“Trixie” was quite the horse!  A beautiful black mare that was all mine.  When my father succumbed to my pleadings to have a horse of my own, he warned me of all the responsibilities that came with caring for a horse.  Besides the brushing, feeding, watering and cleaning in her stall, the most important thing, dad said, was to ride her faithfully nearly every day so that we had a good relationship and she knew her master and would obey commands.

Well, as you can imagine, I was pretty responsible….for awhile.  It was a lot of commitment and work, but being the oldest daughter, I was pretty reliable.  UNTIL…. I was in a minor farm accident that changed everything.  I lost the tip of my finger in a potato harvester and spent the winter months wearing a cast on my hand.  ALSO… we discovered that Trixie was going to give birth in the spring to a colt…SO….in this mix of changes, Trixie did not get much riding during those winter months.  Her colt, Rusty, was born in a snow storm in early April, and of course, he stole the show!  While Rustry grew up beside Trixie, Trixie got used to eating her oats and the leisure of her cozy stall and pasture.  

One morning, my dad stormed into the house and demanded that my sister Bobbie and I get outside and take Trixie for a good, long ride.  “She is getting much too frisky and lazy,” he said, “and she needs to know whose boss.  So ride her fast and hard!  Show her who's in charge!”

So picture this: Bobbie and I get Trixie saddled and climb on, urging her out of her pasture and into an open field.  We lean forward and cling to the reins as we gently kick her side and urge her into a trot and then a full gallop.  We were flying across the field when suddenly. Without warning, Trixie bucks forward into a stop, turns her head to one side and tosses us both onto the ground!  Finding ourselves bruised and more chagrined than hurt, we watch as Trixie bounds away free and sassy!

Now our Dad is working on his tractor in a nearby field, so we limp over to tell him our sad and sorry tale, and that Trixie is now long gone.  “What?,” he shouts, “You can’t let her get away with that!  Go find her and try again.”  Well…we weren’t brave enough for that so my day got off his tractor, went searching for Trixie, found her and mounted her.  As we watched and cheered, he got her galloping hard across the pasture until suddenly, Trixie stopped and bucked my father to the ground just as he did to us!  We stood there speechless, watching my dad angrily limp back to his tractor, and without another word…go back to his work.  We found Trixie and brought her back to her pen, awaiting the lecture we knew would be coming.  But instead, the next morning a man with a horse trailer came and got Trixie.  Dad explained to us that once a horse decided to defy its master it would be too dangerous to keep the horse, unless someone breaks them in all over again.  So off Trixie went…we never did know where or what happened to her.

I guess Trixie could be designated as a good seed that became overcome by weeds of willful rebellion and disobedience. And I was a player in not teaching her and guiding her.   I’d like to believe that she went to a new owner that had the patience and skill to bring her back to usefulness again…but we never learned Trixie’s fate.  

Now here is a second story where the outcome is a bit different:

There was a farmer who qrew excellent quality corn. Every year he won the award for the best grown corn in the county. One year a newspaper reporter interviewed him and learned something interesting about how he grew it. The reporter discovered that the farmer shared his seed corn with his neighbors. "How can you afford to share your best seed corn with your neighbors when they are entering corn in competition with yours each year?" the reporter asked. "Why sir" said the farmer, "Didn't you know? The wind picks up pollen from the ripening corn and swirls it from field to field. If my neighbors grow inferior corn, cross-pollination will steadily degrade the quality of my corn. If I am to grow good corn, I must help my neighbors grow good corn.' 

That’s quite a different approach to weeds, isn’t it? The moral of these stories is that it’s not about controlling the good and bad found in human life, but in letting good outshine and restore the bad. Those who want to live with goodness must help enrich the lives of others, for the value of a life is measured by the lives it touches. And those who choose to be happy must help others find happiness, for the welfare of each is bound up with the welfare of all.

Our Gospel text from Matthew today is a continuation and explanation of Jesus’ parable of the SOWER, which we WOULD have talked about last week.  In that parable, Jesus described a Sower…that is, someone who had life and potential to share with the world, that went out to sow.  And rather than finding or preparing perfect soil for his seeds, the sower scattered seed everywhere….generously and even recklessly.  Some seed fell on rocky ground and was easily snatched away by hungry birds.  Some seed fell on poor soil and was scorched by the sun before it could take root.  Some seeds fell among thorns, and were choked out by their aggressiveness and power. And some seeds fell on good soil that allowed the seeds to sprout, grow, and produce grain.  THIS, Jesus said…is like the Kingdom of God.  The seed of God’s good news of gracious forgiveness and redeeming love…as precious as it is, is not held back from ANY soil.  It is scattered everywhere, to any heart, any circumstance, as a free gift of potential and life.  The sower takes the risk that very little of the potential of his seeds will find soil good enough to bring forth fruit.  

Now, let’s imagine that we lived in Jesus’ time and heard him share this story. A Roman citizen and perhaps the religious leaders and Pharisees, who pride themselves in their goodness and wisdom, would surely grumble about the foolish waste upon the soil of questionable value.  Soil like the Jews, and common peasants; their poor widows and cripples; those terrible lepers….and especially those rebellious zealots!   But….how would those common, everyday Jews, and their poor, marginalized and hurting segments of society have heard this story?  Aren’t they a bit like the good farmer’s neighbors, whose hopes are lifted and given joy by the sharing of seed that they always thought was beyond their means and their worthiness?

Now in today’s gospel reading, Jesus expands on this story of the SOWER. He focuses on the seed that fell on good soil and has taken root.  It is growing and thriving with all kinds of potential.  But NOW…that terrible urge to rebel and have it our own way (which Jesus here refers to as the enemy) invites a potential for evil.  Weeds like lies, and pride, and fear of the other, threaten the health of the good crop.   The workers come to the owner of the field and ask if they should RIP out the weeds…punish the bad…dominate that which is threatening.  But the master says NO….leave them alone and let them grow up together, lest you also hurt my precious new plants.  I will separate and deal with them at the harvest.  In other words….GOD is GOD…even when we are not.  The field which is God’s Kingdom, is GOD’s to not only seed and care for; but to discipline and judge in God’s time and God’s way.

So, once again, imagine yourself in this crowd of listeners and Jesus says finally, “He who has ears to hear. LISTEN!”  What would they hear?  Would those with power to control and exclude others see themselves as good plants…or weeds?  Would those whose hearts long to find rest, hope and renewed life in the shadow of God’s forgiveness see their enemy differently…more benevolently and patiently?  Would the true listener HEAR that GOD is in control, and SO MUCH MORE GRACIOUS TO US THAN WE ARE TO EACH OTHER?  Would the hearer realize that our focus is to RESPOND to GOD, rather than try to BE GOD over one another?

One can hardly hear this text within our contemporary culture and the world’s present circumstances without getting caught up in naming all those terrible weeds hurting the good potential in humanity.  And…naming weeds is an important part of responsible stewardship of the life on earth that we have been given.  For we are NOT called to live in denial.  We need to name those destructive forces and behaviors that impact our climate, hurt God’s creation and His children.  We need to call out the ways human life and dignity are denied and abused.  We need to name the weed of unchecked violence that makes guns an idol of worship.  We need to speak out against pride and fear that marginalizes others…especially in the name of religious truth.  The WEEDS that surround us are growing very large it seems.  Wouldn’t we like for God to come and do a little weeding?  

So why doesn’t God rip out that evil in our midst?  Perhaps…perhaps, because that evil is intertwined so deeply within us that we do NOT have eyes to even see it anymore.  All we have are EARS…EARS of Corn that must trust that the winds of the Holy Spirit’s truth will cross fertilize fruits of the Spirit into our hearts… fruits of LOVE, JOY, PEACE, FORBEARANCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS AND SELF-CONTROL.  By the Holy Spirit, we can find strength to not only endure, but to serve and give life to one another despite the weeds that strangle our hope.

And so, our message today is clear.  There will always be weeds of sin in our lives on this earth.  That is why we come into worship and before we hear the Word…we confess our sin and HEAR the promise that we ARE truly children of God.  Paul’s writings from Romans 8 today reminds us of this truth:

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.  For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption.  When we cry, “Abba Father” it is the very Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and heirs with Christ…we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with Him.”  (Romans 8: 14-17)   AMEN!