Sunday
07/19/20 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “The
Kingdom Of Heaven May Be Compared To…”
Old Testament
Scripture: Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24
New Testament
Scripture: Romans 8:12-25
Gospel Lesson: Matthew
13:24-30, 36-43
Welcome again on this the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost. Six Sundays
after the Holy Spirit moved nearly two-thousand years ago on the day of Pentecost,
and the Christian Church was born.
Last Sunday, if you remember, I talked
about how the Bible is full of agricultural and farming references. Unfortunately,
however, as I also said last Sunday, only about 1-2% of our country is
currently involved directly in agriculture or farming. This reality from a
Biblical standpoint, has caused many young people to not understand or to relate
well to the agricultural and farming references in the Bible.
I mean if you know nothing about “sowing
seeds,” planting, harvesting, etc., then some of the Biblical references to
farming and agriculture might be hard for some young people to understand.
These references though are still true, as I believe that the Bible is true, but
we must make more efforts in 2020 to explain these agricultural and farming
references that in the Bible.
It is interesting to me that our
reading for this morning from Psalm 139 once again, talks about how God knows
us so well (Ps. 139:1-12, 23-24, NRSV). In fact, Psalm 139:1-4 says once again:
“O Lord, you have searched me
and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my
path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it
completely” (Ps. 139:1-4, NRSV).
God knows us so well. God knows every hair on our head, and
He made us in His image. When God’s son, Jesus Christ walked among us, God was
physically with us. Instead of always just saying that God knows us and loves
us though, Jesus would relate the truths of God often through parables or stories.
Many of these stories involved, as I have been saying, farming or agriculture,
or the world in which Jesus lived. The world in which Jesus lived was vastly
different then our world is today. Yet God was God then and is still the same
God now. The truths and the authority of Jesus have not changed, but how our
society is a lot different today.
Jesus’ parables or stories, therefore, are just as authoritative
as they ever have been, but our society and our culture are different today. As
a result, we need to teach the same exact truths and beliefs, but we need to be
able to explain them in such a way, so that people today can understand the
very same things Jesus was teaching nearly two-thousand years ago.
For
example, this morning the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 8:12-16, once again:
“So then, brothers and
sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for
if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put
to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the
Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery
to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we
cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our
spirit that we are children of God,” (Rom. 8:12-16, NRSV).
The Apostle Paul wrote these words to
the church in Rome, Italy over 1,950 years ago. The world that the Romans lived
in was quite different than the world that we live in today. The technology was
different, Roman culture had a lot of differences, and life in general back
then was different.
Yet the Apostle Paul says if we live
according to just our flesh, our desires, our lusts, and our sin, then we will
die in our sin. Centuries later, in this time, in this culture, is this not
just as true as it was back in ancient Rome? The context of the Bible, and
lives of the people then might have had many differences from us today, but who
we are as people, who God is, and who Jesus is, has not changed a bit.
The Apostle Paul then tells us if we
live by the Spirit, if we live for God, then we will live eternally. Further, if
we live by the Spirit, if we live for God, then we are children of God. If we do
not though, then we die in our sin.
Like last Sunday then, we have another
farming or agricultural parable or story from Jesus. This parable from Matthew
13, is often called the parable of “The Wheat and the Tares”.
Most of us probably have an idea at least of what wheat
is. I mean we buy “Wheat Thins,” “Frosted Mini-Wheats,” and “Whole Grain Wheat Bread”.
Many of us know that wheat is were we get a lot of bread products. Wheat also
contains this wonderful thing called “gluten,” and some people are allergic to
gluten. As a result, these people need “gluten free” products.
So, this Sunday once again, Jesus
gives us the parable or the story of “The Wheat and the Tares”. You might think
then, well then what is a “Tare”? I have seen people in my life get into
arguments or get mad and breaking things. A few times I have heard someone say,
“Well John is really on a “tare” isn’t he”.
In this parable or story for this
morning though, a “tare” is a weed. Anyone that has ever gardened or grown
crops are all too well aware of weeds or “tares”. For those of us that garden
or farm, wouldn’t you love it if there were no more weeds? Meaning you plant
flowers, crops, or an entire field, and no more weeds? Wouldn’t that be great?
How many of you in your own life, have
spent hours and hours pulling weeds? When I was kid, sometimes one of my chores
was to pull weeds. I do not like weeds! Do you?
So, this morning, the very farming or
agricultural story that Jesus tells us is about wheat and weeds, or “tares”. I
looked up for this sermon how much wheat is grown and produced every year
worldwide. What I learned, is that wheat is essential, at least right now, to
human survival. So, if our wheat plants are choked out by weeds or “tares,”
then this is a problem, no? Of course, being “gluten free” or having a “gluten
allergy” must be extremely hard and challenging at times, because wheat is in
so many things. So again, how big is the wheat production in the world” Here is
what one source that I found has to say:
“Wheat is grown on more land area
than any other food crop (220.4 million hectares, 2014). World
trade in wheat is greater than all other crops combined. In 2017, world
production of wheat was 772 million tonnes, with a forecast
of 2019 production at 766 million tonnes, making it the second
most-produced cereal after maize” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat).
Even in the Lord’s Prayer that Jesus himself taught us, He instructs
us to ask God the Father, to give us “Our Daily Bread”. There is even a daily
devotional book called “Our Daily Bread”. If bread then, is the staple food, or
one of the main staple foods of your society, then keeping that crop safe is
important. Yet in his parable or story this morning, Jesus talks about not just
wheat, but also weeds or “tares”. Next Sunday, we will hear another
parable or story of “The Mustard Seed,” among other parables (Mt. 13:31-33,
NRSV). More farming or agriculture references.
Diving back into this Sunday’s gospel lesson though, let us
look again at Matthew 13:24-30, where Jesus says:
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“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.’” (Mt. 13:24-30, NRSV).
So according to Jesus, when we plant crops,
a garden, or anything else, the weeds or the “tares,” in more King James
Bible English translation, were put there by one of our enemies. So, the
weeds are not your fault folks, as your enemy as put them there! For those of
us that have spent countless hours pulling weeds, oh how we are not happy at that
weed or “tare” sowing enemy.
The Apostle Paul
reminds us in Galatians 6:7:
“Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you
reap whatever you sow”
(Gal. 6:7, NRSV).
So, if we sow weeds or “tares”, or if
were sow false truths, or non-biblical understandings of the Christian faith,
then I could rightly expect to reap exactly what I have sown.
Now in this
parable or story though, the master tells his slaves and his servants to not
pull the weeds or the “tares” between the wheat. You see wheat grows so closely
together, that if you pull the weeds or the “tares” out, you then destroy the
wheat to. In this actual parable, some scholars have also argued that Jesus’
reference to weeds or “tares” was actually:
“Lolium temulentum, typically known as darnel, poison
darnel, darnel ryegrass or cockle, is an annual plant of the genus Lolium within the family Poaceae. The plant stem can grow up to one meter tall, with
inflorescence in the ears and purple grain. It has a global
distribution” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lolium_temulentum).
So, the sower, sows the wheat seeds, but
then the enemy, the devil, comes and sows’ weeds or “tares”. The largely farming
and agricultural crowds that Jesus spoke to probably understood exactly what Jesus
was saying from a farming or an agricultural standpoint. Maybe they did not
initially understand the deeper meaning of what Jesus was saying, but they definitely
understood the farming or agricultural examples that he used. Unfortunately,
many young people today do not understand these examples.
To finish off
our gospel reading for this morning, lets looks once again at Jesus’
explanation of the parable or story of “The Wheat and the Tares,” in Matthew
13:36-43:
“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!” (Mt. 13:36-43, NRSV).
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While Jesus teaches this parable or story around farming or
agriculture, what He is really driving at here, is that the wheat, the good
crop, are those who love and follow him. Along side of us though, and throughout
this world, will be those that do not love and follow Jesus. So, this fallen
world that we live in, will include those who love and follow Christ, and
those who do not. Yet, we will all live together while on earth until Christ
returns. It is at that point that the followers of Christ, the wheat, will be
separated from those who never knew him, which are the weeds or the “tares”.
In the case of the parable or the story of “The
Wheat and the Tares,” Jesus then is not talking about the weeds that you pull
in your garden or on your farm. Jesus is talking about His return, or the end
of time. We will live side by side on earth, we will not be uprooted, or we
will all be destroyed, but in the end, Jesus will be our judge.
As people then,
should we make it our own personal mission to make the world into exactly what
we think God wants it to be? No, not if it is not Biblical. We should follow
Christ, spread the Good News of His gospel, and do everything that we can to
make the world better. We should be serious about making the world better,
about feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, and helping the oppressed and
the vulnerable. Do we separate the weeds from the “tares” though? No, in the
eternal sense, only Jesus does that.
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Another way to put
it is this, we are to “be in the world, but not of the world”. We cannot
build a perfect world here on earth because Jesus has not returned yet to
usher in the fullness of His kingdom. We can continue to make it much better,
but we cannot make it perfect. This is because we are not perfect. Further,
God and God along will distinguish the wheat from the “tares,” not us. We are
not God, and we cannot make the world that only Jesus can make. We are not
Jesus.
I honestly believe
brothers and sisters that our society stands on a cliff’s edge at this point
in time. We can decide through radical means who is a wheat or a “tare,” or
we can do what the church has always done, we can love, heal, and forgive. We
can preach the Good News of Jesus Christ, live it out, and allow God to use us
to transform Sidney and the world. We are not the hope that we have been
waiting for, the hope we have been waiting for has already come. This hope
lived, breathed, died for our sins, rose again, and will return one day in
glory. This hope is Jesus Christ, and friends I believe that his gospel is
the hope of the world. We are not the hope, but Christ in us is what brings
the kingdom of God closer and closer. So indeed, my friends, as my sermon
title for this morning says, “The Kingdom Of Heaven May Be Compared To…” “Wheat
and Tares”. Amen.
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