5 Pentecost, Year A

Proper 11 -- Genesis 28:10-19; Psalm 139:1–11,22-23; Romans 8:12-25; Matthew 13:24–30,36-39
A homily by Fr. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois, on Sunday, July 17, 2011

“RECEIVING A GIFT, TO GIVE A GIFT”
(Homily text: Matthew 13: 24 – 30, 36 - 43)

Are you a gift to others, to the world?

I’ll admit, this isn’t an idea that we probably give much thought to in our day-to-day lives, though there are circumstances that might prompt us to think of ourselves in just this way. 

For example, if another person is very ill, we might help them or support them in some way or another, and maybe we might reflect on what we’ve done and realize that our actions are a gift, given in love and with care, to that other person.
The Church is a gift.

The Church is God’s gift to the world, meant to bear fruit in the world, for God’s glory and for the welfare of the world.

Now hold that thought for a moment, while we consider the setting for this statement.

Jesus is telling us today the second of two parables that have to do with sowing seeds and reaping a harvest. The first one we heard last Sunday, the very familiar “Parable of the Sower”. In that parable, Jesus tells about the various things that happen when seed is sown on rocky ground, on thorny ground, on hardened ground, and on good ground.

You’ll remember that last week’s parable had an explicit, clear explanation of its meaning, provided by the Lord Himself. The same is true of today’s parable, which is usually entitled “The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares”.

So these two parables have lots in common: agricultural themes having to do with sowing seeds, and a clear explanation, provided by Jesus, following the telling of the parable.

Today’s parable provides a clear picture of the circumstances in which the “sons of the kingdom” find themselves, in a world which is hostile to the will of God. Jesus likens the situation to that of a weed-infested field, in which the roots of the weeds and intertwined with the roots of the desirable plants.

With this background in mind, then, let’s look at some of the main points which are made by Jesus in this parable, and then let’s draw some conclusions from our observations.

The Church: In the parable, the landowner deliberately chooses, and then casts, the good seed onto the field, which Jesus says, is the world. If the good seed is the “sons of the kingdom” then, we might surmise that Jesus could be referring to the Church. After all, Matthew is the only gospel writer to actually record the world “Church”. Remember that the Church isn’t an institution, but the assembly of God’s people.

Here, we ought to pause for a moment. It might be easy for us to think that the Church is brought together by the free will of the people who are in it. Put another way, we might say that the Church is “our” doing, brought into being by the choice of those in it. But the image here is something else which is entirely different: It is the landowner who chooses the good seed, the “sons of the kingdom”. So then, the Church comes into being because of the will of the Son of Man (Jesus), and we (the seeds) are deliberately chosen to be in it.

Jesus will amplify this point as He speaks to His disciples in John 15: 16, when He says, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to bear fruit and that your fruit should abide…”

The world: Without the presence of the good seed on the land, the field would simply be worthless. Weeds would abound, and there would be no good purpose to the field at all.

The presence of the good seed gives value and worth to the field.

So the good seed (the members of the kingdom, that is, the Church) is meant to be a blessing, to bring worth, to the field (the world).

In this sense then, the Church’s members are meant to be a gift, a blessing, to the world.

Opposition: Jesus is a realist….He knows that the sons and daughters of the kingdom are in an environment in which there is opposition to their presence. Jesus identifies this opposition as being the work of the “evil one”, an “enemy”, the “devil”.

As we look back into the Old Testament, and go to Genesis, chapter three, we see that this has always been so throughout history. There, in the Garden which was in Eden, the serpent had access to Adam and Eve, and the access that the serpent had allowed him to tempt them both into eating from the forbidden tree.

So evil has always been a part of the world in which we find ourselves. We can expect opposition from the forces which are opposed to God. We can expect this opposition to endure until the end of the age, at which time the landowner will come and pluck out everything that is opposed to God and to His will for the world.

Living with the bad seed: The Lord delivers an important lesson for the Church in this parable: We will have to live among the presence and the opposition from the seeds of the wicked one.

This realization will cut across our desires to live in a world where evil has been taken away. The Lord makes clear that the sorting out will come, but not until God is ready to do the sorting.

To do the sorting ourselves risks the possibility that the good seed will be uprooted along with the bad, and the blessings that the good seed’s presence brings will be lost.

So then, let’s draw some conclusions from our observations.

First of all, we would do well to remember that it is God who calls us to become citizens of His kingdom. “You did not choose me, but I chose you,” we read a moment ago. So, the gathering of the citizens of the kingdom is the gathering of God’s people, the Church. The Church itself is God’s possession and is meant to be God’s gift to the world. We are blessed if we have been chosen by God to be a part of His family.

Secondly, since we have received a gift from God to be a part of His body, then we are meant as recipients of that gift to be a gift to others, bringing purpose to the world and life to it. We can only be a blessing and a gift if we are physically present in the field (the world).

Then third, we ought to remember that, as we live our lives day in and day out, there will be opposition to God’s purposes. But God has placed us in this environment to bring worth to what would otherwise be worthless, and God will reap the harvest in His own good time. The harvest is guaranteed!

May we be a blessing and a gift to others, just as we have received God’s blessings and God’s gifts, that we might go and bear fruit for the kingdom.

AMEN.