Sleeping With the Enemy
Matthew 13:24-30
A Sermon by Rev. Steed Davidson

Some may think this a graphic title for a sermon, inspired by a movie title that deals with the issue of domestic violence. Sermon titles do not aim to shock but rather to arrest attention. Parables contain shock value and perform that work better than sermon titles. So using a shocking title for a sermon on a parable seems suitable. This parable unsettles our sense what seems normal and calls us to imagine ourselves living into God’s purposes. But more so Jesus calls upon those who keep hearing this parable to enter into God’s time with the confidence that God’s time will flourish despite attempts to delay, frustrate or even to destroy God’s purposes. So for those who grow weary of doing good, believing in good, for those who think that their investment in faith and hope for a community of justice, peace and equality seems lost, Jesus offers this parable to tell us what God’s time looks like.

Like so many of the parables of Jesus this one contains a set of strange twists that surprise us. The planting of wheat seems normal enough as a daily occurrence in the time of Jesus. But this normal event gets curtailed by the surprising sabotage of an unnamed, unknown, unseen enemy planting weeds in the field and disappearing. This action may not astonish the hearers of the parable but they may be interested in finding out whether this landowner courted this attack or he was merely the victim of random hate. Not surprisingly no answers come our way. This stealth action takes it time to come to the attention of the landowner. His slaves appear stunned that the good seed produced weeds as well. They seem eager to blame the supplier of the seeds. But the landowner knowingly understands the cut throat nature of agriculture, a surprise for us urbanites, immediately identifies this as foul play. The suspense builds up to the point where the slaves ask permission to clear the field of the weeds but the landowner prevents them from doing so lest they spoil the entire crop. Here comes another major disclosure for us, the landowner appears sanguine even after his entire crop is threatened. He takes no action. He throws no tantrums nor takes out any contract in retribution for this sabotage. Rather, he seems confident that he will reap a harvest and the intended harm will come to naught.

We do not need to have lived in the first century to know that this story hits its hearers as unusual. It seems unusual to us as well. Try as we may this parable confuses us but with texts like these confusion stands as a good thing. Later on the gospel writer will attempt an explanation of the parable and take us to dangerous territory. In that interpretation each aspect of the parable stands for something that ultimately culminates in the grand judgment of the righteous and the wicked. For some who accept this meaning assigned in the gospel as the only possible interpretation, they hear in this parable the uncomfortable reality that the righteous coexists with the wicked. While they see that ultimately the great separation will take place, they cannot help but engage in preventative work to ensure that the righteous are protected from the wicked before that time. Precisely the action averted in the parable takes place so often in our world, our communities and our lives because we hold this fear that the things we deem undesirable will contaminate our pure space. From ill-advised military action to nonsensical laws to arbitrary regulations and unexamined personal judgments about persons of other cultures and orientations we live in a world that seeks to create communities of sameness with the mistaken notion that sameness will yield safety.

The landowner’s restraint of the slaves stands out for us because many believe that the later interpretation of what happens at the end overturns that restraint and sets us free to remove the weeds, the undesirables, in order to make the wheat thrive. While we may not always share the visions of community created in this way, we must admit that even for the causes we hold dear or for the sense of justice that we believe in, this action at times seems necessary. If only we could ensure a more just world where everyone shares equally in the gifts of God’s creation. If only we could convert others to God’s vision of community for all persons regardless of their differences. If only we could remove the obstacles that hinder the full humanity of people who find themselves deprived of their dignity. If only we could do so, then we will build our vision of a just world, our version of a new community, our own utopia. The zeal of the slaves to purify the field of wheat lies within us even with our good intentions.

This parable like the others in the gospel of Matthew is called a “Kingdom Parable” because Jesus introduces them with the phrase, “the kingdom of heaven is like.” This phrase “kingdom of heaven” may not translate well into our cultural context. What it communicates though sounds like, “God’s time.” By God’s time I mean the time when God’s values become normative. By God’s time I speak of the place where God’s standards control our decision making, when God’s purposes get fulfilled. By God’s time I look to the moment when God’s presence becomes fully real. By God’s time we think of the fulfilling of God’s gracious love for the earth and all people becoming manifest in all its glory. This parable speaks to that time. It speaks to the attempts by enemies of goodness, truth, justice, fairness and equality to frustrate that time. But that time will come. In this parable we see the fear in the slaves that the work of planting goodness, honesty, integrity may have been in vain and no yield will come. But that does not happen. In this parable we engage the possibility that wickedness could easily become the order of the day. But that does not happen. Instead the wheat flourish and thrive, the harvest takes place as if nothing has happened. God’s time will come. God’s time is now.

The vision that these parables cast before us takes us into unknown and unseen futures. These futures are guaranteed and can stimulate us to move towards them. Yet we still live in our todays. Our today marked by struggle, oppression and the unrealization of God’s time. Yes todays marked by uncertainty. As Bono puts us “still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” Our part in God’s time takes us on this continuing search, this continuing engagement, continuing involvement but supported by faith in “the kingdom come.” The agricultural images that Jesus uses then make sense. Seeds, sowers, and weeds make for uncertain times for people who live on the edge. We too in our todays live on the edge in these uncertain economic times, or with imperial dominance, or military aggression, or threatened environments. But living on the edge means living in faith and living through, faith in God’s purposes, God’s justice, God’s vision of human community. Like the seeds that yield the abundant harvest we too embrace the faith that we flourish even as we live on the edge.

This weekend the world celebrates the 90th birthday of Nelson Mandela whose life testifies to flourishing amidst the weeds. This parable offers God’s gift to us of faith and hope in our growth, the growth of the work of our hands, and the growth of God’s time in our lives.