November 19, 2006
Rev. Bill Wills, Pastor
THE
GIVE-AND-TAKE OF HOPE
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Another
parable Jesus put before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared
to a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men were sleeping, his
enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants
came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the
householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?
How then has it weeds?’
He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’
The servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he
said, ‘No, lest in. gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.
Let both grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the
reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bushels to be burned, but
gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
Then he left the crowds and went into the
house. And his disciples came to him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the
weeds of the field.’ He answered, ‘He who sows the good seed is the Son of man;
the field is the world, and the good seed means the sons of the kingdom; the
weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil;
the harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels.
Just as the weeds are gathered and burned
with fire, so will it be at the close of the age. The Son of man will send his
angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all
evildoers, and throw them into the furnace of fire; there they will weep and
gnash their teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of
their Father. Those who have ears let them hear.
THE GIVE-AND-TAKE OF HOPE
Matthew
13:24-30, 36-43
In his
book, The Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens begins with the statement,
“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” The book is about the
French Revolution, and while demonstrating the horror, death and destruction of
war, it lifts up experiences of courage and hope that inspire and renew. The
parable we read from Matthew this morning could have begun with that same line,
for it tells us that in every moment in every time, “It is the best of
times, it is the worst of times.” For within each moment of our lives is the
capacity for evil and cause for hope.
Let’s focus first on the capacity for evil
within the moments of our lives. A question that often comes to mind for
Christians is this, “If God created good (according to the parable, God planted
the good seed), then who or what is responsible for evil? It’s a question that
Sunday School teachers and preachers have been trying to clarify for years. You
may have heard about the Sunday School teacher who was trying to explain the
concept of sin to her class of young students. She posed the question, “What
are sins of omission?” After a considerable period of silence, one young man
decided to give it his best shot, “Those are the sins we should have committed,
but didn’t have time to get around to.” There may be more truth in that
statement than we would like to acknowledge. Peter Marshall once said this
about our dilemma with evil, “We are too Christian to enjoy sinning,
but we are too fond of sinning to enjoy Christianity.”
The parable we heard makes it clear that God
is not responsible for evil. Evil exists, but God did not create it, not even
for our own good. The Master in the parable does not say, “Oh I sowed the bad
seed in order to confuse you,” or, “I sowed the bad seed to test you, or to
tempt you, or to make your work harder.” The master says, “An enemy has done
this.”
As Christians we have been known to express
strange beliefs regarding evil. For example, sometimes we hear people say that
God intended evil to exist as a method of teaching. God does nothing of the
sort. Now, God can, through grace, transform an evil experience.. Also,
we can learn as a result of having suffered because of sin. But if we listen
carefully to this parable, we cannot argue that God creates or intends evil for
any purpose whatsoever.
The work of evil is the work of an enemy, not
the God whom we know as our creator, redeemer, sustainer, who
loves you and me more deeply than we can ever begin to love ourselves.
Accepting this as Christians is extremely
important for our wholeness and our holiness. When we begin to see evil as the
work of an enemy, only then can we rest assured in the holy belief that God’s
intention for all creation is good. Only then can we be fully confident that
God’s desire is for a just and merciful world. Only then can we work actively
and faithfully, in absolute trust, as partners with God to bring justice, peace
and joy to the world.
Once we have put aside the notion that
somehow God created evil, then we can begin to work on another unsettling
statement we occasionally hear about evil. Sometimes we personify and magnify
the power of evil to such gargantuan proportions, that we begin to believe that
we have no power over it. Nothing could be further from the truth. We do have
power over evil, and it is basic to wholesome Christian witness that we accept
that statement.
Evil is not an illusion. It is false wheat in the
human field of life. So, we cannot lay the bad seed at God’s door; we need to
hold ourselves responsible when we participate in evil.
To go back to the illustration in the
parable, God can prevent evil by ripping the weeds right out of the ground.
But, in so doing, there is a risk that some of the good wheat will be destroyed
as well. If the individual stocks of wheat have no value in themselves, then it
doesn’t matter if this stalk or that stalk is uprooted in the weeding process.
But each stock of wheat does have value.
There is a story that illustrates this point
quite well. A number of years ago, in a mental institution outside
In many ways, Little Annie was like an
animal. On occasions, she would violently attack the person who came into her
cage. At other times, she would completely ignore them. When the nurse started
visiting her, Little Annie gave no indication that she was even aware of her
presence. One day, the nurse brought some brownies to the dungeon and left them
outside Annie’s cage. Little Annie gave no hint that she knew they were there,
but when the nurse returned the next day, the brownies were gone. From that
time on, the nurse would bring brownies when she made her visits. Soon after,
the doctors in the institution noticed a change was taking place. After a
period of time they decided to move Little Annie upstairs.
Finally, the day came when the “hopeless
case” was told she could return home. But Little Annie did not wish to leave.
She chose instead to stay, to help others. For, she it was who cared for,
taught and nurtured Helen Keller. Little Annie’s name was Anne Sullivan.
In her youth, Little Annie would have been
considered a weed to be pulled and thrown away. In her lifetime, she became a
sturdy stock of wheat, bearing testimony to all that is good in humankind. You
see, God cannot pull up the weeds, for sometimes the wheat and the weeds look
so much alike, or their root systems become so intertwined, that in trying to
rid one weed, a stock of wheat may be destroyed. If each individual stock of
wheat has no value in itself, then it doesn’t matter if this stock or that
stock is uprooted in the weeding process. But in the parable each stock of wheat
is a creation of God and is valued by God.
But our wholeness and holiness as Christians depends
on more than our understanding that God did not create evil. It is deeply
rooted in the knowledge that because of God we have reason for hope. The
parable we heard this morning contains a powerful message of hope and
confidence. Let’s focus on hope in the biblical sense. Hope is not a crossing
of the fingers and closing of the eyes and wishing that something will come
true. When we do that we practice wishful thinking, not hope.
The Biblical meaning of hope is much deeper.
The Greek word for hope used in the New Testament is “elpizo”. Sometimes it is
translated to the English word “hope”, and sometimes it is translated to the
English word “trust”. It conveys a sense of anticipation with confident
expectation. Several times in his writings, the apostle Paul uses the word
“hope” as one of three evidences of salvation - faith, hope
and love. In the Bible, hope is not wishful thinking; it is an attitude of
certainty.
There are some people who for the love of
money or power will destroy others any way they can. Some murder, taking a life
just for the thrill of it. Some will steal. Some will fly airplanes into tall
buildings hoping to kill thousands of its occupants. Humankind has great
capacity for evil, more than any other creature on earth.
But from this very same evil race of humankind
come our heroes, our martyrs and our saints. Albert Schweitzer, Mother Teresa
come to mind, and as we saw during the tragic events at the
In our parable this morning, the master sows
good seed and leaves it to grow strong and fruitful. The master is confident
that a fruitful crop will grow, and that there will be much grain to be
gathered into the storehouses. You and I are a part of the crop toward which
God looks so hopefully, it is a part of the give-and-take of hope. God gives us
hope and we take it. Maybe, we give God hope as we live the Christian life. The
nurse gave hope to Little Annie who took it. Anne Sullivan instilled hope in
Helen Keller. Helen Keller has inspired hopeful living in millions of people
throughout the world.
In the parable the comparison is of weeds to
wheat. But, we should not get so bogged down in the analogy, that we fail to
recognize its limitations. Unlike stocks of wheat, we have choices.
We are rational beings who can choose whether
we will allow our lives to become entwined with those things in the world that
can destroy us. Unlike the wheat, we can pick up and move so that our lives are
not being choked by evil structures and the temptations that are the result of
brokenness. Unlike the wheat, we can actively seek the rain, the sun and the
nutrients we need to grow more and more faithful and fruitful. We can
participate with God as active partners in bringing to harvest a crop of
righteousness and peace.
Through this parable, Jesus invites us to a
renewed and trusting relationship with our creator, a relationship deeply
rooted in the confidence that God’s desire for us is never pain, but
always health and holiness. He invites us, through this parable,
to renewed response-ability and to the empowering knowledge that we are good
seed, free and able to grow in the presence of evil without becoming evil
ourselves. This parable confirms for us that in every moment of our lives we
truly can experience the best of times or the worst of times. Our faith in God
will always help us to choose the best of times, to choose hope. Our faithful
actions will always help us to experience the best of times. Those who have
ears, let them hear.
PRAYER
Our God
of hope, we acknowledge that we meet you in each moment of our lives. And we
confess that too often we struggle to discern the difference between the wheat
and the weeds. Our Lord, we turn to you this day asking your forgiveness for
those moments when we have made poor choices; and we thank you for the hope
that is available to each of us in each moment of our lives. It is like a
bright light shining in our midst. Help us to be stronger and wiser and more
hopeful each day. In Jesus’ name we pray. AMEN
BENEDICTION
Praise be
to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! For in his great mercy he has
given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead.
And now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
be with you now and forever more. AMEN