Houston! We have a problem!

Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Houston! We have a problem!

The wheat will be separated from the weeds! The weeds will be thrown into the fire at the harvest where they will burn. In the fire there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!

THE WHEAT WILL BE SEPARATED FROM THE WEEDS! THE WEEDS WILL BE THROWN INTO THE FIRE AT THE HARVEST WHERE THEY WILL BURN. IN THE FIRE THERE WILL BE WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH!

THE WHEAT WILL BE SEPARATED FROM THE WEEDS! THE WEEDS WILL BE THROWN INTO THE FIRE AT THE HARVEST WHERE THEY WILL BURN. IN THE FIRE THERE WILL BE WEEPING AND GNASHING OF TEETH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A couple of weeks ago I was reminded that at least during the summer, coats and ties were not required here. Well, as you can tell I am wearing a coat and tie this morning. But, I wore them to make a point. I wore them in order to do justice to the fire and brimstone preaching that I just so poorly attempted. If it is now ok, I am going to take them off.

You see, I am not, nor will I ever be, a fire and brimstone preacher! I don’t believe in it. I am not saying that I don’t believe in heaven or in hell. But I don’t believe in fire and brimstone. I don’t believe that kind of preaching does anybody any good. I don’t believe it ever has. I don’t believe it ever will.

So how can we take a passage this clear and not talk of fire and brimstone? Well, as you read, you notice that once again, the disciples don’t get it. This allegory is not that complicating. Why can’t the disciples understand it. It is not like it is the first time that Jesus has used this type of parable to make a point. So why the lack of understanding? Maybe the point of having Jesus re-explaining the parable has more to do with re-examination than with re-explanation. Maybe Matthew is telling us that we need to step back and look at what is really being said. My opinion, the fire and brimstone has nothing to do with this parable. This is not a parable about separation of good and bad by God, but rather about separation of good and bad by us, even when done with the best intentions.

We, as a people, as a church, have a very bad habit of separating the perceived “good” from the “perceived” bad. Here is the problem, we believe we perceive as God perceives, and simply put, we can’t see like God. We don’t understand “good” and “bad” as God understands them. Yet, we keep thinking that we do.

The problem, therefore, lies with perception, not intention. We think we know what God thinks so well that we can’t see the forest for the trees.

Let me relate a little story that happened to me on my vacation that may help you understand this.

While on vacation, we decided to take a vacation. We spent the first week in Quito, but decided that we wanted to go to the beach. Therefore, we made plans to go to the seaside resort town of Tonsupo, just outside of the city of Esmeraldas, in the northwest of Ecuador. Now, this is only about a 40 minute flight or so, but it is also about a 5 hour drive. The reason the drive is so long is because Quito is at 10,000 feet, approximately, whereas the beach is, of course, at 0 feet. Therefore, there are a lot of winding roads to get there. Needless to say, there were a lot of nail-biting experiences on this trip. I am sure I will share some of them in future sermons, or privately if any one of you would like to share a near death experience you have had and we can compare notes. Today, however, I want to talk about the night before the trip.

We figured on going for just a couple of days, so as many could understand we had to fill the car to its absolute maximum level of overload. The best part of course was trying to get the suitcases tied to the top of the car. Now, we each have our preferred way of doing things, but when our preferred ways differ, insanity can ensue. What should have been a job that took twenty minutes tops, took about three hours. We thought we had it all taken care of, but then my mother-in-law came on the scene. Now, I love my mother-in-law, but even Eimy will agree when it comes to planning or organizing, nothing is right until it is done her way. This of course encourages an argument by all who disagree, which inevitably results in fighting, people walking away in frustration and finally, success after much consternation and questioning whether we should even be going on the trip or not.

So there we were, almost midnight, the night before the trip. The trip we were planning on getting up at 4am to go on. Finally the car was packed, we were exhausted, everything was ready to go. We had been through the trials, the arguments, the fighting. But finally, all was said and done. We were going to go to bed in order to get back up a few short hours later. Then came the sucker punch. The one you weren’t expecting. Out of nowhere, my brother-in-law blurts out, Houston! We have a problem!

Apparently we were so intent on making the bags up top fit the right way with the right balance and the right amount of tension on the bungee cords, that none of us had stopped to consider the height of the garage door versus the height of the bags. That is until my brother-in-law stepped back from the fray to notice the problem none of us could see. All of a sudden he realized, we couldn’t get the car out of the garage!

We had spent so much time arguing over the details that we failed to see the major complication our trip had.

Think about it, how often do we look at a passage and try to understand it through our own lenses. Or better yet, how often do we look at scripture with a preconceived notion of what it says. We have a preconceived notion of who God is. And there is nothing innately wrong with that. However, when we believe we know something, we stop attempting to know more about it. We feel if we already know it, there is no use in learning more. With some things this is ok, but with God, it doesn’t work that way. We feel that since we are sure the bags are on correctly, there won't be a problem. And of course, there isn't a problem until we step back and look at the situation with a larger frame of reference and the whole situation changes. We were comfortable with our thorough job tying the bags on the roof that we couldn't see the problem because we couldn't step back for a second and look through a different lens.

With God, there is everything to understand. So much so that we don't even know the things we don't know. We never will. We cannot hope to see creation through the eyes of the creator, our viewfinder doesn't zoom out far enough. But there is a twist, for with God, there is also nothing more to understand. God is love. Just as in a marriage, we know each other, but we will never know everything about each other. It is a constant classroom where we are always trying to know our spouse better than we already do. When we get to the point that we think we know all there is to know about them, our relationship starts to suffer because one party stops participating.

This morning we talk about the separation of the wheat and the weeds. But remember Jesus explanation. Jesus gave a name for each character in the parable this morning. We read this story so often, especially when it has been used to engender fear, that we fail to recognize the character we are supposed to play. We are both the weeds and the wheat. We are both the good and the bad. We are both the Godly and the un-Godly. That is our job, to grow. Weeds and wheat both grow. Our job is to grow, and that is it. We are to grow in our relationship to God through Christ. We are not to be deciding who is wheat and who is weed. We are charged to grow in relationship with each other and with God. But more than that, just as pulling the weeds before the harvest would hurt the wheat as well. In the same way, when we try to pull the weeds ourselves, we can hurt the wheat. Such behavior turns people away from the church, not toward it. God wants the wheat and the weeds to grow together until the harvest because until the harvest it is hard to tell which is wheat and which are weeds. Physically they looks the same. A person can be a weed for most of their life and still become wheat before the harvest. Pulling the weeds early can endanger that soul.

So this morning, our story tells us not about the God of vengeance. It does not tell us about the end times. While it speaks to what we can expect at the end, it’s true meaning is for the now, not the then. Let us learn from the disciples inability to understand so many parables. Let’s stand back and really look at the words that Jesus speaks, the actions he takes. Let us stand back and look at the problem, otherwise we spend our lives packing the car, only to miss the vacation because we failed to realize that we couldn’t get the car out of the garage at all.