July 19 2020 Matthew 13.24-30, 36-43 “Leaders: Weeding” Pastor
Jacqueline Hines
==
Week number 16 and God is still on the throne of the universe, and we
trust God to rule and reign in our hearts as well.
+++
During a recent Adult Sunday School Class, the question was posed, “Should
we reject people who are sinners? After all, aren’t we are all sinners?” That
question goes along with Jesus’ parable in Matthew’s gospel today about people
who are as welcome as weeds.
Though we have all sinned and come short of glorifying God, sometimes,
as humans, we cross a line to being evil, telling the world that we no longer
care and perhaps that we never did care. As humans, we are prone to wander and
we can feel it, as the songwriter Robert Robinson wrote in 1758 when he was
only 22 years old in England. He was, as we all can be, “Prone to leave the God
we love.”
Robinson was about 8 years old when his father died. He and his mom were
left with no means of support. The government in England was no help to orphans
and widows at that time. By age 15, Robert was working as a barber’s apprentice.
He was also quite the hooligan during those years. He accosted a fortune teller
along with some of his so-called friends. One thing led to another and Robinson
came to his senses, He went to church and was convicted through a sermon by Rev.
George Whitefield.
You may recall that George Whitefield came to our Chester County on one
of his 7 mission trips from England to America. His words had their own
unavoidable political slant and anti-slavery rhetoric along with a little fire
and brimstone. He gained some converts and a not a few death threats when he
prepared to preach among a particular group of furnace workers who were making
iron that would be used to make stoves, tools, cannons, and guns. The furnace owner
– and a founder of Coventry UMC, Anna Rutter Nutt (whom Nutt Road is named
after) and her daughter -protected Rev. Whitefield, with the help of their rifles
aimed in the direction of those perched to persecute, (so says our Bethel
Historian) Interestingly, the Joanna Furnace, named after the wife of Mr. Potts
– as in Pottstown - was located in woods so dense it was used by the
Underground Railroad.
Songwriter Robert Robinson heard Whitefield’s preaching, became a
Methodist at one point, but still found himself wandering, his love for God
cooling down as is not so unusual in this Christian journey. There are many
distractions and temptations that we have to weed out of our lives. So his song
tells us.
Jesus tells us a story of good wheat growing along with weeds that are
unwelcome because they are unhelpful. Matthew 13 beginning at verse 24 says, Jesus put before
them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who
sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody
was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away.
26So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.
Gardeners talk all the time about how much they enjoy gardening. They
enjoy the ripe fruit, nutritious vegetables and the lovely flowers, but weeding
is such a nuisance and something they wish they did not have to do the weeding.
I am sure gardeners wish the deer and the rabbits would eat all the weeds
instead of the bulbs, vegetables, and berries!
In Jesus parable, one of the workers asks the question in verse 27. ‘Master, did you not sow
good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from? The answer was in verse 28, “An enemy has done this.”
If you live long enough, you will from time to time come across an
enemy, seen or unseen. The enemy comes when we are sleeping and sows unwelcome
and unhelpful weeds among the most wonderful wheat.
In the bible, sleeping can be synonymous with prayerlessness. We are
vulnerable to our enemies when we are not praying. When someone says, you
haven’t got a prayer, it means you haven’t got a chance. Prayer gives us a
chance for better results. Prayer changes everything. I could tell you story
after story about miracles on Azusa Street in Los Angeles in 1908 or a the
1950’s revival in Argentina written about in Cry for Me Argentina, my own
personal life changing moment in 2018 or so on labor day weekend during a
Church of God in Christ Convention service at the Hilton in King of Prussia.
God is on the move and no matter who we are, where we are from, or where
we are going, if we try God for ourselves, if we trust God enough to pray, to
keep that conversation going, we will have our own story to tell.
It is no small thing that our Church’s focus for the year is prayer. We
know there is power in prayer. Bishop Desmund Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Winner
and South African Episcopalian Priest, said that prayer was like a wall of fire
that stands between us and our enemies.
There may be enemies in your life right now that are sowing seeds of
anger that turn into unwanted and unwelcome weeds. The enemy may be sowing
seeds of despair, helplessness, greed, fear, argumentativeness, ill health,
poverty, addiction or aversion that steal, kill, and destroy parts of your life.
The enemy may have sown seeds for weeds that bring miserable relationships,
obnoxious neighbors, confusion about what to do when witnessing someone being
abused, or paralyzation when it is time to do justice and love mercy.
The weeds eat away at our fruitfulness. Weeds separate us from the
goodness and mercy that are trying to follow us all the days of our lives.
So when our children ask where the unwelcome, unhelpful weeds came from,
we can tell them that an enemy brings them in the dark of night. Everybody is
not our friend. We must teach our children some measure of stranger danger. We
must teach our children that we can lock our spiritual doors through prayer.
So what are we supposed to do about those weeds? The parable asks, “Master, do you want us to go and gather them? Do you want us to weed them
out?” “No,” the master said in verse 29, “for in gathering the weeds you would
uproot the wheat along with them. 30Let both of them grow
together until the harvest.” In other words, there will come a time when God is
going to deal with the weeds. It is not in our hands. God is in charge of the
harvest. God will reveal when it is time to uproot a weed.
The
master said, “I will tell the reapers.” When we are talking to God about
persons and situations that are unwelcome and unhelpful, within ourselves or
outside of ourselves, we cannot assume that we are the ones chosen to do the
weeding. Neither can we assume that we are not the ones to do the weeding. Verse
30 says, God will tell the
reapers when to pluck up the weeds and bundle them up and burn them, destroying
them. Of course, there will always be more weeds.
And, questions
will always arise. Who did this? What are we supposed to do about it? The same
answers apply. This is the work of an enemy. Talk to God about it and do what
God tells you to do!
Rev. Dr. Grace Pak
“Both wheat and weeds are allowed to grow side by side until the
harvest.
May we be a blessing to this world, no matter what is going on the
world!
Let us
pray:
God,
you never promised us a rose garden. But, you have made so many beautiful
people and so many amazing and wonderful moments for us to enjoy as we build
your Kin-dom. Thank you. Forgive us when we grumble about the weeds or neglect our
responsibilities to them, for we know you have a divine purpose and plan even
for weeds that are unwelcome and unhelpful. We pray as you taught us:
Our father who art in heaven. Hallowed be thy
name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us
this day, our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who
trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,
for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Benediction: Pray about
everything and watch God work!
Next week our message
will be coming from our own Bishop Peggy Johnson who is sharing from Psalm 90 –
“O God, Our Help in Ages Past”
If you would like to make your contribution to
the ministry and mission of Bethel, the website is
Or you can send to 952 Bethel Church Road,
Spring City, Pa. 19475.
No comments:
Post a Comment