Teach me your way, O Lord

Sermon   Proper 11 A    All Saints     7-19-20

Isaiah 44: 6 – 8      Psalm 86: 11 – 17      Romans 8: 12 – 25      Matthew 13: 24 – 30, 36 – 43 

Teach me your way, O Lord… 

A few weeks ago, Kent and I ran away from home.  We drove to the rural hinterlands of North Carolina pursuing adventure and a new setting.  It was interesting to be out in farmland – acres of corn, beautifully green, ears beginning to mature.  It was easy to forget that we were running from isolation and fear – until we got out of the car and had to put on a face mask.  Several times I thought of the cliché:  wherever you go, there you are.  Leaving Tybee did not solve the problems that surround us here.  

All that North Carolina rural scenery came to mind as I read the parable Jesus told in our Gospel. In the parable, a farmer plants good quality seeds in his field, but an enemy comes in and sows weeds all through the new plantings.  It was not long before both the wheat and the weeds began to grow up together.  The farmer knew that the wheat was not yet deeply rooted and would be damaged if the surrounding weeds were pulled out.  The roots were too close together and too shallow to stand that.  The farmer tells his slaves to wait for the harvest to separate the wheat from the weeds.

That image of the weeds and wheat mixed up together has stuck with me all week, in part, I suspect, because I cannot always tell the difference between weeds and plants.  You do not want me to weed your garden without close supervision!  Weeds can be beautiful – interesting leaves, colorful blossoms, pretty berries or seed pods.  It is hard to dig out something that is pleasing to the eye.

Right now, I feel like I am in the weeds as the cliché goes.  The loss of our worship together, the need to stay close to home and avoid crowds drains me.  I do not feel free to pop in my car and go wherever I want whenever I want.  I must admit I am tired of hours of news centering on Covid-19. There is so much data being thrown around – we talk so much but seem to clarify very little.  Wearing a mask seems so simple to me, but “them’s fightin’ words!” to others.  I feel lost in the weeds.

There are other events going on around us, things that matter to me, to others.  Even in those things, there is way too much information, data and opinion to ferret out the truth easily.  So much is coming at us from so many directions that many of us are overwhelmed and exhausted.  For me it is hard to even know what questions to ask to get more clarity.  The question that comes up for me over and over is what am I supposed to do?

What am I supposed to DO?  Hear that word.  It is a question about my action, my control.  To concede that I do not actually have any control – that is hard!  I like to think that I am making choices and that I can make a difference when I act.  

At the beginning of the parable, Jesus says that He wants us to know what the kingdom of God is like.  But this is a curious picture.  Weeds grow up among the wheat.  That is, evil is present.  Jesus says that at the “end of the age” messengers from God will come to conduct the harvest.  Our task is not to whack out the evil.  Our job is to grow into healthy, nourishing wheat.  

First, the weeds will be removed, bundled and thrown into the fire to be destroyed.  This is one of the passages used to support belief in a fiery hell that burns forever.  I am not sure that is the most important thing to pull from this passage.  Fearing hell is not the same as loving God.  Warning others about hell and destruction is not the same as being the love of God toward others.  

Wheat is a nourishing grain, not a thorn or an irritant.  Maybe the message Jesus wants us to hear is that we are to be nourishment for the hearts of people around us.  Nourishment for acts of compassion and mercy.  Nourishment for the love of God for us by being the love of God toward others.  Our job then becomes not judging others or pointing out their wickedness but loving and serving in Jesus’s name whatever that means.  

The Psalmist prays:

          Teach me your way, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth;

                    Knit my heart to you that I may fear your Name.

Even in the weeds, the wheat belong to God.  Even in the weeds, God hears our prayers and answers us.  God teaches us when we ask and then LISTEN.  God is not worried about raising our IQ.  God is interested in increasing our wisdom, our clarity, our faith.  Remember Solomon’s prayer for wisdom and God’s answer.  

God does not call us to stupidity – to take risks for God’s kingdom, yes.  To stand in front of Mac trucks, no.  God is interested in every aspect of our lives, and that includes our corporate physical health.  Being in the weeds is not the problem.  Forgetting that we are wheat – that is the problem!   We must widen our prayers, deepen our listening so that we can hear God speak, and live in the knowledge that God is in charge.  I have never known worry to be defeated by anything except love and prayer.  We are to be the righteous [who] shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

                              Blessed be the love and mercy of our God!