Precious Babes

Text: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-42

Focus: Protecting the Babes in Christ

Function: a discussion about holiness

Form: GOK

Intro:

Here is an age old saying for which if I had 50 dollars for every time I heard it, I might be able to retire very early.

Actually, I exaggerate, but the saying is one preachers hear often, and most parishioners, especially those who are inviting people to join this family of God, hear often enough as well.

You have probably guessed it by now: “I would go to church if it weren't for all those hypocrites in there.”

And, I confess I have been guilty of preaching “You gotta be a better witness for Christ, or people will see you, disbelieve and end up lost for eternity, and it might be your fault” or “be better Christians, make your walk equal your talk.” Or “If people were more friendly, more people would come to church.”

Don't worry, I am not going to spend the next fifteen to twenty minutes making you feel guilty, or less because you are still not yet perfect.

But this passage is about false Christians, or Christians who don't live up to the standard Jesus set, and the way they are treated by the rest of the Church.

How do we treat people who do gross sins? How do we treat people who just don't get it? How do we treat people who try as hard as they might, they just never quite get over their addiction, their struggle, their greed, their unforgiveness, their jealousy, their gossiping, their lack of self-control and etc?

Are we to kick them out?

This parable is directed to the Church and Jesus, through a story, is helping us understand what His priorities are.

The parable is about God sowing His own field and the Devil coming into his field and creating all kinds of problems for the health of the plants, the productiveness and success of the crops by spreading weed seeds among the wheat seeds.

It must be a pretty cruel enemy who would take the time, at no profit to himself, to work hard to create problems for someone else.

And the fact is, there are weeds among us. There are preachers on TV who make millions of dollars feeding on the fears of Christians, or who mix the good news of God's kingdom that covers the entire earth with a national political message that confuses financial and political interests with the redemption of the world.

In the 80's, It seemed that Churches were faced with scandal after scandal as preachers claimed to be pure and holy and righteous and then committed terrible acts against God, their wives and their parishioners in the bedroom.

It happened in local churches as well. I remember a friend of mine in the youth group whose father confessed to extorting money from the church we attended. I remember all the nasty things said about both him and my friend.

We understand that this is a place where we need to aspire to higher standards of conduct.

And it is tricky. I remember my grandmother's story about inspiring other people. In the 1930's my grandmother used quiet and gentle words of wisdom as she approached the ladies gossip circle at her church, at the holiness church, that she attended.

A woman from a rough background came to Christ. She had been a flapper. For those who don't know, it referred to a certain style of dress in the 20's that was provocative. She was used to wearing bright red open toed sandals with bright red lipstick.

In a holiness church, everyone needs to dress plainly, not attracting any attention to oneself. It was a rule, but sort of unwritten. Every woman was to wear a black mid-healed boot that laced up all the way past the ankles for modesty's sake, and all the women began to gossip about her lack of modesty, my grandmother said: “Let the Holy Spirit be the one to change her heart, the more you talk, the more she will resist.”

Can you imagine that?

Ladies gossiping about the color of someone's shoes?

Jesus gave us the parable of the wheat and the weeds.

My grandmother was concerned for the welfare of this woman, not the way it made the rest of the women feel.

She was that tender stalk of wheat and over zealousness can damage that stalk of wheat.

Jesus is saying, if you go around pulling all the weeds that are in the rows, you are going to damage the wheat, especially the tender shoots that are just now growing.

Wait till the harvest to separate the wheat from the weeds.

Let God be the judge.

Because God loves everyone, and Jesus would not be calling some people wheat, and some people weeds, many think the weeds are the individual sins that creep into the lives of every single one of us. And the way others criticize us.

Brother Paul said: “Who are we to judge another believer's faith? God is the one who makes people stand before Him, not us. And they will stand because God is able.” Romans 14:4

Jesus isn't saying that weeds don't cause a problem.

The weeds choke out the life and vitality of the wheat, they steal its resources, get in the way of its sunlight, absorb the water that is to fall on them and take nutrients from the soil.

Sin keeps us off track. One of the actual, literal meanings behind the word sin is “to miss the mark.”

Those of you who garden know just how much easier it would be if there was no such thing as weeds.

For some, the task of pulling weeds takes away any desire they might have for planting a garden.

It isn't easy. It causes problems. It gets in the way of everything and we would be much more successful if we didn't have any weeds.

But Jesus said: Leave them alone if stopping them damages the plant.

Jesus isn't saying that the weeds are okay. He isn't saying that the weeds are just as important to Him as the wheat. He isn't saying that it is okay to be a weed, instead of a wheat because they are all God's creatures.

Nope, weeds are a part of the curse.

They stink, sometimes they burn, they cut the gardener and sometimes they actually kill the crops.

And that first phrase that I mentioned “I would be in church if those Christians were more... ...and you can fill in the blank” is a true statement because sometimes it is the weeds that do terrible damage to one of the tender plants.

But this story tells us this: God is more concerned about the tender plant surviving than He is for us doing the job of pulling the weeds and deciding just who is in and who is out.

How do people who are seeking God perceive us? Do they see us as merely weed pullers who point out faults? Or do they see us as the ones who are tenderly caring for the plants?

Does this parable break down in the mind of every gardener in this room because you take a noble pride and pleasure in how diligent you are to your own garden and you would be embarrassed to show a garden full of weeds?

No, it doesn't break down. The gardener is concerned with one thing: the health and vitality of the crop.

And Jesus is concerned with one thing, the health and vitality of every person who comes to Him, especially the young and fragile.

I told you the story in 2008 when I first came here about Cat, the waitress at the diner, but let me remind you.

It was the day after the movie: “The Passion of the Christ” opened. I went to a preview screening given to local clergy at the downtown cinema in the small town where I was a pastor. I was overcome by what Jesus did for me. And the next morning, at the local diner, I was telling the story to Ruth, a waitress who professed a very strong Christian faith.

Cat, a young, almost skinny, but hard looking blond woman also served at the restaurant. There was something about her that let you know she was not to be trifled with, that although her name was Katherine, if you offended her, you were going to feel the pain of razor sharp claws when she was done with you.

She heard us talking and starting inching closer to us to listen, but she kept acting like she wasn't interested.

At this point, in the conversation with Ruth, I was weeping because the emotional impact of the movie was still overwhelming me. To Cat, I was no longer a threat, and she had some very serious questions for God.

From a distance, she asked: “are you a preacher?” to which I said “yes.”

After a few minutes, she got a little closer and she informed me that her uncle was a preacher. I said: “that is good.”

A few minutes later, coming even closer she said: “My grandfather was a preacher.”

I decided to resort to a little humor and I said: “Does it run in the family? Are you going to be a preacher?”

She laughed nervously, but a few moments later she came and stood directly in front of me at the counter and this time she was doing just a little bit more than weeping and she said: “I was 16 and involved in my church's youth group when I got pregnant. They threw me out of the church because they didn't want that kind of girl there.”

And then, her eyes just got hard and you could see the years of bitterness that had built up inside of her.

My heart ached for her, but I was flabbergasted.

How would you answer?

Can I condemn the leaders of her uncle's Church? Her uncle? Can I tell her she got what she deserved for not waiting? Of course not.

The Holy Spirit was filling me up inside with compassion for her. I was already in an emotional state as I was contemplating the movie. I remember feeling an incredible compassion for the pain. It was like I could see all the reasons behind all the hardness that she displayed every day in that diner.

And with words that come from God, not me, I simply said to her: “Cat, on behalf of God, the Church and all preachers, I sincerely apologize and ask for your forgiveness from us, for what they did to you.”

Here I am. In front of a woman who has in one way confessed her own sin to me, but I was the one confessing and asking forgiveness.

Listen, the words of Jesus in this passage mean a lot.

NEVER DAMAGE THE CROP WHILE TAKING UP THE WEEDS.

There are those fear mongers I mentioned earlier who preach that if we don't take a stand against (and you can name the sin) then we aren't being faithful witnesses.

And there is some place where we are called to have standards. My morning devotions I read 1 Corinthians 5 about a man who was living with his stepmother and the church was bragging about the freedom they had in Christ. And Paul tells them, listen, you got to have some standards! Grace is not a license to acts that even unbelievers consider wicked. You missed the point. And then Paul goes on to tell them, not in their best interest, but in the best interest of the man, to pull that particular weed so that the man would either see the error of his ways and repent, or he would be outside of the prayer protection of the community of believers and perhaps he would die before his sinning went so far as to cut him off from grace completely and for eternity.

But that Church that was entrusted with the care for Katherine, Cat for short seemed to have missed the point. I can picture the conversation in that church when their leadership decided to kick this young woman out of the church (Of course, they may not have kicked her out, she may have misread a noble and caring attempt to held help her). But I can imagine that conversation.

They missed that Jesus loved Cat and all the people who would be affected by their discipline of her.

One other time, I took a job in sales, in between pastoral placement. The youth group had an effective outreach and this young woman, who claimed to be into witchcraft, started attending. At that time, our own children were way to young for the youth group. But several parents refused to let their children come to church because the church was reaching out to this young woman, and they were more afraid of her negative influence on the kids.

Jesus would not have us afraid. Instead, He would have us living by faith that the gospel will and can transform her, even weeds.

Listen.

The angels do the weeding of the garden, at the end of the age, not us.

It is a false notion that we have to prove to God that we are truly His by the way we condemn the actions of others.

The truth is, we prove we are his by providing water, nurture and care for the young plants. And don't ever take the risk of hurting one of God's new creations.

In God's plan, the weeds get the same soil, they get the same chance, they get the same rain and they get the same sun.

Do not be so set on “standards” that we damage the root in the process of weeding the garden.

And if this passage is indeed about individual actions of believers instead of individual people, who knows, maybe God will save and change them.