peter responded, "That's worth one point." "I worked with young people," said the pastor. "That's worth one point," said St. Peter. "I developed a number of excellent Scout programs," said the minister. "That's worth one point," said St. Peter. "You have four points now. You need 96 more." "Oh no," said the minister in a panic. "I feel so helpless, so inadequate. Except for the grace of God, I don't have a chance." St. Peter smiled and said, "Grace of God-- counts for 96 points. Come on in!" If not for God's Grace, we are all weeds. All are inadequate, all, fallen. Judge not, that ye be not judged. Learn to live in community with generosity, acceptance and love....where patience is its own reward and the gardens of community can can grow & prosper. Amen.