Dichotomy - A Sermon for Sunday July 23 2023
GOSPEL: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
The holy gospel according to Matthew.
Glory to you, O Lord.
Jesus tells a parable about the co-existence of good and evil in this world. God’s judgment will remove all evildoers and causes of sin, but not until the end of human history.
24[Jesus] put before [the crowds] 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 he 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!”
The gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, O Christ.
There are two kinds of people in the world:
People who pour ketchup all over their french fries,
and people who do it the proper way
and dip their fries in ketchup.
There are two kinds of people in the world:
People who hang the toilet paper roll from the top,
and people who are wrong.
There are two kinds of restaurants,
those who serve Coke,
and those who say “Is Pepsi okay?”
In this world, there is a right way to do things,
my way,
and the wrong way.
But we all want to fit in,
we all search for belonging,
so we find other people
who do the things the right way,
our right way.
People often find their allegiances on one side of a dichotomy.
Dichotomy means a division or a contrast
between two things that are opposed
or entirely different.
We see it with sports teams.
We might find our allegiance
with one hockey or football team from Alberta -
and certainly not the other Albertan team.
Part of the identity then becomes
anti-that city or anti-that province.
I even heard it at camp last week -
People from Edmonton don't like people from Calgary,
it’s just the way it is.
So where do you find your allegiance?
Are you Star Wars or Star Trek?
Slytherin or Gryffindor?
Violin or Fiddle?
Van Halen or Van Hagar?
Homeschooling or public school
or Catholic school or private school.
Vaccine or anti-vaccine,
Pro-life or pro-choice
Meat eaters or vegetarian.
Christian or not.
2SLGBTQ+ affirming or not.
For better or for worse,
we pick sides,
and then those sides become engrained in us.
I believe most poignant in these times
is our Political polarity.
In the US, it might seem more obvious.
Part of being a republican
is being anti-democrat,
Part of being a democrat
is being anti-republican.
Yet Here in Canada we have our own similar divide,
and the gaps are widening.
We too are not just known for political affiliation,
but also for the political parties
and particular politicians
that we are against.
We live in a time of unparalleled access to information,
You'd think that with such variety of media,
that we would be making progress towards unity,
but there’s money to be made on our polarity,
be it google or social media,
it’s the algorithms
that ensure we see the articles,
the posts,
the opinions,
that align best with our views,
further polarizing us.
We don’t really like the Us vs. Them.
But we participate in our division,
knowingly or not.
We believe in the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church,
called and gathered by the Holy Spirit.
We are united by Christ’s life, death, and resurrection,
yet we often live into
Us vs. Them.
It’s the wheat and weeds.
It’s the wheat and weeds.
If you haven’t seen it yet, take a look at this video
Worlds Apart:
If anything can unite us, its beer, right?
It ought to be the Gospel that unites us.
Yet I’m grateful for this social experiment,
because this is the gospel.
God work is bringing order and beauty out of chaos.
When you see order and beauty happen in the world,
expect to find God’s fingerprints.
Even if this video was created
is in the name of selling beer,
it is love and welcome
and acceptance of diversity
winning out against chaotic polarization
and divisive dichotomies.
We love our dichotomies
and we take pride in our affiliations,
but the truth of God and God’s saving work in the world
is that Salvation is not just for
one group of correct-believing people.
Rather, God’s work of salvation
is intended for all creation.
That’s God’s will.
God’s desire is that all creation be redeemed,
that all creation be reconciled,
that all creation be renewed.
All creation means all people,
liberal and conservative,
Christian and not,
Feminists and Alt Right,
Transgender and binary believers.
All creation means People
and trees
and hippopotamuses
and lake
and air
and dirt.
Every time we use religion to draw a line
to keep people out,
Jesus is with the people on the other side of that line.
(Hugh L. Hollowell).
Every time we draw a line
between us and the other,
Jesus takes out the eraser. (David Hayward Cartoon)
God’s work is removing barriers.
So don’t draw the line.
It is not our decision who is in and who is out.
It is not up to us to decide
who is wheat and who is weed.
In the parable that Jesus offers,
both the wheat and the weed grow together.
At the harvest,
God decides what is wheat and what is not.
We hear this parable,
and hope to God that we are counted with the wheat
and not the weeds.
But the truth is that we are both.
We are both wheat and weed.
We are simultaneously saint and sinner.
We are simultaneously forgiven,
justified before God,
beautiful and good,
and we are also simultaneously sinner;
broken,
hurting,
divisive,
evil and in need of being uprooted,
The wheat in us grows alongside the weeds in us.
God decides what in us
is wheat and what is not.
So until then,
we grow in faith,
wheat and weeds, together.
We believe that God’s Word,
God’s life giving and life saving Word
has been planted in our hearts.
So we can trust that, by the hand of the gardener,
the wheat will grow,
that by God’s Spirit,
we might nurture the wheat,
and trust that God will deal with the weeds.
We may want it to be simple,
God saves the good people,
God burns the chaff and weeds - the bad people.
When the truth is that we are both,
the dichotomies and polarities
aren’t just out there in the world,
they’re in our hearts.
All what was,
all that is now,
and all that ever will be
belongs to God.
God is first and last,
Alpha and Omega,
There is no rock other than our God.
this is the same God in whom we find our belonging
in a fruitful way,
in a faithful way,
in a life-giving way
that no one side of dichotomy,
that no one side of polarity
can come close to matching.
It’s not our affiliations:
the sports team
the political party
the way we eat our fries
or drink our soda,
It is not our affiliations that unite
It is Christ that unites.
So may we be united in Christ,
and find our belonging with our fellow siblings.
As Christ unites us,
may we be vessels of unity
amidst dichotomy and polarization
May God separate the wheat and the weeds in our hearts
so that God’s righteousness in us
might shine like the sun.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
