Snap judgments ignore life’s tangles of good and evil

As I sat in our church sanctuary for last Sunday’s worship service, my eyes kept moving back to the bundle of wheat standing in a vase on the Communion table. It was there to remind us of the bread we would share with each other during Holy Communion.

All my devious mind could think of was, “What would people think if a bunch of green weeds were interspersed among the wheat? What a great sermon visual!”

Since most of us did not grow up on a wheat ranch, wheat and weeds are less a part of our lives than grass and weeds are. I need go no farther than my back yard for a literal reminder of how weeds mix inextricably with the grass.

I’ve often said that if I didn’t have weeds, I would have little need to mow the “lawn.”

Actually there does seem to be more grass than weeds in my lawn at the moment, but only because I succumbed to weed-and-feed chemicals. Left on its own – and without significant hand-weeding on my part – the poor grass wouldn’t stand a chance.

There seems to be a parallel with the situation we find ourselves in daily.

Even before I thought of the worship visual, Jesus’ parable about the wheat and weeds was earmarked as the springboard for today’s column. I encourage you to read this parable for yourself in Matthew 13:24-30 before you go any further here.

It will remind you how Jesus understood that life is not as black and white as many of us want it to be.

He knew that good and evil are not easily separated from each other. In fact, it is only after both have matured to a point likely known only by God that it is really safe to pull up the weeds without yanking out the wheat.

I think of this often when I endure the arrogance of righteous assumption in others and myself.

Not long ago I met a man who somehow knew who I was already. He asked what church I was a pastor in. I replied “United Methodist.” He then quickly proceeded to typecast our entire denomination as one that permitted homosexual people into our churches.

He seemed much more interested in diatribe than dialogue.

He believes the Bible says homosexuality is a sin, without any room for further interpretation, so I assumed he must think our denomination is encouraging carte blanche sexual sin to pervade our ranks. Our meeting place did not permit any significant further conversation, but I hope I will be able engage him in the future.

If we had been able to talk further, I would have informed him first that the United Methodist Church is far from unified when it comes to the issues underlying the homosexual controversy. Our church membership and leadership range from one extreme to another when it comes to homosexuality.

If we had been able to talk further, I would have asked him why he concludes that homosexuality is a biblical sin but then said, “Maybe they can’t help themselves.” That suggested to me he leans toward thinking homosexuality isn’t a choice after all.

Why would God create a person as a homosexual and then condemn that orientation as a “sin”? I’ve often asked myself that question, long before meeting this man.

I would have tried to engage the man in a conversation that focused on the arrogance of righteous assumptions he had of me, of my church, of homosexuals.

And to be fair and respectful, I would have identified my own arrogance of righteous assumptions about people like him who seem so quick to condemn, so slow to understand.

If that conversation takes place, I will remind myself that he and I are standing on a lawn of grass and weeds. We are visiting at midnight in the garden of good and evil.

It isn’t that one of us is all right and the other all wrong. Both of us will likely represent the best of who we are and the worst of who we are.

What was Jesus thinking when he reminded his disciples about wheat and weeds?

Well, I suspect he tried to remind them that God would still be in charge of life in spite of the judgments they made about him, or each other, or anyone else. It seemed he asked them to be patient with themselves, each other, and God.

Don’t prejudge.

This parable was preceded in Matthew 13 by other parables, including the famous story about sowing seed on different kinds of ground. Jesus tried to explain the wheat-weeds parable and the sower parable, but it looks to me like his friends were not getting his explanations very easily.

It isn’t easy for us to admit that these disciples are our spiritual ancestors. But they are.

We are so chronically guilty of the arrogance of righteous assumptions that comes with believing we hold the truth because we go to a certain church, or we have a life experience we are sure should become everyone else’s obligation.

Be careful!

The grass comes out too easily with the weeds. So let God deal with them both.

I kind of think that’s God’s job, not ours.