Blog

Aug 25, 2023

FAITH PERSPECTIVES: Suffering from weeds

Murphy Back in Ag School we learned that anything that grows out of place is a weed. Weeds are invasive and farmers, gardeners and landscape crews spend lots of time and money to eradicate them. They

Murphy

Back in Ag School we learned that anything that grows out of place is a weed.

Weeds are invasive and farmers, gardeners and landscape crews spend lots of time and money to eradicate them. They cause suffering because we have to deal with them over and over again.

Wonder how much we suffer because we have to deal with ourselves or others over and over again? Of course, there are lots of aids in dealing with weeds such as herbicides, hand tools, landscape fabric and even using straw instead of hay to cover new lawns.

Spiritual weeding has some aids also — prayers, studying Scripture and working as a faith community to help weed out the forces of evil in the world. We may not want to think about it but we need to weed out our own garbage first. Lots of times this can be painful. Sometimes we may think we are better at weeding out other people’s stuff. See how far that gets us. Isn’t it funny that many of the things we don’t like about other people are those things we don’t like about ourselves?

Let’s look at Romans 8:12-25. Let’s think In terms of weeds being suffering and weed free being glory. Verse 13 says, “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” In other words flesh is a weedy field and Spirit is weed or garbage free. Living by the Spirit means we are children of God. Verse 18 says, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us.”

Matthew 13:24-30 is the parable of the weeds. Jesus began many of His parables with, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like ...” In this case a farmer sowing good seed in the field. Enter some dramatic music! While everyone slept, the enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat. The enemy could be Satan, or our human enemies. They could also be us sowing our own weed seeds of greed, malice, hatred ... Well you get the picture.

The servants in the story asked if they should pull the weeds. The farmer said let them grow together. Reminds me of the Lord sending the rains on the just and unjust. The farmer said to first collect the weeds at harvest. Then to bundle and burn them. Then gather the wheat. You guessed it, it is what made for a good harvest in the end. Seems like Jesus is saying that the bad guys will be bound and thrown into the fire. The righteous will be harvested as a good crop.

I receive a daily meditation written by Pope Francis. Here is the one I got while working on this sermon. “The Word is the Seed, we are the soil: we can receive it or not. The sower hopes that we can bear abundant fruit.” So, are we going to allow the weeds to grow in our hearts, or are we going to turn to God for help in clearing our inward field? AMEN!

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