Celebrate the Wheat

Reverend Philip Stringer

Matthew 13:24-30

LET US PRAY: Gracious Lord, Bread of Life, feed us with your Word, and speak to our hearts, that we may love and serve only you, now and forever. AMEN

Me behind slow car — tried to take shortcut to get ahead — ended up on the wrong road.

Jesus told a parable — and it was a confusing parable. It was hard for the disciples to understand, and even after he has explained it, it is STILL hard for us to grasp it. There’s a lot of talk about good people and bad people and the devil that can get in the way. Perhaps what we need to remember here is that this is a parable. It’s not history or a literal vision of the future — it’s a story meant to illustrate a point.

And the point of the parable isn’t about bad people or good people — or who is going to heaven and who is going to hell — or the devil — it’s about the kingdom. And what Jesus teaches us about the kingdom is that he is its master. Jesus is the sower. He is the one who plants and grows good fruit. And Jesus teaches us that he has focus and singleness of purpose: Sowing seeds that produce good things. Unlike with me on the road, troubles and problems and even opposition do not distract him from his work. The kingdom is coming, and nobody and nothing can stop it.

That is the good news. And one thing I hope you will hear in the gospel text today is that the good work of Jesus in YOUR life is unstoppable. What Jesus is doing in the soil of your life, will come to completion — and the weeds in your heart will be cleared away.

Another thing I hope you will hear is that in this parable Jesus also teaches us about how we are to live — he teaches us how to live in the kingdom in which he has planted us. He teaches us to live with focus and singleness of purpose.

Is anybody here a worrier? I am. I worry about all sorts of things — the safety and happiness of my children, and whether or not they will make good choices.

I worry about health.

And my business — and money.

I’ve got a persistent problem in my workshop of humidity — makes my tools rust and mold grows on everything.

The barn’s foundation is crumbling in some places and I know I need to do something about that.

Does anyone else worry about stuff? We all do in some way or another — and that’s not always bad. Sometimes what we call “worry” is just the wisdom of our years warning us away from trouble — and as long as it doesn’t become an obsession or get in the way of enjoying life, it’s not a problem.

But there are other worries that can be a problem, and Jesus calls us away from these.

Jesus does not want you to worry about who you are or what will happen to you.

Jesus does not want you to worry about the devil or what the devil is doing.

Jesus does not want you to worry about everything that is wrong with the world.

Instead, Jesus wants you to look at him and what he is doing. And he wants you to listen to what he says about you. “You are my good seed. I am doing a good work in you, and I will succeed in making a good harvest out of you.”

A number of years ago I listened to a Lutheran missionary serving in Russia. This was shortly after the fall of communism, and there was a great excitement among many about going over there and turning those “godless Russians” into Christians. Do you remember those days? People whipping up a fervor to raise money to send Bibles and people.

But according to this missionary, what most of these people didn’t realize was that 40% of Russians already identified themselves as Christian. And not just by name — these were people practicing their faith in secret for 70 years! In fact, just a few years later they celebrated 1000 years of Christianity in Russia.

The missionary told me that he could buy a Bible on the streets of Moscow cheaper than he could buy one in America! But in their fervor to stamp out the seeds of the devil, many western Christians were flooding the streets of Russia with Bibles and in doing so, threatened to put the local printers out of business. They were trampling the wheat to get at the weeds.

The truth is that we are hardly ever satisfied when the focus of our lives is on what’s broken and wrong. And in the parable we heard today, Jesus agrees: That’s not what life’s about. What is wrong does not define who we are.

There IS brokenness and there is PLENTY that is wrong — and Jesus calls us to work for peace and justice — but the WAY we do that makes all the difference. God’s justice comes, not by ripping at the weeds, but by tending the wheat. By feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. The kingdom comes by acts of loving kindness. God does not derive God’s purpose and value from what is evil. God loves and creates out of love. God always has — BEFORE there was evil, this is who God was and what God did, and that hasn’t changed.

Our Lutheran missionary was not in Russia on a campaign against atheism but was there at the invitation of Orthodox Christians to help them in the ways they asked. Russians understand Russians better than we do — and have walked in the shoes of their own people. They can witness to the power of God’s love in their lives much more effectively than can we.

Our missionary’s job was to support and encourage them so that they may point to the seeds of God’s love in their midst and minister to their own people. Tending the wheat.

And for you and me, that’s good advice for our own lives. Turn your eyes toward the seeds of God’s love sown around you — and celebrate them. Celebrate the gift of today as the gift that it is. Don’t worry about tomorrow because it will be in God’s hands, too. Whatever it looks like, it and you will be in the hands of the sower.

Turn your eyes toward the seeds of God’s love sown in the world around you — Lift them up — tend them. Nurture them and show them to the world. Look for the seeds of God’s love at work in the people around you and shine some light on those seeds, too.

The church in America faces a lot of challenges these days — from those beckoning us to embrace a world view and behaviors counter to our faith, to people within the church assuring us that it is pleasing to Jesus — that Jesus is the one sowing seeds of division and hate.

As a congregation, you face your own challenges and you have your faults, too — but what I see is a joyful and welcoming place. I hear you all talk about how you are giving to the world and making a difference in your help in the lives of people in the community. THAT’s living in the kingdom! THAT is tending the wheat. And THAT’S what we’re supposed to be about. That’s what we should WANT to be about, because that’s happy work!

I’ve shared with you many times, Luther’s opinion of the devil and his advice for Christians. He pointed out that if a person spends all of their time and energy trying NOT to sin, that makes the devil just as happy as if you were out committing the sin, because your attention is on sin and the devil and not on Christ. Such a person is so busy NOT following the devil, that they cannot follow God, either.

Forget about the weeds. Focus on the wheat. The devil is not the lord of your life. Do not return evil for evil or hate for hate. Don’t let hate or fear be what shapes you. What Paul wrote to the church in Rome, are words spoken for you and me, too: He reminds us, "You did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption."

Something to celebrate!

And don’t be a curmudgeon, distracted by the brokenness around you. One thing I’ve noticed about Jesus’ descriptions of the kingdom is that there’s never any complaining! The kingdom is characterized by life and growth and parties!

Focus and singleness of purpose. We’ve got better things to do with our time than to sit around complaining about the faults of others or obsessing about the faults in ourselves. We’ve got better things to do than to occupy our time with worry.

Celebrate the wheat.

AMEN