Today’s Gospel Story (Matthew 13:24-43) a long one. It shows Jesus telling several parables dealing with the growth of elements of nature that the people would be familiar with – weeds, mustard, yeast. This is pretty much how the majority report sees it, a story of Jesus teaching the people how to live as he lived. As usual the minority opinion of the readings can be as personal as I let it. We “process” the words of scripture through the filter of what is going in in our life when we hear or read them. There is a lot going on these days. In the reading from Romans, we hear “The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought”. The Alleluia verse, “Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth; you have revealed to little ones the mysteries of the kingdom”, reminds me I have to recognize that I don’t have all the answers. From Wisdom, “And you taught your people . . . that those who are just must be kind”. A number of times this week all these words stopped me cold. Along with the Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat, they offered insight to what is going on in and around me these days. The current Canadian forest fire smoke added yet another bit of chaos, and maybe insight, though I’m not sure what it all means. It has been our unpleasant and annoying reality that affected our daily living.
The reading from Wisdom, “There is no god besides you who have the care of all”, goes on to speak of lenience, clemency, kindness, and the good ground of hope. In all that is going on in the chaos locally and far away, this is the Abba who is with us in it all, and who invites us to hope and perhaps to act in some way.
What does it mean to be the “little ones” Jesus is talking about? At the very least it means we know we don’t have all the answers. In Jesus’ time the Pharisees and the Saducees felt they did have all the answers, and so they were attacking and criticizing Jesus and missed out on a lot.The people Jesus spent his time with, social outcasts, folks on the peripheries, were the little ones. They could accept what Jesus taught them, that they were important in the sight of Jesus’ Abba, and begin to live accordingly. If I feel I know and believe all the right things, don’t need to know any more, that I can judge any whose beliefs differ from mine, I am not one of the “little ones”. Perhaps “the Spirit comes to the aid of my weakness” might help me move toward becoming a “little one”.
The more open I am to the Spirit the less certainty I have. Jesus doesn’t offer certainty. He asks me to trust, not to know. The mysteries of the kingdom are not dogmas, rules, answers, or facts. More along the line of awareness, insights, maybe experiences. And so the wandering and wondering goes on, as every “answer” leads to more questions. If I think I know, I can be sure that I don’t know. Eckhardt: “When I seek God with something in mind, the best I get is the something I had in mind”.
Then there is the parable of the weeds and the wheat. They looked a lot like each other, but were very different. Each could be mistaken for the other. Jesus said to let them be until the harvest time. I’m well aware that I tend to classify people according to whether they agree with me, how they get along with my bruised ego and out of joint nose. I’m like the servants in the story who wanted to rip out the weeds. This is where the words from wisdom come in, “The Spirit comes to the aid of my weakness; for I do not know how to pray as I ought”. I need to remember that in somebody else’s story I am probably one of the weeds. It is easier to see these stories as talking about other people in my life than to see them talking to me about me. Am I the enemy who sowed the weeds, am I one of the weeds, am I one of the servants who wants to rip the weeds out, am I the wheat that is trying to grow, am I the master who sees the whole picture and understands? It could, and has, depend on what was going on at the many different times I read the story. When I am open to the Spirit, the parable speaks to me in my own everyday living.
“There is no god besides you who have the care of all . . . and in those who know you, you rebuke temerity”, which in my case is my audacity to judge and categorize other people around me. In all that is going on near and far, the one constant is Abba, who is with us and in us with lenience, clemency, kindness, and hope. In my own everyday living I am not capable or qualified to decide who is wheat or who is weed, yet often this is what I do. Recognizing this is one thing, dealing with it is quite another.
“You permit repentance for their sins.” May I repent, change where I look for my happiness, take responsibility for my choices and actions? The parables of the mustard seed and the yeast talk about the impact something vary small can have on something very large. If I can let the Spirit “come to the aid of my weakness” and don’t place any restrictions on her, perhaps this is what will happen. Maybe I can begin to live Abba’s lenience, clemency, kindness, and the ground of hope, basically Abba’s compassion. Even become one of the “little ones”.
There are wonderful and good people on all sides of a tricky and unpleasant situation. The easiest thing to do is point fingers and blame, throw somebody under the bus, pretend everything is good, find someone else to blame. What is needed is some mustard seed, some yeast, good folks doing what they feel the Spirit is asking them to do, whether or not they understand the Spirit, or even believe. Just doing what they feel is right and just. We all need to listen to each other, to hear each other. “Those who are just must be kind.” Each of us in our own way has to be kind, which is not just rolling over. It involves recognizing the goodness in everybody else, and in ourselves. Nothing in our life has to change for us to encounter our compassionate and loving Abba in all this. And so, the ongoing question: Abba what are you saying to me in all this? Just sayin . . .