Loving Weeds

(Originally written for First Lutheran Church, Morris, MN)



When I lived in St. Cloud, Minnesota, we had a garden that ran the length of our house. My family always teased me because as I would plant the garden, I would color coordinate it. Red yarn was strung between sticks showing the rows of beets, orange yarn for carrots, green for beans, a darker green for spinach... it wasn't that I liked a colorful garden, it was that I usually couldn't tell the young plants from the weeds. I needed to know if that four-leafed plant coming out of the ground was really supposed to be there. More than once I pulled up a carrot or a bean in my enthusiasm for weeding.



I remember one summer I started weeding right away. Those weeds weren't going to get ahead of me! Well, I only managed to weed about half the beets before I was called away from the garden. Fortunately, it was almost a month before I got back to weeding. I say fortunately, because in my overzealous attention to getting every little weed, I had pulled up almost half of the young beets, too. Freshly sprouted, those four little beet leaves looked a lot like the four little leaves of some weed that also claimed my garden as a home. The hole in my garden was a good reminder to me that I needed to wait for the beets to grow and develop a little so I could tell the beets from the weeds.



In Matthew chapter 13, Jesus tells a parable about a farmer who sowed some wheat. But during the night, an enemy comes and sows weeds among the wheat. This was a terrible crime against Roman law; a definate act of terrorism. As the plants sprouted and grew together, the farmer lovingly and carefully cared for both. Together the wheat and the weeds soaked up sun, rain, and nutrients from the ground. Together they faced the wind, insects, and any storms that came. Together they were loved as one crop. To look at the field as it grew, one would not know that weeds grew in amongst the wheat.



It wasn't until the crops started to ripen that the difference in the plants began to show. By this time, the plants were growing so closely together that to separate them would have done damage to the wheat. There was nothing that could be done until the harvest. Only after the wheat and weeds were cut would it be possible to separate the two without doing damage to the wheat. In the meantime, the plants would continue to grow together as one, both lovingly cared for by the farmer.



When the disciples asked Jesus to explain the parable, he told them that, "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 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 weeds are collected and burned up with fire so it will 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 evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matthew 13:36-42)



The field is still the world in which we live. Every person in the world is a part of the crop in the field. We are all loved by God and have been saved on the cross by Jesus' death and resurrection. At this point in the growing season, there is no distinction between any of us. In a world that places labels on everything it is tempting to try to identify among us who are the weeds; who in this field isn't quite as 'righteous' as we feel we are.

In our efforts to identify the weeds, we look at our neighbors who don't come to church as often as we do, or those who don't tithe. Maybe we single out those who have chosen to decorate their bodies in different ways. Or we may discriminate based on lifestyle or style of worship. We may differ on politics, denomination, or interpretation of scripture. Too often, we see differences and we think, "weeds".

God sees only a crop waiting for a harvest. God is the only one who sees into the heart of who we really are. And it's only the heart that really matters.Tempting as it may be we can't look around us and point fingers, claiming someone is a weed and bound for the fire. We can't tell the wheat from the weeds. While we may look at someone we are sure is a weed because of their words or their actions, we have no way of knowing what is in that person's heart - or how they may change before the harvest.

Instead of pointing fingers or excluding someone because of their differences, we are called to love all because we can't tell the weeds from the wheat. We are called to accept and affirm everyone regardless of our differences. The crop is not yet ready for the harvest. It needs more time to grow and develop.

We are surrounded by people who need the love of Christ showing through us to grow to their fullest potential. We don't know when that love and acceptance can make a difference in someone else's life.

One pastor I heard speak at a youth leader training event, believes that every time we have a student who acts out in class, instead of looking at them and threatening to throw them out of class, we should look straight at them and tell them, "You're going to seminary".

Tell someone that enough times and that rowdy student headed for reform school may actually become a pastor who helps keep other students from becoming weeds. Talk about an herbicide that really works! The love of Christ is the ultimate herbicide for this field we call humanity.

Accepting and loving those who are different isn't easy. Sometimes we fear the weeds. We can easily think of people who have caused pain and suffering or who live a life we call sinful. But are these people truly weeds? If so, we are all weeds. Because each of us at some point in our lives has hurt someone else. And no matter how hard we try to live a good life, we sin. We can't help ourselves.

For this reason, not only are we wheat, but we are also weeds. The good news we need to remember is that Jesus died for our sins and the sins of all people. Christ's death and resurrection totally washed away the sins of humankind. When we ask for forgiveness, God takes an eraser to our hearts. The sin is totally gone from his memory; it no longer exists.

Christ has sown the seeds of new life. We grow amidst the weeds of sin. At times we resemble weeds. At other times we resemble grain. The harvest is coming, but it is not close enough for you and I to tell the wheat from the weeds. That's not our job. Our job is to continue to grow in Christ, loving our neighbor as Jesus first loved us; loving weeds and wheat as one in the same, allowing this field to grow until the harvest, when the "righteous shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father." (Matthew 13:43)