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In nature it seems, weeds are a plentiful, and some are even pretty looking as well. When my husband & I first got married we had a house with a lawn… Again, as I’ve said before, gardening was not our forte. Let’s just say you probably could spot our lawn from an airplane! We used to get sympathetic lawn service discount mailers all the time. Anyway, the weeds talked about today, are of a completely different nature, in both senses of the term. The problem with evil is something we will always be vexed with, but the rock, to whom we cling to, and take refuge against this evil, is Christ.
The problem with evil is so intricate and complex, it has
even been given a theological category of study called “theodicy.” Theodicy, the odyssey half of that word
certainly typifies, how the evil one, works upon impairing our commitment and
judgment as disciples of Christ. In this
Sunday’s parable of the wheat and the weeds, Jesus is making an important
observation that the disciples need to be aware of. Evil comes in all shapes and sizes and may appear
to be exactly how you assume something innocent and natural to be… Here we go
again, recalling, Eve taking that nice apple from that forbidden tree. Hey, it looked ok, what harm could it do?
Well, you know, how the rest of the story goes…
The mere act of disobedience is the spark of that sin,
which as we have learned, created that perpetual cause and effect reality of
our humanity to always be in discernment about doing the “do’s” of the Gospel
or caving into lawlessness and justifying it—sin. Here is the pivotal point between sin and
evil: justification. The moment we begin
to justify our intentional sins or willfulness against God, is when we are beginning
to open the Pandora’s box to creating, growing evil. Just like the fruits of
the Spirit, the fruits of evil are numerous and can, as Jesus proves, spread
like “weeds” that choke our willingness or drive to do good, be good, for the
sake of God, and our neighbors.
Our humanity is spiritually weak since we cannot truly
fathom the mysteries of God’s creation.
This is where we cry, why God? Why does evil exist? Why do quote nice guys finish last? Why do entities like ISIS exist? Why do we build nuclear arsenals? Why do we plunder and rape creation for our
own purposes? Why has money destroyed our responsibility to love and care for
our neighbors’ wellbeing? The questions are as numerous as the grains of wheat
in the harvest Jesus talks about.
The fields of the world expect us to be tough and
enduring, though it seems a contradiction when we are called to love, as Jesus
has taught us to. The radical reality of
the Gospel of Jesus, Satan uses against us, in luring us, like that snake in
the garden to take “control” of the situation.
Why love neighbor, when it seems easier, or for our benefit to take
advantage of him or her? We see this
kind of evil every day. For instance, currently
with “health care,” instead of dealing with the crisis beyond the money issues
and focused upon humanity, it has become an ugly circus of political
grandstanding. Instead of helping those
who really want to learn, our society battles with outrageous student loan
debt. Both instances here are around the
love of money being the root to many evils. If that sounds familiar, it is that
famous scripture from the 2nd letter of Timothy.
We must remember, as I have said before the real roots to
sin are greed and indifference. These
two operate together to control our willfulness. Our very being was created by will… but this
is the will of God, NOT ours. That fine line to bridging the gap between our
willfulness and a willingness to follow God, is where Evil wants us to stumble. The graceless wilderness Satan would love for
us to develop, is one, that not only justifies our efforts against God, but ratifies
them into an overarching evil of “control” or subjugation against others. The
rich get richer, the poor get poorer, the hungry get swept under the
conscience’s rug of indifference and so forth. This is like a fast-moving train
ebbing towards a cliff— a spiritual hell, death of a will to strive for God,
love Him and neighbor.
A few years back, I recall a very sad story of an elderly
man, who in his day, was a renown local Chicago Jazz musician. Being a musician, a lot like being in the
fine arts, provides no benefits or pensions…
This man was barely living on social security, meals on wheels and my
friend helping him by keeping a watch out for him among many things. Johnny was
94 and he suffered from debilitating arthritis and macular degeneration. There were days, he would call my friend up
and ask him to help him get up and go down his stairs. Since he had no real insurance, he couldn’t
get around his home well at all. Why
couldn’t he get help? Here’s where the
evil begins. Years upon years ago,
Johnny moved into this neighborhood of Chicago when it was a working class,
family-oriented area… Over the years,
the neighborhood saw many changes to where it is now what they would call fully
gentrified. All that means, is his
humble little home, not only didn’t fit the upscaling of the neighborhood but
taxes and realtors soon would become the vultures to prey upon his situation.
Johnny had no extra money to “pretty-up” his house to
make the city happy, so they fined him...
If that wasn’t bad enough, since outside realtors were accessing his
property behind his back, they priced his place or the land, after his home
would be hypothetically torn down, to be worth almost $700 thousand
dollars. They tried to solicit him to
sell, but when they couldn’t, they found that his home was on quote commercial
designated land… They tried working with
the city to fine and remove Johnny from his home of 57 years! At the time, thanks be to God for kind,
loving neighbors, who, along with my friend’s help, raised something like $30k
for the city and these realtors to go away.
His story doesn’t end there, however, his indifferent
daughter barely kept watch over him, and one day he was robbed. Since he couldn’t see well, and walk well, he
thought that he was paying a drug store delivery man for his medications but
the person not only took that money but noticed some $2,000 in cash on a small
living room table… Thanks be to God
again, my friend’s church gave him back the money that was stolen. Returning to his insurance issues, since he
was considered to be currently in the “high-rent” district of the Northside of
Chicago… He didn’t qualify for enough
coverage to have someone help him to stay in his home after all. His daughter begrudgingly had to step in and
help Johnny sell his home to help him go into a nursing home.
He was heart-broken to leave a place that he and his wife
Marie called home for some 57 years, but he was left with no choice. The “weeds” of the area, were more than
delighted, that not only, his eyesore home would soon be torn down, but that a
great wave of money would be flowing from many hands who really could have
cared less about this man and his story.
Just a few months into living at this nursing home now on the far west
end of the city dipping into one of the outlying suburbs, he passed away. I was happy to hear, that my friend was able
to visit him before he died, and reported to me that Johnny was very happy to
be cared for and not worrying about people preying upon him. His Jazz instruments were donated to the Old
Town School of Folk Music’s museum among other things and his legacy of
kindness, his gentle nature, many who knew him, was greatly missed.
This is the story of one durable head of wheat that you
could say was engulfed by weeds…. But the Good, was there as well. He did have neighbors who took out the time
to answer frantic phone calls in the middle of the night, when Johnny fell or
was in terrible pain. He did have people
come to his aid when thieves tried to rob him in more ways than one. This is the day in the life of one human
story… I would pray for this man
regularly, each and every time my friend would report to me what was going
on. Who knows how many others out there
are engaged in full battle against the world’s evil? We don’t see and are
sheltered indifferently by the media and other sources to all of what goes on
out there…
We must hear and deeply breathe in the prophetic words of
St. Paul, when he is teaching us about the nature of hope and the Spirit of God
guiding us; he says: “24For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is
seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25But if we hope
for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. 26Likewise the
Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27And
God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the
Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.”
The Good soil of your heart, as mentioned last Sunday,
has that New Nature planted there. Our
reaping is in our harvesting of God’s Living and Restorative Word, where we
sprout forth and truly grow to live as children of Grace and Promise. Love is
Christ’s spiritual law for our hearts to trample evil under foot. Hope in action, reaps a mighty harvest. Love
feeds us and cares for our neighbors, as God intends, for all of creation to
implement. The ultimate purpose and
reality of Kingdom of God and all its righteousness will be revealed to us, in
God’s time. This alone, should always keep us encouraged.
Let us Pray,
Loving and Gracious God
Help us to continue, growing spiritually strong
Against all the evil that tempts and surrounds us, in the
field of this world
May, in this one solitary life, our hearts learn to fully
follow, Your law of love
Teach us to pray as we ought in our hearts out through
our voices, hands and feet
For Your Gospel’s sake and the Glory of the Kingdom of
God
We are Your children.
AMEN
SOLA Lectionary; July 23rd, 2017; Seventh Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 11; Year A;
Psalm 119:57-64; Isaiah 44:6-8; Romans 8:18-27; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Psalm 119:57-64; Isaiah 44:6-8; Romans 8:18-27; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
The link below is to this sermon's delivery at First Congregational Church, 9:30am
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