Seventh Sunday after Trinity
Listen to audio version:
Readings: Romans 8: 12-25 and Matthew 13: 24-30 and 36-43
Quite unmistakeably, the gospel for today concerns the presence of evil in the world, or in the church, or in any community, or even within ourselves.
The presence of evil is always a difficult one to explain, and one that many people find hard to square with the image of a loving, just God. The parable we heard in the gospel, known as the parable ‘of the wheat and the tares’ makes no apology that there is evil in the world; and God doesn’t try to hide the fact. “An enemy has done this” – the householder tells the slaves.
The existence of evil is a problem, and down the centuries no-one has really reached a satisfactory answer as to its cause. I imagine there isn’t a person here today who hasn’t been told by somebody at some stage that they don’t believe in a God who permits evil on such a scale as we see in wars, genocides, murders, cruelty or power struggles. Others will want to protest that God can’t possibly be in charge of the world if such evil is found within it. Most of us, disturbed by the mess in the world we hear and see in news bulletins, have at some stage wished that God would step in and sort things out! It’s what the slaves in today’s story wanted to do – ‘Let’s just pull up all the weeds.’ But God plays a longer game.
Much of the unhappiness and suffering in the world is not caused by human beings. There is misery caused by disharmony in the created order, leading to natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and the like. And we may well think of disorder in diseases such as cancer or dementia. But the evil Jesus is talking about in today’s parable concerns what might be found in human hearts. Why are some people inherently good, and others ‘children of the devil?’ And is it nature, or nurture? We know that wrong fosters wrong, and that children can grow up imitating the ‘sins of the fathers’. But equally, children can triumph over a bad upbringing. Often I have observed families and thought, ‘those well-behaved children deserve better parents they’ve been landed with.’
One lesson of the parable is that our human minds are receptive to both good and evil seed, and it is up to us to determine which will be the encouraged growth – a daily struggle against temptations, deceits and unwise choices. We were thinking a couple of weeks ago how St. Paul detected a great conflict within himself which so often turned him away from what he knew was right and good. Here, in the parable of the wheat and the tares, Jesus looks at the problem from his Father’s perspective.
The master in the story allows the wheat and the weeds to grow together until the harvest. St. Matthew’s gospel is the only one to record this particular parable. Matthew was especially interested in the nature of the Church. In his time it had already been discovered that church membership did not always mean a truly Christian life. What was to be done with new Christians who fell back into sinful ways? Some wanted them excommunicated straightaway. Many thought that the Church should be a select or elect community which had to keep itself separate from the wicked world outside. So, for a while, offenders within the community had to be expelled. But it began to be realized that this would mean cutting off souls for whom Christ died. In the story, the master was adamant that the wheat and the weeds should grow together.
God is opposed to anything that is evil, and yet is patient with the wicked, and spares them for a long time in the hope that there may be a real turning-away from evil and sin. Premature judgment removes any chance of redemption. We need to hold on to that vision of both sides of God’s character. He is not indifferent to evil and sin; nor can he be indifferent to those whom he has made for himself, and made in his own image. So he is long-suffering in the hope that the wicked may be converted and the righteous perfected.
No doubt, many farmers would look at the strategy of the master in the story and think it absurd. Sensible farmers weed out the weeds. Letting them flourish alongside the wheat is about as absurd as a shepherd abandoning the rest of his flock for the sake of a single one that has wandered off, which we hear about in another parable. But these parables are not about farming practice but about the kingdom of heaven. The expression ‘kingdom of heaven’ means how God works here and now; and the way God works is not the way we do.
Going back to the question of evil – there is one explanation of this problem which describes this life as ‘the vale of soul-making’ – that is, that this life with its trials, its tests and its sufferings, gives us an opportunity to make ourselves fit for heaven – either deliberately or unwittingly. I’ve never found the ‘vale of soul-making’ theory particularly attractive if it suggests that God deliberately makes life a misery for us to see how we handle it. That doesn’t speak to me of a gracious, loving God. But if we accept that there is evil in the world, and that ‘an enemy hath done this’, then it is right to think that we can move closer to God by our rejection of all that is bad, remembering all the time that, as a hymn puts it, “Every virtue we possess, and every conquest won / And every thought of holiness, are his alone.”
The reading from Romans today, with its talk of human spirits groaning inwardly as we wait for the fullness of God’s redemption to be revealed, and the gospel parable, both remind us that the realm of the divine is the true home of the believer – that ‘kingdom of God’ which so many of the parables try to explain. We are not to judge anything prematurely, as our coming home to God takes a lifetime and possibly longer. When we are tempted to gather up the weeds through impatience or because the field looks untidy, there is a real danger of uprooting the wheat as well. It is not for God’s servants to anticipate what he will do on his day. He has appointed the time and the season, and will search into all souls, and the result will be the right decision.
So whether you think of the parable as challenging the individual, or challenging evil in the world, remember that God is merciful, and that there is a definite point at the end-of-time when he will judge the world in righteousness. Meanwhile may we contemplate how we react when some of our best plans are spoiled by another’s carelessness, stupidity or spite. Can we be patient enough to leave the outcome to God?
Lord, I long to shine in your kingdom, and not to be fooled by the tempter. As all people grow together in one field, may I live as if I am the wheat, and not try to smother the weeds. For who am I to judge another? Amen.