Both Weeds and Wheat

Genesis 28:1-10; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Sometimes, we try to sort things by ability, or by size, or by color.  Sometimes, these practices are good and helpful. Seven-year-old children do not belong in adult math classes. Wrestlers and boxers are sorted by weight for their own protection. When we are painting a house or choosing clothes, it is helpful to sort by color so everything looks good.

We are always trying to decide where others fit, and where we fit into various groups. The Hogwarts Sorting Hat in the Harry Potter books and movies helps incoming students fit into the four houses. The Sorting Hat told Harry he had two choices, either Gryffindor or Slytherin house. The choices the Sorting Hat offered were based on Harry’s skills and interests as well as his love for his parents. Harry chose to follow his parents into Gryffindor. The Sorting Hat and teachers understood his choice.

Farmers sort plants by whether they are crops or weeds. Farmers plant seeds and expect to grow mostly crops. Yes, weeds will appear, but often they can be spotted and removed. Most of us recognize dandelions as weeds, whether they are in the grass or the flowerbed or the driveway.

But, in wheat fields, darnel is a weed that looks almost identical to wheat until the crops are ripe, then the difference can be seen by the trained eye of a farmer or farm hand.

Jesus tells a parable about a farmer who planted wheat seeds. But when the crops began to grow, the slaves noticed that there were weeds sown in the crop. The slaves want to go and pull out the weeds, but the farmer tells them to wait. At harvest time, the weeds can be sorted out from the wheat and treated appropriately. Jesus is teaching the disciples that it is not up to them to choose whether something or someone is a weed or a stalk of wheat.

What we are to take from this parable is that it is not up to us to determine who is a weed and who is wheat. To paraphrase Martin Luther, we are at the same time wheat and weed. Since this is true of every person, we should not attempt to do the sorting.

Yet, our American society lately seems determined to sort each other out. We hate the one and love the other; or we love the one and hate the other. There is no in-between. I will not make a list of all the ways we divide ourselves, sort ourselves into groups, because you all know what I mean. This map is just one example.

Jesus is saying all people are both weeds and wheat, and we follow him when we look for the wheat in everyone, and let God take care of the weedy part at the right time.

So, a personal example. My brother is the exact opposite from me in many ways. Opposite political parties. Different views of how to earn a living. Different views of justice. And so forth. When we were children, he did this:

Today, he sends me pictures and articles that are his current attempt to push my buttons. He is still taunting me. His messages are the adult version of, “I’m not touching you.”

It’s annoying. In response, I have tried to prove that he is wrong. There are facts that prove I am right. But he always sees them differently. He twists my words or the words in the articles. I have sorted him into several categories that express how different he is from me. He has probably done the same for me.

At the same time, I have to remember we are children of the same parents, with our own different responses to the way in which we were raised, and the choices we made as children and as adults. I have to remember he is my brother, and I cannot write him off as not important in my life.

And I have to remember he is Jesus’ child. If I look for the wheat in him, I will see that he cares for his friends and neighbors as much as I do. He needs health care and a decent place to live as much as I do. He needs to be able to speak his mind and his opinions (even though I think he is wrong!) as much as I do. I have to wait and let Jesus do the sorting and the weeding.

There is one more way to think about this sorting of people. In the story from Genesis, Jacob has a dream, an encounter with God. When he wakes up, he says, “Surely, God was in this place and I didn’t know it.”

When we have encounters with people, or see people in the news, it may be helpful to remember that they also are where God is.  We may be able to detect some of their wheat, and some of their weeds. But -- We don’t have any way of knowing how God is working in them to change the weedy-ness into wheat. Surely, God is in their hearts, even if we don’t know it. 

Let’s not be too quick to sort people into either weeds or wheat. Let’s accept that people are both at the same time, and it’s God’s job to do the sorting, not ours.

Amen