A sermon for Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43 Presented at Christ Church, Bordentown NJ, July 22-23, 2023.

Someone that inspires me to be a better person and a better Christian is the Lutheran Pastor, Nadia Bolz-Weber. She writes and preaches a lot about grace, faith, the idiosyncrasies of humans, as well as her own recovery from addiction, and her personal failings.

In a recent sermon (found here), she reflected on preaching over the years at St John’s Cathedral in Denver, and the irony of living across the street from the church 30 years earlier with a deep feeling of disdain for church bells. Because then, on any given Sunday at 8am, you would have likely found her [quote] “unspeakably hungover or still intoxicated from the night before”.

Her sermon compared her path (of addiction to ordination), to Jesus’ parable of the frustrated man who wanted to cut down his fig tree in Luke’s Gospel (13:6-9) because it didn’t bear fruit for three years. Knowing her own journey and how many years it took, she felt this “poor tree hadn’t even been given its full chance”. Thus, her sermon was about how we perceive time differently from God, and how God is infinitely patient with all of us, and when we listen, God is “saying to us [about ourselves] …some things take time. And I [God] have all the time in the world.”

Doesn’t that _feel_ good? ___ Knowing God has all the time in the world to be infinitely patient with us while we continue to walk and still stumble, to continue to have faith and still doubt, to continue to love but still mistakenly judge.

When I reflected on today’s Gospel, I was drawn back to Nadia’s sermon, but I also thought about … dandelions. Dandelions_ the invasive plant species damaging crops with deep roots and spreading seeds over long distances. Their reputation makes them a perfect example of the type of weed you would use to ruin the crop of your enemy.

But dandelions are known to be highly edible, and nutritious for humans and other living creatures. They can help bring nutrients to shallow-rooting plants. They assist pollinating insects. They are a possible source for creating rubber (according to Wikipedia). And when they dry up, they become a source of fun to blow apart.

Overall, dandelions are a great example of encountering something in life in which we take the good with the bad.

In today’s Gospel, the farmer was obviously wise to not let his enemy’s weed destroy his wheat. The farmer’s plan was to let the weed grow and dispose of it at harvest time. And the explanation that Jesus gives of the parable is “the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil”. So when we reach the end of days, the weeds are collected and burned and the good seed though will prevail to the kingdom of the Father.

So _ we take the good with the bad during this life, and at the end of this mortal coil the good will prevail.

But wait, there’s more.

The last sentence of Jesus’ explanation is “Let anyone with ears listen!” This statement could just be a perfunctory end to the lesson. Instead, it feels like a third part of the Gospel-Reading whereas the first part is the parable, and the second part is the explanation.

This third part is instruction.

But what do these instructions mean? What are we to listen for? The explanation makes it seems as if it’s predestined; you’re either sowed as a good seed or a bad seed. But _ listening means to pay attention _ to the choice. It’s still a choice for man to listen to the call of the one planting the good seed or the one planting the bad seed.

The farmer listens. He does not instruct his workers to seek revenge on his enemy. He lets the weeds grow and he wisely plans and waits. He does not fret.

Now we don’t have any sense that the weeds in this parable were dandelions. But it could have been something similar, and the farmer after the harvest may have been able to make something good out of the bad seed. For example, a nice dandelion salad for lunch.

And isn’t that life after all? You can take the good with the bad. We make good choices; we make bad choices. We listen to good advice; we listen to bad advice. And we watch others do the same.

But God is with us through all of that. And Jesus’ parables, as this one does, helps us with seeking, hearing, and growing toward God. Fortunately, unlike dandelions we have free will to choose if we are the crop, or the weed. And for those around us _ in our families and communities _ we can help them to choose.

Whether it’s ourselves or those we know, God is infinitely patient and has all the time in the world. Unfortunately, our time on this earth is more limited. So best to pay attention and use that time wisely.

But no matter who we are or where our journeys take us towards being the bountiful crop (and not the weed) _ it’s good to know the instructions on which way to go are always there for us _ it’s good to know that the church bells will continue to ring at 8am, despite the condition that we may be in_ and that God never gives up on our journeys.

He knows with time we can all get there.

Amen.