Year A
Genesis 28:10-19a
Psalm 139: 1-11, 22-23
Romans 8:12-25
Matthew 13:24-30,36-43

May the words of my mouth O God…  speak your truth…

I struggle…  I struggle making some decisions…  even though my Myers Briggs personality test indicates that I can make decisions quickly…  I’m an INFJ… my human mind interprets data…  too often out of context…  far too often without all of the information or the whole picture…  jumping to conclusions…  but remaining steadfastly confident or maybe even certain…  that its interpretations are correct…

I struggle making some decisions…  because I live in a culture…  and within a society…  which expects clarity…  in almost all things…  which equates certainty with strong leadership…  and where options considered too carefully may be considered a weakness…  and where waffling is a highway to failure…

I struggle…  because some forks in the road don’t seem to offer win / win outcomes…  or even win / lose outcomes…  but only what seem to be lose / lose outcomes…  I struggle because I can often see both sides of a situation…  like in the song Both Sides Now by Joni Mitchell…  I struggle because in the language of Ignatian spirituality…  some things which would clearly seem to provide consolation…  might in the long run cause desolation… and those things which at first glance would seem to provide desolation…  might also in the long run…  be deeply consoling…

For example… during my middle year of seminary…  when I began my period of Field Education…  my clergy supervisor asked me what kind of project I wanted to do…  and I blurted out almost without thinking…  Well…  nothing in a prison…  and so of course…  that’s just exactly what I did…  I designed a six week course in the basics of Family Systems Theory…  and presented it to a group of twenty-two inmates at the Marion Correctional Institution…  a medium-security prison in Marion, Ohio…  and what started out as something which I felt certain would cause desolation…  or even bodily harm…  ended up being consoling…  not only to me…  but to those twenty-two men…

In our passage from Genesis…  we meet Jacob as he is fleeing for his life…  only to encounter God…  the name given to him at birth…  means…  he takes by the heel…  simply put…  Jacob is a heel…  a grabby…  despicable…  and unscrupulous cheat… ]  we’ve already heard how he exploited his brother’s hunger…  and he will conspire to defraud his brother of his rightful blessing…  because he replaces familial love and duty…  with greed…  and so the place where we meet him this morning…   has more to do with his figurative situation…  than with geography…  though he is certainly…  in a bad place…  a fugitive from his own injustice and the vengeful fury of his own twin…  we find Jacob in all his corrupted humanity…  and we must be gracious with his more primitive theology…  because at this stage of his community’s life…  before his encounter with YHWH…  Jacob held the common ancient belief…  that gods lived in stones…  something Paul later rejects…  and throughout the Jewish scriptures…  there are at least sixteen references to the special treatment given to stones…  by God’s people… that’s why Jacob erected his pillow…  into a pillar…  and anointed it with oil… 

I mentioned Ignatian spirituality a few moments ago…  and to help us choose something which in the end will be consoling…  and to avoid choosing something which in the end will cause desolation…  we must discern carefully…  slowly…  thoroughly…   sometimes over weeks…  or months…  and depending on the decision we need to make…  over years…  and often at odds with a structure which equates speed with efficiency…  certainty with power…  and domination with legitimacy…  qualities wholly at odds with Jesus’ patience…  his asking others what they needed or wanted…  and a consistent deference to God’s will being done…

And as we move towards today’s Gospel…  we ought not be surprised then…  that there are weeds among the wheat…  weeds which are sown by the powers of the world…  by the power of Empire which is almost wholly in opposition to God’s kingdom…  because the field in which these weeds are sown…  is our world…  our culture and society…  our political sphere…  and yes…  even though the Word of God takes root in the imperfect field of our communities…  in our churches and congregations…  ]  some of which are being choked out by the culture wars in which we are embroiled…  with questions about who’s sowing what…  and we wonder not only how to name them…  but more importantly…  how will we continue to grow alongside them… ]  and who do we trust more than God…  to determine what’s wheat and what’s weeds…  and so let’s not be too hasty to fix what seems to be wrong…  because the truth is…  we don’t always know what’s of God and what’s not…  because justice and injustice exist together all the time…  so what we must ask is whether we’re as patient as God is…  and whether we’re willing to play the long game…  because the church is not the best place to make quick changes in society… ] in the work of justice…  the church has been late to the party in sometimes catastrophic ways…  it’s not built for rapid change…  because part of rapid change…  is the false division between who’s in and who’s out…  and because…  if we’re wrong…  we run the risk of uprooting the vulnerable and marginalized…

And like the four kinds of soil inside each one of us…  there are weeds among our wheat…  weeds among the good fruit we bear…  weeds which might…  in any given moment incite us to think unkind thoughts about our neighbors or ourselves…  or to commit some evil…  like Jacob did…  weeds which might feed our hypocrisy…  because the weeds sown by the powers opposed to God are everywhere…  and while the world might direct us to deny our weeds…  or pluck them out and hide them…  God’s kingdom is different…  Jesus is patient…  and there is room for redemption…  and God is willing to let all the weeds grow…  rather than risk uprooting a single stalk of wheat…  because maybe our weeds are the mistakes we make…  without which…  along with our free will…  we could not grow…  maybe the weeds are the regrets we bear…  without which…  along with our free will…  we could not bear any fruit…  and so to tear them out…  would be to tear out those things which make us…  us…  when the harvest comes…

Natalie Wigg-Stevenson…  who teaches at Emmanuel College in Toronto…  writes…  Martin Luther argued that we are simultaneously saint and sinner…  and so this parable is more a welcome promise…  than a dire warning…  a promise that God’s refining fire…  won’t burn us away…  but will simply burn away all our sin…  so we can be fully in God’s presence…  at the last…

So how will this parable grow within us…  and as we understand it more and more…  we will also realize that we still have so much to learn…  and as we do…  we will be able to let go of Empire’s grasp and its expectations…  and embrace God’s patience…  discernment…  and will…  and the freedoms they bring…