Sermon for Sunday, July 23, 2017 – “Permission to Ignore the Weeds”

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
July 23, 2017
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa
Rev. Amy Zalk Larson

Click here to read scripture passages for the day.

Beloved of God, grace to you and peace in the name of Jesus. Amen.

This passage raises several questions and concerns for me, but there’s one thing I really appreciate about it. It justifies my approach to gardening! The servants want to purge all the weeds but the master tells them to let the weeds and the wheat grow together because if they try to gather the weeds, they’ll uproot the good stuff too.

So, when I let the weeds grow up in my flower beds I’m not neglecting my duties as a homeowner – I’m taking scripture seriously! The home we bought in 2012 is surrounded by so many beautiful flower beds.

Beds that, this summer especially, have been totally overtaken by weeds. When we first moved in, I tried to keep up with the weeds but I ended up doing just what the master in this parable warns about. I pulled out the good stuff with the weeds.

We moved into our house in the fall and I wasn’t sure about all that we had in the beds. In the spring, as plants came up, I couldn’t tell what was weed and what was flower. I tried to do a video call with my mother-in-law in Georgia hoping I could show her what was there and get her opinion of whether to pull or leave. Not surprisingly, gardening via Face Time doesn’t work so well. There are any number of other places I could have gone for help after that, but I had limited time and wanted to get the weeding done that day. I ended up pulling a bunch of daisy plants that looked to me like grass. I created big empty patches that are a perfect breeding ground for weeds. I was too zealous and it backfired.

Gardening isn’t the only time I’m tempted to overzealous weeding. I can easily get self-righteous and judgmental, especially when it comes to other Christians. When I hear about priests abusing children,

Christians using scripture as a weapon against others, or pastors teaching that if you just believe enough then life will go well and you’ll have lots of money, I just want to uproot all that. I’ve seen too much damage caused by this kind of stuff. There are times I just want to get out a huge shovel and a massive weed whacker and purge Christianity of all that.

Yet, my trip to Ireland reminded me that it can be hard to tell what is a noxious weed and what is a fruitful plant. For instance, before our trip I learned about Irish monasteries that were devastated by Viking raiders. I was under the impression that the Vikings had only been a destructive force in Ireland. But as we traveled around the country, we heard about the ways the Vikings also positively impacted the island. Their early settlements were influential in the growth of key Irish cities like Dublin and Cork. The “barbaric” Vikings were certainly no worse than the Christians from England who ruled Ireland as a colony for 800 years. We heard so much about the brutally oppressive tactics the English used to control the Irish. Yet of course, they also made positive impacts.

It’s not always so easy to tell what chokes life and what leads to its flourishing. And, when we try to attack the weeds, we often end up exhibiting the same tendencies we deplore in others.

Perhaps it would be better to take the approach that Irish monastics used when facing some very weed-like actions and attitudes. In the 5^th and 6^th centuries, Ireland was extremely violent – raiding, slavery and warfare were central aspects of life. Religious practice included the sacrifice of humans to the gods. Yet in a very short time, St. Patrick and other early Christians had a profound effect on Irish culture. They did this not by attacking the weeds of violence, but instead by nurturing good wheat – by creating peaceful, fruitful monasteries that impacted the whole society.

When we think of monasteries, we often think about people seeking separation from the world. That was the focus of the desert fathers and mothers in Egypt who founded monasteries to escape the corruption of the Roman Empire. But Irish monasteries were different; they weren’t places just for monks and nuns. They were settlements that included craftspeople, artists, farmers, families, and children. The focus was not on separation and purity but on creating peaceful, Christian communities that offered a compelling alternative to violence. Rather than trying to uproot the weeds or create a weed-free zone, the Irish monastics focused on nurturing good wheat. This was a fruitful approach. After 30-40 years of Irish monasticism, Christianity was flourishing, human sacrifice was eliminated, and slavery was almost completely abolished. The whole field of Ireland had been transformed.

I think our Gospel reading today invites us to take a similar approach to the fields around and within us today. If we take this reading in isolation, it can sound like there are two kinds of people – wheat and weeds. The Son of Man sows the wheat; the evil one sows the weeds. At the end of time the weeds are separated and burned. It all seems so fixed. It sounds like we are either wheat or weed from the time we’re planted to the end of time.

Yet when we read this passage in conversation with the rest of scripture and Christian tradition, we see that we aren’t just one thing or the other – we are each a field of wheat and weeds growing together. Each person and each society is a field of both.

We could get fixated on all the weeds and get discouraged about the world and ourselves. We could spend time wondering whether we’re wheat or weed and what others are. We could get angry that God allows there to be weeds and evil in our world.

Instead, this Gospel passage encourages us to trust that God will deal with the weeds in us and in all creation. It reminds us to seek the growth of good wheat in our own lives and in the larger world. It calls us to turn towards the master gardener who plants good seeds and tends to them.

Rather than getting out the shovels and attacking problematic things, we’re called to focus on bearing the good fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. We’re called to look to God to work the fields of our lives and our communities so that good growth happens.

So the next time I look at my weed-filled garden, I’m going to try to just enjoy the Day Lilies that are thriving despite all the ryegrass. I may try to weed them, but maybe I should nurture the growth of some good ground-cover.

How is God calling you to redirect your attention and bear good fruit in this week?

Let’s take a moment for silent prayer and reflection.

Sermon for Sunday, July 16, 2017 – “Gratitude”

Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
July 16, 2017
Good Shepherd Lutheran Church
Decorah, Iowa
Rev. Tom Buresh

First Reading: 1 Kings 3:3-14; Psalm 111; Second Reading: Ephesians 5:15-20; Gospel: John 6: 51-58

Always and for everything – give thanks.  I’m sure we all have some trouble in really believing that verse from Ephesians.  We all have had tough times in our lives when we ask, “Why me God” or Why that person God?”  It just seems that if certain things didn’t happen in our lives in the past that things would be much easier for us now.  Well, today is now and now is the part of our life we should be living; that is, we should not be living in the past.  But yet, there are times the past can help…  Well, let me continue.

This morning I would like to introduce you to someone who fortunately came into my life years ago.  Because of that introduction, although it certainly took a few years to accept him, I am much more grateful for all the things that have happened in my life.  So, let me introduce to you my friend, “Gratitude”.

Gratitude was not always a part of my life, you know.  In my very young years I just enjoyed all the things my family and friends gave me but then as I became old enough to start understanding, my Mom took an active part in my first introduction to “gratitude”.  She would ask me after church, “Did you thank your uncle John for the gum he gave you after church this morning?”   Did you thank your uncle Richard for taking you with him to the softball game last night”  I would respond that I didn’t need to for they could tell how happy I was to get the gum and how excited I was to go to the ballgame.  But of course I said “thank you” anyway to make Mom happy.

After that I started to understand why gratitude showed up every time we ate; “Come Lord Jesus, be our guest, let these gift to us be Blessed!” and every time I went to bed, “Blessed Savior dear, be always near, keep me from evil harm and fear.”  And of course we couldn’t have Christmas gifts opened or a birthday party without gratitude being there.  “Make for sure you thank aunt Libbie for the gift”, my mother would remind me. 

But even after all that, I still didn’t understand the importance of having such a guest with me in “ALL” things.

Well, the years flew by and soon I was packing up to go to college.  Finally, I thought, I can be on my own and do and say (or not say) what I wanted to.  But yet, as I packed I heard “Gratitude” say, “ Don’t forget to pack that Bible that your grandma gave you for Christmas a couple of years ago”.  So, I did and off I went.

It was a tough start to a new life as I grew up on a farm and was the only kid in my grade in country school until grade 5.  Even though I was always the top student in my class all those years.  Anyway, I met Connie after my freshman year and we got married my senior year.  I got a job teaching math by Fort Dodge and we moved to a small town and life was good.

Then one Monday evening while I watched my Vikings play football, Connie seemed to think something was important enough for me to stop watching.  Well, I guess she was right, for as we drove to the local hospital and then a few hours later saw that little baby boy in my wife’s arms I knew how grateful I was for, well for about everything.  And then tears of joy came two years later when Connie got her sweet little girl and then in two years, another little girl.  Yes, gratitude was there and we loved it!

Then one morning as I was about to leave for work, the phone rang.  It was my mother and I could tell she was upset.  My uncle Kenny had fallen off a ladder as he was cleaning the leaves out of the rain gutters and hit his head on a picnic table.  I knew his house was just one story and he couldn’t have been but 8-10 feet up so even though I was concerned, I felt OK as I left for work.  The next morning my mother called again; this time in tears.  My uncle Kenny had died.

On my drive to work, all day long and on my drive home, all I could feel was anger and all I could think about was why, why, why?  And then, when I got home that afternoon and Connie met me at the door with a hug, but someone else was there to greet me as well.  Of all people to be there at a time like this, there was Gratitude.  “Your timing is pretty bad to come at a time like this.  Just go away and come back some other time –  when we are in the mood to celebrate something.

But, it didn’t take long to understand why he was there.  For Connie and I started to talk about uncle Kenny and how grateful we were that he had been a part of our lives.   The beginning of my senior year he was still a bachelor and I stayed with him for six weeks as I did my student teaching in a nearby town.

It was shortly after, when he was around 50 he met a special lady in his life.  We were so excited for him.  He had me get tickets of a concert at CY Stevens in Ames for the four of us.  After we said our goodbye’s in the parking lot he started to drive away but then stopped and backed up.  He said he forgot to pay me for their tickets and handed me some money.  When I got in our car I could see he had given me twice the amount of the tickets.  He knew a young college student could use a little extra money.

I sang at their wedding and he sang at ours.  They had a little girl to go with his new three stepchildren and the stories went on and on.  Then, it really hit me, I really began to know and unconditionally love my friend, Gratitude.

Oh, we may still have a little spat or disagreement once in a while, but if we do, he reminds me quite quickly to take that bible that my grandma gave me years ago and turn to the book of Ephesians chapter 5 and read the word of God that is so true in any place or any time of your life.