Labeling weeds

Genesis 28:10-19a; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

When we first moved here, Mike started pulling up the runners of straggly grass in our yard. But there was too much of it to get rid of it all. It turns out that some Florida grass looks just like Michigan crabgrass. And it was our lawn he was trying to get rid of!

In today’s gospel reading, Jesus tells a parable about growing wheat. This one mystifies some of his listeners because the ending is hard to comprehend. We understand the words, but leaving weeds growing in a field of wheat doesn’t make sense to farmers. I am not good at weeding, but I know my small patch of flowers does better when they are not crowded out by weeds.

But the parable says to leave the weeds alone. The crops will be sorted out at harvest time. If the wheat plants are believers and the weed plants are the enemies, who is to say that the enemies are no longer enemies by the time of the harvest.

I discovered this story in my preparation for the sermon. Pr Jack was a hospice chaplain who had been called to the room of one of the patients. As he entered the room, Walter, the eldest son, greeted Pr Jack and introduced himself. “Pastor,” Walter said, “My mother taught me all about Jesus a long time ago. I gave my heart to him 27 years ago and have been active in church ever since that time. The reason I called you to come to our room is the family in the next room. They don’t seem to have expressed a belief in Jesus and I’m worried about them.”

After spending some time with the patient and her family, Pr Jack entered the next room and found a family gathered around their loved one. They were telling stories of their lives together, enjoying the last few days they would have together on earth, just like Walter’s family. Pastor Jack didn’t know if the family was Christian or Jewish or Muslim or no faith at all. But they seemed to know love and caring as much as Walter’s family. He wasn’t worried about them at all.

… Had he lived long ago, Pastor Jack might have been worried about Jacob at this time in Jacob’s life. He is a scoundrel, a cheat. We would not approve of the way he does business, if he were our friend. But God has chosen this family as the path to blessing all the families of the world. So, we have to accept this flawed person as our many-many-times great-grandpa. God certainly did; and it turns out Jacob learned his lessons as he aged.

Right now, in today’s story from Genesis, he is on the run, fleeing the anger of his brother Esau for stealing his birthright and the final blessing of his father. He is running toward the old family home in Haran, where he will stay for a number of years. Right now, he is terrified his brother has followed him to punish him, so his sleep is troubled.

Yet, he dreams of God’s encouragement, God’s promises. “I am the God of your father Isaac and your grandfather Abraham. The promises I made to them, I give to you, also.” Jacob’s response is, “Wow! God is in this place, and I didn’t know it!” Jacob wakes up and turns his pillow into an altar and gives the place a name, Beth-el, house of God.

We discussed this comment by Jacob on Wednesday morning and talked about places we have named as holy. They were all quiet places in nature where we could hear the silence and the critters. But nature is not the only location where we have found holiness. We have found holy moments, God-present moments, in church – in this church, even – and in youth camps and adult retreats.

God moments happen any time and any place: workplaces and council meetings and football or baseball games and Hospice rooms. We might have an encounter with God when we talk with a restaurant server or auto mechanic. We might even have an encounter with God when we are with someone with whom we disagree on politics or religion, or whether new housing is needed where the golf course used to be.

Holy conversations happen when we accept a person for who they are, no matter who they are. When we have a conversation based on what we can agree on, there is room for God to be with us and guide us to something more meaningful. This is true even if our conversation partner is someone like that scoundrel Jacob.

… One more story, this one a small scene in a Hallmark movie. Annika and Ryan are trying to find her grandfather’s first love, Ruth Barlow. They gather a list of possible Ruth Barlows and interview them. Each Ruth tells a love story.

One of those stories is about flowers and weeds. This Ruth tells how she met the woman of her dreams. She talked about how she loved flowers and planted lots of them in careful beds all around her yard. She carefully weeded them to keep out unwanted plants.

Across the street was Mary, who loved wildflowers and had an abundance of them in her yard. Ruth talked with Mary, complaining how Mary’s weeds were getting into Ruth’s flower gardens. Mary replied, “Weeds are plants that no one has a use for. When we look for the beauty of the wildflowers, we no longer think of them as weeds.”

Ruth began to look for the flowers in Mary’s yard and discovered great beauty. They had been married for many years by the time Annika and Ryan interviewed her.

… It is so easy for us to judge those things or people or places that are different as imperfect, as unworthy of God’s love and our attention. When we look more carefully, through God’s eyes, we discover unexpected beauty. We discover that God lives there, too.

So this week, I hope you will look around and see beauty in new places, and feel God’s presence in your conversations.  And, as always, I look forward to your stories.