So of course, when Jesus told a parable about a wheat
field, the listeners would be confused with his story. They would have related to the workers who are
upset at the thistles growing with the crop.
Sabotaging food sources was a favorite tactic of war back in his
day. Destroying crops disrupts the food
supply the soldiers depend on to defend their land from invaders.
The disciples would have been fine with the story up until
the point that Jesus told of the farmer ordering his workers to allow the weeds
to grow until harvest time. Only then
would the thistles be sorted out from the wheat. That didn’t sound fair!
We don’t want to live with thistles, we don’t want to get
poked and scratched by thorns. We like
labels, “this person is wheat, that person is thorn”. We like black and white thinking, “once a
thorn, always a thorn”. We like pointing
fingers, feeling righteous, judging people as safe or unsafe. We like to imagine all the thorny people get
punished in the end. I won’t get burnt because
I’m not thorny, I’m the wheat that everyone wants. And we all see ourselves as the heroes of our
own story. That habit of judging others
and congratulating myself without honest self-reflection is addicting.
Until we come face to face with God. The psalmist wrote that God searches me and
knows me through and through. God made me and formed my inward parts; God
fashioned me in my mother's womb. When
everyone else was in ignorance of who I was, God knew all of me. This set of verses has become the bedrock of
many people of faith who are born two spirited or intersex. Intersex are people born with both male and
female anatomy. About three out of every
100 babies will be born ambiguous. There
are many incidents where a doctor was called in to decide a baby’s gender and
made a mistake. Or did surgery thinking
they were fixing a problem, only to cause issues for the child once they hit
puberty. Can you imagine discovering you
were a boy at the age of 14? Or a
girl? These things happen. And scientists are also learning more and
more about brain chemistry that changes how they understand gender and orientation. The boxes we may have grown up with as
children are found to be dangerous to those who don’t fit them.
Jesus touched on two things. That the community of God was to wait on
judging and let God do that. Because we
humans are quick to judge. We’re fast to
put people into boxes. God says, let
everything grow and in good time we will have justice. But justice without mercy can lead to
dreadful consequences. A community of faith can end up pointing fingers at each
other, and like thistles, can scratch and tear everyone around. Mercy without Justice can end up just
enabling and empowering the thistles to prickle and scratch everyone
around. Both of those extremes are below
the line. Both of these extremes do not
help the wheat grow tall and strong.
Both these extremes do not help the Community of God to thrive.
The other thing is that Jesus taught patience. We are called to wait to see what will
happen. Who knows what time and patience
will do? The only one who knows whether
we are thistles or wheat is God who knows us through and through. That idea is enough to comfort the shyest and
scare the boldest of us.
We all have times when we are both wheat and thistle. There are times when we might scratch when we
least intend to, or times when someone bumps into our thorns and gets
hurt. It happens. But God gives us tremendous gifts to help us
work through those hurts and pain. The
first gift, sometimes the hardest gift to remember we have, is the gift of
curiosity. Turning to curiosity, is, in
the mind of Parker Palmer, a famous Quaker, the way to open ourselves up to how
God might see the situation. Parker
Palmer says that when the going gets rough, we are to turn to new thoughts and
attitudes.
“Turn from reaction and judgment to wonder and
compassionate inquiry. Ask yourself, “I wonder why they feel/think this way?”
or “I wonder what my reaction teaches me about myself?” Set aside judgment. Learn
to ask honest, open questions which are ones you cannot possibly ask while thinking, “I know
the right answer to this and I sure hope you give it to me…” Thus, “Have you
ever thought about seeing a therapist?” is not an honest, open question! But,
“What did you learn from the experience you just told us about?” is.
Honest open questions, instead
of putting people in boxes, is how the Community of God grows. Letting everything grow until God’s time,
finding a balance between justice and mercy.
Remembering that God knows us all, our thorns, our wheat, our growth, right
down to our DNA. It is a gift and a
challenge. It is not easy for us to talk
about the times we get scratched and the times we scratch others. This is true for us both as individuals and
also the church. Not just our local
congregation, but our denomination, even all of Christianity. But such deep honesty is important for growth
and health. As the former moderator, the Right Reverend Doctor Carmen Lansdowne
wrote,
a community that can carry its
hard histories and its holy ones together — that can name the harm and name the
grace in one breath — gives the young something no algorithm or feed can offer
them: a place to stand. Not a curated highlight reel of heroes, but a real
people, with real ancestors, some of whom were remarkable and some of whom were
complicit, and all of whom belong to the story the young are now being invited
into.
We are invited into the Community of God. It isn’t easy, it isn’t fast, and sometimes
we get lost in the weeds and thistles.
But God reminds us that we are loved, right down to our uncomfortable
places, flaws and all. With that good
news, we can trust God to sort out our thistly moments from our lives, when we
let God work through us with the spirit to create justice and mercy, compassion
and peace. May it be so for us all!
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