I truly enjoy working outside around the house in the summer. Tending the lawn and flower beds is therapeutic for me. And this summer, having moved into a ‘new’ home that was suffering from a number of years of neglect, I’m getting a lot of ‘yard-work therapy, ’ much of which seems to involve pulling and spraying weeds.
You see, I’m one of those guys who likes to have a weed-free yard. I’m so diligent about it that I have gotten into trouble sometimes by pulling ‘weeds’ that were really some of Jean’s flowers. (Seriously, until they actually flower…they look like weeds to me!)
So as l engage in battle with my (now partially) weed-infested lawn and flower beds, I am mindful that Jean has already planted some new flowers here and there, which I need to be careful not to uproot in my battle for a weed-free yard. I guess I feel sort of like the workers in Jesus parable of the weeds among the wheat. (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43)
Just like Jean has impressed on me to wait until a plant flowers (or at least ask her what it is) before assuming it’s a weed, the master in the parable tells his workers to let the wheat and weeds grow together until the harvest (when it is obvious which is which) and then they can be pulled and separated.
In the kingdom of God, God is the patient gardener, who does not want to risk losing one good plant in the battle against the evil weeds. And this is an especially good thing, because there are times in all of our lives where the weeds in our lives (materialism, self-centeredness, busy-ness, jealousy, anger, greed, hard-heartedness—and any thing we might trust in more than we trust in God) have a tendency to crowd out and hinder the growth of the seeds of faith God has planted in our hearts.
But, through the power of God’s Word and the Sacraments, God tends the garden. Because of what God has done for us (and continues to do for us through the power of the Holy Spirit), weeds do not overtake the wheat, and the sinner within each of us does not overtake the saint. God wins the battle over the weeds in our lives. God’s abundant love, made real for us in and through Jesus Christ, makes possible a bountiful harvest of righteousness.
Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Matthew 13:41-43
Blessings, Pastor Roy+
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