Lord, may we trust your word of grace to love and nurture us in your kingdom. Amen

How good are you at telling good plants from weeds? Some of you I know are very good gardeners. You can march into the yard and quickly identify the intruders, pull them from the soil without hesitation, and toss them into a pile to be disposed of. From there I do not know what you do with them. Does it go into a burn pile, or do ordinary household weeds go into compost or a yard waste bin? I wonder how much gardening Jesus did in his life. Did his mom make him weed their kitchen garden? Even if she did, his parables about farming sound more like they were written by a carpenter than a farmer. Perhaps being raised by a carpenter gave Jesus the mental freedom to imagine things that could happen in a field that someone raised on a farm would shake their head at. Last week he imagined a sower tossing seed all over the place, next week he will talk about a mustard seed, and today we have someone sowing good seed in the field, only to have the enemy come along and sow weeds among the wheat. Skipping to the end of the parable, the weeds will come to a bad end. They will be gathered out of the field and burned.

More than the other Gospel writers, Matthew talks about judgement, mentioning weeping and gnashing of teeth six different times. For those of us who like to focus on the good in the Scriptures, this weeping and gnashing of teeth is uncomfortable. We want to think that in the end, God’s grace will be ultimately irresistible to all people, but that does not deal with the very real pain and flat out evil that is inflicted on so many people in the here and now. Only God is great enough to be able to hold justice and mercy fully together. For us there will always be a longing for those who harm us to get their just desserts. That is why we must always keep in mind who it is that does the judging at the end of the parable. It is the Son of Man who sends his angels and gathers out all causes of sin and all evildoers.

Lord may we trust your word of grace in love to accomplish all that is needed in us. Amen
As I mentioned last week, I spent last Monday evening through Thursday morning at the Rostered Ministers Gathering in Indianapolis. The theme for the gathering was Woven Together. There was an artist in residence who sat up front and off to the right when we were in one group. There she had a loom and was weaving while we were together. On Wednesday, she shared what she had produced and noted that the finished piece pulled together the threads that we had shared and that it held both beauty and some messiness. That is life, isn’t it? When we take different textures, different thicknesses, and different colors and weave them together, the finished piece is stronger than the individual threads, more complex, more interesting, more messy, and more delightful. God in creation weaves together heaven and earth, weaves together you and me, and invites us to join in the beauty of the handiwork. Best of all, when God speaks life into being, it is never wasted. Add to this that when you speak with God’s creative voice, whether in your words or in your actions toward creation or other people, you may not see the results, but it will become what God needs for it to be....