Intertwined Roots: How to Live in a Weedy World

Title: Intertwined Roots: How to Live in a Weedy World
Scripture: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Date: July 20, 2008
Christian Year: Tenth Sunday After Pentecost
Theme: Jesus teaches us that learning to live under God’s reign means learning to live among those who disagree with us.
The Good News: Even when we encounter difficulty and opposition, God is still active among us bringing God’s purposes to completion.

I always hated those Saturday mornings when my dad would march me out to the edge of our concrete driveway. He would set an empty, white, plastic bucket at my feet and then hand me the largest flat-head screwdriver he could find in his toolbox that day. My dad with a smile on his face would then motion with a sweep of his arm as if we were standing at the rim of the Grand Canyon overlooking some beautiful vista rather than peering across our suburban lawn.
Then he would say those words I dreaded most, “Josh, I need you to pull all the dandelions before I mown the lawn this afternoon.” Before he retreated back into the garage he would point to the screwdriver in my hand and say, “And don’t forget to pull out the entire root, so those weeds don’t grow back!”

I guess my dad did not believe in fertilizer or herbicide (or buying any of the yard tools actually made for weeding), so while the other neighborhood kids were safely inside their homes watching Scooby Doo and Bugs Bunny, I was outside working my way across the front lawn. I would take that flathead screwdriver, drive it deep into the soil about an inch or two from the base of each dandelion, and I would begin to pry upward to loosen the soil and eject – I hoped – the entire dandelion, roots and all.

It took hours to make my way across the yard poking and prying dandelions from the grass in that manner. When I finally finished, I could stand at the other end of the lawn, opposite the concrete driveway, and survey the pitted-out excuse for grass that remained. After each of these weeding campaigns the front yard was reduced to a series of dirt-filled craters and indentations void of grass, barren spots where yellow dandelion flowers once grew. It was an ugly sight, but apparently it was more beautiful that a yard full of dandelions. And it apparently made my father feel like he was upholding his horticultural obligations to the neighbors.

It is this type of action – the act of weeding and the sense of being obligated to eradicate something unwanted – that Jesus address with his disciples as he tells and explains the parable of the weeds. Jesus tells us that the reign of God is like a farmer who planted good seed. While that farmer was away an enemy, an adversary, an opponent plants weeds in that same field so that when the good wheat begins growing, the weeds grow up next to the wheat. Now, the servants who are tending the field while the farmer is absent notice this and ask the farmer if it is their horticultural obligation demands that they pull the weeds. The farmer replies, “no” because the wheat and the weeds have grown up together and as such their roots have become intertwined making it impossible to pry upwards and eject the weeds’ roots without leaving dirt-filled craters and indentations void of wheat. Pulling out the weeds will also destroy the wheat, so our fields are stuck with weeds until the harvest.

What Jesus describes in this parable is a little bit like walking out to your mailbox and checking the mail. I love to get mail – the good kind of mail – the birthday cards, the greeting cards the holiday cards. Of course I’m not too fond of the bills that come in the mail, but I especially hate the junk mail – the unsolicited advertisements and never-ending stream of credit card offers. Junk mail has taught me that there is always someone who wants to buy my car for more than it is worth, there is always a better deal on a home mortgage, and whether or not I need it, I am always pre-qualified for a new credit card with an incredibly low APR.

I have tried to get on those lists to stop junk mail, but it seems I always find my way back on to someone’s mailing list sooner or later. I know that there is a process I could go through to block each of the individual companies that have sent me unwanted junk mail, but it’s a hassle, it’s time consuming, and I have found that doesn’t ever seem to decrease the amount junk mail that is sent my way either. So, instead of getting rid of the U.S. Postal Service all together, I take the unwanted advertisements along with the uplifting cards that arrive in the mail. Instead of getting rid of everything altogether, we are called to take the unwanted along with the uplifting.

Jesus did not set out telling parables to give us a better grasp on landscape management or to provide us with peace of mind when opening the mailbox; rather, Jesus is telling us how the kingdom of heaven operates in our world, but not only that Jesus is telling us how we are called to live in the kingdom of heaven right now in our world.

Chapter 13 of the Gospel of Matthew is at the beginning of what is usually called Jesus Third Teaching Discourse. In chapter five we have the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus teaches concepts like “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” This is where Jesus starts reaching out to and making connections with people. In chapter 10 there is the Mission Discourse where Jesus begins describing the work involved in being a part of the community of disciples. Here Jesus teaches the people to go and proclaim the good news. Having drawn people into community and then having sent them out to share the good news of this community with others, Jesus in chapter 13 now explains to the faithful how the kingdom of heaven that they have been living in and sharing with others really works.

If you have been or are a teacher or if you are a parent, you know that sometimes you have to set your students or your children out on a task knowing that they do not have all the tools or information they need to meet with complete success. You have to allow them to fail or struggle so that they realize that there is still more for them to learn and master. It is encountering obstacles or difficulties that prompts new questions and enables new growth. Jesus seems to know that, so he sends the disciples out knowing that they will come back wanting – needing more guidance concerning the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus seems to know that as the disciples went out, they met with frustration, they were challenged by what they saw and experienced, and they were perplexed by this kingdom of heaven they had been sent to proclaim. As the disciples moved outside of their community of faith they found that even though they carried with them Good News, the good news was not always warmly received. The disciples discovered that injustice and indifference, that pain and suffering, that inequality and anguish still existed in the world into which they had been sent. So, if they came home perplexed by the kingdom of heaven, it’s understandable. I imagine that more that a few of those followers who went out into the world came back to their teacher with a white bucket in one hand and an improvised weeding tool in the other hand and said, “Jesus, we gotta do a little weeding. We’ve gotta rid the world of evil! We have to eradicate the institutions that oppose us! We’ve gotta uproot and destroy our enemies!” Jesus responds by telling the parable of the weeds.

As we move outside of this community of faith – as we go forth from here to live out the gospel, and proclaim the gospel, and invite others to hear and experience the gospel with us in this church, we like those first disciples may return next Sunday perplexed. After the last “Amen” this morning when the last chord of our last hymn has faded out into the entryway, we will get up from here and go out into the world just like those first disciples. There we will meet with incredible injustices. As we go out to our homes and our places of work – and my guess is that if we are honest even as we walk through the rooms of this church – we will be challenged by what we see, we will confronted by perplexing experiences, we will encounter abrasive people and so-called enemies that just don’t seem to fit within the kingdom of heaven as we want it to be. I imagine that more than a few of us will be ready to take up our tools and do a little weeding in our world.

But Jesus’ advice to us who are tempted to get out our flathead screwdrivers or other more elaborate weeding tools is, “listen to the parable of the weeds.” We live in weedy world where our roots are intertwined to the point that we cannot pull one weed without uprooting the good wheat also. When we do undertake a little weeding project of our own, we end up creating nothing more than a series of dirt-filled craters and indentations void of grass, barren spots in the world. We cause more harm than good.

Why not do a little bit of weeding? Maybe Jesus knew that in the end we are not very good at picking weeds. This is the same Jesus who has taught the disciples not to remove a speck from your neighbor’s eye when you have a log lodged in you own eye. Jesus taught, “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” Jesus teaches us to turn the other cheek. Jesus says, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”

While shopping at a health food store years after my last weeding campaign, I grabbed a bag of prepackaged salad greens and as I read the ingredient list to see what exactly was in that bag, I was shocked to read that that mix included dandelion leaves. After a little bit of investigation I was surprised to learn that dandelion, my front yard nemesis, is one of the most nutritious plants in existence. There isn’t a part of the dandelion that can’t be eaten. This knew knowledge set me off on a new quest for dandelions – not one of uproot and destroy, but a mission of harvest and nurture. After a little bit of study and getting to know the dandelion I tried eating the flower heads boiled and fried. I munched the stalks like it was celery, added the leaves to my salads, and after this nutritious, so-called weed had dispersed its white fluffy seeds, I pulled out the root and roasted it like a potato.

Maybe Jesus commands us to refrain from weeding because he knows that our vision is far from perfect when distinguishing the weeds from the wheat. I thought of all those sweet-tasting and nutrient giving leaves that I had piled into that white, plastic bucket as a kid: all that food that I had uprooted and thrown away in the name of having a beautiful – if not less nutritious – lawn.
The Good News is this: even when we look out across our lawns or across the world and it appears that it is all infected and infested with weeds – noxious people, undesirable beliefs, offensive opinions, and unjust acts – the kingdom of God is still present, growing among the weeds. We live in a weedy world where our roots are intertwined: weeds and wheat growing together.

The Good News is this: Jesus does not call us to take up our weeding tools and fill our white plastic buckets with those we think are our enemies. Christ calls us to live and grow among the weeds – side by side – until God brings God’s purposes to completion. Yes, there will be times when it will be difficult and it will be a struggle because we know that weeds can choke us out. But Jesus asks us to listen and grow. Thanks be to God who is with us even as we live among the weeds of this world. Amen.