Life Finds a Way

 

16^th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle A

 

Here we are in mid-summer, and since we’re in the Cycle A readings from the Gospel of Matthew, that means parables, lots of parables. I don’t know if it’s intentional or not, but since most of Jesus’ parables are around agricultural themes, summer is the perfect time for them since everything has been planted and is growing nicely around us. Last week we heard the parable of the sower planting the seeds. This week we see the seeds growing up leading to the harvest. And all is not good in the garden.

 

It’s funny that I was just quoting this parable to Nancy the other day, which I sometimes do, and which annoys her to no end. We have this young tree in our yard that we bought and planted a couple years ago, and it didn’t survive this last winter. It was obviously dead, and we were planning to dig it up and put something else in its place. But suddenly a small shoot sprang up at the base of the trunk that looked like it was from the tree itself. Then another and a third started growing, and it was coming from the root ball of the tree, even though the rest of the tree seemed dead.

 

Nancy asked if we should cut down the dead tree to allow the shoots to grow better, and I said I didn’t know if that would help the shoots or kill them also, and well, that’s when I quoted this parable, not knowing that it would be the readings for today. That’s when the eyes started to roll. Like in the parable, we decided to continue to water and fertilize it and let the entire thing grow together and perhaps in the fall it would become more apparent what to do. And you know, those little shoots have been growing like crazy. In just a few weeks they are already half the height of the tree itself!  It seems that what was apparently dead had hidden life within it, just beneath the surface, and given the chance has burst forth with great vigor. Remember that quote from Jurassic Park, “Life finds a way”?

 

This parable addresses a basic understanding of who we Christians see ourselves to be and how we are to engage with the world. How are the wheat and the weeds to live together, when they seem to be always struggling for life? Christians have always lived a dual life. We have been given such a strong hope in eternal life, in the good news of Jesus Christ. We know that we are not destined just for this world alone, that we are to live in the world but be not of it. We are people of life, but the reality of life is that wheat and weeds are all planted here together.

 

There are so many weeds in the world that try to choke out our life. Our inherent defense mechanisms often make us want to either attack them or withdraw to a safe place, to defend what we have and separate ourselves from the pain and the hurt. We should do neither if we are to be true tenders of the garden. We are called to engage the world and truly transform it through the love of Christ, just as he did. We must affect change from within, one human heart at a time.

 

I guess it was a thing back in Jesus’ day for someone to sow tares amongst an enemy’s wheat crop, and that it was really hard to tell them apart. That’s what made it so dangerous. It’s that way in life sometimes, too. It’s often hard to tell the wheat from the weeds. Sometimes what we think are weeds are actually wheat, and vice versa. It’s funny that we are the ones who usually identify with the wheat in this parable. We’re not the weeds. We’re the good folks who need to be protected, and I think we are for the most part. But maybe we play it too safe sometimes. We usually focus on the danger of the weeds choking out the wheat but what if the opposite happens? If we leave them to grow together perhaps the wheat will influence and change the weeds into wheat. There’s always hope that things will change. No one’s state is fixed forever in this life. We all can make choices for God up until the very end.

 

That small mustard seed of faith and that measure of yeast starts off in each individual long before it can affect anyone else. We need to take the time and effort to nurture our own fragile faith before we can ever influence others. We are ultimately responsible for our own salvation, but we are also called to be faithful stewards of the kingdom here on earth. Just as we pray for the grace and strength to persevere ourselves, we are called to go and make disciples of all nations. We are to till the field, nurture what seed has been planted, and never give up on anyone, including ourselves.

 

Remember the parable of the sower last week? The sower isn’t picky about where he throws the seed. He just spreads it everywhere and it falls where it may. Some falls on rocky or hard ground that rejects it and some falls on good soil where it has a chance to take root and grow. The outcome is not up to the sower, but with the ground. The seed is planted in everyone, and the measure of whether it grows into wheat or weed is the fruit it bears. We are the deciders of that. The seed is the Word of God, which is unchanging and the same for everyone. How we choose to respond to that word, how we choose to nurture it, tend it, spread it and cause it to grow and change us and the world is how we will be measured ourselves. No one is created a weed. We choose to be one or the other.

 

It can be hard to remain focused on our salvation. Sometimes the seed is dormant, like in the winter, and it’s hard for us to have hope. Sometimes we feel like my tree, dead on the outside, but deep down the root is still there, just waiting for the spring to come to burst forth. And oftentimes we just need a caring, kind person to gently tend us, even prune us, so that we can grow into our potential and bear fruit.

And we are called to nurture others just as we need nurturing ourselves.

 

Just as there is a sower there is also a reaper. God expects a return on his investment. We hear that all the time in Jesus’ parables. Jesus always offers hope but he also warns of the consequences of our decisions and actions. Wheat is wheat and weeds are weeds, and the two in the end cannot both be in the barn, because wheat is life and weeds choke that life. But it’s not our job to judge between them ourselves. Remember that it may not be apparent which is wheat and which is weed until the end. Our job is not to sow but to tend both the wheat and the weeds together.

 

Wait and see. You never know what might spring up. There’s always hope for a weed. Don’t rush to condemn, root out and destroy. Patiently tend to the field and let God sort it out in the end.