Weeds Among the Wheat

In tomorrow's Gospel reading, Jesus tells a parable saying,

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away.

In a sermon on these readings at the Episcopal Church website, Sermons that Work, Katerina K. Whitley writes

The daily news of terrorism takes hope away and tries to convince us that only human cleverness, spying on the enemies, having the smartest weapons, living in constant fear and suspicion of strangers can save us. The enemy indeed has sown the weeds of fear in our hearts. There is no question about that in our minds any longer, no matter who we think the enemy is. The cleverest ploy of the enemy has been to make us forget that we are not our own, that we belong to the God who created us and has compassion for us. Depending on human power will not save us. Trusting in God, in the hope of adoption as children of God, will save us indeed, both the Old and the New Testaments assure us.

Let us draw hope from the lessons today. It is not our job to pull out the weeds, to wreak vengeance. "The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers," this passage from Matthew tells us. There is certainly an eschatological [meaning "end times"] ring to these words-of the end of time — but they were written during a time of doubt, of war, of political upheaval, and of persecution — in other words, during a time very much like our own.