He
put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared
to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was
asleep,
an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away.
So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.
And the slaves of the householder came and said to him,
‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?
Where, then, did these weeds come from?’
He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’
The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’
But
he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat
along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and
at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and
bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my
barn.’”
Then
he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples
approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the
field.”
He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world,
and
the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the
children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the
harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the
weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of
the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out
of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw
them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of
their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!
****
This
is not a fun scripture, and one I have been intimidated by for the last
couple weeks in preparation for preaching. It seems to say that the
evil one is constantly at work and if you are bad you are going to be
swept into the fire, and includes that there will be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. Meanwhile, if you are good you will shine like the
sun. My first thought is how simplistic, and my second is, “yikes!”
Yikes because, I neither think people are this one sided (good or bad),
nor do I believe God is this harshly judgmental, and so I have to look
at this scripture with a less literal eye, while still respecting what
the scripture says and Jesus explains. And one thing Jesus is talking
about is the harvest at the end of the age. And in some sense, this is
what happens to our church in late May.
Since
September we have been planting, and sowing and watching things grow
and now is harvest time. We have written and applied for a sabbatical
grant for the church and myself your pastor and we will hear in August.
We have decorated the church for it’s seasons and it has been beautiful
and inspiring. So many, especially the Buildings and Grounds Committee
have prepared the church during its crazy winter season and helped us
survive through all the sewer, plumbing, roofing issues etc. we had and
continue to have. These people and their efforts are the wheat. We
transitioned beautifully from having LaVonne be an amazing treasurer, to
working smoothly with Guyer and Associates. We have watched new leaders
thrive in the Backpack Program, and we have successfully navigated
supporting a more challenging group of seventh graders at Open Door, it
was not easy wheat to grow, but it taught us how valued the wheat we
create down in the basement is. Lectionary Bible Study has been
invigorating with new faces meeting long term participants and engaging
discussions. We have seen some of our little ones begin to grow up -
from being baptized, to participating more in worship, and wowing us
with their Christmas Program. Likewise, we have watched Kourtney Lehman
prepare to graduate and so many of you were there yesterday and on
Graduate Sunday
to recognize her and wish her well, as she has given so much wheat to
the church. So too, do we see the harvest in people like Sharon Defrees
and Deb Trapp as the prepare to retire after years of dedication and
service to students and their community. Or we watch people like Molly
Smith be awarded a math teaching award and then be offered the position
of Principal at North Powder! This is the harvest, these are signs of
the wheat.
But
there are also the weeds we have burned, and it isn’t a particularly
bad thing. We have stepped back from doing two little kids Sunday
School classes all the time to having one. This has created a really
fun atmosphere with tons of great projects shared between the
McClaughry's and Linda Moxon. We also scaled back Youth Group to twice a
month, so that with fewer kids, having graduated so many in the past
couple years, we could all focus on those couple times a month together,
rather than spreading everyone thin each week. I don’t know if anyone
noticed, but we have not even opened the Kid’s Closet, which would hand
out things for Christmas and other holidays, and instead Women’s Support
Group, and others, have realized with aging members and therefore
dwindling numbers, that they are going to focus on that special time
together, and the things they can do, and do so well, like caring during
funerals, helping with folding the newsletter with systematic, skilled,
proficiency, and not doing so, so many little things. It was a hard
realization that took years to come to, but because they collected the
weeds, there is more room for naming what really makes them flourish. I
see a new energy in Women’s Support Group these days. Mission Committee
also has named their focus as Open Door and Backpack which are huge
undertakings themselves, and could each be nonprofits with boards and
volunteers and even staff. Therefore, because so much wheat is
flourishing in those places, things like Turkey Bucks have been passed
on to Safeway where more people than our own membership can donate while
still allowing us the opportunity to give there. Meanwhile, each
volunteer at the Backpack Program has hauled literally a ton of food,
with I think what was seventeen total. For Vacation Bible School this
year we Melissa and Annie are leading us in trying something different
and the excitement is growing for instead of four days as we have always
done it, to have one evening full of campfire songs, and food, and
crafts and music, and scripture! What fun. This is the wheat that has
been harvested because we didn’t get lost in the weeds.
Now I know, some of these things might make you sad, what about Sunday
School, what about Youth Group, what about the Women’s Support Group
Auction, we have done these things for years and now there isn’t enough
energy or people for them. We need more people, I hear often, yet, when I
served a church of 1,500, it was even harder to find youth group
volunteers (when you have 100 youth, you need more than Annalea and Zach
- a 1 to 50 ratio isn’t good and here we have like 2 to five! So, it
isn’t about more people, its about trust and focus. And I think this is
part of what this scripture is saying to us, especially at Pentecost,
especially at this birthday of the church.
On
birthdays we look over the past year, or years and see how far we have
come, and likewise, we rejoice for all the wonderful things that are
happening and the character of the person we love. Well, Pentecost, it
is the church’s birthday, and the church has been alive since Jesus, and
these stories are still being told, and the Holy Spirit is still
separating out the weeds from the wheat, so that there is a bountiful
harvest. It’s laughable to think of Jesus insisting on two Sunday
School classes because his focus was bigger, he said let the children
come to me, and just because it looks different today then it did then,
and today then it did three years ago, doesn’t mean that we or the Holy
Spirit have fallen down. In fact, I would say the opposite, it means we
are focusing on where Jesus is calling us, we are listening to what are
the weeds and what is the wheat. For our own local church, we have been
around since 1884, this town was a gold rush town and four women got
together and wanted to create a Presbyterian Church, and so they did, do
we do it the same as they did, no, but likewise, we have some of the
most committed and wise group of elders working together than I have
ever witnessed. Do we look like the church of the fifties and sixties
with families like the Johnsons and the Cassidy’s taking up whole pews,
no (unless its Christmas, or the Christmas Program and we do have the
whole Johnson clan back in town). But does that make our humble showing
on a Memorial Day Sunday
any less, No! God is still present, the Holy Spirit is still at work,
we are still very much alive and flourishing, but instead of having a
field of weeds and wheat, we are really focusing on having a field of
wheat. I think this is a pretty happy birthday for the church! I think
we have a lot to be proud of. I think the Holy Spirit is so alive in
this place. The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of
their Father. Let anyone with ears listen! It is our Birthday, the Birth
of the church, lets Celebrate!
