17 July 2011

Isaiah 44:6-8
Psalm 86:11-17
Romans 8:12-25
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Words matter. And words about the Absolute – about God – matter absolutely. Let that thought hover over us for a couple minutes as we unpack a bit of the parable that Jesus gives to us in today’s Gospel.

We hear in this parable about good seed and weed seed that the Son of Humanity has cast good seed everywhere – the Gospel has been sewn in the field of the this world – in every place and in every time. But an enemy has entered the scene – that which is against the Gospel – and the enemy has scattered all over some bad seed – in this case, darnel – counterfeit wheat, an annual grass that until the harvest looks a whole lot like wheat to the untrained eye. And knowing that bad seed has been sewn and is taking root, the always-willing-to-be-helpful servants – the followers of Jesus – want to rush into the field to uproot that bad seed.

Now a good farmer, at this point, would of course say to those servants, “By all means!” And any half-way decent farm-worker would be able to tell the difference between the real wheat and the counterfeit wheat, would go out and pull up the counterfeit grain, and would then be rewarded. Which is, of course, how we would like this story to be told. But Farmer Jesus seems to understand the servants far better than they – or we – are able. The Farmer understands that we, the servants, are going to make a complete mess of the field whenever we go into it trying to weed out, root out, the bad seed, the causes of evil. And not only are we not so great at distinguishing the good seed from the bad seed, but in our weeding frenzy, we traipse all over the good wheat therefore destroying much of the good while never really routing out the bad – we, the forever-undiscerning servants end up doing far much more damage than the enemy could ever have done – leaving the enemy really quite pleased with him- or her- or its-self, thank you very much. It doesn’t take a degree in history to know how much evil has been done by the Church throughout the centuries in the name of rooting out, weeding out what the cataract-clouded sight of the Church has seen to be evil. Just go ask the Jews or Muslims. Or blacks. Or LGBT folks. (You may add to the list at your leisure and without much brain strain.)

And so it is that we hear Farmer Jesus say – at least in English – “Let both of them grow together until the harvest . . . . let the evil and good grow together until the harvest.” At which utterance, we cannot help but howl, “Whaddya mean ‘leave the bad seed alone’? Are you telling us to ‘resist not evil’? What about an eye for an eye? A tooth for a tooth? Are you telling us ‘render to no one evil for evil’? That’s a lousy way to run the kingdom of God!!” we squeal in protest. And if you think that’s bad, wait – it gets worse.

Time to go back to the opening salvo – that words matter – and especially words about the Absolute – about God in Jesus Christ. We just heard how, in English, Farmer Jesus says, “let the evil and the good grow together.” In the Greek of the New Testament, the language of the early Church, for the word let in this sentence Jesus uses the word ἄφετε (áfete) – a word that would most certainly resonate loud, louder, loudest in the minds of early Christians who not only in the liturgy on the Lord’s Day, but in their daily gatherings as well, used that same word in prayer. Ἅφεσ (Áfes)” they would say, “Forgive us our debts as we also ἀφίεμεν (aphíemen), forgive our debtors.” On hearing that the Farmer’s response to our deadly weeding projects is the same sort of letting be that forgiveness is – we – or at least I – cannot help but become apoplectic. “Are you crazy Jesus?? Not only am I to let the evil be, but now you’re telling me I have to forgive the bad seed???? What sort of God are you?? Doesn’t that just give everybody license to do anything and everything they damn well please???”

This seems as good a time as any to talk about the Church’s teaching concerning the two Kingdoms of God. On one hand – traditionally, the right one – we have God’s Kingdom of Grace – the Kingdom where all things – to our great chagrin as well as to our great benefit – are forgiven. This is the Kingdom wherein the Church, the Servants in today’s parable, are to resist not evil, are to render to no one evil for evil, are to forgive the good and the evil alike just as we are forgiven the good and the evil we do. (And yes, I intended to assert forgiveness for both good and evil – since we often can’t tell the difference.) So – that’s God’s Kingdom on the right.

Then there’s God’s Kingdom on the left – which is a sort of emergency situation made necessary by the ever-pervasive reality of sin: for the sake of the vulnerable, for the sake of peace, for the sake of keeping chaos at bay, God has both instituted government and placed some people in positions of authority – rulers, police, parents, teachers, pastors, bishops, and others – to keep good order. To government and to those in authority, God grants the power to say “No!!!” to those persons and things that threaten the weak, that threaten peace, that result in injustice and inequity. But make no mistake – on this shadowed planet groaning in travail, this power and command to say “no,” this power and command to punish wrongdoers, this power and command to stave off chaos, this power and command to set limits, this power and command to put lawbreakers in jail – is as often as anything the lesser of evils. So, while it was arguably necessary to go to war against Hitler and fascism, in order – among other things – to save our Jewish sisters and brothers from total annihilation, Word War II, along with every war that has ever been waged, resulted in the slaughter of many innocents and the destruction of much that was good. And someone good and innocent nearly always suffers when somebody is punished or jailed for a crime. (Too, conviction or punishment of an Other always gives an opportunity for the rest of us to consider ourselves a whole lot better than we are – Jesus tells us that, in the eyes of God, whenever we do something so seemingly insignificant as to deem the neighbor a fool, we are no different from the person who commits murder.)

As terribly contingent as God’s Kingdom on the left is, to do away with it is not an option – even in the Church. And so it is, for example, that someone in authority must stand at the doors of the church and say to a convicted pedophile – for the sake of the defenseless – for the safety of the children – you may not enter here. And no, this banishment, this separation from community is not ideal; somehow, someone innocent will be diminished and/or hurt as a result. At the same time, however, the one standing at the door must proclaim – to the offender and to all the world – that in the end, all causes of evil and every evil intent will be burned away from each and every one of us – and so in God’s Kingdom on the right – the Kingdom of Grace – all do get in – all the little children along with those who stole their innocence – all of the offended and all of the offenders; in the eternal Realm of God, God’s Kingdom on the right, God’s will to forgive, God’s letting-go of sin and evil, this, God’s will – is being done – as it is upon the Cross from which Jesus proclaims, ἄφεσισ (aphesis), forgiveness, to the whole world, forgiveness for everyone – no exceptions – forgiveness for even the enemies of God who crucify love daily.

And so if, with me, it absolutely kills you to even begin to entertain the possibility that in God’s Eternal Kingdom – everybody gets in – the good and the evil alike – if that just kills you as it does me – well, that’s a good thing – for as we keep on saying in the creeds of the Church, in words that Absolutely matter – it is only and precisely the dead who are being raised to the life of the ages.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.