The Frustrated Gardener

Gospel: Matthew 13: 36-43

Anyone who has done farming or gardening understands the frustration of the parable in today's Gospel portion.  The farmer goes to great lengths in order to purchase and sow good seed.  She has prepared the soil assiduously, fertilizing it and removing any weeds or other harmful things from the planting beds.  In theory everything should produce nothing but good wheat.  And yet, the farmer wakes one day to find weeds growing up amid the wheat.  How could this have happened?

It is a great mystery of the spiritual life.  We have done the hard work for our souls, clearing away the soil within to create a good place for God.  We know that what God provides is also good, and yet we find within ourselves the presence of sin.  Like the weeds and wheat, we initially see no difference between them.  It is only when they grow longer that each manifests itself as what they are: good fruit on one side, and our sin on the other.  

Every life contains this mysterious paradox.  All that can be done is to begin the process anew over and over again.  Our life is a constant cycle of crop raisings.  We cultivate, plant, and observe the growth until harvest time where we sort out our good and bad.  Then the process begins anew and ends only at our death.  Only through sustained perseverance will we achieve some wisdom and success in the cultivation of our souls.

Process, Not Empire

Gospel: Matthew 13: 31-35

The kingdoms of the world exist to occupy space and dominate others.  They seek to acquire more and more land and subjugate more and more people.  Many see the kingdom of God in similar terms.  Church statistics are all about how many members there are - the number of baptisms and marriages.  They report on number of buildings, number of clergy and those in formation, and most importantly of all the financial portfolio of the parish, diocese, or global church.  

Yet, the images of today's Gospel suggest a very different image of the kingdom of God.  Here, Jesus says that the kingdom is small things that grow over time with cultivation and care.  The kingdom is a tiny mustard seed that, when planted, fed, and cared for, will become a large tree for the birds to inhabit.  The kingdom is like tiny yeast particles that when put in flour and kneaded over and over, leads to the rising of bread in the oven so that others might be nourished.  

The kingdom of God is not about occupying space and dominating others.  The kingdom of God is a process of nurturing tiny things into larger things so that others might find shelter and nourishment.  Church reports do not track such processes and outcomes very often.  What might Church be if these processes were our concern?  What might the world look like if this model of Jesus were our actual model of ministry?  

One Man's Trash...

Gospel: Matthew 13: 44-52

Consider the net being dragged across the sea.  It picks up all sorts of things in its wake, and when hauled into the boat a sorting must take place regarding what is of value and kept versus what is not of value and discarded.  If the net were a fisherman's, then the fish has value while the rest is trash.  If, however, the net belonged to a treasure hunter, the fish may be unimportant to them while the objects made by humans would be of great value.

But what of other things?  What of this old tire, or these plastic bottles?  Surely these are trash.  The tire may be recycled, or made into a tree swing or outdoor planter.  The plastic bottles can be recycled and made into new plastics.  Even the driftwood will be of use.  It will be dried and yes it will be burned.  Yet, its fire can be used to cook food and provide warmth on a cold night.  Those who are quick to condemn something as trash and of no worth are so often wrong in their judgment.

How often do we apply this label of trash to human beings.  Yet, Jesus went about eating at table with many considered trash in his day - tax collectors and prostitutes, Pharisees and scribes.  He healed a great many people who were literally treated like rubbish - lepers, cripples, slaves and women in need of healing.  Every person has intrinsic worth and value.  Every person was seen as a person by the Lord Jesus.  Those who claim to be his followers should regard no person as trash, and see all as loved of God.