Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

           After spending thirteen years in the inner city of St. Paul, my family moved out to Brooklyn Center. My folks had been renters for some time. We moved to a home they would own. So there was much excitement.

           It was a nice place, too. A big corner lot.  There was a big weeping willow tree. Perfect for climbing. You could make your way to the roof of the house by climbing that tree. Behind the garage was a rather large patch of land.  Large for that area. Or, I should say, I thought it was big back when I was a kid. I recently drove by there and realized it is not as big as I remembered. But Dad thought that would be a good place for a garden. He had not done much gardening to that point, so he thought he might give it a try. And he anointed me, his first born, as his assistant.

           First thing we had to do was prepare the ground. We did not use one of those fancy, power tillers. No, we did it by hand. Shovels.  We dug and turned over the dirt—one shovel full at a time That took some time, and was a task I did not find overly enjoyable.

           Then came the planting of the seed.  Over the years, my father tried growing many things. But there were three regular residents in his garden. There were tomato plants. Lots of tomato plants. Our window sills were always decorated with green tomatoes in the process of turning red. There were carrots. And radishes. I think the radishes were his favorites because they grew quickly. There were up to three radish harvests a year. Dad enjoyed consuming what he raised.

The garden required constant tending. An important part of the tending process was the weeding. And guess who had the privilege of every now and then getting assigned the task of weeding? Me. Again, no fancy equipment.  So I would use a hoe and extract some of the invasive plants. But a lot of the weeds had to be pulled by hand. It was not my favorite task, out there on hands and knees, pulling—had to make sure I got roots and all—thinking to myself that the local grocery store sold perfectly good radishes and bigger carrots and already ripe tomatoes.

           And the weeding was not a one time chore. It was on-going. No matter how many of them I pulled, roots and all, more came. It was as if they sent out for reinforcements. And I remember wondering to myself even then just how the weeds got there in the first place. Dad planted radishes, carrots, and tomatoes. Who planted the weeds? If I could just get to that person, the weeding problems would end.

           Fact was, the weeds were just there. We had to plant the good stuff. The bad stuff was already there, native to the soil, already present where we were planting the good seed.

           The world is kind of like that. You know, it seems we have to work at the good, while the bad just seems to be naturally there. In fact, Jesus told a story along these lines.

           Last week, we looked at the first of the kingdom parables in the thirteenth chapter of Matthew. We considered the story of the farmer who scattered some seed, and the seed fell into four kinds of soil. The kingdom lesson there is we just keep sowing the seed of God’s Word, the message of the kingdom. This week’s story is about good seed being planted,

and weeds growing up right along with that good seed. In the story we looked at last week, Jesus began with, “A farmer went out so sow his seed.” Jesus was telling a story about the farmer. Jesus began the next parable—the one we are looking at today—with, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.” So Jesus was about to tell a story about the kingdom of heaven, and comparing the kingdom to a man sowing good seed.  Jesus was not comparing the kingdom of heaven to the man—but to the situation of the man sowing good seed. The seed sowed was wheat.

           The man sowed the good seed in his field. This man owned the field. Evidently, during the night, while everyone was asleep, the man’s enemy entered the field and sowed weeds among the wheat. The wheat began to grow. The weeds also grew.

           A quick word about those weeds.  Despite my early gardening experience, I am no botanist. But there was a weed in that day known as bearded darnel. It looked a lot like wheat when first coming out of the ground. As young plants, wheat and darnel were difficult to distinguish from each other. It was only when the heads of grain appeared on the wheat that one could see it was wheat. In other words, you could tell the wheat from the weed by the fruit on the wheat.

           So the wheat and weeds grew together. The grain appeared on the wheat. The servants of the owner went to him and asked him if he did not sow good seed in his field. They wanted to know where the weeds came from. The owner told them an enemy planted the weeds. The servants wanted to know if the owner wanted them to weed his field. The owner gave a rather interesting answer. He said, “No.” The owner did not want them to make the mistake of accidentally pulling some of the wheat while pulling the weeds. He told them to wait until the harvest. At that time the harvesters would gather the weeds and burn them. Then they would gather the wheat.

           And, as in last week’s story, Jesus explained this parable to his disciples. The field is the world. There are children of the kingdom growing in the world. But there are also children of the enemy—the evil one. But the day of harvest will come. And when the harvest reaches its completion, the righteous will shine like the sun in God’s kingdom.

           Now, this parable talks about a man—the owner—sowing seed. I think it would be safe to assume that his servants were involved in the process of planting. So the servants were surprised to see weeds. They were surprised because they knew they planted

good stuff. So where did the weeds come from? The owner encouraged them by letting them know the presence of the weeds was not their fault. It was the work of the enemy. The servants offered to help by pulling the weeds. The owner declined their offer. So with that in mind I think there may be a couple of lessons to be learned.

           First, we are called to plant the seed, not weed the garden. Let me repeat that. Our calling is to sow the seed. We have not been commissioned to weed the garden. That ought to come as some pretty good news. See, planting seed is a more joyous and hopeful task. Pulling weeds is arduous and back breaking and not at all fun.

           Besides…. Well, let me put it this way: I am not at all sure I would even know the difference between wheat and weeds. Oh, there are times I think I do. Don’t we all think that from time to time? We can certainly identify that person who is committed to Jesus, who lives for God and God’s kingdom. A strong stalk of wheat. Then there is this other person. You know, questionable actions and attitude. Appears to be a weed in the garden of humanity. That is not our call. The parable seems to suggest that if we attempt to do the weeding, we just might mess things up and uproot some potential fruit-bearing plants.

           Our job is not to weed the garden.  Thank God for that. God calls us to plant seed. 

He is the master gardener, after all.  It is his field.

           Which brings us to the second lesson. It is God’s garden. This is our Father’s world. In other words, all is not lost—the harvest is not ruined—just because there are a few weeds in the field.

           How often have you heard someone say, “The world is going to the devil”?  Have any of us ever entertained that thought? We read the paper and watch the news. We read…well, just this past week the story of a father who was beaten by eight men at Valley Fair just because he attempted to protect his daughter from one of them. And we wonder just what this world is coming to—or where it is headed. We read of corruption and wonder where the honesty has gone—and where the world is headed. People see the power of evil

at work and wonder if we are not helpless against it.

           But this world is not going to the devil just because there are a few weeds. Because, you see, this is God’s world. God made it. In a moment we will sing the hymn that contains the great line, “O let me ne’er forget that though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet.”

           You and I need to be about the task of sowing the seed of God’s Word, the seeds of righteousness and grace. The enemy will plant a few seeds of his own. But take heart. Don’t lose heart. This is our Father’s world. The harvest will come. All will be right.

           Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.