Weeds and Seeds

Psalm 139 Matthew 13:24-34

Season after Pentecost July 20, 2008

I am afraid that I am not a very good gardener when it comes to being able to identify everything growing in the beds. In fact, most years we have a decent-sized crop of "wait and see" plants. These are the plants that we can't immediately identify, and so we are reluctant to pull them out. Most beds around our yard, and even the vegetable garden itself, have a few plants like this – plants of undetermined lineage lush greenery that we are not quite sure of. Sometimes a friend who is good at identifying plants will come by and we will ask them to take a walk around the yard with us. They might help us find a variety or two of what we commonly call "weeds," but even for them, there are still quite a few plants that fit into the "wait and see what comes" variety. When the flowers bloom, even if a plant we have been watching is a conventional weed, it may just be pretty enough to let it stay. A master gardener may have plucked the weed out of the soil weeks beforehand, but for us the flower makes its use of garden space worthwhile.

This morning's parable talks about a situation that is a bit like our garden. Someone has a wonderful garden – obviously cared for and well tended. Overnight a jealous neighbor plants weed seeds amongst the vegetables and flowers. (Although the jealous neighbor theory doesn't actually ring true for me. Most gardens have their fair share of weeds growing without the help of a jealous neighbor.) When the garden's owner discovers this travesty, he may be angry enough to tear up everything and start fresh again, but his rational side prevails and he tells his servants to wait until harvest time. When they harvest, it will be obvious which are the weeds and which are the intended crop. The crop will be harvested and used, while the weeds will be destroyed at that time.

So often, probably too often, our anger threatens to get the better of us. We may be tempted to jump the gun and do whatever we need to do in order to return a situation back to how we want it to be, but that is not always possible. It is also not always the best choice of how to respond. In this morning's parable, the Master of the garden does not react in anger or in haste. He takes a moment to contemplate what has happened, and then he figures out a line of response that will bring the most benefit and the least amount of harm. We all know that when you are weeding a garden, there is always a risk of pulling up the good plants along with the bad. We all also know the incredibly strong pull of anger when we feel we have been wronged. There was a story making the rounds a little while ago about a woman who sat down on a park bench to eat her lunch while she read a good book. She had a sandwich, a can of soda and a small bag of cookies. After she arrived, a man asked if he might join her. She said it was fine, and each settled into their own lunch and their own reading. They didn't interact at all after that. Each just ate his or her own sandwich and read his or her own book. When it came time for the cookies, the woman noticed that the man was eating her cookies and it upset her a bit, but she didn't want to start a fight over something so small, so she just made sure to pull the bag a bit closer when she reached in for a cookie herself. The man smiled at her and then audaciously reached over and took another cookie himself. She couldn't believe his rudeness – to take her cookies without even asking! Soon after the bag was finished, the woman gathered her things and got up to leave. As she went to put her book back into her bag, she was shocked to see her bag of cookies – full and unopened – sitting at the top. She looked over at the man, a bit sheepishly at this point, opened the cookies and extended the bag to him asking, "would you like some more, since I obviously ate yours?" He smiled at her, took a couple of cookies and chuckled saying, "I sure would. Thanks for sharing."

How embarrassing to jump to the wrong conclusion! How embarrassing to push blindly on as if we are the only one who knows what's what, only to discover that we are sadly mistaken. How sad to spend so much energy getting angry for nothing. It may not always happen this obviously, but I am certain that each of us can recall times when we made assumptions about a situation or another person, and allowed our feelings to fester. It can be incredibly difficult to admit it when we are wrong. But it is also difficult for us to remove ourselves from a situation far enough so as not to get caught up in the emotion of it.

In the situation of the parable, the gardener determined that the plants would grow just fine alongside the weeds, and so let them remain until harvest time. This stands in contrast to last weeks reading in which the abundant weeds choked out the desired plants before they had a chance to grow. In that case, weeding might have helped to save the crop. But in this week's case, it sounds as if it may have been detrimental. Each situation calls for its own unique response. What may work one time may not work the next. Sometimes we have to "wait and see" in order to figure out the best course of action. Sometimes we have to wait a long, long time before we can determine what is actually happening in a given situation. We have to wait until the plants grow to determine if they are weeds or crops. In a similar way, life is what helps to determine who we are and what kind of fruit we might bear, if any. It is difficult to tell much about a person when he or she is newborn, but as we grow in body, each of us also grows in terms of our spirit and soul. We become more and more the person we are destined or determined to be.

This year our pea harvest has been wonderful. We have sugar snap peas, snowpeas and shell peas, and they are all delicious. The only issue is, that the plants are all mixed in together. This makes harvesting a bit more of a chore than it should be. The snow peas are easy to distinguish from the others, but the sugar peas and shell peas are so similar that I often can't tell the difference until I take a bite. That is when I know if the pod is truly edible or merely a container for the delicious peas inside. We have to wait until we taste them in order to figure out if what we have in our hands are snap peas or shell peas.

A good bit of life is like this. A good bit of faith is like this as well. It is often best to wait and see before we make assumptions. At this weekend's retreat, we concluded by talking about a spiritual discipline that each of us found to be useful. For me, "openness" was what I chose to speak about. For me, it has been especially helpful to learn to stay open to situations and people. This means that I try to avoid making judgments about them and about their effect on my life. It means stepping back and allowing events to unfold as they will, without my interference. Sometimes, when I take the time to do this I discover that my initial assessment of a situation or a person was either wrong or a little off base, and I am relieved that I didn't act on that earlier judgment. And if I was right, and it plays out that way eventually, there is always time to respond appropriately at that point in time. I may look the fool once in awhile, but I have found that to be a lot more comfortable than to leap to negative conclusions before they are warranted. God allows the weeds and good seeds to grow alongside one another. At maturity, the truth becomes apparent. All I can do is try to grow as best I can, focusing on my own issues of growth and allowing others to do the same. If we can help one another along the way, then that is wonderful.

Loving God, you have planted an amazing garden in this world; People and animals, trees and streams of water. So many amazing forms of life, so many ways to thrive. May each of us grow into our own unique form of beauty and usefulness. May we grow strong and resourceful. May we serve you and others well. May we manifest peace and compassion in all that we do in Christ's name. Amen.