Proper
11 :: Genesis 28: 10-19a / Psalm 139: 1-11, 22-23 / Romans 8: 12-25 / Matthew 13:
24-30, 36-43
This
is the homily given at St. John’s Church, Huntingdon, Pennsylvania by Fr. Gene
Tucker on Sunday, July 19, 2020.
“UNCOMFORTABLE TRUTHS”
(Homily text: Matthew 13: 24-30,
36-43)
Our
Lord’s Parable of the Weeds, heard in this morning’s appointed Gospel reading,
presents us with two uncomfortable, unsettling truths:
- That evil will exist alongside the good (yes, even in the Church) until the close of the age,
- That it can be difficult to distinguish the evil from the good.
I
don’t know about you, but my reaction to these two statements isn’t a positive
one. If I had anything to say about the situation, I’d want evil to be banished
completely from the world (and the Church), and I’d want it to be easy to tell
which is which. Perhaps you feel the same way.
In
this Sunday’s appointed Gospel reading, the Lord uses an agricultural image to
convey the truth of the world in which we live. He did so in last week’s text,
as well, when we considered the Parable of the Sower. To His original hearers
(and to the church in which Matthew may have worked), such an image would have
been a very familiar one, since the culture in which both groups lived was an
agricultural one.
The
truth that we will be surrounded by the presence of evil puts us in a difficult
situation, for it means that we will have to live with the reality that there
are forces present in the world which are in rebellion against God. (The
theological term for such a situation, in which evil persists despite God’s
power and presence, is theodicy.)
But
this condition isn’t a new one, not by any means. Go back with me to the Garden
of Eden, and particularly to Genesis, chapter three. There, we read about the
temptation of Eve and then Adam. The theological truth presented in Genesis is
that, despite the goodness and presence of God in the Garden, evil had access
to these two. So the serpent (in Holy Scripture, the serpent is the depiction
of evil) approaches Eve, and presents her with an attractive possibility: That
if she eats of the tree which God had said was “off limits”, she would be as
wise as God, knowing good and evil. Moreover, if she ate of the fruit of the
tree, she wouldn’t die, as God had warned. The rest of the story is familiar:
Eve accepts the serpent’s suggestion, noticing that the fruit of the tree was
“good for food”. She eats of it, and then gives it to Adam, who is, apparently,
standing next to her.
With
this truth, we come to a connection to the Parable of the Weeds: That evil is often very hard to distinguish
from good. To uncover this aspect of our Lord’s teaching, we must understand an
important detail in the story: The Lord doesn’t use a generic word for “weeds”,
which is the way the Greek word is most often translated. No, the Lord refers
to a specific type of week, darnel, which is a rye grass plant with
poisonous seeds which, in its early stages of growth, is difficult to tell
apart from wheat. The point seems to be that evil can be difficult to
distinguish from good.
But
notice that some of the servants do notice the difference as time goes along
and the plants in the field begin to grow. Here’s an important point for Jesus’
original hearers, for those in Matthew’s church, and for us, to grasp: We must
be on the lookout for the presence of evil, and must be keen to see it for its
unmistakable signature whenever we encounter it.
One
final point is in order: Notice that Jesus says that the poisonous weeds are
not to be plucked up out of the field, for to do so would require pulling up
the wheat, as well. Better to leave the wheat (the good) in the field to make
the field worthwhile, rather than to remove it.
Christians
down through the ages who have longed for the dawning of the kingdom in all of
its fullness have often wished that God would remove them from the world. Some
Christians harbor such a sentiment to the point that they withdraw themselves
(and their influence) from the world completely. Some Christians become, in the
process, so heavenly minded that they are little earthly good. That doesn’t
seem to be what God intends for His people. We are to be about the redeeming
work of growing into a mature faith in order to give the world (the field)
worth and value.
In
Matthew’s understanding, God’s final and complete work will take place at the
close of the age. In Matthew’s Gospel account, that final accounting and
judgment is never far below the surface of his writing. But such a final and
complete work is to be done in God’s good time, not ours. Our task is to be
faithful in the face of evil, redeeming the world by our presence and our
witness.
May
God strengthen us for this work.
AMEN.
