Saints and Sinners — That’s Us
The first thing I’m curious about in this parable is that the relationships are upside down.
The Master is doing the work. The servants , who you would expect to be doing the work, are providing the commentary on the quality of work – negligent or outright stupid. “Hey, Master – didn’t you plant good seed? There sure are a lot of weeds growing there. Want us to pull out the weeds (you obviously accidentally planted.)?”
Ok – ‘fess up. How many times have you thought you could do better with the design of things? With the way things work.
Aging for example. Arthritis, really? Memory loss, hearing loss, teeth falling out, how fair is all that? Why couldn’t we go out on a high note of strength and happiness?
And poison oak, rampant on hiking trails – mosquitos whining in your ears, biting the back of your hand, itching for days.
Birth defects? Early onset Alzheimers?
There is so much beauty, so much goodness, so much pulsing, thriving life – AND there is a lot in this world that could be designed better – you know it and I know it.
But it’s not just the natural world.
You and I are a big mixed up mix of good and bad, of pure and not so pure, of doing good for others partly because, well, it strokes our own ego.
And honestly, it’s hard to tell sometimes which is which. The truth is that when we try to get rid of something we classify as “evil”, there are often unintended consequences, blowback –and we can end up with something even worse.
Pain is a good example. We want to mitigate pain, physical pain, emotional pain, but when we go too far in trying to feel better all the time, we risk creating addictions.
We want to get rid of disease, but when we go too far in trying to stamp out illnesses, we risk creating super-bugs that are resistant to treatment.
We are certainly thankful for science, for the scientific method, for medical advances, for climate controlled housing, for increased food production, for all the ways we have of improving the comforts of our earthly existence.
AND this parable is telling us wisdom – Good and evil, right and wrong, opportunities and challenges, joys and sorrows, they are intermingled and our perceptions are limited – are judgements about which is which is quite possibly incorrect, or at least ill informed.
So Jesus invites us into a spacious place of greater wonder and greater acceptance of the world and other people and ourselves as we are — beautiful and flawed, annoying and endearing, difficult and enjoyable, sinful and faithful. Saints and sinners. That’s who we are. That’s the way of this precious world we inhabit.
Jesus told this parable to Galilean farmers who knew the kinds of weeds he was talking about. They were called darnel, or tares. And darnel looks like wheat. If you Google darnel and wheat you can see photos of the two plants – and they are virtually identical.
But it’s easy to tell which is which by the time the wheat is ready to harvest. Wheat grains are heavy. They make the plant droop with their weight. Darnel, on the other hand, is unproductive. It has no weighty head of grain, so the plant continues to stand up right.
By their fruits you will know them, Jesus says.
So, Jesus says, let it be. Things tend to sort themselves out. And the more we trust that to happen, the happier we will be, and the more room we give God to work all things to their rightful purpose.
Friends, here’s the hope for this morning – that we can more and more accept ourselves and others as we are. Not as we think we should be. Or as we think we need to be. But as we are.
When we stand for the creed and say “I believe in God almighty” – may the Spirit still our doubts in the Master and deepen our trust – in other words, may we give God some space and trust that God knows what God is doing – that God has things in hand.
It’s good to be here. It’s good to grow together in wisdom and trust and compassion.
