Text of Sermon from 20 July, 2008. Based on reading from Matthew 13: 24-30 and 36-43.
This is the story of Jesus telling a parable describing the kingdom of heaven. He said it was like someone who sowed good seed in the field, but an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat. When it came time for harvesting the wheat, the servants of the land-owner found weeds in the field. What should we do? – they asked – Pull the weeds up?. No – said the land-owner. – Let them grow together because you might pull up wheat as well as weeds. I’ll tell the reapers to collect the weeds first, then bundle them and burn them. The they’ll be able to gather the wheat with no problem! –
The Jesus’ disciples ask him – What did that parable mean? – You know, they never seem to get anything. Unless this is a literary trick designed to ask and answer a question the listener might have. Anyway, Jesus says thusly – The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world, the good seed are the children of the kingdom, the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels of God. As the weeds are collected and burned, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels and they will collect out of he kingdom all the causes of sin and evil things, bundle them up, and have them thrown in a place where there is a lot of not-so-good-things happening – paraphrased of course.
Here goes…
The story of the Israelites leaving Egypt starts with the celebration of the first Passover, one of the most sacred Holy days in Judaism. It recounts the Israelites leaving bondage and slavery. And they head to the Promised Land.
This is a Sacred Myth. This word “myth” may be troubling for some. Let me explain. Myth, in the sense I am using it, is a Sacred Truth, a Sacred Story, told in story form. In the more common usage of the word myth, it is a lie, a falsehood, an untruth. Here’s an example – Cosmo Magazine’s “5 Myths About Men”… and then in the article you see “Myth” and “Fact”. This is certainly a way to use this word. But this isn’t the way I’m using it, and it’s not the way many others use it either.
I had a seminary professor say “Myth is Truth irrespective of historicity.” It’s truth, but not in the sense of being historically accurate. It’s truth, but not in the sense of being factually true. You’ve heard of that old-timer that starts off his stories with, “everything I’m about to say is true… even though it might not have happened that way.”
In the Jewish Mystical tradition, the Promised Land represents a place where life can be lived in it’s healthiest forms. It may not be a physical place, as much as an ideal. In the Torah, the first 5 books of the bible (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy), the most sacred parts of the Jewish bible, it really is a struggle to reach the Promised Land. In fact, in the Torah, the Israelites never make it. It ends just as they are about to cross over into this land. The book of Joshua picks up at this point. In the Torah, the Promised Land is a Hope. The people aspire to reach there.
And in Jewish mystical tradition, Egypt represents that which holds us back from…. That which prevents us from reaching… the Promised Land... or in other words, this new life that God has planned for us.
Egypt is a metaphor for those slaveries and bondages in our lives, that prevent us from living a full, a whole, a joyous life, as God intended.
Why am I talking about this – the Torah and the story of the Exodus… and not about the parable of the wheat and the weeds?
In the parable, Jesus says the landowner tells the servants to let the two plants grow together. The pre-supposition is that the field is supposed to grow wheat, that weeds are not natural to the field. Maybe the wheat is a metaphor for a whole life, the way we were intended to live our lives. And in the story, the weeds were put there by the “enemy”… perhaps saying weeds are not natural to our lives, in the sense that they are foreign to who we really are. Maybe the weeds are a metaphor for that which chokes off and strangles the life out of the healthy, whole plants. But they stay together here, until the very end.
What are some examples of “weeds” in your life? Maybe anxieties, worries… things like this that choke-out enjoyment of life, that take away our ability to live in the moment. Maybe Pride is a weed. Maybe the various addictions that pull us away from healthy lives. Certainly our unhealthy choices are weeds. Weeds are those things that choke the Spirit out of our lives and the life out of our Spirits.
The thing is, according to the story, every life has some weeds. Every life has something that is like spiritual/psychological/emotional/or even physical… “Egypt”.
In mystical Judaism, the metaphor for this is “Egypt”. Perhaps in the parable, the metaphor for this is “Weeds”.
What are the weeds in your life? What do you struggle with? What holds you back from a more full life? Is it fear? “I can’t”, or “I’m not good enough”, or “I don’t know if I’ll be able to”. Is it issues from our childhood rearing their ugly heads?
We all struggle with something! If the “story” within the Torah were a metaphor for a human life, it’s interesting to note that most of the Torah deals with the Israelites struggling with life in the desert. And that mostly stems from issues relating to their past in Egypt, in bondage. The past rearing it’s ugly head again.
It’s a struggle! And it takes them 40 years to get to the Promised Land. And as I mentioned, that part of the story doesn’t even show up in the Torah. Why does the Torah end there… just as they are about to enter the Promised Land? Is it a way of saying struggle is a part of life? Maybe.
In Buddhism there is a saying that the issues you have before you’re enlightened are the same issues you’ll have after you’re enlightened, you’ll just know how to deal wit them in healthier ways. Maybe the issues after enlightenment won’t have such destructive strength in our lives. Enlightenment doesn’t magically take away the things you struggle with, it just takes the wind out of their sails a little more. The issues don’t go away – wheat and weeds are still there. You just know how to identify your “weeds” more readily.
In Christian Mythology, the Promised Land is Resurrection! New Life!
I remember hearing a story of a Catholic Monastery that invited a Buddhist monk to come and lead them in a “Buddhist-style” retreat, compete with Koan and all.
A Koan is a riddle that the intellectual mind cannot answer, no matter how much it struggles with it… and it does. The question makes no sense, and the answer makes even less sense. A Koan is designed to frustrate and defeat the undisciplined mind, and the intellectual mind. Interestingly, in Buddhism, the intellectual mind is still considered superficial. And in defeating these two minds, the effects of the Koan, the riddle, go deeper into the psyche. The struggling gives the intellectual mind something to “play” with, while something deeper is happening… often unbeknownst to the intellectual mind.
The Koan acts much like prayer beads in the various traditions that use them – as your mind is praying these “rote” prayers, there is actually something deeper happening in the psyche and soul.
Here is a classic example of a Koan – You know the sound of two hands clapping, what is the sound of one hand clapping?
Well, in preparation, the Buddhist monk reads the bible, particularly the Gospels. Then he calls each monk into his room one at a time, and tells them – I have read parts of the bible, and I have read the Gospels. I like the story of Jesus. I am especially intrigued by the story of his resurrection. Show me your resurrection!
In Christian mythology, the Promised Land is Resurrection. Yet the weeds are part of life… as we move towards Resurrection… in the midst of resurrection!
Today’s Koan for us can be very meaningful and enlightening if we really take the time to consider it…
What kind of resurrection is God calling you to now…in this part of your life? And… What is holding you back from reaching your resurrection?
2 comments:
So this one was painful - one of those sermons that really reaches deep down into your soul and makes you realize that the reason you don't achieve all that you can is that you just don't quite work hard enough at weeding. Ouch. I have many unfinished projects, half-completed ideas that just never got to the ending point because other things came up and took over. Hopefully over the next weeks God will help me return to those and follow through, rather than find excuses and out-clauses for things I just can't seem to complete.
Actually my intention in this sermon wasn't so much as a way of highlighting our laziness.
What I wanted to point out was, although we may be living a life that isn't "as we are called to live it"... most of us llive our lives - as good as they may be - with a certain degree of disquietutude. Whether you want to call it "original sin" or what the Buddhist's believe about the the first eternal truth - that we don't live our lives as well as we might otherwise be able to, as might be considered the "natural" way (if we were all born in an Enlightened state, we'd for sure live in an Enlightened Way... but mostly we don't).
I wanted to point out that Wheat and Weeds tend to grow together inour lives... that they really are part of the same garden ofour lives. But we're also called to work on them as we are able. As natural as they are... weeds do a number of things; they not onlyuse the resources that plants like flowers and veggies need to grwo healthy and strong, but they also choke the life out of them.
There are people that would like to live a certain way... live with more strength, or compassion, or be stronger willed, or they may want to live a life that is more centered around the Spirit, etc. But things get in the way of that. They try, and it doesn't work, then feel discouraged. "Why am I not good at _____?" or "Maybe I'm not good enough to do ____."
If we remember that weeds are a part of life, then maybe we don;t have to be so hard onourselves, and it frees us up to look on the positive...maybe weeds are able to HELP us become the kind of people we feel called to become. As we weed our "garden", we build the discipline required to achieve what we might be looking for.
Discipline in general helps us mold and shape our lives. You want to run a marathon, you have to practice... build up to it. You want to be a Violin player, you have to practice. Practice takes time and energy -- weeding -- but we do this to help us in a particular skill or vocation.
In it's healthiest form, discipine helps us BECOME. It helps us "make" something with the gifts we've been given.
Is there more in this sermon? There always is. It's interesting how each person takes away from something like this that which they either need or are working on.
I just found it interesting how the Torah ends with teh people of Israel teetering on the edge of the valley between the desert and the Promised Land. They DON'T actually get there in the Torah. That comes later, but IN the Torah... it's the struggle that counts, not the achievement as a result of the struggle.
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