Proper 11, Yr A (2026) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Proper 11, Year A (2026) The Rev. Karen C. Barfield
Romans 8:12-25 St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
In the name of the one, holy, and loving God:
in whom we live, and move, and have our being. Amen.
As some of you know,
Ray and I are trying to get rid of as much grass as possible
and plant non-invasive native plants to serve as pollinators and support our ecosystem.
Last Fall, Ray dug up a patch of grass right in front of the house,
and we tilled and weeded and mulched.
This Spring, I moved some plants to the patch from other areas of the yard
but had plenty of space left over,
so I thought I’d fill in with flower seeds.
I bought packets of poppies, cleome, sunflowers, and zinnias.
I waited until “after danger of last frost”
to carefully plant the seeds according to the directions.
After some weeks, a number of green things started popping up.
I know what zinnia and sunflower leaves look like but have no idea about the others.
Each day I go out and take a look.
Some of the greenery looks an awful lot like grass,
but not knowing what newly sprouted poppies or cleome look like,
I resist the urge to pluck up and toss what I think is grass.
What if I mistakenly pluck up what might become a beautifully ruffled poppy?
So, I resist the urge.
My thinking is that if these unknown plants could turn into beautiful flowers,
I’d prefer to leave them to bloom,
so I am letting the probable grass and weeds grow up with the known flowers.
It is taking a lot of conscious effort and resistance to not make a quick judgment.
In today’s gospel story,
Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to someone who sows good seed in their field…
only to have weeds pop us as well.
The weed in Jesus’ parable is known in biblical terms as “tares.”
The roots of the tares would surround the roots of the wheat,
not only sucking up precious nutrients and scarce water,
but also making it impossible to pull up the weeds without damaging the good crop.
AND…both the tares and the wheat looked identical…
until their fruit was born.
Unlike the wheat,
the tares bore poisonous fruit.
In today’s gospel story,
the farmer sows good seed in his field.
The farmer has the field tended with great care and diligence
only to discover, when the wheat begins to bear grain,
that an evil one has come and sown poisonous weeds in his field!
Now, I am going to pause here to tell you that in my book…
today’s gospel is a difficult text.
Most of the commentaries on this text
say that the parable of the wheat and the tares
talks about how each of us has good and evil within us.
While I certainly think that is a true statement,
I do not think that is what this text is about.
In today’s story when the disciples ask Jesus to explain to them this parable,
he says very clearly:
“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.” (Mt 13:37-39a)
Well now, that seems pretty clear.
There are children of the kingdom,
and there are evildoers.
Upon seeing the weeds among the wheat,
the servants ask the householder if they are to gather up the weeds,
but he tells them:
"No, do not pull up the weeds."
This seems an odd thing.
Why not eradicate the weeds…
that which crowds out healthy growth
and even potentially destroys that which offers life?
I believe Jesus gives his disciples a couple of reasons to leave the weeds and the wheat together:
First, the roots of the weeds get so enmeshed with the roots of the good wheat
that you cannot pull up the weeds without also pulling up the wheat.
So, eliminating the weeds then also means eliminating much of the wheat.
A second reason Jesus might give for leaving the weeds alone is even more important:
we are not good judges when it comes to distinguishing between weeds and wheat.
I would bet that all of us here,
excepting any newborn babies,
have all engaged in harmful or destructive behavior at some point,
if not multiple points in our lives.
Sometimes we may not even recognize when our behavior is harmful.
So, at times, we simply are not good judges.
Because of our impaired sight and judgment,
Jesus tells us to wait for the harvest
because only God sees into the depths of our hearts and our neighbors’ hearts…
only God is able to judge.
Consequently, the harvest will be at the end of the age
after all the fruit has been borne
so that good and evil may be distinguished one from another.
I also wonder: if we allow the weeds to grow along with the wheat,
then might there remain the possibility of conversion (at least in terms of human life)?
Even if evil has sprung up in our lives,
or in the lives of our neighbors,
then a little extra time allows us the opportunity to acknowledge harmful behavior,
and allows God’s grace to redeem us.
When I experience all the pain in the world:
in my own life,
in the lives of those I love,
in the lives of complete strangers I hear about,
and I begin to wonder why God allows so much pain and destruction
and why there is so much evil in the world…
I realize that I need to be in church,
to hear over and over that God loves us,
and that God suffers along with us,
and that God offers us the gift of healing and wholeness.
Paul,
in his letter to the Romans,
reminds us that we are all children of God,
groaning along with the whole of creation in labor pains,
hoping for the possibility of redemption.
For now, the reign of God encompasses both "good" and "evil."
The Kindom includes the weeds,
the disoriented,
the lost –
this is the material of conversion.
This parable teaches us tolerance and patience.
We are called to be servants who tend the fields,
spreading the Good News of God's love and offer of healing
to any who have ears to hear.
Thanks be to God that the One who loves us most fully,
the One who breathed us into Being,
the One who died out of love for us,
the One who knit us together and knows the very depths of our hearts….
Thanks be to God that it is this One who judges us finally.
Let us wait with patience for our complete healing in Christ. Amen.
