Weeds and Wheat Growing Together

Rev. Bobby Musengwa

Transitional General Presbyter

Have you ever wanted to rip a weed out of your garden right now, no matter what else got pulled up with it? 

That is the itch Jesus is naming in this parable. Matthew tells us Jesus was still sitting in a boat, teaching the crowds gathered on the shore. He had already told them the parable of the sower. Now he tells them another one, about a farmer, an enemy, and a field full of both wheat and weeds. 

Most congregations know that itch well. Somebody in the pew is causing trouble. Somebody on session is making a mess. And every fiber in us wants to yank them out today. 

Jesus, still teaching from that boat, says: WAIT.

THE QUESTION EVERYONE ASKS 

The servants ask the obvious question. Master, where did these weeds come from? Should we go pull them? 

No, the master says. Not yet. Pulling now will rip out good wheat along with the bad. Let both grow. The harvest will sort it out. 

That is hard to hear in a church. We like clean categories. Sheep here, goats there. Saints in this pew, sinners in that one. But Jesus will not let us play harvest before it is harvest time. 

Amy-Jill Levine, in her book Short Stories by Jesus, points out something important. The parable itself, the part Jesus tells the crowd from the boat, never says who the weeds ARE. It is only later, in private, that the disciples get an explanation with names attached. Levine's point: Jesus told the story first to make people sit with the discomfort of not knowing. Sorting people into good and bad, right now, was never the point of the story he told in public. 

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN THERE? 

Have you ever worked hard to prepare something special? Cooked a delicious meal for the fellowship hall. Planned a great event for the church. Poured hours into hosting something you were proud of. 

And then someone walks in, tastes it, glances at it, and flippantly says how you could have done it this way or that way instead? 

You think, where was this person when I needed help setting up? Where was their offer to bring a dish, or stay late, or lift a finger? 

And just like that, you have already tagged them. Weed, not wheat.

A WEED I ALMOST PULLED 

Last month I was doing some leadership training that I was co-hosting. My team and I had worked hard to put the event together. On the second day, a new person joined us. I did not know him. 

At lunch I sat with him. He complained about the food. 

I was annoyed. I confronted him right there. In my head, I had already sorted him. Weed. Trouble. Somebody to watch out for. 

Later I decided to sit with him again. This time I asked about him. Where he was from. What was his story? What church he served. 

What he told me broke my heart. 

This man had grown up as a refugee, and had been severely traumatized as a child. He had seen horrors of war no child should ever see. He had lost friends and family in the war. He said surviving at all felt like a miracle. 

On September 11, 2001, he and his friends pooled the little money they had and sent it to the families in New York City who had lost loved ones that day. Grace, poured out by people who had almost nothing. 

God has called this man to serve in the church. The same man the world saw as a weed, was and is to God a precious and beloved child of God. 

Suddenly, my complaint about his complaint over lunch suddenly looked very small and trivial. It turned out I was the weed, not the wheat. I apologized for my impatience and intolerance, and he magnanimously forgave me. We became friends from that day forward and shared deep and personal stories of God’s love and grace in our lives. 

Ask yourself: who am I ready to pull out of the field today? What if I do not know their story yet?

PARTNERS WHO DO NOT SORT US EITHER 

Here is the good news. We do not just receive this grace. We have partners who practice it with us. 

Mission Presbytery has weathered several disasters. Every time, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance has shown up. 

Here is what PDA never does. They never ask if we have been good givers. They never check who among the suffering was their best supporter in the past. They do not sort the wheat from the weeds before they decide to help. 

They come as invited. They listen. They pray with us. They sit with us in our grief. They help gather the resources we need for recovery. They come as partners, not as experts standing over us. 

Rev. Kathy Lee-Cornell walked with us as our Synod disaster recovery leader last summer, when we were in deep trouble. She has since moved on to serve at the national level. Rev. Libby Janes now holds that vital role for us. And Rev. Kathy Riley, on the national PDA staff, has offered us real emotional and spiritual resilience support when we needed it most. None of them ask whether we are current on our pledges or per capita. None of them check our offering records before they show up. They come representing the love and compassion of Jesus Christ our Lord. 

They look a lot like the sower in this parable, the one who let the wheat and the weeds grow together, trusting the harvest to God. 

We are blessed beyond measure to have these disciples with us at the national, regional, and local level. We are not alone.

THE HOPE UNDERNEATH THE HARD PART 

Yes, the parable ends with fire. That part is real and Jesus does not soften it. But the last line is not about fire. It is about light: "Then the righteous will shine like the sun." 

Walter Brueggemann says the church's job is "to tell the truth in a society that lives in illusion, grieve in a society that practices denial, and express hope in a society that lives in despair." This parable does all three. It tells the truth that weeds are real. It refuses to deny the mess. And it ends in  hope, not despair. 

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR MISSION PRESBYTERY 

Our Matthew 25 invitation calls us to dismantle structural racism and confront systemic poverty. This parable backs that up. Dismantling injustice is not the same as writing off people as weeds. PDA lives this out every time they show up without asking who deserves help first. 

THIS WEEK 

Pick one person you have already decided is a weed. 

Do not pull them out. Sit with them at coffee hour instead. Ask them where they come from. 

You might find grace where you expected grumbling. 

Grace and blessings, 

Rev. Bobby Musengwa 

Transitional General Presbyter 

Mission Presbytery