Let us pray:

We have come into your presence, Lord, to celebrate, and to learn to better represent you to the world. Please send your Spirit to guide us. Amen.

Tragedy strikes. A child is run over and killed. Centennial Park is bombed. A tornado demolishes 64 homes. A flood sweeps away many homes and businesses. Innocent people are tortured and killed. On and on it goes . . .

Where is God? Doesn’t he see what is happening? Doesn’t he care?

Maybe God needs to take a lesson from us. We know how to handle evil. When a child misbehaves, we swat him. When someone commits a crime we put ‘em away. If they do it 3 times we put ‘em away for good.

Patience is one thing, God, but after all, there is a limit . . . Enough is enough. Forgiveness is a good thing — in its time and place.

We are certainly not the first to misunderstand God’s ways, God’s nature. The Jews of old pictured God as harsh and demanding. Calamity was his tool for punishing his erring people. When Israel behaved as they should, they prospered. When they were evil, God punished them — by snakes, by famine, by all sorts of disasters, or by letting their enemies conquer them.
Jesus came to dispel such notions. His favorite form of teaching was parables. More than just stories, less than myths, somewhat different from simple allegories, parables were the distinctive teaching tool of the Master Teacher. Today’s Gospel is one of those parables. There are 7 parables in Matthew 13, 8 if you count verse 52 as a parable.

Chapters 11 & 12 tell of the rejection of Jesus. The parables of chapter 13 illustrate the division and strife that results from such rejection. The chapter-13 parables are all about the Kingdom. Not so much the Kingdom to come as the Kingdom here and now. Jesus is telling us how to live as citizens of his Kingdom, even as we exist in a world of sin and corruption.

The parable of the wheat and the weeds was particularly prompted by the criticism of Jesus because he associated with sinners. While the religious leaders separated themselves from tax collectors, certainly from prostitutes, Jesus seems to have made a special point of searching them out and keeping company with them.

Now, today’s parable: It is only recorded by Matthew. Matthew wrote his Gospel particularly for Jews. Does that mean that Jews needed this lesson more than Gentiles?

The farmer sowed wheat. His enemy came at night and sowed weeds, probably what we know as “bearded darnel.” It was obviously an act of retribution or revenge of some type.
The Talmud, a body of Jewish civil and ceremonial laws, bears witness to the idea that the weeds were poisonous bearded darnel. Palestinian peasants believe it is degenerate wheat, it’s origin tracing back to the flood generation, when not only all flesh, but the earth itself was corrupted.

It seems that sowing weeds in an enemy’s field was a common method of retaliation, or revenge. Sounds like the “retaliatory strikes” mentality we hear about in the news today!

Darnel, also called chess, cockle or ryegrass, looks very much like wheat. I read that the sprouts are virtually indistinguishable, even to a farmer. So the only way to save the wheat, without burning the field off and starting over, is to let them grow together until harvest. By the time one can distinguish the difference, the roots are intertwined, and if you try to pull out the darnel you will also pull out the wheat.

We most likely see ourselves as wheat, as the good guys. We are, aren’t we? After all, we’re here at worship. The darnel, the tares, the weeds . . . well, they’re the evildoers; they’re people who don’t come to church!

The story reminds us that God is the judge. God will decide who are wheat and who are weeds. If God is willing to let the wheat and the weeds grow together, side by side, in the same field, until the harvest, should we presume on God’s prerogative? Should we presume to judge who’s in and who’s out?
Judgement is God’s job, and he will handle it in his own good time, thank you, and in his own good way. You and I are neither qualified nor commissioned to do that.

The best reason not to judge others is probably that we only see them from our limited perspective. We don’t know their backgrounds. We don’t know their thinking. We don’t know what influences have impacted their lives. We just don’t know all the facts, and those we do know are tainted by our own perspective.

Our perspective comes from our experience, and it is always distorted in favor of our personal agenda.

A woman was shopping in the mall. She got tired and sat down on a bench to take a break. As she opened the newspaper, she reached down on the seat to take a piece of the candy she had bought. To her amazement, the man sitting beside her also reached down and took a piece of the candy!

Of all the nerve! But she decided to ignore it. She reached down and took another piece. He reached down and took another piece. As she reached down to take the last piece, he beat her to it.

She was incensed. She grabbed the wrapper, threw it into the basket and walked off muttering to herself, “I should have slapped his face.”

Minutes later she saw the same man standing in front of a bakery eating a donut.
Let her tell the rest of the story: “I couldn’t resist it. I grabbed that awful man’s wrist, took a big bite of his donut and walked away.”

O yes, there is a “rest of the story.” When she got home and opened her purse, there was her sack of candy!

Judging from our limited perspective may not often make fools of us like that, but it is always the wrong thing to do. It is simply impossible for us to be completely objective.

In 1968, two researchers conducted an experimental study in an elementary school. They explained to the teachers that they had developed a test by which they could identify which students would make the most progress during the year. They tested the students and identified who would make the most progress.

The teachers were given the names of the students who would excel, confidentially. Sure enough, at the end of the year, the listed students had made better grades, had performed better on exams, had even improved their IQ scores.

The rest of the story is that the researchers actually had no way of predicting success, had done no such preliminary testing. They simply chose student names at random.

The listed students did better because their teachers expected them to do better.
The students responded to the teachers’ expectations. Teachers and parents, remember how crucial your evaluations, your judgments and your expectations are.

“Judge not,” Jesus said. You don’t know all the facts. God sees all sides of the person. Leave the judging to him.

There is a man who, when anyone begins to tell him some choice morsel of gossip, says, “Wait.” Then he takes out a pencil and paper. “Now, will you please repeat that? I want to write it down just as you say it.” He is amazed how many of the stories change . . . or disappear altogether!

Maybe we should carry notebooks to record what anyone says about anyone else.

We’ve all heard the story about the blind men who each felt an elephant and then described it. One felt the trunk: “It’s like a snake.” Another felt a leg: “It’s like a tree.” Another felt the tail: “It’s like a broom.” They were all correct, of course — from their own limited perspective!

According to legend, an ancient Persian king had four sons. In the fall, he sent one of them on a journey to see a mango tree. In the winter he sent another son to see the same tree. In the spring he sent another. And in the summer he sent the last.

The king called his sons together and asked them to describe the tree. The first son said it was but a burnt stump. The next said, No, it was a beautiful tree, large and green. The third said it was a flower tree, with many blossoms. The last said, “No, you are all wrong. It is a fruit tree with lots of delicious fruit.”

The king said, “Each of you is right. You each saw the tree in a different season. The lesson for you to learn is that you must withhold judgment until you have seen the same tree in all four seasons. Do not judge a person until you have seen him in all situations.”

It is so tempting for religious folks to become moral weeders, to spot sin and uproot it right now. If we leave it, it just might contaminate the field. If we don’t exterminate, excommunicate the weed-people from our congregations, they will poison the whole church.

But that is not our job. As disciples of Christ, we are to plant, water . . . and leave the harvest to God.

In contrast to the forbearance and patience of God, we tend to discriminate and disparage each other.

Humans have judged each other all thru the ages. Claudius, in an effort to separate the “good” from the “bad” human beings, commanded all Jews to leave Rome in the first century. Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. And of course, we remember the horror of Hitler’s attempt to annihilate Jews.

But Jews are not the only ones to be judged and persecuted.
The Old Testament tells the stories of Jews displacing the Canaanites, slaughtering them and taking their land. They believed God told them to do that. Biblical literalists accept that carnage as God’s will, his plan for his chosen people. Does that sound like our God, our Father to you?

In the Middle Ages, tribunals were established to safeguard “the faith.” Pope Innocent III declared heresy (not believing what the established church taught) a capital crime in 1215. The Fourth Lateran Council mandated punishment of heretics.

Infamous witch trials swept Europe from the 13th to the 18th centuries, and crossed the Atlantic in the 17th century, where “witches” were tried and executed, some simply because they had red hair!

Many Waldenses, a Christian sect in southern France, died for their faith, as did many other reformers, both within and without the established church. “Agree with us . . . or else!”

Christians have presumed to judge and exterminate Muslims. Muslims have presumed to judge and exterminate Christians. Catholics and Protestants have fought in many places, most notably in Ireland.

All in the name of religion, by Christians who sincerely believed they were doing God’s will.

There is an interesting German word, schadenfreude — Schaden means ‘harm’ and Freude means ‘joy.’
So schadenfreude is pleasure derived from another person's misfortune! Children often feel schadenfreude when a brother or sister is punished. Politicians feel schadenfreude when an opponents is defeated, even if they themselves do not win.

It all stems from judgment. We judge ourselves as right, and we judge others as wrong. We have the truth; others espouse error.

The sad fact is that many people actually search for error on the part of others, and then seem to enjoy displaying what they consider others’ errors — schadenfreude.

A woman lived by a creek. She called the police to complain that boys were swimming in the creek, nude. The police told the boys to move. Later, she called and said she could still see the boys swimming upstream, nude. Again the police told the boys to move.

A few days later she called again. “If I go up on my roof, with binoculars I can still see them.” I don’t know what the police said to that!

If you look for evil, you are likely to find it. If you look for good, you will likely find that. Sometimes in the same place or person, no less!

People who try to revoke other peoples’ ticket to heaven are likely to miss the train themselves. Disciples of Jesus should be so busy sharing the good news that they have little time to bray about bad news.
Do we know wheat from weeds? Incidentally, I spend a lot of time pulling weeds in my yard. If that appeals to you, you are welcome to come pull weeds!

What are weeds, anyway? Maybe weeds are weeds because we judge them to be so! A dandelion growing on your lawn is a weed. A dandelion growing in a flower garden is a beautiful yellow flower. A dandelion growing in your vegetable garden is a delicate, nutritious green. The value of a dandelion depends on the purpose and the judgment of whoever does the judging!

Only God knows the circumstances of anyone’s life. And God’s judgment is judgment we can trust . . .

We have talked about the value of learning, growth, study. Some even call ignorance a sin! No matter how much we study, no matter how intelligent we become, we will never be competent to judge others. We are just too ignorant — in every sense of that word!

For the past few weeks at our hymn sing at Henry Ford Village, a young lady has been visiting her mother. Our closing song is always How Great Thou Art. The young lady always lifts and waves her hands as we sing. That is a pentecostal tradition.

Why don’t you and I do that? Maybe we think it too ostentatious? Paul wrote to Timothy: “I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.”
(I Timothy 2:8)
If we would just judge only ourselves, only our own motives and our own habits.

Broom Hilda, the comic strip witch, asks her friend Irwin, “What would be the best way to make the world better?”

Irwin thinks a moment, then says, “Start with yourself. Give up your bad habits and evil pleasures. Then when you’re good, you’ll be a shining example.”

Broom Hilda thinks a bit, then responds, “What’s the second best way?”

Let’s ask God to give us the grace to forgive the faults of our enemies and the virtues of our friends.

A boy who lost his dad last winter nonetheless took his bat and ball and went to the lot where he and his dad had played ball. He threw the ball into the air and swung, but missed. A neighbor was watching and shouted “Strike one.” The boy threw the ball into the air again, and missed it again.

“Strike two.” Again he missed it. “Strike three, you’re out.”

Then the unwanted umpire shouted, “You’re a lousy hitter.”

The boy answered, “I’m not a lousy hitter. I’m a great pitcher. I just struck myself out!”

About the most explicit teaching of Jesus in the matter of judging others is the story of the woman caught in adultery. You all remember it.
There are several intriguing facets to that story. First, why was just the woman brought to Jesus? Where was the man with whom she was caught? Was he not at least as guilty as she? I say he was more guilty.

Of course, it was a matter of church discipline! It is repeated in many congregations today. We need to keep our churches pure! We don’t want to give Christianity a bad reputation.

“When they kept on questioning Jesus, he straightened up and said to them, ‘If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Again he stooped and wrote on the ground.

“At this, the accusers began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’” Where are the judges?

“‘No one, sir,’ she said. ‘Then neither do I condemn you,’ Jesus declared. ‘Go now and leave your life of sin.’” (John 8:3-11)

There is no excuse for sin. However, there are reasons, reasons we cannot know, reasons which we would likely not approve, even if we knew them. In Jesus’ day, as in today’s society, most people are more interested in revenge than in restoration, retaliation than rehabilitation, retribution than reinstatement. “Commit the crime, do the time.” “Three strikes and you’re out.”
We call it justice, but what we really want is judgment. Of course, we usually add the adjective and say righteous judgment, don’t we!

That, dear saints, is my sermon. If you are tempted to judge anyone’s attitudes or actions, remember that even Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn (judge) you.”

‘Twas early in the morning hour
Within the temple’s din,
The rulers of the people brought
A woman caught in sin.
No question what the punishment,
The law was very plain.
She deserved to die, they said,
So what did Jesus say?

Jesus simply stooped and wrote
Upon the dusty floor.
Then he stood and said to all,
“Go right ahead and throw.
Just take a moment, one and all,
Before those stones you cast,
For only one without such sin
May start the stoning first.”

There’s simply no way we can know
Why sinners choose to sin.
We cannot feel the hurt and pain
That plagues their souls within.
So we must do what Jesus did,
With mercy and with love,
Reach out to them with loving arms.
The sinners to forgive.

God has not commissioned us
To save the world from sin.
He has only given us
Songs to sing for him.
If a sister walks alone,
Burdened deep within,
We must help her lift her load,
Help her walk again.
Let us pray . . . (

p Weeds produce quick cover for land devastated by fire, flood or construction.

p Weed areas provide a haven and a source of food for many beneficial insects.

p Birds and other wildlife depend on weed seeds for food.

p Weeds are a source of drugs and dyes. Ragweed produces green; dock and smartweed produce yellow; coltsfoot is used for cough syrup; castor beans produce castor oil; jewelweed oil soothes poison ivy rash.

p Dried flowers, seed pods and stems of many weeds make attractive bouquets.

Parables are stories, not to be extrapolated too literally. Life is not all black and white! Not to detract from the significance of the parable, weeds are not always all bad!