A Reading from the Book of Genesis (28:10-19a)
Jacob left Beer-sheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and stayed there for the night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, the top of it reaching to heaven; and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And the Lord stood beside him and said, “I am the Lord, the God of Abraham your father and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie I will give to you and to your offspring; and your offspring shall be like the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you and in your offspring. Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the Lord is in this place—and I did not know it!” And he was afraid, and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” So Jacob rose early in the morning, and he took the stone that he had put under his head and set it up for a pillar and poured oil on the top of it. He called that place Bethel.
The Word of the Lord.
The First Song of Isaiah
(The Book of Common Prayer, p.86)
Surely, it is God who saves me; *
I will trust in him and not be afraid.
For the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense, *
and he will be my Savior.
Therefore you shall draw water with rejoicing *
from the springs of salvation.
And on that day you shall say, *
Give thanks to the Lord and call upon his Name;
Make his deeds known among the peoples; *
see that they remember that his Name is exalted.
Sing the praises of the Lord, for he has done great things, *
and this is known in all the world.
Cry aloud, inhabitants of Zion, ring out your joy, *
for the great one in the midst of you is the Holy One of Israel.
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning, is now, and will be for ever.
Amen.
A Reading from the Letter of Paul to the Romans (8:12-25)
So then, brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh —for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
The Holy Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew (13:24-30, 36-43)
Another parable Jesus put before the crowds saying: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” He answered, “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 the 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 the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it 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 all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!”
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TODAY’S HOMILY
by the Rev. Deacon George Snyder
MAY THE WORDS OF MY MOUTH AND THE MEDITATION IN ALL OF OUR HEARTS BE ALWAYS ACCEPTABLE IN YOUR SIGHT, O LORD! YOU ARE OUR STRENGTH. YOU ARE OUR REDEEMER.
While I was teaching, I taught my advanced placement English classes a story entitled “The Lady or the Tiger.” Frank Stockton’s late Victorian story had a unique ending that I have never seen in any other tale. In quick summary, a peasant man falls in love with a lovely young woman—a princess. Her semi-barbaric father, the king, is utterly opposed; however, being semi-civilized, he cannot just kill the man to get rid of him. So, the king brings the man into the kingdom’s arena which is filled with his subjects. The young man is brought out. The king tells the young man that in front of him are two doors. Behind one door is a hungry tiger; behind the second is a beautiful young maiden. The young man has to choose the door to complete his own fate. We know what the tiger will do; and, as for the second, if the lady comes out, the young man has to marry the lady on the spot. Whichever door he chooses, the king’s problem will no longer exist. The young man selects the door, and then he opens it. End of story! What came out, the lady or the tiger?
I assigned the story one day; the students came to class the next day to discuss it. Surprisingly, more than a few of the students hated the story. The problem for them was that they didn’t know the ending. When asked why the author ended “The Lady or the Tiger” that way, my response was that I thought it was a technique that caused the reader to think about the ending over and over. The reader could not dismiss the story without a conclusion. We all want an ending. So, the story would stay in their forethoughts for several days—until they came to a resolution themselves.
The technique used by the author of the story, I think, is part of the reason Jesus told his followers parables—there was no ending, they kept the parable in mind for many days, trying to understand the Lord’s message. If Jesus had totally explained his parables to them, they then could simply dismiss it. The parable that we heard last week about the sowers had no ending. The listeners had to continue thinking about it until they could understand what Jesus wanted them to do. If my theory about the unresolved parable is correct, why does Jesus explain today’s parable? Obviously Jesus wanted the people to remember his story and the lesson that it entailed.
Why then did Jesus end the parable for them—the reason for that is that there is another level of meaning that Jesus wants those who heard him to come up with. Jesus does not make life totally easy for us, we have to struggle to understand his message. So, what is the real message that Jesus wanted his followers and us to deduce from the parable of the weeds?
The weeds, mixed in the wheat, were often referred to as tares; they were also known as darnel. Tares were the bane of a farmer’s existence because they caused the farmer to have to work twice as hard in order to get the wheat. When the darnel and wheat first sprouted, they looked alike. Even an expert would have to make a judgment call if he wanted to pull out the darnel. Making a judgment might be wrong; how could he know that his choice was correct? As the seedlings continued to grow, there still was no way to judge which were wheat and which were darnels. The first stage when the two plants could be distinguished from one another was when the seed head formed. At that point, the roots of the darnel were so intertwined among the roots of wheat, that if the laborers tried to pull out the darnel, the wheat was likely to come with darnel. So, once again, the farmer had to make a judgment call. In today’s parable, the farmer decides to leave the darnel in place—sapping energy and much need water from the wheat. At the harvest time, laborers were told to remove the darnel from the fields first and burn them to destroy the seed.
Consequently, after the grain was thrashed and the seeds gathered, another step had to be added to the harvest—going through the seed, a grain at a time, pulling out the darnel. Women would have to sit on the thrashing floor and pick out the darnel which was a different color. It was vital that the darnel seed be removed because the darnel seeds were powerful. A few grains of darnel could make the bread made from the wheat bitter. If there were enough darnel, the bread made from it would be slightly poisonous, causing dizziness and sickness. Throughout the season the farmer had to make judgment calls as to what to do to get his crop into the granaries.
To understand this parable we need to make a couple of conclusions on our own. First, the parable teaches us that there is evil in this world; evil is real; it is part of our lives. We know that; we have seen evil.
Secondly, the parable teaches us that we must make ourselves aware of whether the people around us are from God or from the Evil one. This is hard. Just like the farm workers could not see the intertwining of the roots of the darnel and the wheat, we are not able to see the totality of the people around us. Some people appear to be of the body of Christ while they may not actually believe. Other times, we see some people and think that they may be evil, when in actuality, there is much more beneath their surface. Jesus’s message here for us, is that we are much too eager to attach judgment, and too eager to label a person bad or good without knowing all the fact.
The parable teaches us not to be so quick in our judgments because our judgments are made blindly. Judgment comes at the end and takes in the total person and his life. We cannot make our judgments based on one event. One cannot judge another person because we do not see everything about that person.
Judgment comes to all of us at the end of our lives. Other humans do not render a judgment. That is the job only of God himself.
I really suppose that you and I are like most people—very ready to make judgment. That, I am afraid, is part of the human condition. I paid attention to myself this week, trying to be aware of when I was ready to make a judgment against other. And, I am so sorry to say that there many—way too many to tell you. Some of them were small and seemingly insignificant. Others were not. Think back to your week and try to remember if you were also eager to judgment.
Here is a list of some of my judgmental thoughts:
I just hate it when people park in the handicap parking area as if they were entitled to use it. They should be given a ticket! This is a perfect example; what makes me think I know what might be wrong with this person? I just don’t have enough information to decide, yet I made a judgment.
The national news story of the toddler that died because of the heat when he was left in the car in Georgia reoccurred several times this week. His father had to have done that on purpose; how could you forget to take your child with you? They should take that man out back and…
Oh, and the baby’s mother. She is just as bad!
Also in the international news this weekend was the story of the Malaysian airliner being shot out of the sky over the Ukraine. Who could have done that other than the Russians? Russia had to have given those rockets to the pro-Russian forces in the Ukraine. I never have like Putin—he wants to take Russia right back to the way it was under Khrushchev; that man is power hungry. The international community should levy sanctions again Russia and teach Putin a lesson he badly needs to learn. Isn’t it a good thing that I and my judgments are not in charge?
I drove by several panhandlers this week. Why can’t they get a job and take care of themselves?
I drove by a construction site this week; a headquarters for a charity was being constructed. That building has to cost at least $10 million dollars. Couldn’t that charity have spent that money on the people that they are supposedly serving?
I will stop there, even though there were many other incidents this week of my judging without enough information. Do any of you see yourself there? I suspect all of us are in the same boat. We all have strong opinions about things, and many of us think we know how things should be. Jesus’s parable is talking about us!
Now, if we had the opportunity and the ability to make the judgment calls and exact punishment, would we do it? Probably not. However, that is not the point. The point is that we are mistaken in thinking that we are able to judge anyone other than ourselves.
That job belongs only to the one who created everything. That is God job. Last week, Canon Koepke told us what our job was—to sow the seed, nothing more. We should be loving our neighbor and telling our neighbor about the love of God in Jesus Christ.
If you think about it, making judgment is onerous burden that we choose to put on our own shoulders much of the time. Think about a jury sitting judging whether someone is guilty or innocent in a court of law! If you have ever had to sit on a jury in a death penalty case, I am sure that you would feel the burden. That burden would be right there staring you in the face.
Giving up judging is freeing. If we allow God to take care of all the judging we make our lives much simpler. We will make ourselves much happier. Then, too, maybe we won’t so crabby and angry so often.
If we fill our minds and hearts with judging others, we can poison our own spirit. It gives us a wrong perception of our role in God’s creation. We begin to look on ourselves as the one who knows right from wrong. It can take away the joy of living; it certainly can raise our blood pressure; it can make us angry. It can destroy the serenity that we should feel as children of the living God. That just gives us a wrong idea of who and what we are about.
Let God do his job—judging. Let’s do our job—loving our neighbor and telling him or her about the love of Jesus.
AMEN
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