2nd Sunday before Lent: Sexagesima [Luke 8:4-15] (27-Feb-2011)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am, Lay reading), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (10am), and St John's Lutheran Church, Sale (4pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text (Luke 8:4-15):

As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.

Kä ce̱t kuay tin ci pɛn muun mi gɔaa kɛ nɛy tin ca ruac liŋ kä ka̱pkɛ jɛ kɛ luth kɛnɛ lo̱c ti gɔw, kä bikɛ dɛy ti gɔw kuir kɛ li̱ep bitdä kɛnɛ dhieel.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus compares the word of God to a seed. The word of God is not a rock that you have to collect and put in your pocket. It is a living seed that is planted in you and grows in you.

If you want to know how to live a Christian life, all you have to do is be exposed to the Gospel. The Gospel will do its work. It will grow. It will flourish.

Sometimes people think that the Word of God is just information. Some people think it really doesn’t have any power of its own unless we “accept” it or unless we “decide to follow Jesus”. People say, “I’ve told you about Jesus, now it’s up to you to accept him.” That’s not true: it’s not “up to us”. We don’t save ourselves, but God saves us through his Word. He is the one who says, “Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace.” We don’t save ourselves. 

Pastors don’t preach about the gospel. They actually preach the gospel!

People don’t come to church and hear things about the Word of God! They hear the Word of God itself!

People don’t come to learn about Jesus! They actually learn Jesus himself!

St Paul in Ephesians talks about “learning Christ”, not learning about him, but actually learning him himself!

So when we hear the Word of God, we are being worked upon by God. We are being changed by God. God is the one who works and wills in us to his good pleasure. He is the one who is planting the seed.

The word of God is a powerful force. It does things.

There’s no point in telling people to do good works, if we don’t actually give people Jesus Christ himself to do the good works through them. There’s no point in telling people what they should do, if they don’t know who they are: forgiven sinners washed in the blood of Christ.

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St Peter says, “[Since God] who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

Another way we could say this is that you will be holy, because the seed which is planted in you is holy. The Word of God which is spoken to you is holy, and it makes you holy.

Actually, there are two ways in which we understand what it means to be holy.

The first type of holiness is the holiness which comes from the Word of God. The Word is God is perfect and is totally holy. God’s word says, we are forgiven, therefore we are forgiven. God says you are holy because Christ died and rose for you, therefore you are holy. Even if you can’t see anything good in yourself, it doesn’t matter. You’re not supposed to look for holiness in yourself, you supposed to look for it in the Word of God. God’s Word says, “You are baptised”. “You are forgiven.” “Take, eat, this is my body, given for you.” God’s word says it. That settles it. This is the most perfect holiness.

But there’s another type of holiness. This is the holiness that comes from what you do. We might say, “He’s a holy person, because he did this or that.” But this sort of holiness is not perfect, and it is not acceptable to God unless it is forgiven by him. Your good works are no good, unless they are forgiven by God. Sure, sometimes you do things which are very good – but then as soon as you realise that it is a good thing, you want to take the credit for it, and you forget that all glory belongs to God. Everyone does this, even when they do good things. So this type of holiness isn’t perfect. It needs to be forgiven.

Even who you think is the best person from a human point of view might go to hell. And who you think is the worst person in the world might go to heaven. That’s because salvation doesn’t depend on what we do, but about the Word of God which is planted in us. Even the best and the worst person need to be forgiven. Even the best and the worst person need to be purified. And we might say that God isn’t fair – well, he’s not! He’s just good! We’d all be completely up the creek without a paddle, if after communion today we said the words: “Give thanks to the Lord for he is fair!” Instead, we say, “Give thanks to the Lord for he is good.”

So that’s why we constantly need to hear the Word of God. We constantly need to be made new through the Word of God. We need the seed to be planted into our ears and into our hearts and to bear fruit.

But in our parable today, which Jesus tells us, he warns us about how people can reject the gospel. This passage which we have read today is one of the most important parables in the bible, because it tells us why some people are saved and why some are not. People are not saved, because God doesn’t chose them. People are not saved, because they reject God. The problem’s not with the seed, the problem is where the seed is planted.

If we want to know how to live a Christian life, all we have to know is how not to reject the Word of God. If we reject the Word of God, and the good news of the forgiveness of sins, then we will not live a Christian life. If we simply hear the Word of God, and let it grow, then we will live a Christian life. Our Christian life will happen without us even thinking about it, or even knowing about it, so long as we don’t reject the Word of God.

In a garden, I’m sure that dirt doesn’t notice how nice the plants are that grow in it. Rather it’s the person who plants the seed who notices. And the person who plants the seed is God. We are just the dirt.

But there are four types of ground.

There’s the path. There’s rocky ground. There’s thorny ground. And there’s good soil.

So let’s look at the first one: the path. Simply put, the path is just the wrong place.

Jesus says: “As he sowed, some seed fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it… The ones along the path are those who have heard. Then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.”

Is your heart a path? If so, wake up and confront yourself. Don’t let the vultures comes and make a meal of your faith.

Watch out, says St Peter. Your enemy the devil roams around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith.

The first mention of sin in the bible is in the story of Cain and Abel. God says to Cain, “Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.”

But notice that the birds are on the lookout for seed. As soon as they see seed on the path they will come and grab it. Every one has to wrestle with sin. The birds desire you, the devil wants to have you. Sin is crouching at the door. Will you be its master, or will you be its slave?

Maybe you are a path. Maybe you really worry about being a path. Never mind. The Holy Spirit was sent to convict you of sin, and now he is doing his work in you, wiping away the path, and making furrows in you, and including you in good soil. If you have any worry about being a path, then know for sure that you are repentant. Know for sure that your repentance is good enough. Now Jesus Christ asks you to trust him that his words of forgiveness are bigger and better than you. Now Jesus asks you to look at him on the cross, and he will take the cross and make furrows in you with it, and make you good soil. Listen to the words of forgiveness, and hold them fast in your heart, and be patient. Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. St John says, “whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart.” God does not predestine some ahead of time to hell. Anyone who says that is a liar, and sins against the Word of God, and will be punished for their lies. The purpose of the Word of God is not to condemn you but to encourage you. St John says, “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world may be saved through him.” And St Paul says in Romans, “Whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

But let’s have a look at the second type of ground: Rocky ground.

Jesus says: “Some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture… The ones who fell on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in the time of testing fall away.”

Are you rocky ground? You’ll find out on Monday. Maybe you love the gospel and you love hearing it, but you just seem to get nowhere! Rejoice in the fact that God has brought you back here. He’s not finished with you yet. In Ezekiel he says, “I will take away your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh.” If you are rocky ground, and all of us in some sense are hard of heart to the gospel, then hear the word of God, and hold it fast, and be patient. If God’s going to make good soil out of you, he’s going to have to get out his hammer, and send you some suffering. And when it comes, then rejoice!

Maybe you are always doing the same sin, and you come every week to have it forgiven. And then you do it again! So hearing the forgiveness of sin doesn’t give you any joy anymore because you think it doesn’t work. Of course it works, but you might not feel it. Rejoice, when you suffer, rejoice when you feel nothing, because when you feel nothing, and your heart is heavy and you are on the brink of despair, then you know that there is nothing else to put your trust in, there is nothing else in the whole world to hang your hat on but the living and active Word of God, which is the forgiveness of sins, the voice of God which doesn’t come out of your own heart, but the living and powerful gospel that is the voice from heaven, the gospel which showers upon you from heaven, that tears out of heaven and seeks you out to rescue you.

Third type of ground: thorny ground.

Jesus says: “Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it… What fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of live, and their fruit does not mature.”

Are you thorny ground?

Do you fear, love and trust in God above all things? Do you have any other gods? Is anything more important to you that hearing the word of God? Do you ever think that something is more important to you than prayer or coming to the house of God? Do you support to work of the church financially, or do you think that that’s other people’s job? Let Jesus forgive these thorns and pluck them out.

Ask yourself, “What is your greatest worry? What is your greatest fear?” If it is not your salvation, then repent, and let your master Jesus Christ cut the thornbushes. Jesus says: “Consider the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?... Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”

We have to be careful, because we have many nice things in Australia. And there’s nothing wrong with having things and owning things and having good things. But if these things are in charge of us, rather than us being in charge of them, then there’s a problem. People don’t come to church, because they don’t need God’s help. When people need God, they come to church. That’s why Christianity flourishes in poor countries and goes rotten in rich ones. If you know that there are thorns crowding your faith, then ask for the Holy Spirit to remove them.

If you don’t have time for God, ask God for time, and when he gives it to you, thank him for it. If you don’t have money, ask God for it, and when he gives it to you, thank him for it. If you don’t have anything that you think you need, ask God for it, and when he gives it to you, thank him for it. As soon as you do this, you put your thorns in Jesus Christ’s gardening gloves.

But the last type of soil is the good soil.

Jesus says: “And some fell into good soil, and grew and yielded a hundred fold… As for those in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold if fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient.”

So listen to the word. Hold it fast. Be patient.

Be faithful unto death, and you will receive the crown of life.

Let yourself be renewed by God. Let yourself be renewed with the word of God. Let yourself be fallowed.

The word of God is not dead! It works, you know!! It forgives, it saves.

If the Word of God has ever been a dead thing to you, then let it go to seed now, and let it be planted in you abundantly.

The word of God is living and active. And Jesus has died for you, he was planted in the tomb and he has sprouted up from the grave. And this Word has been preached into your ears, into your own ears! And God’s Word doesn’t lie, but it is “the power of salvation”.

Jesus says, “He who ears to hear, let him hear!”

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, plant your word in us, and let us treasure it in our hearts. Keep us firm and strong and rooted deeply in your words of forgiveness. Send us the sunshine of your grace, the drenching rains of your Holy Spirit that we grow, and yield a hundredfold. Amen.

Transfiguration [Matthew 17:1-9] (13-Feb-2011)

This sermon was preached at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (10am, parish service) and St John's Lutheran Church, Sale (4pm). 

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text (Matthew 17:1-9):

When the disciples heard [the voice from the cloud], they fell on their faces and were terrified. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” And when they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.

Mëë ci ji̱ kɔaarɛ jɔw liŋ, cukɛ dual elɔ̱ŋ, kä cukɛ rɔ̱ yuɔr piny buupä. Kä cu Yecu ben cuɛ kɛ ben thiap, jio̱kɛ kɛ i̱, "Jiacɛ rɔ̱, kä /cuarɛ dual." Kä min cikɛ nhial liɛc, cuɛ thil radɔ̱diɛn mi cu kɛn ɛ nɛn, ɛ ni Yecu kärɔaadɛ.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

In 1 Corinthians 15, St Paul says: “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.”

In our reading today, Jesus is transfigured. You will also be transfigured.

In our reading today, Jesus face shines like the sun. You will shine like the moon, reflecting the rays of the sun.

Jesus clothes are white like the light. And the prophet Isaiah says, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.”

What is the point of all this? Why does Jesus give his disciples this vision? Why does he let himself be shown to them in this way?

Jesus wants to show to his disciples before he suffers, and before he dies, and before he rises again from the dead that he is truly God, and that all power comes from him.

The book of Hebrews says: Jesus is the same, yesterday, today and forever.

He is the same when he is in his mother’s womb, he is the same when he is a boy, he is the same when he is a grown man, he is the same when Pilate commands him to be beaten and whipped, he is the same when he is nailed to the cross, he is the same when he rises again from the dead, he is the same when he sits at the right hand of the Father, and he is the same now when he comes and speaks his words to you, when he baptises you, when he prays for you, blesses you, forgives you. He is the same.

He’s not a different Jesus. It’s not as if when he rose again from the dead, that he no longer needs his human body any more, and he’s done with it.

Christ’s human body is seated on the throne of heaven, and when you know that his human body is in heaven, you also know that yours will be in heaven.

I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy Christian church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body and the life everlasting. Amen.

Everything about our reading today forces us to look forward to the other side of the grave. Everything about our reading today makes us look beyond death, beyond this time, to the other side of death.

Jesus gives a vision to the disciples in which his face shines like the sun. His clothes become white like the light.

And we read in Revelation: “I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb. And the city [the new Jerusalem] has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb.”

In heaven, there will be no need of a sun, because Jesus, the Lamb of God, will be the sun.

Jesus points us towards the other side of death. He shows us what it will be like.

Also, we see him talking with Moses and Elijah. In the gospel of Luke, we read that they were talking about his “departure”: that means, his journey to the cross, his journey through death to the other side. And why they were talking about this, and why they had to talk about this at this particular time, we don’t know. But Jesus also here gives us a window into the other side of death, he gives us a window into heaven.

We don’t know why Jesus had to talk to Moses and Elijah at this time, but once again, Jesus points your eyes to look forward to heaven, where you can ask Moses and Elijah all about it in more detail. Jesus points you forward to the time when not only he is talking to Moses and Elijah, but when you will talk with Moses and Elijah yourself, if you are not completely and totally awestruck by the greatness of heaven itself, and by the love and peace and joy that radiates from the face of your Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Peter has no idea what’s going on: He says, “Lord it is good that we are here. If you wish we will make three tents here, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

But, we read, He was still speaking when, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased; listen to him.”

Listen to Jesus, God says.

And in the church we are constantly listening to the voice of Jesus.

And these words are filled with great power. They are filled with so much power that people are converted by them all around the world. They are such powerful words that they transfigure people, they create people into new creatures, they make people new creations.

Jesus words are words that always bring about transfiguration.

He transfigures death by saying telling to die.

He says to the water, “save” and it is transfigured.

He says to the bread, “body” and it is transfigured.

He says to the wine, “blood” and it is transfigured.

He says to sinners, “forgiven” and they are transfigured.

He says to churches, “shine” and they are transfigured into cities on hills.

And these powerful words of Jesus transfigure the world. These words make all things new. These words raise bodies from the dead.

But what do the disciples do, we read?

The passage says, “When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were terrified.”

They fell on their faces and were terrified.

What about you? Are you terrified when you come to church?

Should you be?

There are many people who are terrified about coming to church. Many people say, “I couldn’t come to church, because the walls would fall in on me. The ground would open up.”

Don’t laugh at people who say this. They are closer to the faith than many people who call themselves Christian. They have a small knowledge of what it means to be a sinner. They feel in themselves some unworthiness of coming into the presence of God. They know that they have done something wrong, and they feel they might be punished for it. They are terrified.

Perhaps you are terrified at other times, when you are not at church. Perhaps you are terrified after coming to church, when you know you’ve done some damage after having received the forgiveness of sins. Perhaps you are terrified about some things when you are going to sleep at night.

The people who should be really afraid, are those who are not terrified by the presence of God at all. If you’ve never thought for a moment that you are unworthy in the presence of God, if you’ve never thought for a moment that you are a sinner, that you are conceived and born in sin, then repent!

St John says, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is nor in us.”

The disciples are showing you what is the natural thing to do when faced with the living voice of God, and when we are confronted with the shining face, the resurrected and glorious body of Jesus Christ. They fall on their faces and are terrified.

But then a wonderful thing happens to these disciples. All of a sudden the voice stops, maybe the open their eyes, maybe they see a bug or two on the ground, and they feel a hand on their shoulder, and the voice of Jesus who says, “Rise, and have no fear.”

And we read, “When they lifted up their eyes, they saw no one but Jesus only.”

Psalm 3 says, “O Lord, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me; many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. But you, O Lord, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head.”

Jesus is the lifter of their heads. He is the one who comes to them and touches them. Our text actually says: “He came near to them and touched them.” He is the beloved Son of God, with whom God is well pleased. He is the one about whom God says: “Listen to him.”

And then, what does he say, when he touches them? “Rise, and have no fear.” Rise and have no fear.

Listen to him! Listen to these words! Let him lift up your head, let him lift up your head from sadness, despair, and let him forgive you with these words. Let him transfigure your fear with these words, “Rise and have no fear.” Let him transfigure your mourning into dancing with these words, “Rise and have no fear.”

Be still, and know that he is God.

Take a moment now and think where you are. Think about in whose presence you are. Picture Jesus standing in the middle of this church today, among all messiness, our chaos, our troubles. He is here, you know!

The book of Hebrews says: “You have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel… Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”

This passage is describing what it means to be a Christian, and what it means to be a Christian who is gathered in the church, what it means to be a Christian gathered with the church by the Holy Spirit in the presence of the living Lord Jesus Christ.

It is a terrifying thing.

It is a terrifying thing to be in the presence of Jesus, because he is our God, and he is a consuming fire. The consuming fire shines out from his human body.

We haven’t just come to a church with pieces falling off of it, we have come to the heavenly Jerusalem. We have come to the angels, to the company of heaven, to God our judge, to Jesus, and to his sprinkled blood.

And we fall on our faces, and are terrified.

And when we come to the altar we fall on our knees in the presence of the transfigured Jesus Christ.

And we when we are in the presence of Jesus, we join in a conversation with Moses and Elijah, with the angels and the archangels and all the people who have died and are now in heaven, the spirits of the righteous made perfect. We talk with them, in fact, we sing together with them, with Moses and Elijah, and we say together, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts. Heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest! Lamb of God, you take away the sin of the world, grant us your peace.”

Jesus transfigures us with his words. He forgives our sin, and he doesn’t count our sins against us any more. That’s what it means to be transfigured by Jesus: it doesn’t mean that we transfigure ourselves, it means that we let him transfigure us through his own transfigured water of baptism, his own transfiguring words of forgiveness, and his body and blood in the Lord’s Supper.

He also transfigures our lives. St Paul says: Be transfigured by the renewal of your mind.

Transfiguration is a terrifying thing to see. It is also a terrifying thing to experience, as we undergo a constant transfiguration through the forgiveness of sins. St Paul says: “We who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh.” We are commanded to put off the old person and put on the new person, being transfigured in the image of God.

Transfiguration for you will mean constant testing, constant struggle. It will mean falling on your face and being terrified.

That’s why Jesus comes and touches you, he actually touches you to strengthen you. That’s what the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are: they are Jesus reaching out and touching you. But he doesn’t touch you in such a way as to make you afraid. He touches you and says to you, “Rise, and have no fear.”

Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace.

I have died for you. I have won the victory. I have risen from the dead.

So all there is for you now is to “rise and have no fear”.

The Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you!

Amen.

Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for the wonderful vision of your transfiguration. Transform us, and transfigure us for the sake of your holy precious blood, with which you won and redeemed us. Transform our lowly bodies to be like your glorious body. Purify us and make us holy with your holy words of forgiveness. Strengthen us with your words, with your holy sacraments, with your Holy Spirit. Amen.

Epiphany 5 [Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43] (6-Feb-11)

This sermon was preached at St Paul's Lutheran Church, Darnum (9am), Good Shepherd Lutheran Church, Traralgon (11am) and Holy Trinity Lutheran Church, Bairnsdale (3pm).

Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ.

Text (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43):

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.

Ce̱t ciaŋ kuäärä nhial kɛ ram mi ci kuay ti gɔw piɛth kakädɛ, kä mëë te naath ni̱n, cu gua̱n tɛ̈rɛ ben, cuɛ jol ben piɛth rɛy bɛɛl, kä cuɛ jiɛɛn.

Prayer: May the words of my mouth, and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.

Have you ever bought something, which is a cheap imitation of something else? Something that looks like the real thing, but is in actual fact a dud?

And you think for a moment that you got a real bargain, until a couple of weeks later it breaks!

Our reading today is about imitations. The man sows good seed in his field – good strong wheat. But then his enemy comes and sows in the middle of all the wheat “weeds”. In the older translation they were called “tares”. Now we call this the parable of the weeds, but a long time ago it was called “the wheat and the tares”. The word in Greek for these is “zizania”, which refers to not just any old weed, but a particular type of weed. Today, we would probably call it “bearded darnel”.

And there’s something funny about this plant. It’s not completely useless – it can be used for medicinal purposes, and was once used for treating insomnia and a few things like that. But if you eat it in large quantities it is poisonous.

On the other hand, you can eat plenty of wheat and it doesn’t do you any harm. But “darnel” – this pesky weed – looks a lot like wheat, so much so that you can’t really tell the difference until they grow larger.

And so what a shock it would have been to the man who sowed the seed, when after his wheat had been growing for a while, he went and found that there were all these weeds around the place.

I know that there are a lot of keen gardeners in the parish. You must know how frustrating this is when you plant something in your vegie-patch or in your garden, and there are these pesky weeds that keep poking up. Now when the plants are quite different, it’s quite easy to go and pull up the weeds. But if the plants are the same height as the weeds and they are all in between, it can be a difficult task.

The farmer in today’s story is a very careful man – he doesn’t want any of the wheat to go to waste. He wants to make sure that it all grows up well – but if the servants were to go in and start pulling up the weeds, the risk is that they’ll pull up the wheat too. Maybe by accident, maybe because the roots of the darnel are tangled up with the wheat, maybe because pulling up the weeds will disrupt the soil so that the wheat can’t stand up.

It’s too much of a risk – the farmer wants to make sure that none of the wheat will be lost. His servants come and say to him, “Do you want us to go and gather the weeds?” But he said, “No, lest in gathering up the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”

Now hopefully we’ve got a good picture in our mind of what this parable is describing.

So later on, we read that the disciples ask Jesus what the parable is about.

Jesus says: “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age.”

It’s important that we understand our place in this parable. If we misunderstand where we fit into this story we can do an enormous amount of damage.

Firstly, we are not the sower. Jesus is the sower.

Also, we are not the reapers. The angels are the reapers.

We don’t build the church, and we’ve also got to make sure we don’t judge too quickly who the wheat are and who the weeds are.

But also, the field is not the church. The field is the world.

But we know that all of us are just as much a part of the world as we are a part of the church. We can’t grow like wheat unless we are planted in the ground. We can’t be part of the church unless we are citizens of the world, and members of a society, a nation, a country, a people. We have to be sinners if we want to be part of the church – there’s no-one else around to be part of the church!

But let’s just have a look at this enemy for a moment. Jesus says: “The enemy who sowed [the bad seed] is the devil.”

Everything about the devil is a cheap imitation. He’s been a cheap imitation from the beginning. We have two characters in the story: the man who sows the good seed and the man who sows the bad seed.

But just think, if the good man hadn’t sown his wheat yet, the devil wouldn’t have even thought to go and plant the bad seed.

The good seed gives the devil the idea to plant the bad seed. The devil sees Adam and Eve enjoying themselves in the garden of Eden. And when he sees this, it gives him the idea to go and try to wreck it. When churches flourish and do well, the devil sees it and goes and tries to wreck it.

And what does he wreck it with?

Another cheap imitation.

God made a promise. “If you eat of that tree, you will surely die.”

The devil makes a promise he can’t keep. “You will not surely die.” This is a cheap imitation promise. And it isn’t a promise at all.

The devil is a cheap imitation god. He pretends to be as powerful as God, when he’s not. He pretends to have the same authority as God, but he doesn’t have it.

Our gospel reading today is one that teaches us patience. We have to know our place, and where God has put us in this world. We are growing in the field, right next the weeds. And we might look around at all the problems in the world, and we think, I’d just like to get in there and fix everything! I’d like to just get in there and pull up those weeds!

But you are not the reapers. The angels are. Get back in your box. Know your place. Otherwise you will end up doing the devil’s work and destroying God’s good work.

There’s no point in a doctor operating on a person if it will damage an organ which is more important that the one they want to remove.

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience… We have to be patient. We have to wait.

Jesus calls the devil “the father of lies”. He sows lies. He makes people liars. And when we don’t tell the truth, we end up entangled in a weedy mess. Woody Allen once said, “It’s much better to tell the truth, because there’s less to remember!”

But Jesus says, “I am the truth.” And he also says, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”

On the other hand, the devil is the father of lies. And he clouds the truth and makes people slaves.

This is the thing about the wheat and the tares, the good seed and the weeds. When they are both in the ground, and when they still haven’t grown much, they look a bit the same. There’s not much you can do to tell them apart.

When someone does something good, there always follows the cheap imitation. So after a prophet comes a false prophet. After an apostle comes a false apostle. After Christ comes the Antichrist. After God reveals the true religion comes false religion. After Christ builds his church come fake churches.

And the greatest temptation for us is to say: It’s all the same thing. There’s no difference between good seed and bad seed. There’s no difference between the farmer and the enemy. There’s no difference between one religion and another religion. There’s no difference between one church and another church.

In a time past, only a fool would ever have said, “I’ve got my truth, and you’ve got your truth.” “There’s not such thing as truth, it all depends on what you consider to be true for you.”

Then people say, there’s no difference between us and Buddhists. There’s no difference between us and Muslims. We’re all the same.

No we’re not. Jesus says, “No one comes to the Father except by me.”

Christianity is one of the most bigoted, exclusive religions in the world, because it will tolerate no cheap imitations.

Your mind, your heart, your opinions are a cheap imitation for the word of God. False religions are cheap imitations for the true religion.

And there’s plenty of churches around that are cheap imitation churches. People say, they all do the same thing. They say some of the same prayers we say, and yet they are not building God’s church on earth, but something else – social clubs, friendly societies, and fun-houses.  They are cheap imitations for God’s church on earth, where Jesus Christ promises to be present, and promises to be there in his word spoken and preached, and promises to be there in his body and blood in the bread and wine of the Lord’s Supper.

Baptism is a real thing: anything which pretends to be Holy Baptism isn’t. It’s not the real thing.

The Lord’s Supper is a real thing: if people have the Lord’s Supper and don’t believe that the body and blood of Christ are actually given there for us to eat and drink, is a cheap imitation. It’s not the real thing.

The devil is the master of cheap imitations. When we are satisfied with cheap imitations, we invite the bad seed to be sown in our hearts. And Jesus says, “while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.”

We have no time to be asleep. St Peter says, “Be watchful, [stay awake]. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

There is no time for you to be asleep and be lazy about what you believe. There’s no time to say, “The wheat and the weeds all look the same.” You either believe the truth, or grow up into a weed.

There’s no time for the church to be lazy about what it teaches. The church can’t be built by empty traditions, the church can’t be built by adopting any old business practices to solve the church’s problems, the church can’t be built by conducting own our experiments, the church can’t be built by resting on the work of people in the past, the church can’t be built on the backbone of old Lutheran dynasties from the Barossa Valley or the western districts, the church can’t even be built on European church taxes. All of that stuff is weeds, weeds and weeds, unless the church is built on the good seed and nothing else. The devil will twist everything else even if is good and make a bad imitation of it.

If the church is not built on good seed, on the word of God which endures forever, then the church becomes nothing but a weed. And people will hate it, just like they hate themselves. But the words of the Lord are pure words, like silver refined in a furnace on the ground, purified seven times

But we have to wait. We have to be patient.

An old Lutheran pastor called Hermann Sasse once said: “Sects [that is false relgions and false churches] want to do everything now. That’s because they have no future. But the church has a future, therefore sometimes we have to wait.” Truth and falsehood grow together in the world, and for a long time they will look the same. How often people come up to me and say that everyone worships the same God, and everyone’s going to the same place in the end. The true religion and false religions will grow together and they will look the same. Real churches and fake churches will grow together and they will look the same. The true God will invite people to worship him and the devil will invite people to worship him, and many religions will look the same. Good people and evil people will grow together and they will look the same.

But they’re not the same. Because the wheat will be gathered by God’s angels in the barn, and the weeds will thrown into the fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. These are not my words, they are Jesus’ own words in our reading today.

Jesus is the one who sows his seed. He is the one who plants it. He is the one who waters it and nourishes it.

He has planted you, he has died for you and risen for you, he has baptised you, he has forgiven you, and he gives his body and blood for you. And when he’s the one who is the sower, then we read: “The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.”

Amen.

Lord God, heavenly Father, keep us strong in your word, and in the words of your dear Son Jesus Christ. Give us patience in this world, as we live among lies, evil and sadness. Make us to shine like the sun in your kingdom, as healthy and strong wheat, gathered into your barn by your holy angels. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray. Amen.