{"id":18,"date":"2008-07-20T06:38:45","date_gmt":"2008-07-20T06:38:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.anglo-catholic.net\/?p=28"},"modified":"2008-07-28T14:22:13","modified_gmt":"2008-07-28T14:22:13","slug":"sermon-july-20th-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/frtonynoble.org\/?p=18","title":{"rendered":"Sermon – JULY 20th, 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

SERMON PREACHED BY FR. TONY NOBLE <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

ON JULY 20th<\/sup>, 2008<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Matthew 13:37-38<\/em><\/span> <\/span>\u201cHe who sows the good seed is the Son of Man, the field is the world.\u201d<\/em><\/span> <\/span>Most days during the week I walk to church. It has become a very familiar path as I walk down over the Vermont Street bridge, and then through the Uptown shopping centre to church. <\/span><\/span>Over the years, of course, I have noticed familiar houses and people. On one corner has stood a lovely old house which looked as if nothing much has been done to it for years. So I was intrigued when earlier this year builders arrived and major renovations started. Appliances which looked as old as me were carried out, new ones arrived and were put in, and the place was repainted. <\/span>Of course I was expecting a young family, perhaps with children, to move in – but to my surprise it was a senior couple.<\/span> <\/span>That was a couple of months ago. Last Tuesday as I walked past I could see the landscape gardeners were arriving complete with a little truck and a backhoe. <\/span>When I returned back in the afternoon all the garden and lawn had been dug up – and not just the lawn, but the strip out the front as well. On Wednesday piles of dark soil had been dumped all around, and the backhoe was working like mad! <\/span>All the old dirt was removed, and by Friday they were laying irrigation-pipes.<\/span> <\/span>By this time I had trouble remembering what it all looked like before! I couldn\u2019t remember if there had been a garden, or lawn, or whatever. So were they just doing this for the sake of doing something new? <\/span>Or was the lawn and the garden dying and needed replacing? <\/span>Or was it perhaps because there were weeds in the garden? <\/span>Had the lawn reached judgment day, as we heard in today\u2019s Gospel?<\/span> <\/span>Today\u2019s parable of the wheat and the weeds seems to be an image of just such a judgment day. <\/span>Into the fire go the weeds, and the wheat is allowed to grow and flourish.<\/span> <\/span>Of course some preachers would like to focus on the second half of the story – a parable that is about God\u2019s judgment at the end of time. <\/span>But to me this parable illustrates something else. For me it is a parable about God\u2019s love for his creation, as he allows the good and the bad to grow together until finally the time comes. To me it is a parable of God\u2019s love – and his patience and forbearance.<\/span> <\/span>This theme of God\u2019s patience and forbearance is also taken up by the first reading from the Old Testament and by the psalm. In Psalm 86, we hear: \u201cThou, O Lord God, art full of compassion and mercy: long suffering plenteous in goodness and truth\u201d.<\/em> <\/span>I prefer another version: \u201cAbounding in steadfast love and faithfulness\u201d.<\/em><\/span> <\/span>\u201cAbounding in steadfast love and faithfulness\u201d.<\/em> That is our God. <\/span><\/span>Taking the parable of the wheat and the weeds to mean this, we can see its connection with last week\u2019s parable of the sower and the seed, at the beginning of Matthew 13. The seed being scattered does not always fall on fertile ground, but sometimes falls on the path, and sometimes on rocky ground. The parable is described as an image of the growth, or non-growth, of the Gospel. So we understand that the Gospel does not always flourish – it may be rejected, or it may wither and die.<\/span> <\/span>Today\u2019s parable continues that theme. It tells us that even if the Gospel seed does grow and flourish, it may grow alongside weeds. <\/span><\/span>Just as last week\u2019s parable could relate to us personally, so today\u2019s parable relates to us personally.<\/span> <\/span>For many of us, our lives are a mixture of wheat and weeds. For many of us do not live our lives entirely with Christians, particularly in our working sphere. That is a fact of life. We live in a society and a world where Christians have to exist side by side with other religions, and with non-believers. <\/span>Our young people are exposed, in this supposedly Christian country, to sinful behavior, and unhelpful values. It is the parable of the wheat and the weeds.<\/span> <\/span>To see a way forward I would suggest the agricultural metaphors that Our Lord gives us are very instructive. <\/span>The points of Jesus\u2019 parables in Matthew 13 are: <\/span><\/p>\n