Do No Be Distracted

 

Text: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Focus: Doing justice

Function: to help people see that others may not be following and don’t be distracted.

²⁴He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field, ²⁵but 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. ²⁷And 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?’ ²⁸He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ ²⁹But he replied, ‘No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. ³⁰Let 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.’ ”

³⁶Then 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.” ³⁷He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; ³⁸the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, ³⁹and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. ⁴⁰Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. ⁴¹The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, ⁴²and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!

I like these verses in relationship to judging others. It informs me that I am not the one to judge between the wheat and the weeds, that is a spiritual decision that will be carried out by the angels, I believe, at the direction of God.

The servants wanted to know if they should go through the fields and pull up the weeds because the weeds choke out the wheat, or the good seeds, the intended crop, and make them less productive. That is what I think about the weeds that have infiltrated the church.

I just came from our Annual conference and in it, we had the continual debate about whether or not to accept into leadership the LBTQIA community. And sadly, exactly what Jesus said would happen has happened. The innocent plants get destroyed when we weed the plant to closely.

The master told us to leave the ones alone, even if they are harming the others, who are not exhibiting the behaviors that people of the kingdom of God should demonstrate. And of course, those behaviors have to do with Jesus’s new commandment, Love One Another. I don’t know about you, but as I unwrap the meaning of this parable, I realize that I have a lot of repenting to do for my attitude toward those with whom I disagree.

During our last Kairos weekend’s forgiveness ceremony, I was able to forgive a group of people that I held in contempt for the way that they had treated me in the past because of my changing theological views.

God set me free through that forgiveness and opened up a new time of mystical experiences for me that have confirmed God’s love for me.

In other words, I thought it was my job to pull up the weeds from among the wheat in order to let the wheat thrive. I hated the weeds because they destroyed the ability of the wheat to further God’s kingdom on earth. And again, that is the kingdom of love and mercy.

And the irony is that during my career as preacher in the Church of the Brethren, I have been a vocal voice on both sides of the issue.

God is patient and I believe that God is patiently helping the church overcome its prejudice toward people who are Lesbian, Gay, Bi-sexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, and Intersex.

I used to be one of the loudest voices against approving “those” (show quote marks) people for leadership until I realized something. At the time, depictions of same sex displays of affection make me skittish.

I wondered: why? Was I questioning my own sexual identity? Or, was it simply that I didn’t have a same sex attraction and the idea grossed me out? As I researched that question I realized that our society is homophobic.

Please do not mis-hear me. I am not saying that you, me, we or any individual here is homophobic. What I am saying is that the culture still is still afraid of homosexual persons and judges them.

Let me use scripture to show our homophobia.. There are two scriptures that have a very distinct double entendre about same sex love. The first has to do with David and Jonathan. In David’s lament at Jonathan’s death, he said that his love was greater than that of a woman. (2 Samuel 1:26) And then, in the book of John we read that apparently John was the apostle that Jesus loved and was reclining on Jesus breast (John 13:23) when Jesus said that someone would betray him.

I do not believe these passages have any indication that there was same sex union between Jesus and John, but there was clearly love between David and Jonathan. It could be that he meant he was a better friend than any woman can be. And I have always taken it that way.

However, if any of these statements, “a man reclining at the breast of another man,” “the one that Jesus loved” (as opposed to the general love he has for everyone, it was indeed a special kind of love, or bond), and finally, “your love is greater than that of a woman” were said in a locker room at Junior high when I was growing up, the name calling and relentless attacks would happen.

I know. I was close to my twin brother and believed in Christian love. When asked in Junior high if I loved him, I of course, naively, said "yes," and was hounded for being gay the rest of Junior High.

I am not bitter, but I just use this to illustrate that we still live in a homophobic society.

Why is that important? Because the bible is not homophobic. It has no problem describing some sort of same sex attraction without judgment. And it wasn’t until the 1,800’s that the word pederasty was replaced with homosexual. Until then, the word homosexual in that context did not appear.

And the uses and condemnations of pederasty have to do with the way sex was used to dominate other people, such as slaves. It was still used today symbolically in the 20^th century in Uganda.

The passage is telling us to not be distracted by judgment of others. God is the one who does the judging and will use angels to do it. We are called to care for everyone, even the children of the enemy who walk among us.

In the past, I have been guilty of that judgment. And I want to confess it as sin to you.

Today, I believe that love is a fruit of the Holy Spirit and it is not a sin to marry the person that you love, regardless of their sexual identity. I believe that it is a move of the Holy Spirit to allow people who do not identify as heterosexual equality in our society, including our churches.

Sadly, I believe that I pulled up too much wheat when I fought against it. And I have had to repent to God and toward my siblings of different sexual persuasions. It is time to give them justice.

But God is patient. God keeps reminding me of the times and the passion with which I fought on the other side. It was my zeal for God.

But in this passage, God is saying: “in your zeal, don’t hurt my children.” I find that if I remember that the great commandment is to love others as much as I love myself, I will ensure that their personal, civil and spiritual rights are given to them.

Let us love others unconditionally, regardless of what we have been taught to think of them.