Sermon for Sunday 19th July – Matthew Year A – Weeding

Deacon Chris Saccali – St Paul’s Athens

MAY I SPEAK IN THE NAME OF THE TRIUNE GOD FATHER, SON AND HOLY SPIRIT AMEN

Usually I return from my break at this time of year with tales from our holiday and this year is no exception.  We drove down right to the tip of the Peloponnese,  helped by the newish motorway to Kalamata. However, as soon as you leave the highway or even before you do so there are verges or swards as my father would have said full of dried grasses – cow parsley mainly. It seems that landowners and local authorities have not heeded the government’s annual law that plots of land must be cleared by mid June. And if they have been cleared, the debris is piled up which is certainly a fire risk and there are no warning signs anywhere ,as far as I can see about  starting fires apart from during those broadcast  in high winds. Most of Messinia is full of olive groves, think Kalamata olives, and they are a very well tended prize crop whose  oil flows freely. We kept hearing planes divebombing, possibly to spray the crops for dako the olive pest- nothing to do with air battles.

Today we are thinking about crops following on from the parable of the Sower last week continuing our reading of Matthew 13 . This parable is only to be found in Matthew.I Another agricultural talke but one with sabotage for apparently there was a law during Roman times to stop people sowing weeds amonst the wheat so it must have been a common enough occurrence.

I  do know a weed when I see one and I have several places to weed  – the garden of course and outside on the road where weeds threaten to choke the drains and gutter. Some neighbours help out with clearing their patch  some don’t . Our family  grave in the village where we live is another place where we have partly gravel  but weeds are canny and inventive, they can sow themselves in any crack and grow to enormous proportions. Here in the church garden I sometimes weed when I arrive early and have spare time as I am taking a stroll around on a Sunday morning before service or when waiting for the gate to be opened, I recently weeded and tidied up outside seeing everything from another perspective as a passerby does, perhaps.

It is good to see things from a different angle like the pictures we now get taken by drones or unusual photos at sport events like the World Cup or Wimbledon. And aren’t sports competitions all about weeding out – not from the immaculate pitch or court but whittling down to the best teams or players for the final match like tonight. Many people have been rooting for the underdog and the teams from smaller countries like Cape Verde , Ethiopia and others. Or who can forget the Polish women’s finalist at this year’s  French Open who came from nowhere with no sponsorship and got a wildcard at Wimbledon. Aren’t we are a sucker for an underdog but what about the marginalised those who don’t fit into a perfect picture or here at church? The KIngdom of God is exactly that an upside down perfect world.

All the kingdom parables are piling up one upon another in the verses we heard  and maybe we need to think of a fresh way of looking at the stories for these times and how they speak to our generation too. We tend to think of parables as nice, familiar, little stories and not always heed the warning behind them. Rather we like a story and find them comforting . First of all, we need to listen to them afresh , bearing in mind the original context and try and tease out the puzzles. After all, those who first heard Jesus speaking live, so to speak, could not have done this but the original audience had the spoken tradition in which they were passed down and around. A good story requires a lot of mulling over and makes you think again and again. These have lasted the test of time.

The crowds who were following Jesus were hanging on for the stories as well as the healing and miracles. So first impressions here if we listen anew? Unpredictability and excitement- growth from the smallest unlikliest beginnings. I have an embroidered card at home which writes : The things I sow somehow don’t grow I’m sorely disenchanted but oh what luck I have with stuff I never even planted.’

Just like the explanation of the Parable of the Sower earlier on in Matthew 13  we also have this story explained to us so there is no getting away from the meaning however uncomfortable it is. There is not much leeway or loophole but it could be that the author felt the need to insert the explanations for the first readers and then they were incorporated into the texts. And also there was a reason for including this parable.

Anyway, I  think the most difficult thing is to let the crop and the weeds grow together because we have an irresistible urge to pull them up , to interfere. The most important thing is not just to recite ‘your Kingdom come ‘  but to dwell on what those words mean right now here on earth. Leave the final judgement to God we are being told, do not meddle.  And isn’t it interesting that it is the slaves that want to pull up the weeds? Do they think perhaps it is their job ? But it isn’t . The late Ann Widdecombe , a woman of faith, whatever her politics, is quoted by Giles Brandreth as saying,  ‘Do whatever good you can and leave the rest to God.’

The Letter to the Romans , which we are also following through alongside Matthew has a lot to say about slavery and sin but it is not always clear to follow or neatly explained to us. Basically, Paul has been outlining why Christ’s death and our baptism sets us free but underlining that there are consequences for our life and discipleship.

We are slaves no longer but as is human nature we can hardly believe it and keep looking over our shoulder expecting a beating or we can easily become enslaved to another master and not relax in Christ. The important point here is that belonging is precious. As the church, we belong to God, we are his family we are adopted but we belong together whateveriour differences. We grow together like the crop and the weeds.

So I wonder where the heart of the Kingdom is ? Where do we need to weed out our priorities and leave all the rest to God. This requires a great deal of patience indeed and a lifetime of it. We discover that God is the master of patience with regards to all creation including the human race.

I didn’t read much on holiday at all just gazed at the views over Navarino Bay and the small islands dotted round there marvelling at nature and creation. But I started on ‘Whatever happened to Margo by Gerald Durrell’s sister Margaret.’ If you recall, the Durrell family had an aunt called Patience who gives some advice to her adult niece who is about to take in lodgers: ‘What you need Margo ito cultivate the ability to sum up people, to separate  the wheat from the chaff , the rough from the smooth.’  We are called to leave that to God and actually as Kingdom people to live our lives out together.

Let us pray the alternative Collect for today:

O God patient and forbearing, you alone know fully the goodness of what you have made.  Strengthen our spirit when we are slow and temper our zeal when we are rash that in your own good time you may produce in us a rich harvest from the seed you have sown and tended

Through our Lord Jesus Christ who lives and reigns with you.

AMEN.