July 17, 2005
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Mindekirken, July 17, 2005 Weeds among the Wheat A couple of weeks ago I traveled with my family back to Norway. My wife Trude has already started back as a journalist in the local newspaper, but even if I miss her and the children, I felt so good about coming back to Mindekirken and the heat of Minnesota. We rented out our house in Norway during the time my family lived here in the US. The tenants kept the house well, but they were not responsible for doing much work in the garden. We got a lot to catch up with there. Some of the flowerbeds were so overgrown that one could barely see the difference between weeds and ornamental flowers. I don’t know if you have experienced it, but sometimes one makes the error of weeding the ornamental flowers and keeping the weeds. The problem is not a new one. Jesus tells in today’s text about servants who couldn’t stand to see the wheat fields full of weeds. They volunteered to weed, but the farmer said no. "No, for in gathering the weeds, you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest." Some people act like self-appointed spiritual experts. They think they are able to see the difference between weeds and wheat, separate between who will go to heaven and especially who will not. Such people might be tough moral judges. Some of us have grown up in a tradition where people were morally judged based on playing cards, dancing and drinking alcohol. But it’s not our job to judge people in that way. The Lord of the harvest shall decide. Maybe the day of judgement will bring surprises. Maybe the greatest surprise will be that oneself has gone to heaven. For who really goes to heaven? Jesus speaks of evil and good people today. He uses the expressions "all evildoers" and "the righteous." Jesus operates with a distinction between people. But the distinction does not go where we humans tend to think. We would separate between Mother Theresa and Adolph Hitler, but the radical message of the Bible is that there is no distinction when we take God’s serious judgement into consideration. "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Romans 3:22-23.
In the words of the parable – the world is full of weeds. We all deserve to be uprooted and perish. But that’s the last thing God would like. He treats us not as we deserve, but according to his grace. His greatest wish is to give us a future in his kingdom. "Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the Father," Jesus says. Who are "the righteous?" Are they the ones who manage to live a decent life? No, it’s the ones who are justified through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Rom. 3:24. "Redemption" means to be bought free. We were bought free from sin and guilt when Jesus died on the cross. What makes us wheat and not weeds, to use the expressions of the parable, is not our own moral qualifications, but something someone else has done for us. We are justified due to what Jesus has done for us. In the Lutheran tradition we talk about a foreign justice, it’s a justice we have been given. We are declared just by God. That is a justice which is valid even if we struggle with moral defeats in our lives. It’s a justice which may give us confidence even on the day of the final judgement. Do you remember the evangelist Louis Palau who gathered more than 100,000 people on the State Capitol grounds a year ago? At one occasion he was talking to thousands of young people and he began by saying: I have a problem. I like to see pornographic pictures. He got an attentive audience for sure, by honestly admitting something many could relate to. The reasons may be many, but sometimes we struggle with the feeling of living a double life. To live in the light, is a biblical expression which means to put words to the secret things in one’s life which can’t stand the light. The intention of the confession is to confess one’s sin, to get a good conscience. The reward is great from a mental point of view. One may feel more easy and happy after confession. One may get a solution to the things in life that hurt, and be able to go on with ones life. But most important, and the unique evangelical with the confession, is that we not only get help to manage the feeling of guilt, but guilt itself. We are declared to be just due to the death and resurrection of Jesus for our sake. And that means that whoever continues to struggle with the feeling of guilt, fear, depression or whatever it may be, is forgiven. Forgiveness isn’t something which happens in our mind, but by God. Whenever our hearts condemn us, God is greater than our hearts, and he knows everything, 1 John 3.21 says. This is what baptism gives us as well. As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Gal 3.27. In baptism we are made children of God. It is described in radical terms as going from death to life. And it happens whether the child who is baptized sleeps or cries. Baptism displays that Christian life is not based on what humans do, but what God gives. God is the main character in baptism. He is the one who acts and makes us his children. The parable of the weeds among the wheat teaches us that it’s not for us humans to judge others. It’s not our business to separate between people based on good or bad moral behavior. Our focus should be on him who has saved us and will save us on the day of judgement.
Glory be to God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen. |
The Norwegian Lutheran Memorial Church · 924 E. 21st St, Minneapolis, MN 55404-2952 · (612)874-0716 |