Proper 11: Wisdom 12.13, 16-19;

Romans 8.12-25;

Matthew 13.24-30, 36-43

UNLIKE SOME sectarian movements within first-century Judaism, the Augusta National Golf Club, and many 21st-century Christian churches, the circle round Jesus was truly open. To be sure, some in that circle, such as "the Twelve", were invited to join it, but not because they had already shown any aptitude or inclination for the kind of life they would subsequently lead.

Others, having met Jesus in dramatic circumstances, decided to stay with him. We think of Bartimaeus who "followed Jesus in the way" (Mark 10.46-52). Still others, out of curiosity, simply tagged along with him. As he got on rather well with them, there seems to have been a disproportionate number of reprobates and rejects in his entourage.

Even to speak of that group as "a circle" is misleading, for a circle has a circumference, and to draw a circumference, you have to draw a line. Jesus's refusal to draw lines was one of the things about him that infuriated his opponents.

Needless to say, you did not have to attend a course of preparation classes or take part in some rite of passage before joining Jesus. The group around Jesus of Nazareth had no name, no organisation, and no hierarchy. It was all wonderfully ad hoc and unsystematic, and light years distant from the ever-more-obsessively managed institutions that today make their competing claims to represent him.

The parable of the wheat and the weeds is about how God puts up with us all. It certainly does not tell you how to run a farm, or - I write with feeling and a stiff back - an allotment. What the farmer does, letting the weeds flourish alongside the wheat, is about as absurd as a shepherd abandoning the rest of his flock for the sake of a single sheep that has wandered off (Luke 15.3-7).

The parable is not about farming, but about "the Kingdom of heaven". The expression "Kingdom of heaven" in Matthew's Gospel means the same as "the Kingdom of God" in Mark. It means "how God works" here and now, not where you go when you die. And the way God works is not the way we do.

Sensible farmers weed out the weeds. Our farmer does not. What he does is an example of what Paul will call "God's foolishness" (1 Corinthians 1.25). The mad way God works is not to weed out anyone. That is how crazily hospitable the company of Jesus is.

The gist of it all is in very few words: "Let them grow together." It is a maxim that the followers of Jesus have always found hard to stomach. Repeatedly, sickeningly, across the centuries, the Church, wonderfully confident that it knows which are the weeds and which is the wheat, has sought to incinerate the former, so as to maintain the purity of the latter.

The same St Paul, who rejoiced in the divine folly of welcoming all and sundry - especially the sinfully sundry - could default to a much harder line. "Come out from among them and be ye separate," he said (2 Corinthians 6.17). We have been coming out from among each other and being separate ever since.

There is, of course, a judgement. In the vivid imagery of the parable, there will be a bonfire and there will be a barn. But it is not down to us to decide who is for the flames.

Is it necessary to add that the imagery of "binding bundles to be burned" is not to be taken literally? Perhaps it is, if only because we have in Matthew's Gospel, as we shall hear on Sunday, a later allegorising interpretation of the parable of the wheat and the weeds that does just that.

Yet, whatever else they are, the parables of Jesus are not allegories. In an allegory, every detail stands for something else, and has to be decoded. ("The reapers are angels," and so on.) The parables of Jesus are winged creatures, and we must take imaginative wing ourselves, if we are to catch their drift. You do not need wings to allegorise, only an anorak.

The great New Testament scholar Joachim Jeremias argued that parables make one point, rather than umpteen, as allegories do. If so, then this parable is surely about the all-embracing inclusivity of the Kingdom of God. That it is a tale for our times hardly needs to be stressed.

The parable contains two questions. The first goes unanswered. "Where did these weeds come from?" the servants ask. I ask this question about my allotment, and I ask it about my world, fashioned so beautifully and so well.

"An enemy has done this," I learn. Yes, but how did that weed of enmity come to take root in his heart? We do not know. "The mystery of iniquity" (2 Thessalonians 2.7) is just that - a mystery.

Yet the servants have a second question: not "Why is it a wicked world?" but "What should we do about it?" That question can be answered.

Text of readings

Wisdom 12.13, 16-19

13There is not any god besides you, whose care is for all people,
to whom you should prove that you have not judged unjustly;
16For your strength is the source of righteousness,
and your sovereignty over all causes you to spare all.
17For you show your strength when people doubt the completeness of your power,
and you rebuke any insolence among those who know it.
18Although you are sovereign in strength, you judge with mildness,
and with great forbearance you govern us;
for you have power to act whenever you choose.
19Through such works you have taught your people
that the righteous must be kind,
and you have filled your children with good hope,
because you give repentance for sins.

Romans 8.12-25

12Brothers and sisters, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh - 13for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ – if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.

18I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Matthew 13.24-30, 36-43

24Jesus put before the crowd another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26So when the plants came up and bore grain then the weeds appeared as well. 27And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” 28He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” 29But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’

36Then Jesus left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.’ 37He answered, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!’