Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43 (NRSV)
If
you’d give me several hours of your time and a good chair I’d be glad to
discuss with you why evil exists and why it is not a contradiction of an “All
Powerful, All Knowing God.”
When
asked why God created man when He knew he would sin, Martin Luther replied,
"Let us keep clear of these abstract questions and consider the will of
God such as it has been revealed to us."
In
our scripture passage for today Jesus will give us a view of how we are to live
and deal with the evil among us. Jesus tells us that we, those who have
responded to God and the Son of Man, will face evil among us. Jesus calls them
“tares.”
Tares
are more specifically called “the bearded darnel.” It is mentioned only here in
Matthew chapter 13. It is a species of rye-grass, and the seeds are a strong
poison. It bears a close resemblance to wheat till the ear appears, and then
the difference is discovered. It grows plentifully in Syria and Palestine.
Tares
are present in the church as well, as we have many folks who look like
Christians until we see their fruit. Mainline churches are especially full of
tares, but every church has its share. The Christian-claiming tare is
responsible for much pain and suffering among the believers. Even Jesus had a
tare among His disciples that He had to tolerate.
Tares
are also present in America as well. While many people feel as if America was
set up as a practicing Christian Nation, dedicated to the freedoms endowed by
the Creator as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, many do not and
will do what they can to destroy or undermine it.
Just
like the church America has never been perfect but her system of laws, care and
concern for the least among us, and a willingness to share the burdens of woes
was and I pray, still is a shining example and testimony to the exceptionalism
of its people.
Over
the years many have challenged and failed to destroy our union but the attacks on
our culture are reaching overwhelming heights.
Let
me give you an example. A man I will call a tare was David Saul Alinsky, born
in Russia in 1909, who came to America, settled in Chicago to become a
“community organizer.”
His philosophies for undermining society are recorded in his book, Rules for Radicals, which has become the basis, for a popular political movement aimed at “fundamentally transforming the United States of America.”
Many
current politicians and political action groups operating in our country mark
Alinsky as their “hero and mentor.”
Alinsky developed his ideas as a professor at the University of Chicago and as a community organizer in Chicago.The dedication page of his book is quite revealing:
“Lest we
forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical:
from all our legends, mythology, and history... the first radical known to man
who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at
least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.”
His instructions for “how to create a social state” include 8
areas he said must be manipulated and controlled: Healthcare – Poverty
– Debt – Gun Control – Welfare – Education – Religion – Class Warfare. Look
around church – sound familiar?
Jesus
knew about people like Alinsky. Listen to Jesus’ words in the Gospel of
Matthew, chapter 13, verses 24-30 and 36-43:
He put before them
another parable: ‘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!
So
much for Christians and “we the church” living in time of peace and prosperity.
Instead we are being choked out and fighting for resources and our very existence.
Many
of you wonder why some churches aren’t prospering or why people don’t come to
church, or what’s going on. The answer is simple for those with ears who listen
to Jesus.
Sadly,
many Christians spend most of every day with their heads in the sand,
blissfully unaware, or strongly avoiding, the war raging around them.
And
partially they are right, for God is the judge who will remove the tares and
settle the debts. Jesus tells us that. But we have to tend to ourselves and make
our preparation for the coming harvest! We are to listen with our ears and see
tares.
The
story is told of a farmer in a Midwestern state who had a strong disdain for
"religious" things. As he plowed his field on Sunday morning, he
would shake his fist at the church people who passed by on their way to
worship. October came and the farmer had his finest crop ever--the best in the
entire county.
When
the harvest was complete, he placed an advertisement in the local paper which
belittled the Christians for their faith in God. Near the end of his diatribe
he wrote, "Faith in God must not mean much if someone like me can prosper."
The
response from the Christians in the community was quiet and polite. In the next
edition of the town paper, a small ad appeared. It read simply, "God
doesn't always settle His accounts in October."
It
would be wonderful to live separate from evil and troubles, wouldn’t it? But
Jesus cautions us about judging and taking His justice into our hands. Instead
we are to pray.
Alexandr
Solzhenitsyn wrote: “If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously
committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the
rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through
the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his
own heart?” In the end we don’t have the guts or heart to weed out evil.
We
can ask all we want but Nigel Wright wrote in 1990 that “There is a fundamental
sense in which evil is not something that can be made sense of. The essence of
evil is that it is something which is absurd, bizarre and irrational. It is the
nature of evil to be inexplicable, an enigma and a stupidity.”
What
we must come to understand, as taught by Jesus, is the last few verses of this
passage: “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.”
We
need to make sure our own house, our own relationship with God, is filled with
prayer, petition, and repentance. We need to do everything to honor God, and
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, then we need have no fear of the future or
eternity.
An
American writer named Wilson Mizner was a boxer who socialized with other
boxers. One night Mizner and boxer "Mysterious" Billy Smith visited a
San Francisco bar, where Mizner started a fight with some longshoremen.
At
the end of the fight only one longshoreman was left standing. Although Mizner threw
every punch he knew at the man, he wouldn’t go down. Suddenly, Smith noticed
what was happening. "Leave him alone, Wilson!" he shouted. "I
knocked him out five minutes ago."
Taking
a closer look it turned out that a punch from Smith had indeed knocked the
longshoreman out cold, but had also wedged him standing up between two pieces
of furniture.
Jesus
assures us that evil was defeated on the Cross, and is only being tolerated up
until the Heavenly Harvest. This story of Smith and Wilson give us an accurate
picture of our already-defeated but still standing enemy Satan!
So
how then do we live until then? St. Paul’s joint Sunday School recently
conducted a weeklong VBS/Bible Boot Camp.
If
you attended then you’d know. Listen to Ephesians 6: 10-17:
Finally, be
strengthened by the Lord and by His vast strength. Put on the full
armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil. For our battle is not
against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the
uthorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the
spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.
This is why you must
take up the full armor of God, so that you may be able to resist in
the evil day, and having prepared everything, to take your stand.
Stand, therefore,
with truth like a belt around your waist, righteousness like armor on
your chest, and
your feet sandaled with readiness for the gospel of peace.
In every
situation take the shield of faith, and with it you will be able to
extinguish
all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation, and the
sword of the Spirit, which is God’s word.
Some
of you think these are “Sunday School” words good just for children – but we as
followers of Christ have never needed them more. We need to cling to the old
rugged Cross, the Truth and Light of Christ, and the Love of God if we are going
to keep growing and avoid being choked out by the evil and vileness all around
us that seeks to poison everything God created.
WE
can’t put on the “belt of compromise,” “the breastplate of tolerance,” “the
earth shoes of progressive evolution,” “the shield of political correctness,”
“the helmet of ecumenical salvation,” or “the sword of human experience” and
remain safe from evil and temptation.We just can’t do it anymore.
Each of us needs to re-read and study the firstt three chapters of the Book of Revelation and take heed to the warnings listed there about “lukewarm” Christians from Laodicea who were happy as clams with their “no commitment, no real responsibility” religion. So it is in much of the emergent and progressive churches today.
Listen
to the words of Jesus from Revelation 3: 19-20 – “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens
the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.”
Don’t
be lukewarm Christians. Only the full armor, the WHOLE armor, of God will do!
Amen.
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