Patrick Comerford
Next Sunday, 19 July 2020, is the Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Trinity VI).
The readings in the Revised Common Lectionary, as adapted for use in the Church of Ireland, are in two pairs, the Continuous Readings and the Paired Readings.
The Continuous Readings: Genesis 28: 10-19a; Psalm 139: 1-11, 23-24; Romans 8: 12-25; Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43.
There is a link to Continuous Readings HERE.
The Paired Readings: Wisdom 12: 13, 16-19 or Isaiah 44: 6-8;Psalm 86: 11-17; Romans 8: 12-25; Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43.
There is a link to Paired Readings HERE.
Introducing the Readings:
In my imagination, when I was a child, not only were the summers long and sunny, but weekend entertainment was simpler and less complicated. The highlights of the weekend seemed to be Dr Who and Dixon of Dock Green, and the weekly editions of the Eagle and the Beano.
I may have been just a little too old (16) for the first appearance of Gnasher (1968), the pet dog of Dennis the Menace in the Beano.
The G- tagged onto the beginning of the name of both Gnasher and his son Gnipper is pronounced silently, just like the silent P at the beginning of Psmith, the Rupert Psmith in so many PG Wodehouse novels.
Most of the Beano speech bubbles for both Gnasher and Gnipper consist of normal English words beginning with the letter ‘N’ with a silent ‘G’ added to the beginning, as in ‘Gnight, Gnight.’
I was a little too old for the introduction of Gnasher, but nonetheless my friends in my late teens and early 20s loved Gnasher and Gniper, joked about those silent ‘Gs’ and even recalled how as children we had joked about ‘weeping and G-nashing of teeth.’
There is very little to joke about in Sunday’s Gospel reading (Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43). The idea of people being thrown into the furnace of fire is not a very appealing image for children, and so to joke about it is a childhood method of coping.
But throughout history, humanity has stooped to burn what we dislike and what we want to expunge, and we have done it constantly.
We have been burning books as Christians since Saint Athanasius ordered the burning of texts in Alexandria in the year 367.
In the Middle Ages, and sometimes even later, we burned heretics at the stake. When that stopped, we burned anything deemed to be an occasions of sin.
They were burned publicly as an accompanying theme for the outdoor sermons of San Bernardino da Siena in the early 15th century. These included mirrors, cosmetics, fine dresses, playing cards … even musical instruments, and, of course, books, song sheets, artworks, paintings and sculpture.
In his sermons, the book-burning friar regularly called for Jews and gays to be either isolated from society or eliminated from the human community.
Later in Florence, the supporters of Savonarola collected and publicly burned thousands of objects, including cosmetics, art, and books in 1497.
And, more recently, the Nazis staged regular book burnings, especially burning books by Jewish writers, including Thomas Mann, Karl Marx and Albert Einstein.
Extremists of all religious and political persuasions want to burn the symbols and totems of their opponents, whether it is Pastor Terry Jones burning the Quran and effigies of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama in Florida or jihadists burning the Twin Towers in New York.
The limits of our extremists seem to be defined by their inflammatory words.
But who is being burned in this morning’s Gospel reading?
Who is doing the burning?
And who will be weeping and gnashing their teeth?
Contrary to the shoddy reading of this Gospel reading, Christians are not asked to burn anyone or anything at all. And, if we have enemies, we are called not to burn them but to love them.
Genesis 28: 10-19a:
Isaac has sent Jacob off to find a wife for himself in Haran. He, like Isaac, is expected to marry one of his own clan. But, unlike Isaac, he is sent on the journey himself. On the way, Jacob stops for the night at Bethel, meaning ‘House of God,’ and he dreams. In those days, travellers slept on the ground using hard pillows.
The word translated ‘place’ (verse 11) implies that the place is sacred. The scene is reminiscent of a ziggurat, or a massive, terraced religious structure, with successively receding stories or levels on which there was a stairway or ladder (verse 12) to the top, and there the deity was believed to live. The Tower of Babel, whose name means ‘Gateway to God,’ may have been one such ziggurat.
The image of angels ascending and descending suggests contact with God.
God speaks, identifying himself as God of the patriarchs, Abraham and Isaac. So this God is not some mere local god that might be identified with that place alone, which was common in the region. The promises in verses 13-14 are those made to Abraham, but the promise in verse 15 is specially for Jacob: God will watch over or keep him wherever he is; God is present everywhere, not just in this place.
Jacob is awe-struck or afraid, and says that the place is awe-inspiring or awesome. This, he says, is the ‘House of God,’ Bethel, and the ‘Gate of Heaven.’ On the following morning, Jacob sets up his stone pillow to mark the presence of a deity, as was the local custom, and consecrates it.
The former Chief Rabbi, Lord (Jonathan) Sacks, Jacob’s dream is the metaphor above all others that captures the spirit of prayer.
When he wakes, Jacob declares, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven’ (verse 17). The Jewish Sages traditionally said ‘this place’ was Jerusalem. Jonathan Sacks accepts that this is Midrashic truth, but adds that there is another meaning that is no less transfiguring. The verb the Torah uses, vayifgah, means ‘to happen upon, as if by chance.’ He says ‘this place’ is any place: ‘Any place, any time, even the dark of a lonely night, can be a place and time for prayer. If we have the strength to dream and then, awakening, refuse to let go of the dream, then here, now, where I stand, can be the gate to heaven.’
He continues: ‘Prayer is a ladder and we are the angels.’ He identifies the one theme sounded throughout traditional Jewish prayer as ‘creation-revelation-redemption, or ascent-summit-descent.’
In prayer, he says, we climb the divine ladder and see, if only dimly, how small some of our worries are. ‘We are not the same after we have stood in the Divine presence as we were before. We have been transformed. We see the world in a different light. Perhaps we radiate a different light. We have spoken and listened to God. We have aligned ourselves with the moral energies of the universe. We have become … vessels for God’s blessing. We are changed by prayer.’
Psalm 139: 1-11, 23-24:
Psalm 139 is a hymn attributed to David, and is known for its affirmation of God’s omnipresence. It is part of the final Davidic collection of psalms (Psalm 138 to Psalm 145), that are attributed to David in the first verse.
The psalm addresses God, and the speaker calls out and establishes a salutation and an understanding of what he knows God to be. He goes on to marvel at the omnipresence of God, even in the most secret of places, and to praise God for his vast knowledge of the future. The psalmist praises God in terms of supreme authority, and being able to witness everything on heaven, earth and in the underworld. Through this psalm, the psalmist insists on God being the only true God and challenges anyone to question his faith.
First this psalm praises God for his personal knowledge of the author. God has come to know him through searching him out. He knows him completely, all the way from his sitting down (verse 2) to his rising up. Verse 2 says God is present everywhere. The psalmist is astonished at God’s involvement with him, including knowing all that he says and does (verse 4).
Wherever he is, God is there; God is also present in the nether world (verse 7). Even if were taken up to heaven (verse 8, as Elijah was), God is there. God will lead him and support him, even if he tries a speedy escape (verse 9) or lives in the sea.
Finally, in verse 23-24, the psalmist pleads for God’s justice and for his guidance, so that his heart and mind may be in unity with God. Please God, if there is anything that is wicked in my heart or mind, lead my into your way, that is everlasting.
Romans 8: 12-25:
The Apostle Paul has told his readers that the Christian is a life is a life lived in the Spirit rather than being dominated by worldly desires and being self-centred. We are still subject to suffering, to bearing crosses and affliction, but not to eternal condemnation. And, because we are not condemned, we have hope.
Now Saint Paul reminds us that we are indebted to God. We are to live in the way of the Spirit, for this is the way of life. We are led by the Spirit, and so we are children of God. In Baptism, we are adopted by God. Unlike slaves who live in fear of their master, we have become God’s children and his heirs, so that we can call him ‘Abba! Father!’ In calling him ‘Dad,’ we not only give God glory but express the close relationship we have with God.
We are joint heirs with Christ, for we share his suffering and are glorified with him.
Saint Paul now relates this to the present situation. Saint Paul’s suffering and our suffering are nothing compared with the glory we are being promised.
For Saint Paul, everyone and everything in creation has suffered. But it is God’s hope that everything will be set free and that in this freedom we will become the free children of God.
In this way, Saint Paul can compare the present sufferings of the world to the labour pains of a mother giving birth, we may suffer but we are guided by the Holy Spirit so that we are able to wait in patience.
Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43:
In this parable, Christ compares the kingdom of God to the events surrounding a sower sowing or scattering some seed in a field, and he challenges us to think about what happens to the seed after it falls.
Three times in this parable the image of gathering occurs (see verses 28-30), offering us our clue that Christ is speaking of the community of faith.
This good seed is going to yield good wheat. But while everyone is sleeping after their work, an enemy sows weeds among the wheat and steals away.
These seeds share the same good soil, which yields both wheat and darnel, a weed that looks like wheat. If a worker tried to weed out the darnel, how could he possibly tell it from the wheat? In any case, the roots are intertwined, and the uproot the darnel would uproot the wheat too.
At harvest time, the roots of the weeds have intertwined with those of the wheat. Only then can they be separated, with the wheat going into the barn, and the weeds into the fire.
Christ offers two interpretations of the parable to his disciples.
In his first explanation (verses 37-39), Christ explains what each of the figures and events in the story stands for. The kingdom begins now, when Christ, the Son of Man, sows the seed, drawing people to him. However, the Devil tries to subvert his efforts. The harvest is when Christ comes again, at the end of the age.
In his second explanation (verses 40-43a), Christ says that at the end of the age, evil will be separated out, judged and burned up or destroyed. The evildoers face misery and punishment, symbolised as they weep and gnash their teeth. The righteous, who are faithful to God, will be gathered together and shine like the sun in the kingdom of God.
Finally, in verse 43b, we are told that the Gospel is open to all who listen to Christ.
Reflecting on the Gospel reading:
In this Gospel reading, Christ speaks by the lake first to the crowd, telling them the parable of the wheat and the weeds (verse 24-30). The word that we have traditionally translated as tares or weeds (verses 25, 26, 27, 29, 30, 36, 38, 40) is the Greek word ζιζάνια (zizánia), a type of wild rice grass, although Saint Matthew is probably referring to a type of darnel or noxious weed. It looks like wheat until the plants mature and the ears open, and the seeds are a strong soporific poison.
Christ then withdraws into a house, and has a private conversation with the Disciples (verses 36-43), in which he explains he is the sower (verse 37), the good seed is not the Word, but the Children of the Kingdom (verse 38), the weeds are the ‘Children of the Evil One’ (verse 38), and the field is the world (verse 38).
The harvest is not gathered by the disciples or the children of the kingdom, but by angels sent by the Son of Man (verses 39, 41).
It is an apocalyptic image, describing poetically and dramatically a future cataclysm, and not an image to describe what should be happening today.
It is imagery that draws on the apocalyptic images in the Book of Daniel, where the three young men who are faithful to God are tried in the fires of the furnace, yet come out alive, stronger and firmer in their faith (see Daniel 3: 1-10).
The slaves or δοῦλοι (douloi), the people who want to separate the darnel from the wheat (verse 27-28), are the disciples: Saint Paul introduces himself in his letters with phrases like Παῦλος δοῦλος Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ (Paul, a doulos or slave, or servant of Jesus Christ), (see Romans 1: 1, Philippians 1: 1, Titus 1: 1), and the same word is used by James (see James 1: 1), Peter (see II Peter 1: 1) and Jude (see Jude 1), to introduce themselves in their letters.
In the Book of Revelation, this word is used to describe the Disciples and the Church (see Revelation 1: 1; 22: 3).
In other words, the Apostolic writers see themselves as slaves in the field, working at Christ’s command in the world.
This is one of eight parables about the last judgment that are found only in Saint Matthew’s Gospel, and six of the seven New Testament uses of the phrase ‘weeping and gnashing of teeth’ (ὁ κλαυθμὸς καὶ ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων) occur in this Gospel (Matthew 8: 12; 13: 42; 13: 50; 22: 13; 24: 51; and 25: 30; see also Luke 13: 28).
When it comes to explaining the parable to the disciples in the second part of our reading (verses 36-43), the references to the slaves in the first part (verses 27-28) are no longer there. It is not that the slaves have disappeared – Christ is speaking directly to those who would want to uproot the tares but who would find themselves uprooting the wheat too.
The weeding of the field is God’s job, not ours. The reapers, not the slaves, will gather in both the weeds and the wheat, the weeds first and then the wheat (verse 30).
Farmers are baling the hay and taking in the harvest in many places already. In a few weeks’ time, many farmers will be seen burning off the stubble on their fields to prepare the soil for autumn sowing and the planting of new crops. In this sense, the farmer understands burning as purification and preparation – it is not as harsh as city dwellers think.
It is not for us to decide who is in and who is out in Christ’s field, in the kingdom of God. That is Christ’s task alone.
Christ gently cautions the Disciples against rash decisions about who is in and who is out.
Gently, he lets them see that the tares are not damaging the growth of the wheat, they just grow alongside it and amidst it.
But so often we decide to assume God’s role. We do it constantly in society, and we do it constantly in the Church, deciding who should be in and who should be out.
The harvest comes at the end of time, not now, and I should not hasten it even if the reapers seem to tarry.
The weeds we identify and want to uproot may turn out to be wheat, what we presume to be wheat because it looks like us may turn out to be weeds.
We assume the role of the reapers every time we decide we would be better off without someone in our society or in the Church because we disagree with them about issues like sexuality, women bishops and priests, and other issues that we mistake for core values.
The core values, as Christ himself explains, again and again, are loving God and loving others.
It is not without good reason that the Patristic writers warn that schism is worse than heresy (see Saint John Chrysostom, Patrologia Græca, vol. lxii, col. 87, On Ephesians, Homily 11, §5). We do not need to demythologise this morning’s reading. Christ leaves that to the future. This morning we are called to grow and not to worry about the tares. That growth must always emphasise love first.
When governments and security forces have said they are rooting out violent jihadists from society, the average, gentle, ordinary Muslim has suffered grossly. When some members of the Church have sought to ‘out’ or ‘throw out’ people because of their sexuality they have caused immense personal tragedy for individuals and their families and friends – weeping and gnashing of teeth indeed.
How painful it is that recent wars waged in the name of democracy and freedom have eventually violated the basic concepts of human rights and dignity. In recent decades, across the word, we have seen murdered innocent children murdered while playing on a beach, innocent women and children murdered in their homes, in hospitals, in schools and at weddings.
When I want a Church or society that looks like me, I eventually end up living on a desert island or as a member of a sect of one – and there I might just find out too how unhappy I am with myself!
But if I allow myself to grow in faith and trust and love with others, I may, I just may, to my surprise, find that they too are wheat rather than weeds, and they may discover the same about me.
Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43 (NRSVA):
24 He [Jesus] put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” 28 He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” 29 But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn”.’
36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.’ 37 He answered, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38 the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!’
Liturgical Resources:
Liturgical Colour: Green (Year A, Ordinary Time).
The Collect:
Merciful God,
you have prepared for those who love you
such good things as pass our understanding:
Pour into our hearts such love toward you
that we, loving you above all things,
may obtain your promises,
which exceed all that we can desire;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Collect of the Word:
Saving God,
in Jesus Christ you opened for us
a new and living way into your presence:
give us pure hearts and constant wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
The Post-Communion Prayer:
God of our pilgrimage,
you have led us to the living water.
Refresh and sustain us
as we go forward on our journey,
in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Suggested Hymns:
Genesis 28: 10-19a:
561, Beneath the cross of Jesus
562, Blessèd assurance, Jesus is mine
330, God is here! As we his people
331, God reveals his presence
67, God who made the earth and heaven
336, Jesus, where’er thy people meet
656, Nearer, my God, to thee
657, O God of Bethel, by whose hand
Psalm 139: 1-11, 23-24:
51, Awake, my soul, and with the sun
647, Guide me, O thou great Jehovah
579, I want to walk as a child of the light
226, It is a thing most wonderful
195, Lord, the light of your love is shining
71, Saviour, again to thy dear name we raise
19, There is no moment of my life
Wisdom 12: 13, 16-19:
560, Alone with none but thee, my God
668, God is our fortress and our rock
Isaiah 44: 6-8:
2, Faithful one, so unchanging
381, God has spoken – by his prophets
668, God is our fortress and our rock
557, Rock of ages, left for me
Psalm 86: 11-17:
349, Fill thou my life, O Lord my God
382, Help us, O Lord, to learn
Romans 8: 12-25:
558, Abba Father, let me be
501, Christ is the world’s true light
295, Come, gracious Spirit, heavenly Dove
48, God in his love for us lent us this planet
523, Help us to help each other, Lord
301, Let every Christian pray
654, Light of the lonely pilgrim’s heart
49, Lord, bring the day to pass
619, Lord, teach us how to pray aright
387, Thanks to God, whose Word was spoken
285, The head that once was crowned with thorns
Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43:
378, Almighty God, your word is cast
37, Come, ye thankful people, come
649, Happy are they, they that love God
95, Jesu, priceless treasure
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicised Edition copyright © 1989, 1995, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide. http://nrsvbibles.org
The hymns suggestions are provided in Sing to the Word (2000), edited by Bishop Edward Darling. The hymn numbers refer to the Church of Ireland’s Church Hymnal (5th edition, Oxford: OUP, 2000)
Material from the Book of Common Prayer is copyright © 2004, Representative Body of the Church of Ireland.
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