Pentecost VII (Proper 11 A) [Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43] (23-Jul-2017)

This sermon was preached at St Matthew's Lutheran Church, Maryborough, 8.15am, and Grace Lutheran Church, Childers, 10.30am.

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

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.’

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, send us your Holy Spirit, to me that I may preach well, and to all of us that we may hear well. Amen.

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus tells us the parable about wheat and weeds. Let’s read what Jesus says to his disciples. He says: 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. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No lest in gathering 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.’

Jesus in our reading today describes himself as a farmer. He is the one who sows good seed. And he puts his good seed in a field, in a paddock. He says: the field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom.

So let’s stop for a moment and think about the church. What is the church? Who started it? What’s it for, and who’s in it?

Sometimes in the media, we read a lot of attacks against the “church”. Sometimes, various churches have actually deserved the bad press, sometimes they have done nothing wrong at all and still get bad press. Sometimes, you hear stories about people who say, “I never doubted my faith in God, but I do doubt my faith in the church.”

Well, the church is not something that we sinful human beings came up with. It was actually started by Jesus himself. Jesus said: On this rock I will build my church. The church is his, he built it, and it belongs to him. And not only that, but he also says: Behold, I am with you always to the end of the age. Jesus is always with his church right throughout the whole of history.

But before any of us came along, Jesus had sent his disciples out to carry out certain tasks. He said: Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. He says: Teach them the observe everything I have commanded you. Jesus sent his disciples out to teach and preach the word. And on the first day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit had come down, and Peter had preached the first Christian sermon, and 3000 people had been baptised, we read that they devoted themselves to the apostles teaching. You might also know the passage where on Easter Day in the evening, there were two disciples walking to Emmaus, and Jesus came and walked with them. And we read: He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself. Later, when he had vanished from their sight, the two disciples looked at each other in amazement and said: Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the Scriptures? Paul writes to Timothy: Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. Paul also writes to Titus: As for you, teach what accords with sound doctrine.

So you can see that right at the heart of the church is the word of God. That’s what we’ve all come to hear. We haven’t come to hear my word, or your word, or each other’s words. They wouldn’t accomplish much at all. But when we come to hear Jesus’ word—then that’s really something! Jesus says: The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. He also says: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Isn’t it a wonderful privilege to come together as a church and to hear God’s word? It was Jesus’ idea so make sure his word went out into the world, and even today this is what we still do as a church. We still preach today the facts that Jesus suffered and bled and died for you on the cross, rose on the third day, and prays for you every minute of the day.

Now, Jesus also wanted to make sure that we have absolutely no doubts that his word is applied to us personally and that it doesn’t just come and hit the side of our heads and land on the floor. So Jesus sent his disciples out to baptise people. He said: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Now, baptism is a wonderful thing, where Jesus’ connects his word to the physical element of water, and then he washes us with water and speaks his word to us at the same time: I baptise you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. So, we see this water with our eyes, and we hear this word of God with our ears, and we trust that Jesus is the one who has done this work: he has made us his child, he has made us a citizen of his kingdom, he has forgiven us our sin, and he has promised us eternal life.

And not only that, but Jesus doesn’t just kick-start our Christian life, but he also wants to help us along the way. And so he said to his disciples the night before died, Do this in remembrance of me. And what is this something that Jesus wants us to do? He takes bread and wine and says: Take and eat, this is my body given for you. Take and drink, this is my blood shed for you for the forgiveness of sins. He has a word to speak which we trust in. This Supper really is Jesus’ true body and blood, and nothing less than his body and blood, which he gives us to eat and drink. And we know that every word that Jesus speaks is true, when he says that this is given and shed for you for the forgiveness of sins.

Now, these two things—baptism and the Lord’s Supper—are what we call Sacraments. They were Jesus idea and his invention, and they have the word of God plus some physical element. In Baptism, the physical element is water, and in the Lord’s Supper, the physical element is bread and wine.

Now, if we want to find a true church, we should ask ourselves: is this a church that is teaching the word of God in its truth and purity? And: Is this a place where the sacraments—where baptism and the Lord’s Supper—are being carried out as Jesus commanded? This is how we find the church. The word of God and the sacraments are the marks of the church. If you have the word of God and the sacraments somewhere, that’s what we call a church.

Now at the same time, there are two kinds of people who come and hear God’s word and receive the sacraments. There are people who believe the word of God, and there are some people who don’t believe it. There are true Christians, and there are pretend Christians.

And so, this is why it’s so important that if we want to find a true church, that we don’t look to see what kinds of lives people in the church are living. The people in the church are sinners—and even those who do believe God’s word, are only making start at living a Christian life. I remember once hearing Pastor Sam Davis say: “If you find a perfect church, don’t join it, because you’ll stuff it up!” In the church, there are plenty who don’t believe the word of God, and don’t live a Christian life. With our human eyes, it’s very difficult to know which is which, good seed or bad seed. In the parable, it’s only once the wheat and the weeds start to grow up and bear grain, that they realise that there is a difference. When they first grow up, the two plants look quite the same.

And so, we read in the reading: The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil.

And so, we see that we have an external fellowship of the church, where we come together to hear God’s word, and receive the sacraments. Those things are all outside of us. But at the same time, Jesus wants the word to have an effect on us, he wants us to believe it, and trust him that his words are true. Now, don’t anyone get smug and say: “Ho, ho, ho!—I know who the weeds are around here! But also, if you look deep into your own heart, and you think maybe I’m a weed—you’re not. Don’t look inside yourself, look to Jesus—he is your Saviour and he has died for you.

And so, when Jesus plants his word into our ears and turns our hearts from hearts of stone into beating ones again, and creates faith in us so that we believe in his word, in the forgiveness of sins, and the gospel, then Jesus plants a good seed in his world. Jesus warns us that if we reject his word, then this it is not him who has planted this attitude in us, but it comes from the devil, and we become weeds. Jesus warns us here that we are not saved, simply by being a member of the church, or by coming to church and doing our bit. We are saved only by faith in the gospel, the free forgiveness of all our sins.

In the Creed we say: I believe in the holy Christian church. What makes the church holy? Is it us? No—It’s Jesus and his word that makes the church holy. And even if there are some weeds in the external, outward organisation and fellowship of the church, the church is still holy because of his word that makes us holy, and our holy Saviour who is in the church.

Now, Jesus gives another little picture in this parable. He says: While his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. Jesus says that the enemy came when his men were sleeping. This is a little warning to all of us to keep awake and alert, and keep watch. We should make sure that the word that we are planting is good seed. We should pray that the devil would get lost, and not plant bad seed among us. Sometimes people say: We shouldn’t worry about doctrine or teaching too much. What’s most important is mission! That would be like saying to a farmer: “Don’t worry about your seed, just worry about your harvest!” But any farmer will tell you that if the seed they plant is no good, their crop will be no good. And the same goes for the church: the seed is everything. The word we speak and teach, that’s the most important thing. We should stay awake and keep watch on this point! And good seed produces a good harvest. Paul says to Titus to preach what is in accord with sound doctrine, because Paul and Titus are missionaries, and this is how the job is done. This is how the harvest is begun! Paul says: I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. What were they planting? Well, in our parable today it says that the one who sows the good seed is the son of Man. It’s Jesus who is doing this planting, and it is his word that he plants, and it’s this word that changes lives and makes living Christians out of people. And what’s this word that Jesus plants? He shows us his hands and his feet, just like he did with his disciples at Easter, and says: Peace be with you! I forgive you all your sins.

But let’s come to the end of our reading now. Jesus says that in this life there are always Christians and unbelievers living side by side all the time. And he cares about each of us so much that he doesn’t want any of us to be accidentally ripped up when pulling up a weed at the same time. The servants said to him: Do you want us to go and gather [the weeds]? But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.

But Jesus does point us forward to a time when the wheat will be separated from the weeds. Jesus says: The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Jesus gives us another warning here. He teaches us that there is such a thing as hell, and that those who don’t believe in him will be gathered up and thrown there. We often don’t like to hear these kinds of words, and people often sometimes make fun of old sermons about fire and brimstone. But this is a serious message from Jesus, and we should listen to it. Jesus tells us this because he wants to point us away from that, and to warn us, because he loves us, and he wants to draw us to him. When Jesus talks like this, he is preaching the law. The law shows us our sin, and what we deserve because of our sin.

But then Jesus has another word for us, a word which has nothing to do with the law. This is a word that instead of telling us what we deserve because of our sin, tells us what he has won for us, what he has bought for us with his blood, and which he gives to us completely and totally freely, without us doing anything to achieve it or earn it. So he says: Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

It’s a wonderful sight when the sun shines upon a field full of wheat. It’s almost like they shine like the sun! But Jesus is also quoting the book of Daniel, where it says: Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.

When God forgives us—and today he speaks that forgiveness again for us—he lets us into the door of heaven itself. He lets us come and enjoy his house, and experience all of its treasures and delights. He has life everlasting prepared for us. And when we die, it’s not as if our bodies are just thrown away like empty husks. He promises on the last day to raise our bodies from the dead and make them completely and totally new, completely and totally healthy, and completely healed of every single blemish, disease, injury and disability. He will raise our bodies to be like the body of Jesus, and reunite our bodies and souls. And just as Jesus shines like the sun and lights up the whole kingdom of heaven, so also Jesus says that the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. And he calls us righteous, not because we have achieved or earnt it, but because he has spoken it to us. He has forgiven us, so that when the Father looks at us, he doesn’t see any of our sin at all—he only sees Jesus.

And so, what a wonderful teaching it is from the last part of the creed: 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.

Dear Jesus, plant us as good seed in your world. Forgive us, change us and use us wherever and however you will. And finally, when comes the time for harvest, gather us into your barn, and make us shine like the sun in your kingdom together with you. Amen.