Leaving it up to God

Human beings never seem to learn that violence as a method of solving conflict just leads to more violence, conflict and suffering.  While overshadowed by the current pandemic, violence as a means to resolving conflict still pervades our world.  We see it at present in Syria – other parts of the Middle East – such as Yemen and Libya.  No doubt there are numerous other conflicts around our world and even within our nation if we reflect on the scourge of domestic violence.    Evil or sinfulness – however we might want to label it is all around us – and depending on our own particular circumstances can seem to be all pervasive and overwhelming.

Understandably our reaction – is to want to just stop or get rid of it, to change it and to eliminate those who are perpetrators of such evil.  However, it is not always quite so simple or easy.   The end result is not so guaranteed as some Hollywood movies might suggest. We are not Superman or Captain America or any such character endowed with special gifts or abilities that can just make all this evil go away!  As history surely teaches us, even enormous military might is no guarantee of weeding out or eliminating evil.

Our gospel reading if nothing else throws some light on this good versus evil battle that has and continues to pervade the human condition.  The scripture is not addressing any particular historical conflict although no doubt Matthew’s audience would well have identified in their own time who and what was good and evil.  Matthew in recounting this parable of Jesus places this and all struggles on what we might call a cosmic level and in so doing raises a number of basic questions about life and God.

Why are there weeds?  Why do bad things happen to good people and why does a good God seemingly allow such evil to flourish?  These are the basic questions that this parable raises but does not really answer.  We wonder about evil, as do the servants in this parable. “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?  Where, then, did these weeds come from?”  The question is real but the answer simply says – “An enemy has done this.”  What does this tell us?  That God is not responsible for the evil in this world.  The answer provides us with no more precise information than that but rather simply recognises the reality of evil and leaves its origin as somewhat of a mystery.

What the parable does though very clearly is to distinguish between good and evil – and takes both seriously.  It tells us that God recognizes the difference between good and evil, does not approve of the evil and intends to take care of the problem at the appropriate time.

And here I believe is the crunch for us.  The parable says that the reign of God is at hand and at the same time stresses God’s patience in bringing about the kingdom, the promised new world.  In other words, God can wait out for the maturation of the harvest. Then it will be clear who or what is wheat and who or what is weed.

But can we wait?  Well I guess in human terms – no.  We are ever impatient in wanting things to be put right and in our anger or frustration, just like the slaves who said to the master – ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’  And what was the master’s reply – ‘No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.’  The point is made in no uncertain terms – that we are not licensed for some sort of free for all in this drama.  Yet both on the international stage and at the local level – that is what can easily happen.  I think it is often described as ‘collateral damage’ be it in conflicts overseas as in the Syrian conflict for example or on our own doorstep with refugees.

But think again if we think that this is something just out there in the world of politics.  This can happen even in our own church as we hear of people from this or that faction or group of the church advocating the exclusion of this group or that group of people.  In our history it was known as excommunication!   This is driven by a fervent desire for purity and even if for the best of motives can lead to awful injustice.  Historically, its most horrendous expression was the inquisition of the Middle Ages.  The church generally and the Anglican Church in particular has always been a community of faith full of diversity.  On the whole the Anglican Church has resisted calls for purity be in the name of truth or orthodoxy because in the end this has to be God’s judgement.  Today’s gospel – sounds a warning that I believe our church needs to hear and heed.  Certainly, there needs to be dialogue and debate.  There will always be conflict and disagreement over issues of faith and belief – be they for example as in the past over women’s ordination or more recently over gay marriage or be it over genetic research and development.  The challenge facing our church is that in this process, we do not succumb to the temptation to threaten, coerce or exclude, for in doing so we may indeed eliminate the wheat along with the weed - we may fail to heed the warning that Jesus gives us and fall into the danger of taking on something that in the end is not for us but for God alone.

However, this does not mean that we are not to confront or challenge wrongdoing or evil.  Jesus in his life and ministry on earth never shied away from such a challenge at what he believed was wrong, evil or against God.  But equally Jesus showed us how to confront such evil through relationship, dialogue, humility, honesty, forgiveness and compassion.  Jesus did not exclude anyone from the kingdom but rather it was those whom he challenged and confronted that excluded themselves by their response and actions.

Evil, as depicted in the parable is presented on a cosmic scale – we cannot nor should we expect to be able to rid ourselves of it by some process of culling.  Jesus suggests - you will exhaust yourself if you try to save the world by going after every irritant, every perpetrator, each enemy.  Like weeds, they self-propagate, insinuating themselves among good crops.  Only God, the Creator and redeemer has the power to clear the field, clean the slate, orchestrate perfection.

In other words, saving the world in this sense or way is not our agenda.  That is God’s work.  And we are challenged to leave it up to God.  We are called to ‘caution’ in our impatience to put things right, to uproot evil by exclusion.  For only at the harvest will it be absolutely clear who and what is wheat and weed both within and around us.