Matthew 14:13-23
I am preaching this sermon on July 31, 2011, the day that the descendents of Charles and Annie Mae Wilson Dotson converge upon Asheville for an afternoon of sharing memories, breaking bread together, playing music together and just plain enjoying each other. That’s right; this is the weekend of the annual Dotson family reunion. Anyone who knows my family knows that there are two weekends that are sacred. Our companions and friends know not to ask us to do anything other than be with the cousins the weekend of Thanksgiving and the last weekend in July. Our first cousins Damien and Jessica are extensions of our sibling group and we don’t dare miss a second of our available time with them. The weekend is generally spent up on our family mountain just being together. We eat, we sit on the deck, we talk, we laugh, and sometimes we might even cry. We play games, we play music. On Saturday we play golf and on Sunday morning we enjoy a church service together and a meal with the whole extended family. So, the people of Cruso UMC and Longs UMC must know how dearly they are loved and have been missed for when their pastor called and told me he needed me on July 31st, I didn’t hesitate one moment to say yes. Fitting that today’s story has to do with Jesus’ love for his first cousin and with eating. Let’s delve in…..
Prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing unto you Oh God. Empty me of all of me, fill me with all of you as I share your word for these great people this morning.
Sermon:
As the scripture was read to you today, it was a familiar one, Jesus using a lad’s lunch to feed 5000 people. I put the word out on facebook to get people’s reaction to the story, looking for where people connect with the story. Many went with the obvious: Jesus can do the impossible. Some connected with the crowd in the story, some connected with the boy, some connected with disciples, some even connected with the boys mother imagining her reaction when her son comes home and tells her his lunch provided food for 5,000 people. It was so much fun to have this discussion with my uncle, a distant cousin, an old high school class mate, an old church friend/mentor, and a current church member. It was fun to watch the conversation between persons who didn’t know each other and to see them learn from each other as they wrestled with this scripture. My friend Kay Free summed it up well when she said “Isn't it awesome how God's word is relevant for each person and touches each one in a different way depending where they are in life? Some relate to the crowd, some the feedings, some the disciples or the child. It is truly the Living Word!” As we go through this familiar story may you see some things with fresh eyes today. May the living word touch you in the place where it is needed today.
The story today begins with the news to Jesus from the disciples that John the Baptist has been murdered. Jesus’s response was to get away. He got in a boat and begin leaving the shore. However, the crowd followed on foot having heard of and experienced the previous miracles/healings Jesus had performed they were all bringing their sick and ailing loved ones to him. This is the first stop on our journey through the story today. John the Baptist was Jesus’s first cousin. He was the one who leaped in the womb when Mary came to tell his mother she was with child. He was the one who prepared the way for Jesus to come. He was the one who was there for the beginning of Jesus’ ministry by baptizing him. Jesus is certainly grieved at the news of his murder. Matthew records this story as Jesus getting in the boat and going to a solitary place. John records Jesus taking the disciples with him. Nonetheless, as Jesus does many times throughout the stories of scripture-----he retreats. He needs time to commune with the Father and with his closest friends. Jesus rows through the waters probably discussing his grief with his friends, anxious to get to a solitary place, only to find that it is not so solitary at all because the crowd has followed. He looks up and there on the shore are thousands of people expecting something from him. I’m trying to imagine that. I remember last year when my nephew was born only to die the first call I made was to my boss telling her I would not be at work. Work was the last place I wanted to be. I wanted to soak up my family, stay close to them and receive the love of my friends and I wanted to sleep. Then again, I think of a preaching engagement I had on April 9th and 10th at a retirement village in Arden. On April 8th my grandfather went into a coma. The person responsible for scheduling the preachers for those services texted me and called me several times letting me know that I could cancel, they would understand. I couldn’t though, God had given me a word and I needed to do it. I knew my grandfather would want me to and I did. In a way it was healing to me.
Jesus looked out at that crowd in the midst of his grief and compassion came over him. Compassion: Accoriding to wikkipedia it means to suffer together with. It is also listed as more than empathy, it is an active desire to alleviate ones suffering. So, Jesus while even in his on suffering had an active desire to alleviate the suffering of that multitude of people. That is who Jesus is. Are you suffering in any part of your life right now. Suffering with grief, sickness, worry, pain, addiction…….Jesus enters into your suffering with you and desires greatly to alleviate it. Do you, like Jesus in this story, have your own grief and suffering that consumes you…..perhaps compassion for others is just the healing you need right now.
Moving forward, Jesus spends all day healing the sick and speaking with the multitude. The disciples, likely hungry themselves, come to him and tell him that he needs to wind it up, the people need time to get back to the villages and eat. When Jesus was ministering there was no clock on the back wall, or outside the sound booth to signal him that time was up. There was no wife or husband pointing to a watch or giving a cut signal. So, the disciples play timekeeper and approach. Jesus’s response, nonsense, we will feed them. Not only does Jesus care about the crowds’ spiritual needs, their needs of healing. He cares about there basic need of food. He supplies that too. Everytime I hear this story I’m reminded of one of my favorite childhood memories. It was participating in a children’s musical written by Dottie Rambo: Down by the Creek Bank. The sanctuary of Gashes Creek Baptist church was transformed into a creek bank with fishing poles, lunch buckets. One of my favorite lines in the whole musical, I got to say. “When Jesus fed those 5000 people it must have been with Tuna fish cause Tuna goes a loooooooong way.” Then the song that went along with it. “Little barefoot boy walking through the land, what you got in that basket in your hand. There’s 5,000 people waiting to be fed, what you gonna do with that fish and bread. You’ve got to give it away, pass it around, turn your baskets upside down. I can tell by the smile and the twinkle in your eye, the master has taught you how to multiply, Let the master teach you how to multiply.
That is exactly what happened. The disciples doubt. Really Jesus, all we have is 2 fish and 5 loaves of bread. We can’t feed all those people with that. Let me make it just a little more amazing. We’re not talking about some great big Whale fish or 5 big loaves of bread like we think of today. It was small enough that a boy was carrying it for lunch. The loaves are thought to be barley loaves and were more like little cakes. It is thought the fish were probably like sardines. Really Jesus? How often do we do just what the disciples did. You want me to do what Jesus? But…….I can’t, what about, I don’t have. Take the I out of it folks. With Jesus all things are possible. Jesus told the disciples. Tell the crowd to sit down in the grass, you will serve them. Then Jesus took all the boy had and he held it up, he blessed it and the disciples began to distribute it. There is a lot packed into those few words. #1. Jesus used a little boy to provide a meal to the crowd. Again God is using the unsuspected to accomplish a great thing. #2. The little boy gave all that he had without question. Oh that we all had the faith of a child. While the disciples question Jesus the little boy hands all he has over to God and lets it be used to further God’s kingdom. Reminds you somewhat of the story of the widows mite doesn’t it? Do we trust God with all that we’ve got. Do we have the faith of this little boy? I was interested in finding out what kind of difference kids are making in our own world. I found Oprah’s Angel Network where there were several stories of young children having compassion and acting on it with what they have. Here is just one of those stories:
"My name is Zach and I started walking to help homeless youth two years ago. November 2007 was the first ever National Homeless Youth Awareness month and I wanted to do something huge that would bring a lot of awareness to the 1.3 million homeless kids living in this country. I decided to walk from my hometown in Florida 280 miles to the capitol of Florida (Tallahassee). It was a huge success and I raised $25,000 in cash and supplies that I was able to use to help the Katrina victims.
In November 2008 I decided to continue my journey and walk from state capitol to state capitol, until I made it to Washington, D.C. So, I walked from Tallahassee to Atlanta. I raised around $17,000. Of that, $7,000 stays in Florida to help homeless kids and $10,000 will go to Habitat for Humanity in Macon, Ga., to help a family get their own house.
In May 2009 I plan on going all the way, 680 miles, from Atlanta to Washington, D.C., stopping in two more state capitols along the way. I hope that I can get 1,000 people to walk my last mile in Washington, D.C., from the White House to the steps of the capitol. I hope I can continue to talk to school groups, clubs and churches along the way to raise awareness. I hope to be a positive role model to kids who are interested in doing community service. I hope kids see me and see that they can do anything they put their mind to." Borrowed from Oprah Angel Network website
Is that not amazing?
I wonder what you have in your pocket right now. I am not going to really do this exercise but I did ponder it. Imagine it in your head. What if I got the offering plate and sent it around with the instruction of taking whatever money you have in your wallet right now and putting it in the offering plate. I wonder how many people God could feed with that. Then I wonder if we added that to what the folks at Longs would have. How many people could we feed. I passed xx churches or signs to churches from my house to this church this morning . I wonder how many people we could feed if everyone in all of those churches did that? Then I pondered more: forget everything you have in your wallet. What if everyone sitting in a pew in Haywood County today gave everything in their wallet/pocket up to 1.00. How many people would that feed. The Open Door in Waynesville serves 20,000 meals a year to hungry persons. They operate on a budget of 100,000. We have the community kitchen in Canton as well. 38.00 a month will provide for 1 child through compassion international. What if when spiral hams go on sale instead of just buying one, you buy two and take one to one of these kitchens. Folks we don’t have to be Millionaires to make a difference. We can be the holder of 2 little sardines. We can be the holder of just one mite. If we give what we have to God he will multiply it. Let the Master teach you how to multiply! In fact God takes the little we give him and he multiplies it in excess. There were 12 basketfuls leftover.
After this was done Jesus dismissed the disciples and told them to go on ahead. He dismissed the crowd and then he went on the mountainside to pray. This is the final lesson of todays story. Jesus earlier prayer time, retreat time, time of solitude was interrupted by the needs of the crowd. Jesus does not forget his need for communication with God, alone time, a time of retreat. Immediately afterwards he does just that. How often do we sit down and commune with god in a solitary place. For Jesus it’s almost always a mountainside where he finds retreat. Where do you find retreat? Is it in a garden outside your house, is it in a sacred space, it is reclining on your couch, is it in your car on your commute to work. The place is irrelevant. What iw relavant though is the need to find time to self and create consistent time with God. It will make a difference, I promise.
In closing Out of this story we are called to:
Come out of ourselves and have Compassion for those who crowd us, to have a deep desire to alleviate the suffering of those around us.
Speak our doubts and frustrations to God but to still obey with the faith of a child.
To give what we have to God and let God multiply it.
Have solitary, meditative time with God to heal our own broken spirits.
What action do you need to take this week to live out the lessons of this story. Do you know this God of compassion who enters into your suffering world? As we sing this final hymn think about how you are to respond to this word today. You may want to use the prayer rail to meditate on this for a while. I open it up to you.
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Growing Together in Fields of Grace
Matthew 13:24-43
Our passage of scripture this morning places us right in the thick of Jesus’s Ministry. He has been going about teaching his disciples, speaking in the synagogues, addressing the Pharisees questions, walking through grain fields, teaching when questions arise. As I prepared for this sermon one thing that struck me as new was how Jesus was ever ready for “teachable moments.” This reminded me of my Uncle Stan, on of the more patient persons I know. Stan spent 12 years as the Dean of the Lifeworks partnership at Mars Hill College. One part of his job was working with students in the Bonner scholarship program, a scholarship that required community service projects. My brother was an upperclassman at Mars Hill and the recipient of one of the scholarships. As am upperclassman he was in a leadership role and the driver of one of the vans. The freshman class of Bonner scholars had arrived on campus and they were having their orientation retreat. They had completed a service project in the morning, had broken for lunch and were to meet back at a designated time and place for their afternoon community service project. My brother took his group of anxious freshmen back to campus to see their dorms and such and they ended up sitting around, talking, cutting up and getting to the after lunch meeting destination VERY late. Stan stood their waiting. He was driving another van but gave the keys to another person able to drive and got in the passengers seat of the van Kris was driving where he quietly as they drove to the next destination explained to my brother the responsibilities of a leader, of making sure that his group remained together, of making sure that they were on time. He pointed out that there were people depending on them to get a job done today at a certain time and the tardiness could really affect them. My brother, ashamed that he had disappointed his uncle, began apologizing profusely. My Uncles response, “no, no, no, let’s just consider this a teachable moment. Thus was the first of many teachable moments. I wonder if Stan didn’t learn this teachable moment technique from his studies of the life of Jesus; for in reading through Matthew we find Jesus walking through grain fields, being asked questions, using the moment and the setting to teach a new lesson about “the Way”---about the Kingdom. Right at the end of chapter 12 he gets word that his mother and brothers want to speak to him. He says: “who are my mother and brother?” He then says, as he points to his disciples, “For whoever does the will of my Father in Heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Jesus uses this moment to teach the crowd something else about “The Way.” People who are followers of Christ treat each other as family. They take care of each other; they take this journey called life together. Imagine what that might mean to the person whose family has rejected them, or to the orphan, or to the widow. Don’t worry my friends, you follow God’s way that I am showing you, you accept all of this love that’s being offered to you and you have inherited yourself a family. Does that mean Jesus has rejected his biological family? Does that mean those of us who are part of a strong family are supposed to reject our families in order to follow Jesus? No! Jesus is very clear to us about the responsibility we have for our parents, the responsibility parents have for their children. Jesus shows us on the cross that he has not rejected his family when he looks down from the cross at his mother and his beloved friend John and says: John, your mother, Mama, your son. As he is dying he makes sure he gives instruction for his mother and his friend to be taken care of. Why a whole sermon could be written just on that little nugget right there. But…..we have only just begun.
It is at that point that we enter into chapter 13, where our text is found today. Jesus has left the house where he is staying with his disciples. As soon as he walks out the door a crowd begins to gather, anxious to hear more about this Kingdom way of living. There are so many that Jesus has to get on a boat so everyone can see and hear. From the boat he begins to tell stories. What! Don’t you mean he preaches? No, he begins to tell stories. What! He doesn’t start reading from the scriptures? He doesn’t start telling them all about God and salvation? He doesn’t hand them tracts pointing them to the Roman Road? He doesn’t paint a gruesome picture of hell? What he talks about planting and farmers, and helpers, and seeds and harvesting, and cooking? Well, if you are wondering this, you are not alone for the disciples wondered this as well…..and they ask him. See, here is another lesson, a teachable moment for the disciples. Jesus explains to them that while they have been with him all along and witnessed all these miraculous things, the people out there, they haven’t. Would they even begin to understand if he spoke to them in the language of The Way, in Religionese. I’m reminded of the first time I had the opportunity to preach as a lay speaker. I was so excited and invited one of my best friends and her 8 year old daughter to come. My friend is not a Christian but I knew that she cared enough about me that she would come support me in this new endeavor. She was excited for me. After the service she was there waiting with a huge hug telling me how proud of me she was. Later, as we talked more about the experience she shared with me that as we told the congregation that we were singing hymn # whatever, her daughter said “What’s a hymn book.” When I said “turn in your bibles to…..her daughter said mama what’s a bible?” I grew up going to church so it had never occurred to me in my 40 years there would be anyone who didn’t know what a bible was or what a hymn book is. Those of us who grow up “in the know.” Don’t think about that very much and what seems to us to be perfectly clear is very muddy and confusing to those who aren’t Christians. Basically Jesus says “if I start talking to them the way I talk to you, their ears are going to shut, their hearts are going to shut. I have to connect with them through what they understand. This crowd understands agriculture, this crowd understands cooking. Tell the stories. The stories are the vehicle through which we connect others to this saving message of the extravagant love of Jesus. Wow yet another sermon in and of itself. Yet, we are only part way there.
After Jesus explains this to the disciples he goes back to the crowd and begins telling more stories. This series of stories is about what the kingdom of heaven really is. It is in this series of stories that our focal passage is placed. Hear it again……The kingdom of heaven in like a man who sowed good seed in his field but while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads,, the weeds also appeared. The owner’s servants came to him and said, Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from? An enemy did this he replied. The servants asked him do you want us to go and pull them up. No, he answered because while you are pulling the weeds, you man root up 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. Skipping down a little ways after Jesus finished speaking to the crowd, he went back into the house where his disciples came to him and said “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.
Do you see that. This reminds me of Sunday afternoons at my grandparents’ house. We returned from church to a home cooked meal my grandmother had prepared and put in the oven before church, with timer set and food ready when we got home. We would sit around the table and the kids would get to listen to the grownups rehash the Sunday school lesson and the sermon from the morning. They would share with each other what they got out of it, what they heard, what they understood, what they didn’t understand. The discussion would move to the living room or the front porch after the meal was done. It is a great memory. Here the disciples are doing the same thing. They were eager to understand completely, not afraid to ask. Jesus goes on to explain it to them: The one who sowed the good seed is the son of Man. The field is the world and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The son of Man will send out his angels and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. There is much to glean from this story.
Let me first explain about the weed. The word here in Greek is a word for a specific weed that looks just like wheat. It is almost impossible in the early stages of growth to tell the difference between the two. When the farmhand notices there are weeds he questions what kind of seed the farmer planted and if he planted pure seed why are there weeds? Isn’t that the never ending question? Why is there bad here? The answer someone snuck in and put it there. Well let me get rid of it. No, you might ruin the whole crop. Have you ever sent a child to weed a flower garden? What happens…..the whole garden, flowers and all disappear. Let them coexist. Let me be the judge of what is good and what is bad at harvest time…..the end.
It is tempting to want everyone to think and believe the same. After all our way is the right way. Isn’t it. I am reminded of the cafeteria line at Campbell University. On one side of the cafeteria are those who are in the Baptist Student Union. The other side are those who are not, the heathens. If a member of the Baptist Student Union went through the other line, their faith was called into question. I kid you not. The belief was that if we mixed with those who were not Christians (not in the BSU) then we would become corrupt ourselves. We stayed to ourselves. We ate together, went to church together, did activities together and roomed together. Let me tell you what opportunities were missed living in such a segregated way. We missed opportunities to share our stories. We missed opportunities to learn from others. We missed out on relationships. I have since become facebook friends with some of those “heathens” and oh how I wish I had taken time to get to know them in person back then. I know now what I missed out on. How do we show people the love of Christ when we won’t even eat with them? That isn’t love. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. There are tons of debates going on in the world about who is going to make it to heaven. Will the Buddhist be there, will the Methodists be there, will the Muslim be there, and will the Baptist be there. Who am I to make that decision? Who am I to be the judge. To me, Jesus is saying here you need to live together in this great field of grace I have created for you. In the end good gains victory over evil, let me be the judge. Do we really limit the power of God by thinking that we have to remain with “like kind” to remain pure. How do you suppose others learn about the love of God? By going to church? By having someone knock on their door? By listening to Christian radio? No, others learn about the love of God because someone who has experienced the love of God has chosen to remain in the field with them and to share the stories of their lives with them, and has shown them. The going to church, the listening to Christian radio, the going to Bible studies, that is what follows.
My uncle shared something on facebook that I read right before coming in to deliver this word to you today. I found it very relevant. Isaiah 58:9-10 reads.
Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
So my challenge to you this week is to:
1. Look for those teachable moments.
2. Resist the temptation to do finger pointing
3. Tell your story
4. Enter relationship with someone outside your comfortable circle, someone different then you.
Jesus didn’t go door to door. Jesus lived his life and the crowds came to him because they saw something different in him that they wanted to learn about. Live a life that draws people’s interest in what is different about you, and then Share your stories.
Our passage of scripture this morning places us right in the thick of Jesus’s Ministry. He has been going about teaching his disciples, speaking in the synagogues, addressing the Pharisees questions, walking through grain fields, teaching when questions arise. As I prepared for this sermon one thing that struck me as new was how Jesus was ever ready for “teachable moments.” This reminded me of my Uncle Stan, on of the more patient persons I know. Stan spent 12 years as the Dean of the Lifeworks partnership at Mars Hill College. One part of his job was working with students in the Bonner scholarship program, a scholarship that required community service projects. My brother was an upperclassman at Mars Hill and the recipient of one of the scholarships. As am upperclassman he was in a leadership role and the driver of one of the vans. The freshman class of Bonner scholars had arrived on campus and they were having their orientation retreat. They had completed a service project in the morning, had broken for lunch and were to meet back at a designated time and place for their afternoon community service project. My brother took his group of anxious freshmen back to campus to see their dorms and such and they ended up sitting around, talking, cutting up and getting to the after lunch meeting destination VERY late. Stan stood their waiting. He was driving another van but gave the keys to another person able to drive and got in the passengers seat of the van Kris was driving where he quietly as they drove to the next destination explained to my brother the responsibilities of a leader, of making sure that his group remained together, of making sure that they were on time. He pointed out that there were people depending on them to get a job done today at a certain time and the tardiness could really affect them. My brother, ashamed that he had disappointed his uncle, began apologizing profusely. My Uncles response, “no, no, no, let’s just consider this a teachable moment. Thus was the first of many teachable moments. I wonder if Stan didn’t learn this teachable moment technique from his studies of the life of Jesus; for in reading through Matthew we find Jesus walking through grain fields, being asked questions, using the moment and the setting to teach a new lesson about “the Way”---about the Kingdom. Right at the end of chapter 12 he gets word that his mother and brothers want to speak to him. He says: “who are my mother and brother?” He then says, as he points to his disciples, “For whoever does the will of my Father in Heaven is my brother and sister and mother.” Jesus uses this moment to teach the crowd something else about “The Way.” People who are followers of Christ treat each other as family. They take care of each other; they take this journey called life together. Imagine what that might mean to the person whose family has rejected them, or to the orphan, or to the widow. Don’t worry my friends, you follow God’s way that I am showing you, you accept all of this love that’s being offered to you and you have inherited yourself a family. Does that mean Jesus has rejected his biological family? Does that mean those of us who are part of a strong family are supposed to reject our families in order to follow Jesus? No! Jesus is very clear to us about the responsibility we have for our parents, the responsibility parents have for their children. Jesus shows us on the cross that he has not rejected his family when he looks down from the cross at his mother and his beloved friend John and says: John, your mother, Mama, your son. As he is dying he makes sure he gives instruction for his mother and his friend to be taken care of. Why a whole sermon could be written just on that little nugget right there. But…..we have only just begun.
It is at that point that we enter into chapter 13, where our text is found today. Jesus has left the house where he is staying with his disciples. As soon as he walks out the door a crowd begins to gather, anxious to hear more about this Kingdom way of living. There are so many that Jesus has to get on a boat so everyone can see and hear. From the boat he begins to tell stories. What! Don’t you mean he preaches? No, he begins to tell stories. What! He doesn’t start reading from the scriptures? He doesn’t start telling them all about God and salvation? He doesn’t hand them tracts pointing them to the Roman Road? He doesn’t paint a gruesome picture of hell? What he talks about planting and farmers, and helpers, and seeds and harvesting, and cooking? Well, if you are wondering this, you are not alone for the disciples wondered this as well…..and they ask him. See, here is another lesson, a teachable moment for the disciples. Jesus explains to them that while they have been with him all along and witnessed all these miraculous things, the people out there, they haven’t. Would they even begin to understand if he spoke to them in the language of The Way, in Religionese. I’m reminded of the first time I had the opportunity to preach as a lay speaker. I was so excited and invited one of my best friends and her 8 year old daughter to come. My friend is not a Christian but I knew that she cared enough about me that she would come support me in this new endeavor. She was excited for me. After the service she was there waiting with a huge hug telling me how proud of me she was. Later, as we talked more about the experience she shared with me that as we told the congregation that we were singing hymn # whatever, her daughter said “What’s a hymn book.” When I said “turn in your bibles to…..her daughter said mama what’s a bible?” I grew up going to church so it had never occurred to me in my 40 years there would be anyone who didn’t know what a bible was or what a hymn book is. Those of us who grow up “in the know.” Don’t think about that very much and what seems to us to be perfectly clear is very muddy and confusing to those who aren’t Christians. Basically Jesus says “if I start talking to them the way I talk to you, their ears are going to shut, their hearts are going to shut. I have to connect with them through what they understand. This crowd understands agriculture, this crowd understands cooking. Tell the stories. The stories are the vehicle through which we connect others to this saving message of the extravagant love of Jesus. Wow yet another sermon in and of itself. Yet, we are only part way there.
After Jesus explains this to the disciples he goes back to the crowd and begins telling more stories. This series of stories is about what the kingdom of heaven really is. It is in this series of stories that our focal passage is placed. Hear it again……The kingdom of heaven in like a man who sowed good seed in his field but while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads,, the weeds also appeared. The owner’s servants came to him and said, Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from? An enemy did this he replied. The servants asked him do you want us to go and pull them up. No, he answered because while you are pulling the weeds, you man root up 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. Skipping down a little ways after Jesus finished speaking to the crowd, he went back into the house where his disciples came to him and said “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.
Do you see that. This reminds me of Sunday afternoons at my grandparents’ house. We returned from church to a home cooked meal my grandmother had prepared and put in the oven before church, with timer set and food ready when we got home. We would sit around the table and the kids would get to listen to the grownups rehash the Sunday school lesson and the sermon from the morning. They would share with each other what they got out of it, what they heard, what they understood, what they didn’t understand. The discussion would move to the living room or the front porch after the meal was done. It is a great memory. Here the disciples are doing the same thing. They were eager to understand completely, not afraid to ask. Jesus goes on to explain it to them: The one who sowed the good seed is the son of Man. The field is the world and the good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The son of Man will send out his angels and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. There is much to glean from this story.
Let me first explain about the weed. The word here in Greek is a word for a specific weed that looks just like wheat. It is almost impossible in the early stages of growth to tell the difference between the two. When the farmhand notices there are weeds he questions what kind of seed the farmer planted and if he planted pure seed why are there weeds? Isn’t that the never ending question? Why is there bad here? The answer someone snuck in and put it there. Well let me get rid of it. No, you might ruin the whole crop. Have you ever sent a child to weed a flower garden? What happens…..the whole garden, flowers and all disappear. Let them coexist. Let me be the judge of what is good and what is bad at harvest time…..the end.
It is tempting to want everyone to think and believe the same. After all our way is the right way. Isn’t it. I am reminded of the cafeteria line at Campbell University. On one side of the cafeteria are those who are in the Baptist Student Union. The other side are those who are not, the heathens. If a member of the Baptist Student Union went through the other line, their faith was called into question. I kid you not. The belief was that if we mixed with those who were not Christians (not in the BSU) then we would become corrupt ourselves. We stayed to ourselves. We ate together, went to church together, did activities together and roomed together. Let me tell you what opportunities were missed living in such a segregated way. We missed opportunities to share our stories. We missed opportunities to learn from others. We missed out on relationships. I have since become facebook friends with some of those “heathens” and oh how I wish I had taken time to get to know them in person back then. I know now what I missed out on. How do we show people the love of Christ when we won’t even eat with them? That isn’t love. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. There are tons of debates going on in the world about who is going to make it to heaven. Will the Buddhist be there, will the Methodists be there, will the Muslim be there, and will the Baptist be there. Who am I to make that decision? Who am I to be the judge. To me, Jesus is saying here you need to live together in this great field of grace I have created for you. In the end good gains victory over evil, let me be the judge. Do we really limit the power of God by thinking that we have to remain with “like kind” to remain pure. How do you suppose others learn about the love of God? By going to church? By having someone knock on their door? By listening to Christian radio? No, others learn about the love of God because someone who has experienced the love of God has chosen to remain in the field with them and to share the stories of their lives with them, and has shown them. The going to church, the listening to Christian radio, the going to Bible studies, that is what follows.
My uncle shared something on facebook that I read right before coming in to deliver this word to you today. I found it very relevant. Isaiah 58:9-10 reads.
Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;
you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
“If you do away with the yoke of oppression,
with the pointing finger and malicious talk,
10 and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry
and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,
then your light will rise in the darkness,
and your night will become like the noonday.
So my challenge to you this week is to:
1. Look for those teachable moments.
2. Resist the temptation to do finger pointing
3. Tell your story
4. Enter relationship with someone outside your comfortable circle, someone different then you.
Jesus didn’t go door to door. Jesus lived his life and the crowds came to him because they saw something different in him that they wanted to learn about. Live a life that draws people’s interest in what is different about you, and then Share your stories.
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