Gospel for July 30, 2023

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

In these five parables, Jesus focuses on different characteristics of the Kingdom of Heaven.

In the first two parables in this section of our lectionary reading, he uses metaphors that convey the seeming insignificance of the Kingdom of Heaven at the very beginning, and the gradual growth of the Kingdom into a dominating presence:

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field; which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches.” He spoke another parable to them. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, until it was all leavened.”

The grain of mustard seed and the yeast are easily overlooked because they are so disproportionately tiny in comparison to their effect.

The parable of the mustard seed gives us an example of Jesus using ordinary items found commonly in Galilee.  The mustard seed was of the herb family which, though small, could grow up to eight feet tall as a shrub, dwarfing the other herbs in the garden.  Anyone who has seen pokeweed growing in the Southern United States knows that an herb can grow much taller than expected.

And of course anyone who has ever baked knows the history of yeast — that only a small pinch is necessary to leaven a great deal of dough.  The measurement Jesus gives here is yeast in three measures of meal (this would be about thirty-nine liters, which would be more than nine gallons of dough for those who don’t think in metric terms).  That is a lot of dough to be leavened by so small a pinch of yeast.

Another interesting aside — yeast is a living fungus, and can be kept alive for decades, even passed along from one generation to the next.  Perhaps Jesus is implying that the Kingdom is a living thing that stretches back to the dawn of time?

Jesus is pointing out three things:

• The Kingdom of Heaven may begin in small ways in our midst, escaping our notice at first.
• The Kingdom of Heaven doesn’t only come in the dramatic, sudden ways so often depicted in apocalyptic literature. The Kingdom also grows up in our midst gradually until finally it is undeniable.
• The Kingdom of Heaven has an overwhelming influence — like the commanding mustard plant looming over the other plants of the herb garden, or the yeast that has leavened all nine gallons of bread.

Our lectionary passage for this week skips verses 34-43. These verses were included in last week’s lectionary selection for the Gospel reading.  Click here to read the Gospel lectionary SOAR for July 23, 2023.

In verses 44 to 50, Jesus returns to parables of the Kingdom of Heaven.  These are three very different metaphors for the kingdom — a treasure, a pearl of great price, and a dragnet cast into the sea.

In the first two similes, Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven as a treasure buried in a field and a priceless pearl. One is worth selling everything in order to buy the field where the treasure is buried; the other worth selling everything simply to buy the one pearl.

The Kingdom of Heaven is so precious that the one who finds it will give up everything else that he may value in order to gain it — like the man who finds a buried treasure, and the merchant who discovers a unique pearl of great price. The Kingdom of Heaven is that precious — worthy of sacrificing everything a person has.

Jesus then alters the tone significantly.  The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a dragnet — again using fishing imagery that would have been very familiar to fishermen (like many of his disciples), and others living near the Sea of Galilee.  Here, the focus is upon the judgment that is introduced by the presence of the Kingdom of God.

The dragnet is non-discriminating in its catch — fish of every kind are snared in the nets.  But not all of them are suitable.  Fishermen and fishmongers would know that the fish must be sorted out before they can be sold or eaten.

At the end of the world, Jesus says, this is what will happen with the Kingdom of God.  All people — wicked and righteous — will be gathered up, and the angels will sort them out.  His description of the consequences for the wicked is not pleasant.  The angels, he says:

will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

We mustn’t be naive about Jesus’ understanding of the judgment — it will be severe for those who are wicked.

Jesus closes this section of teachings from the parables with a kind of “pop quiz” for the disciples. He asks them:

 Have you understood all these things?

After all, he has primed them earlier by telling them:

To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them (Matthew 13:11).

Jesus has responded to their requests to interpret his parables, and now he is testing them to be sure they “get it.”

They insist that they do understand — perhaps a little overconfidently, if we are to judge by how obtuse they seem to be later in the Gospel.

Jesus then describes how they are to function as disciples — like scribes (those who were charged with keeping a written record of religious traditions), they are to be:

like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things.

This requirement may speak especially to Matthew, the writer of the Gospel, but it also speaks to the disciples who are to bear witness on Jesus’ behalf.

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus makes it clear that his role as Messiah is not a break from the Hebrew Scriptures, but rather their fulfillment:

Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.  For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished (Matthew 5:17-18).

The disciple is to draw from the rich heritage and truths of the Hebrew Scripture in order to understand the ways of heaven.  At the same time, the disciple of Jesus is to hear the new commandments that Jesus brings.  Jesus makes clear that there is, in some sense, a progressive revelation that he has come to reveal, as when he says:

You have heard that it was said to the ancient ones, ‘You shall not murder;’ and ‘Whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’  But I tell you, that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause will be in danger of the judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ will be in danger of the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of Gehenna (Matthew 5:21-22).

Jesus follows this same formula five more times in the Sermon on the Mount — You have heard that it was said to the ancient ones… But I tell you…

Disciples, then, are to be students of the ancient texts, and are also to listen to what Jesus is telling them anew.

APPLY:  

In the Gospel of Matthew alone there are at least fifty references to the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Kingdom of God, or God’s coming Kingdom.  This subject is obviously very important to Jesus, as he sees himself as the inauguration of this coming Kingdom when he begins to preach:

From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17).

To say that the Kingdom of God may be defined as the present and future reign of God is true, but it hardly exhausts the depth of the concept in Jesus’ teaching.

Just in our lectionary passage alone, there are a variety of perspectives on the Kingdom of God that can enrich our understanding of God’s now and coming reign.

First, the Kingdom is already in our midst, (although it may be seen only in small ways) and it is growing inevitably and gradually toward completion.  Perhaps we can say that we see evidence of the Kingdom when we see a drug addict’s life transformed by God’s grace; or when we see hungry children fed at a Soup Kitchen; or an act of justice accomplished for those who are oppressed.  These are not the fullness of the Kingdom, but they remind us that it is coming.

Second, we must accept the righteousness that is a hallmark of the Kingdom.  The Judgment is a reality that is coming.  This is a moral universe and there are consequences to our actions.  The wicked and the righteous will be separated.

Third, the Kingdom is of inestimable value — it is more precious than anything that we value on earth, and is worth leaving everything behind in order to acquire.  How willing are we to sell all that we have — literally or figuratively — to receive the Kingdom of God? 

Clearly these parables of the Kingdom offer diverse views of the Kingdom of God — reminding us as disciples that we are also to be diligent students of the teachings of God:

Therefore every scribe who has been made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things.

RESPOND: 

For anyone who follows this SOAR blog, you will recognize one of my favorite — and most challenging quotes — from Jim Elliot.  He wrote in his personal journal on October 28, 1949:

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

On January 8, 1956, while participating in a mission to the Huaorani people of Ecuador, Elliot was martyred, along with four other missionaries.

No doubt, Elliot had “sold out” on everything that he valued — including his wife, his home, his very life — for something that was of priceless value: the Kingdom of God.

I wonder sometimes if I have done the same for the Kingdom of God? I have been in full-time Christian ministry from 1980 until my retirement on July 1, 2017.  But have I been — am I — sold out?

However, I don’t think Jesus tells this parable in order to increase our guilt.  I think he tells these parables to remind us that this world, as good and pleasing as it can be, is of no comparison to the glory that is to come.

We Christians are, by definition, living in anticipation even as we look for signs of the Kingdom growing up amongst us like the mustard seed and the yeast.

Lord, your Kingdom is already here — I can see evidence of it all around me. But it’s also not yet fulfilled — I see plenty of evidence of that as well.  Prepare me to live in your Kingdom, and help me to live now as a citizen of your Kingdom.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"Quote-1-Jim-Elliot" by North Valley Baptist Church is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for July 23, 2023

Gathering Tares from Wheat, in the stony Fields of Bethel, Palestine (looking south).
“In the harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.’” [Matthew 13:30, WEB]

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Jesus tells another parable of the Kingdom of Heaven using an agricultural metaphor.  The Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a farmer who sows good seed in his field.

But, as with most good stories, a conflict is introduced, as well as an antagonist — a bad guy:

while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away.  But when the blade sprang up and produced fruit, then the darnel weeds appeared also.

Darnel is a weed that looks uncannily like wheat until it is fully grown.  Only then can it be clearly differentiated by sight.

In the days before crop-dusters and herbicides and farm machinery, the servants offered to go through the field and pull all the weeds by hand.  But the farmer says no, because of the risk of pulling up the wheat as well.  His plan counsels patience — let the wheat and weeds grow up together until harvest, then they will be sorted, with the weeds bundled and burned, and the wheat gathered into the barn.

In the following verses, (31-35, which are not included in today’s lectionary Gospel reading), Jesus tells two parables, and then explains why he tells parables for his instruction.  The two parables compare the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven to a tiny grain of mustard seed and a small bit of yeast. These are both slow-growing and yet have a great impact when they grow to maturity. The grain of mustard seed becomes a larger tree, and the little bit of yeast permeates and leavens up to three measures of meal (about 3.9 liters or a little more than a bushel).

And Matthew, the narrator of this account, reminds us that Jesus tells all these things in parables in part to fulfill the Scripture from Psalm 78:2:

I will open my mouth in parables;
I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.

When Jesus has finished speaking, he returns to the house where he’s staying in Capernaum.  Now, the advantage of a disciple becomes apparent.  Those who stay close to him can ask questions:

His disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the darnel weeds of the field.”

So Jesus interprets the parable to them. Again, it does seem to have allegorical qualities in that the different figures represent specific spiritual applications.

• He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, i.e., Jesus himself.
• The field is the world.
• The good seed, these are the children of the Kingdom.
• The darnel weeds are the children of the evil one. Are these the demons, or humans who reject the Son of Man?
• The enemy who sowed them is the devil.
• The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

Ultimately, what Jesus is describing is the difference between the present time and the eschatological end of the age. Jesus is saying that the farmer/Son of Man doesn’t bring judgment prematurely.  The good and the evil are permitted to coexist until the end of this age.

At that time the angels will go out into the world and will:

gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

This is a stark description of Judgment, and part of the source for our impression of hell as a fiery furnace, where the damned wail eternally. In contrast:

the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.

Jesus concludes this teaching to his disciples by exhorting them:

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

In other words, Jesus has explained his teaching as carefully and clearly to his disciples as he possibly can.  Now, it is up to his disciples to hear and apply his words to their own lives.

APPLY:  

On its surface, the scene that Jesus describes of judgment is worthy of Jonathan Edwards.  Jesus describes the time of harvest as the end of the age, when the angels:

will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

Rev. Edward’s sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (published July 8, 1741), uses far more lurid language:

The God that holds you over the Pit of Hell, much as one holds a Spider, or some loathsome Insect, over the Fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his Wrath towards you burns like Fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the Fire; he is of purer Eyes than to bear to have you in his Sight; you are ten thousand Times so abominable in his Eyes as the most hateful venomous Serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn Rebel did his Prince: and yet ‘tis nothing but his Hand that holds you from falling into the Fire every Moment.
[from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.]

However, Edward’s depiction leaves out several important details.  He neglects to mention the patience that Jesus’ parable suggests.  The Son of Man is in no rush to separate the wheat from the weeds.  Part of that patience is because he is aware that attempting to separate wheat from weeds would likely result in doing more harm than good to the wheat itself.

But there is another reason for this patience.  Jesus began his ministry by calling for repentance (Matthew 4:17).  And when Jesus is criticized by the “righteous” of his day — the scribes and Pharisees — for his tendency to fellowship with “sinners,” Jesus says this:

Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.  But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Matthew 9:12-13).

It seems that in his parable of the wheat and the weeds, the purpose of Jesus isn’t so much to terrify as to warn the sinners, and describe God’s patient love.  He doesn’t burn the field, or tear it up, but waits until the end of the age.  Is this in order to give the weeds time and opportunity to repent?  I hope so.

RESPOND: 

Years ago I read a novel called The Damnation of Theron Ware. It is the story of a young, promising 19th century Methodist preacher who finds that his own understanding of the faith is somewhat shallow — but when he begins to discover a wider world of culture and intellect, it shakes his spiritual and moral foundations.

When he finds his faith wandering, and even his marriage in trouble, he flails helplessly and yet finds it difficult to admit his own mistakes. In one scene, though, he confides to a more experienced travelling evangelist, a woman named Sister Soulsby, who is far wiser than the young Theron Ware.  He tells her that he is considering something dramatic — leaving the ministry.  At this time, she believes that there is still hope for him, and she tells him not to breathe a word of that thought to anyone.  She counsels him to be aware of those around him, fulfill his obligations, and keep his more dangerous thoughts to himself — in a word, be wiser than he has been hitherto.  And then she says this when he casts doubt on the Christian doctrine that he has been charged with preaching:

“See here!” she exclaimed, with renewed animation, patting his shoulder in a brisk, automatic way, to point the beginning of her confidences: “I’ll tell you something. It’s about myself. I’ve got a religion of my own, and it’s got just one plank in it, and that is that the time to separate the sheep from the goats is on Judgment Day, and that it can’t be done a minute before.”

What she seems to believe is that Theron Ware is still developing, and it is premature to make a pronouncement of judgment until the end.

This is an important lesson to us.  It explains why good and evil coexist.  Because of God’s infinite patience, he delays judgment.  This is certainly the view of the Apostle Peter. When he speaks of the inevitability of the coming of the end of the age, he says this:

The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

The delay of the end of the age is for our benefit, and the benefit of those we love and those with whom we share the Gospel.  We are all to repent while there is still time.

Lord, sometimes it is difficult to understand why good and evil coexist in your world.  The devil and his minions seem to be robustly at work in our world.  But then you help me realize that you are infinitely patient, and that some of those who are now weeds might well become wheat before the Harvest at the end of time.  Help me to do what I can to bring in the good harvest.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"Gathering Tares from Wheat, in the stony Fields of Bethel, Palestine (looking south)" by Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, UofT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for July 26, 2020

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

In these five parables, Jesus focuses on different characteristics of the Kingdom of Heaven.

In the first two parables in this section of our lectionary reading, he uses metaphors that convey the seeming insignificance of the Kingdom of Heaven at the very beginning, and the gradual growth of the Kingdom into a dominating presence:

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field;  which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches.” He spoke another parable to them. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, until it was all leavened.”

The grain of mustard seed and the yeast are easily overlooked because they are so disproportionately tiny in comparison to their effect.

The parable of the mustard seed gives us an example of Jesus using ordinary items found commonly in Galilee.  The mustard seed was of the herb family which, though small, could grow up to eight feet tall as a shrub, dwarfing the other herbs in the garden.  Anyone who has seen pokeweed growing in the Southern United states knows that an herb can grow much taller than expected.

And of course anyone who has ever baked knows the history of yeast — that only a small pinch is necessary to leaven a great deal of dough.  The measurement Jesus gives here is yeast in three measures of meal (this would be about thirty-nine liters,which would be more than nine gallons of dough for those who don’t think in metric terms).  That is a lot of dough to be leavened by so small a pinch of yeast.

Another interesting aside — yeast is a living fungus, and can be kept alive for decades, even passed along from one generation to the next.  Perhaps Jesus is implying that the Kingdom is a living thing that stretches back to the dawn of time?

Jesus is pointing out three things:

• The Kingdom of Heaven may begin in small ways in our midst, escaping our notice at first.
• The Kingdom of Heaven doesn’t only come in the dramatic, sudden ways so often depicted in apocalyptic literature. The Kingdom also grows up in our midst gradually until finally it is undeniable.
• The Kingdom of Heaven has an overwhelming influence — like the commanding mustard plant looming over the other plants of the herb garden, or the yeast that has leavened all nine gallons of bread.

Our lectionary passage for this week skips verses 34-43. These verses were included in last week’s lectionary selection for the Gospel reading.  Click here to read the Gospel lectionary SOAR for July 19, 2020.

In verses 44 to 50, Jesus returns to parables of the Kingdom of Heaven.  These are three very different metaphors for the kingdom — a treasure, a pearl of great price, and a dragnet cast into the sea.

In the first two similes, Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven as a treasure buried in a field and a priceless pearl. One is worth selling everything in order to buy the field where the treasure is buried; the other worth selling everything simply to buy the one pearl.

The Kingdom of Heaven is so precious that the one who finds it will give up everything else that he may value in order to gain it — like the man who finds a buried treasure, and the merchant who discovers a unique pearl of great price. The Kingdom of Heaven is that precious — worthy of sacrificing everything a person has.

Jesus then alters the tone significantly.  The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a dragnet — again using fishing imagery that would have been very familiar to fishermen (like many of his disciples), and others living near the Sea of Galilee.  Here, the focus is upon the judgment that is introduced by the presence of the Kingdom of God.

The dragnet is non-discriminating in its catch — fish of every kind are snared in the nets.  But not all of them are suitable.  Fishermen and fishmongers would know that the fish must be sorted out before they can be sold or eaten.

At the end of the world, Jesus says, this is what will happen with the Kingdom of God.  All people — wicked and righteous — will be gathered up, and the angels will sort them out.  His description of the consequences for the wicked is not pleasant.  The angels, he says:

will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

We mustn’t be naive about Jesus’ understanding of the judgment — it will be severe for those who are wicked.

Jesus closes this section of teachings from the parables with a kind of “pop quiz” for the disciples. He asks them:

 Have you understood all these things?

After all, he has primed them earlier by telling them:

To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them (Matthew 13:11).

Jesus has responded to their requests to interpret his parables, and now he is testing them to be sure they “get it.”

They insist that they do understand — perhaps a little overconfidently, if we are to judge by how obtuse they seem to be later in the Gospel.

Jesus then describes how they are to function as disciples — like scribes (those who were charged with keeping a written record of religious traditions), they are to be:

like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things.

This requirement may speak especially to Matthew, the writer of the Gospel, but it also speaks to the disciples who are to bear witness on Jesus’ behalf.

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus makes it clear that his role as Messiah is not a break from the Hebrew Scriptures, but rather their fulfillment:

Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.  For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished (Matthew 5:17-18).

The disciple is to draw from the rich heritage and truths of the Hebrew Scripture in order to understand the ways of heaven.  At the same time, the disciple of Jesus is to hear the new commandments that Jesus brings.  Jesus makes clear that there is, in some sense, a progressive revelation that he has come to reveal, as when he says:

You have heard that it was said to the ancient ones, ‘You shall not murder;’ and ‘Whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’  But I tell you, that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause  will be in danger of the judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ will be in danger of the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of Gehenna (Matthew 5:21-22).

Jesus follows this same formula five more times in the Sermon on the Mount — You have heard that it was said to the ancient ones…. But I tell you….

Disciples, then, are to be students of the ancient texts, and are also to listen to what Jesus is telling them anew.

APPLY:  

In the Gospel of Matthew alone there are at least fifty references to the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Kingdom of God,  or God’s coming Kingdom.  This subject is obviously very important to Jesus, as he sees himself as the inauguration of this coming Kingdom when he begins to preach:

From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17).

To say that the Kingdom of God may be defined as the present and future reign of God is true, but it hardly exhausts the depth of the concept in Jesus’ teaching.

Just in our lectionary passage alone, there are a variety of perspectives on the Kingdom of God that can enrich our understanding of God’s now and coming reign.

First, the Kingdom is already in our midst, (although it may be seen only in small ways) and it is growing inevitably and gradually toward completion.  Perhaps we can say that we see evidence of the Kingdom when we see a drug addict’s life transformed by God’s grace; or when we see hungry children fed at a Soup Kitchen; or an act of justice accomplished for those who are oppressed.  These are not the fullness of the Kingdom, but they remind us that it is coming.

Second, we must accept the righteousness that is a hallmark of the Kingdom.  The Judgment is a reality that is coming.  This is a moral universe and there are consequences to our actions.  The wicked and the righteous will be separated.

Third, the Kingdom is of inestimable value — it is more precious than anything that we value on earth, and is worth leaving everything behind in order to acquire.  How willing are we to sell all that we have — literally or figuratively — to receive the Kingdom of God? 

Clearly these parables of the Kingdom offer diverse views of the Kingdom of God — reminding us as disciples that we are also to be diligent students of the teachings of God:

Therefore every scribe who has been made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things.

RESPOND: 

For anyone who follows this SOAR blog, you will recognize one of my favorite — and most challenging quotes — from Jim Elliot.  He wrote in his personal journal on October 28, 1949:

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

On January 8, 1956, while participating in a mission to the Huaorani people of Ecuador, Elliot was martyred, along with four other missionaries.

No doubt, Elliot had “sold out” on everything that he valued — including his wife, his home, his very life — for something that was of priceless value: the Kingdom of God.

I wonder sometimes if I have done the same for the Kingdom of God? I have been in full-time Christian ministry from 1980 until my retirement on July 1, 2017.  But have I been — am I — sold out?

However, I don’t think Jesus tells this parable in order to increase our guilt.  I think he tells these parables to remind us that this world, as good and pleasing as it can be, is of no comparison to the glory that is to come.

We Christians are, by definition, living in anticipation even as we look for signs of the Kingdom growing up amongst us like the mustard seed and the yeast.

Lord, your Kingdom is already here — I can see evidence of it all around me. But it’s also not yet fulfilled — I see plenty of evidence of that as well.  Prepare me to live in your Kingdom, and help me to live now as a citizen of your Kingdom.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"Quote-1-Jim-Elliot" by North Valley Baptist Church is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for July 19, 2020

Gathering Tares from Wheat, in the stony Fields of Bethel, Palestine (looking south).
“In the harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.’” [Matthew 13:30, WEB]

START WITH SCRIPTURE:
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Jesus tells another parable of the Kingdom of Heaven using an agricultural metaphor.  The Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a farmer who sows good seed in his field.

But, as with most good stories, a conflict is introduced, as well as an antagonist — a bad guy:

while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away.  But when the blade sprang up and produced fruit, then the darnel weeds appeared also.

Darnel is a weed that looks uncannily like wheat until it is fully grown.  Only then can it be clearly differentiated by sight.

In the days before cropdusters and herbicides and farm machinery, the servants offered to go through the field and pull all the weeds by hand.  But the farmer says no, because of the risk of pulling up the wheat as well.  His plan counsels patience — let the wheat and weeds grow up together until harvest, then they will be sorted, with the weeds bundled and burned, and the wheat gathered into the barn.

In the following verses, (31-35, which are not included in today’s lectionary Gospel reading), Jesus tells two parables, and then explains why he tells parables for his instruction.  The two parables compare the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven to a tiny grain of mustard seed and a small bit of yeast. These are both slow-growing and yet have a great impact when they grow to maturity. The grain of mustard seed becomes a larger tree, and the little bit of yeast permeates and leavens up to three measures of meal (about 3.9 liters or a little more than a bushel).

And Matthew, the narrator of this account, reminds us that Jesus tells all these things in parables in part to fulfill the Scripture from Psalm 78:2:

I will open my mouth in parables;
I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.

When Jesus has finished speaking, he returns to the house where he’s staying in Capernaum.  Now, the advantage of a disciple becomes apparent.  Those who stay close to him can ask questions:

His disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the darnel weeds of the field.”

So Jesus interprets the parable to them. Again, it does seem to have allegorical qualities in that the different figures represent specific spiritual applications.

• He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, i.e., Jesus himself.
• The field is the world.
• The good seed, these are the children of the Kingdom.
• The darnel weeds are the children of the evil one. Are these the demons, or humans who reject the Son of Man?
• The enemy who sowed them is the devil.
• The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

Ultimately, what Jesus is describing is the difference between the present time and the eschatological end of the age. Jesus is saying that the farmer/Son of Man doesn’t bring judgment prematurely.  The good and the evil are permitted to coexist until the end of this age.

At that time the angels will go out into the world and will:

gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity,  and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

This is a stark description of Judgment, and part of the source for our impression of hell as a fiery furnace, where the damned wail eternally. In contrast:

the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.

Jesus concludes this teaching to his disciples by exhorting them:

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

In other words, Jesus has explained his teaching as carefully and clearly to his disciples as he possibly can.  Now, it is up to his disciples to hear and apply his words to their own lives.

APPLY:  

On its surface, the scene that Jesus describes of judgment is worthy of Jonathan Edwards.  Jesus describes the time of harvest as the end of the age, when the angels:

will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

Rev. Edward’s sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (published July 8, 1741), uses far more lurid language:

The God that holds you over the Pit of Hell, much as one holds a Spider, or some loathsome Insect, over the Fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his Wrath towards you burns like Fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the Fire; he is of purer Eyes than to bear to have you in his Sight; you are ten thousand Times so abominable in his Eyes as the most hateful venomous Serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn Rebel did his Prince: and yet ‘tis nothing but his Hand that holds you from falling into the Fire every Moment.
[from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.]

However, Edward’s depiction leaves out several important details.  He neglects to mention the patience that Jesus’ parable suggests.  The Son of Man is in no rush to separate the wheat from the weeds.  Part of that patience is because he is aware that attempting to separate wheat from weeds would likely result in doing more harm than good to the wheat itself.

But there is another reason for this patience.  Jesus began his ministry by calling for repentance (Matthew 4:17).  And when Jesus is criticized by the “righteous” of his day — the scribes and Pharisees — for his tendency to fellowship with “sinners,” Jesus says this:

Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.  But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Matthew 9:12-13).

It seems that in his parable of the wheat and the weeds, the purpose of Jesus isn’t so much to terrify as to warn the sinners, and describe God’s patient love.  He doesn’t burn the field, or tear it up, but waits until the end of the age.  Is this in order to give the weeds time and opportunity to repent?  I hope so.

RESPOND: 

Years ago I read a novel called The Damnation of Theron Ware. It is the story of a young, promising 19th century Methodist preacher who finds that his own understanding of the faith is somewhat shallow — but when he begins to discover a wider world of culture and intellect, it shakes his spiritual and moral foundations.

When he finds his faith wandering, and even his marriage in trouble, he flails helplessly and yet finds it difficult to admit his own mistakes. In one scene, though, he confides to a more experienced travelling evangelist, a woman named Sister Soulsby, who is far wiser than the young Theron Ware.  He tells her that he is considering something dramatic — leaving the ministry.  At this time, she believes that there is still hope for him, and she tells him not to breathe a word of that thought to anyone.  She counsels him to be aware of those around him, fulfill his obligations, and keep his more dangerous thoughts to himself — in a word, be wiser than he has been hitherto.  And then she says this when he casts doubt on the Christian doctrine that he has been charged with preaching:

“See here!” she exclaimed, with renewed animation, patting his shoulder in a brisk, automatic way, to point the beginning of her confidences: “I’ll tell you something. It’s about myself. I’ve got a religion of my own, and it’s got just one plank in it, and that is that the time to separate the sheep from the goats is on Judgment Day, and that it can’t be done a minute before.”

What she seems to believe is that Theron Ware is still developing, and it is premature to make a pronouncement of judgment until the end.

This is an important lesson to us.  It explains why good and evil coexist.  Because of God’s infinite patience, he delays judgment.  This is certainly the view of the Apostle Peter. When he speaks of the inevitability of the coming of the end of the age, he says this:

The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

The delay of the end of the age is for our benefit, and the benefit of those we love and those with whom we share the Gospel.  We are all to repent while there is still time.

Lord, sometimes it is difficult to understand why good and evil coexist in your world.  The devil and his minions seem to be robustly at work in our world.  But then you help me realize that you are infinitely patient, and that some of those who are now weeds might well become wheat before the Harvest at the end of time.  Help me to do what I can to bring in the good harvest.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"Gathering Tares from Wheat, in the stony Fields of Bethel, Palestine (looking south)" by Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, UofT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for July 30, 2017

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

In these five parables, Jesus focuses on different characteristics of the Kingdom of Heaven.

In the first two parables in this section of our lectionary reading, he uses metaphors that convey  the seeming insignificance of the Kingdom of Heaven at the very beginning, and the gradual growth of the Kingdom into a dominating presence:

“The Kingdom of Heaven is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field;  which indeed is smaller than all seeds. But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in its branches.” He spoke another parable to them. “The Kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, until it was all leavened.”

The grain of mustard seed and the yeast are easily overlooked because they are so disproportionately tiny in comparison to their effect.

The parable of the mustard seed gives us an example of Jesus using ordinary items found commonly in Galilee.  The mustard seed was of the herb family which, though small, could grow up to eight feet tall as a shrub, dwarfing the other herbs in the garden.  Anyone who has seen pokeweed growing in the Southern United states knows that an herb can grow much taller than expected.

And of course anyone who has ever baked knows the history of yeast — that only a small pinch is necessary to leaven a great deal of dough.  The measurement Jesus gives here is yeast in three measures of meal (this would be about thirty-nine liters,which would be more than nine gallons of dough for those who don’t think in metric terms).  That is a lot of dough to be leavened by so small a pinch of yeast.

Another interesting aside — yeast is a living fungus, and can be kept alive for decades, even passed along from one generation to the next.  Perhaps Jesus is implying that the Kingdom is a living thing that stretches back to the dawn of time?

Jesus is pointing out three things:

• The Kingdom of Heaven may begin in small ways in our midst, escaping our notice at first.
• The Kingdom of Heaven doesn’t only come in the dramatic, sudden ways so often depicted in apocalyptic literature. The Kingdom also grows up in our midst gradually until finally it is undeniable.
• The Kingdom of Heaven has an overwhelming influence — like the commanding mustard plant looming over the other plants of the herb garden, or the yeast that has leavened all nine gallons of bread.

Our lectionary passage for this week skips the section already addressed previously in the lectionary, verses 34-43.  Click here to read the Gospel lectionary SOAR for July 23, 2017.

In verses 44 to 50, Jesus returns to parables of the Kingdom of Heaven.  These are three very different metaphors for the kingdom — a treasure, a pearl of great price, and a dragnet cast into the sea.

In the first two similes, Jesus describes the Kingdom of Heaven as a treasure buried in a field and a priceless pearl. One is worth selling everything in order to buy the field where the treasure is buried; the other worth selling everything simply to buy the one pearl.

The Kingdom of Heaven is so precious that one who finds it will give up everything else that he may value in order to gain it — like the man who finds a buried treasure, and the merchant who discovers a unique pearl of great price. The Kingdom of Heaven is that precious — worthy of sacrificing everything a person has.

Jesus then alters the tone significantly.  The Kingdom of Heaven is likened to a dragnet — again using fishing imagery that would have been very familiar to fishermen (like many of his disciples), and others living near the Sea of Galilee.  Here, the focus is upon the judgment that is introduced by the presence of the Kingdom of God.

The dragnet is non-discriminating in its catch — fish of every kind are snared in the nets.  But not all of them are suitable.  Fishermen and fishmongers would know that the fish must be sorted out before they can be sold or eaten.

At the end of the world, Jesus says, this is what will happen with the Kingdom of God.  All people — wicked and righteous — will be gathered up, and the angels will sort them out.  His description of the consequences for the wicked is not pleasant.  The angels, he says:

will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

We mustn’t be naive about Jesus’ understanding of the judgment — it will be severe for those who are wicked.

Jesus closes this section of teachings from the parables with a kind of “pop quiz” for the disciples. He asks them:

 Have you understood all these things?

After all, he has primed them earlier by telling them:

To you it is given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them (Matthew 13:11).

Jesus has responded to their requests to interpret his parables, and now he is testing them to be sure they “get it.”

They insist that they do understand — perhaps a little overconfidently, if we are to judge by how obtuse they seem to be later in the Gospel.

Jesus then describes how they are to function as disciples — like scribes (those who were charged with keeping a written record of religious traditions), they are to be:

like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things.

This requirement may speak especially to Matthew, the writer of the Gospel, but it also speaks to the disciples who are to bear witness on Jesus’ behalf.

In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus makes it clear that his role as Messiah is not a break from the Hebrew Scriptures, but rather their fulfillment:

Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.  For most certainly, I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not even one smallest letter or one tiny pen stroke shall in any way pass away from the law, until all things are accomplished (Matthew 5:17-18).

The disciple is to draw from the rich heritage and truths of the Hebrew Scripture in order to understand the ways of heaven.  At the same time, the disciple of Jesus is to hear the new commandments that Jesus brings.  Jesus makes clear that there is, in some sense, a progressive revelation that he has come to reveal, as when he says:

You have heard that it was said to the ancient ones, ‘You shall not murder;’ and ‘Whoever murders will be in danger of the judgment.’  But I tell you, that everyone who is angry with his brother without a cause  will be in danger of the judgment; and whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ will be in danger of the council; and whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of Gehenna (Matthew 5:21-22).

Jesus follows this same formula five more times in the Sermon on the Mount — You have heard that it was said to the ancient ones…. But I tell you….

Disciples, then, are to be students of the ancient texts, and are also to listen to what Jesus is telling them anew.

APPLY:  

In the Gospel of Matthew alone there are at least fifty references to the Kingdom of Heaven, or the Kingdom of God,  or God’s coming Kingdom.  This subject is obviously very important to Jesus, as he sees himself as the inauguration of this coming Kingdom when he begins to preach:

From that time, Jesus began to preach, and to say, “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17).

To say that the Kingdom of God may be defined as the present and future reign of God is true, but it hardly exhausts the depth of the concept in Jesus’ teaching.

Just in our lectionary passage alone, there are a variety of perspectives on the Kingdom of God that can enrich our understanding of God’s now and coming reign.

First, the Kingdom is already in our midst, (although it may be seen only in small ways) and it is growing inevitably and gradually toward completion.  Perhaps we can say that we see evidence of the Kingdom when we see a drug addict’s life transformed by God’s grace; or when we see hungry children fed at a Soup Kitchen; or an act of justice accomplished for those who are oppressed.  These are not the fullness of the Kingdom, but they remind us that it is coming.

Second, we must accept the righteousness that is a hallmark of the Kingdom.  The Judgment is a reality that is coming.  This is a moral universe and there are consequences to our actions.  The wicked and the righteous will be separated.

Third, the Kingdom is of inestimable value — it is more precious than anything that we value on earth, and is worth leaving everything behind in order to acquire.  How willing are we to sell all that we have — literally or figuratively — to receive the Kingdom of God? 

Clearly these parables of the Kingdom offer diverse views of the Kingdom of God — reminding us as disciples that we are also to be diligent students of the teachings of God:

Therefore every scribe who has been made a disciple in the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who is a householder, who brings out of his treasure new and old things.

RESPOND: 

For anyone who follows this SOAR blog, you will recognize one of my favorite — and most challenging quotes — from Jim Elliot.  He wrote in his personal journal on October 28, 1949:

He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.

On January 8, 1956, while participating in a mission to the Huaorani people of Ecuador, Elliot was martyred, along with four other missionaries.

No doubt, Elliot had “sold out” on everything that he valued — including his wife, his home, his very life — for something that was of priceless value: the Kingdom of God.

I wonder sometimes if I have done the same for the Kingdom of God? I have been in fulltime Christian ministry from 1980 until my retirement on July 1, 2017.  But have I been — am I — sold out?

However, I don’t think Jesus tells this parable in order to increase our guilt.  I think he tells these parables to remind us that this world, as good and pleasing as it can be, is of no comparison to the glory that is to come.

We Christians are, by definition, living in anticipation even as we look for signs of the Kingdom growing up amongst us like the mustard seed and the yeast.

Lord, your Kingdom is already here — I can see evidence of it all around me. But it’s also not yet fulfilled — I see plenty of evidence of that as well.  Prepare me to live in your Kingdom, and help me to live now as a citizen of your Kingdom.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"Quote-1-Jim-Elliot" by North Valley Baptist Church is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic license.

Gospel for July 23, 2017

Gathering Tares from Wheat, in the stony Fields of Bethel, Palestine (looking south).
“In the harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.’” [Matthew 13:30, WEB]

START WITH SCRIPTURE:

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

CLICK HERE TO READ SCRIPTURE ON BIBLEGATEWAY.COM

OBSERVE:

Jesus tells another parable of the Kingdom of Heaven using an agricultural metaphor.  The Kingdom of Heaven is compared to a farmer who sows good seed in his field.

But, as with most good stories, a conflict is introduced, as well as an antagonist — a bad guy:

while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away.  But when the blade sprang up and produced fruit, then the darnel weeds appeared also.

Darnel is a weed that looks uncannily like wheat until it is fully grown.  Only then can it be clearly differentiated by sight.

In the days before cropdusters and herbicides and farm machinery, the servants offered to go through the field and pull all the weeds by hand.  But the farmer says no, because of the risk of pulling up the wheat as well.  His plan counsels patience — let the wheat and weeds grow up together until harvest, then they will be sorted, with the weeds bundled and burned, and the wheat gathered into the barn.

In the following verses, (31-35, which are not included in today’s lectionary Gospel reading), Jesus tells two parables, and then explains why he tells parables for his instruction.  The two parables compare the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven to a tiny grain of mustard seed and a small bit of yeast. These are both slow-growing and yet have a great impact when they grow to maturity. The grain of mustard seed becomes a larger tree, and the little bit of yeast permeates and leavens up to three measures of meal (about 3.9 liters or a little more than a bushel).

And Matthew, the narrator of this account, reminds us that Jesus tells all these things in parables in part to fulfill the Scripture from Psalm 78:2:

 I will open my mouth in parables;
I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.

When Jesus has finished speaking, he returns to the house where he’s staying in Capernaum.  Now, the advantage of a disciple becomes apparent.  Those who stay close to him can ask questions:

His disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the darnel weeds of the field.”

So Jesus interprets the parable to them. Again, it does seem to have allegorical qualities in that the different figures represent specific spiritual applications.

• He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, i.e., Jesus himself.
• The field is the world.
• The good seed, these are the children of the Kingdom.
• The darnel weeds are the children of the evil one. Are these the demons, or humans who reject the Son of Man?
• The enemy who sowed them is the devil.
• The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.

Ultimately, what Jesus is describing is the difference between the present time and the eschatological end of the age. Jesus is saying that the farmer/Son of Man doesn’t bring judgment prematurely.  The good and the evil are permitted to coexist until the end of this age.

At that time the angels will go out into the world and will:

gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity,  and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

This is a stark description of Judgment, and part of the source for our impression of hell as a fiery furnace, where the damned wail eternally. In contrast:

the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father.

Jesus concludes this teaching to his disciples by exhorting them:

He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

In other words, Jesus has explained his teaching as carefully and clearly to his disciples as he possibly can.  Now, it is up to his disciples to hear and apply his words to their own lives.

APPLY:  

On its surface, the scene that Jesus describes of judgment is worthy of Jonathan Edwards.  Jesus describes the time of harvest as the end of the age, when the angels:

will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.

Rev. Edward’s sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God (published July 8, 1741), uses far more lurid language:

The God that holds you over the Pit of Hell, much as one holds a Spider, or some loathsome Insect, over the Fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked; his Wrath towards you burns like Fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the Fire; he is of purer Eyes than to bear to have you in his Sight; you are ten thousand Times so abominable in his Eyes as the most hateful venomous Serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn Rebel did his Prince: and yet ‘tis nothing but his Hand that holds you from falling into the Fire every Moment.
[from Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.]

However, Edward’s depiction leaves out several important details.  He neglects to mention the patience that Jesus’ parable suggests.  The Son of Man is in no rush to separate the wheat from the weeds.  Part of that patience is because he is aware that attempting to separate wheat from weeds would likely result in doing more harm than good to the wheat itself.

But there is another reason for this patience.  Jesus began his ministry by calling for repentance (Matthew 4:17).  And when Jesus is criticized by the “righteous” of his day — the scribes and Pharisees — for his tendency to fellowship with “sinners,” Jesus says this:

Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do.  But you go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice,’ for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance (Matthew 9:12-13).

It seems that in his parable of the wheat and the weeds, the purpose of Jesus isn’t so much to terrify as to warn the sinners, and describe God’s patient love.  He doesn’t burn the field, or tear it up, but waits until the end of the age.  Is this in order to give the weeds time and opportunity to repent?  I hope so.

RESPOND: 

Years ago I read a novel called The Damnation of Theron Ware. It is the story of a young, promising 19th century Methodist preacher who finds that his own understanding of the faith is somewhat shallow — but when he begins to discover a wider world of culture and intellect, it shakes his spiritual and moral foundations.

When he finds his faith wandering, and even his marriage in trouble, he flails helplessly and yet finds it difficult to admit his own mistakes. In one scene, though, he confides to a more experienced travelling evangelist, a woman named Sister Soulsby, who is far wiser than the young Theron Ware.  He tells her that he is considering something dramatic — leaving the ministry.  At this time, she believes that there is still hope for him, and she tells him not to breathe a word of that thought to anyone.  She counsels him to be aware of those around him, fulfill his obligations, and keep his more dangerous thoughts to himself — in a word, be wiser than he has been hitherto.  And then she says this when he casts doubt on the Christian doctrine that he has been charged with preaching:

“See here!” she exclaimed, with renewed animation, patting his shoulder in a brisk, automatic way, to point the beginning of her confidences: “I’ll tell you something. It’s about myself. I’ve got a religion of my own, and it’s got just one plank in it, and that is that the time to separate the sheep from the goats is on Judgment Day, and that it can’t be done a minute before.”

What she seems to believe is that Theron Ware is still developing, and it is premature to make a pronouncement of judgment until the end.

This is an important lesson to us.  It explains why good and evil coexist.  Because of God’s infinite patience, he delays judgment.  This is certainly the view of the Apostle Peter. When he speaks of the inevitability of the coming of the end of the age, he says this:

The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but is patient with us, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9).

The delay of the end of the age is for our benefit, and the benefit of those we love and those with whom we share the Gospel.  We are all to repent while there is still time.

Lord, sometimes it is difficult to understand why good and evil coexist in your world.  The devil and his minions seem to be robustly at work in our world.  But then you help me realize that you are infinitely patient, and that some of those who are now weeds might well become wheat before the Harvest at the end of time.  Help me to do what I can to bring in the good harvest.  Amen. 

PHOTOS:
"Gathering Tares from Wheat, in the stony Fields of Bethel, Palestine (looking south)" by Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, UofT is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic license.