The Fifth Sunday After the Epiphany is a rare occurrence in the Church year.
I've been a pastor for ten years, and I have never preached on this text. It
will be another 27 years before I preach on this text again. I'll be 63
years old. God willing, I will still be preaching the Word to His people in
2038-if Jesus does return in glory before then, of course.
"Gather the wheat into my barn."
Matthew 13:24-30 (36-43)
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. Amen.
Over the past four weeks you have listened to the eyewitness accounts of
those who watched as Jesus manifested Himself as the Son of God through
miraculous signs and wonders: His baptism in the Jordan, where the Father
revealed Jesus as His beloved Son; turning water into wine at Cana; healing
the leper and the paralyzed servant in Capernaum; even calming the storm on
the Sea of Galilee. Once again this week Matthew gives his eyewitness
account of Jesus revealing Himself: not through miraculous signs and wonders
this time, but through powerful preaching about the nature of the world and
the day of judgment. In the parable He told to the crowd, Jesus compared the
world to field where the master has sowed wheat; and while those meant to
tend the field were asleep, the master's adversary came in and sowed weeds
among the wheat-weeds that would be exceptionally troublesome because they
look like the wheat until the head appears.
The master is a patient man. Yes, evil has been done against him. Yes, the
evil plot of this adversary has put his crop in danger. But the master would
preserve every single stalk of wheat which has been planted. When his
servants asked if they should begin pulling out the weeds, the master made a
surprising response. He said, "No, lest while you gather up the tares you
also uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest."
This runs contrary to the wisdom of the world. It doesn't take a farmer to
know that weeds which are allowed to grow can choke out the plants that were
planted to feed a family or to beautify a home. Anyone who plants a garden
will endeavor to uproot the weeds that come up so that the plant can absorb
all the nutrients it can and grow healthy. Nevertheless, the master will not
risk having even one stalk of wheat pulled up by an overzealous servant. Do
not mistake his patience for indifference toward the weeds among his good
wheat. The time will indeed come when the master will harvest both the wheat
and the weeds; but that day will not come until the master is ready to
harvest the wheat and gather it into his storeroom. Only then will the weeds
be pulled up and burnt.
Jesus Himself explains that the field is the world. Unrepentant sinners and
repentant saints grow together in this world. Satan does not sow his sons
off in an empty field somewhere; he plants them in the midst of the
faithful. At some point in your life, you've probably heard about someone
who said that they didn't want to go to a Sunday worship service because
there are too many hypocrites in the Church. And to be perfectly honest,
there's some truth to that. Jesus Himself affirms the truth of that. If only
there were no sinners in the world-if only there were no sinners in the
Church-wouldn't it follow that life would be so much better? It sounds good
in theory, but as Martin Luther once preached, "If we proceed to establish a
congregation in which there is no sin, we will condemn weak Christians, and
even the strong because they stumble at times, and must also exclude them
from the Church." The Church on earth is a mess. If everyone who ever sinned
were to be excluded from the Church, the building would be empty; certainly
you wouldn't find a pastor there-certainly not this pastor. Nor, if you were
honest with yourself, would you be found in the Church, for you, too, have
sinned; you, too, have fallen short of the glory of God. That doesn't mean
the Church should abandon the practice church discipline, though. When a
sinner who considers himself a part of the Church refuses to repent of his
sins, the congregation must act, or else they share in that sinner's evil
and prove themselves to be sinners, worthy of being thrown into the flames
with the unrepentant sinner. But we must not go out seeking sinners to
remove from the Church or the world; for only the Lord knows when He will
take sinners like Matthew the tax collector, or Peter the pride-filled
denier, or Saul the murderer, or Augustine the arch-heretic, men who started
off as enemies of the Lord and His Church, and convert them into repentant
and faithful saints.
That's why it is a great blessing and relief to sinners like you and me that
our Lord Jesus Christ is so patient and longsuffering with the world. It is
truly a miracle that there is a One Holy Christian and Apostolic Church. The
Lord loves His Church so much that He allows you time to repent of your
sinfulness. He continues to nourish you, His good seed, with His holy Word.
He continues to water you in Holy Baptism, allowing you to return to that
precious Word-filled water daily through repentance and faith. He continues
to feed you with holy body and precious blood in the Sacrament of the Altar.
Eternal judgment is not the outcome for those who are sons of the kingdom of
God. The unquenchable fire is not the fate of those who cling to Christ
through Holy Baptism.
It's certainly frustrating to deal with the weeds that find their way into
the visible Christian Church on earth. It's troublesome to deal with those
who call themselves Christians but who don't seem to act like it. Even so,
that is not reason enough to refuse to belong to the Church. It's important
to remember that the Lord has dealt with you, too, in mercy. Though you
continue to sin, the Lord continues to welcome you back to His heavenly
storeroom every time you confess your sin and repent of it. In His good
time, according to His gracious will, Jesus will harvest the good wheat, the
faithful, and He will separate it from the weeds, the unrepentant. Until
that day, do not begrudge the unrepentant their earthly pleasure. Instead,
rejoice that you have a place in the heavenly storeroom. Rejoice that you,
one of the righteous, will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of Your
heavenly Father.
As you wait for that harvest, as you await the day when we will shine forth
in the kingdom, continue to return daily to the waters of Holy Baptism
through repentance. Continue to seek the nourishment of the body and blood
of Jesus. Continue to seek out the Word of God, where Jesus reveals Himself
to you as the goodly master of the harvest. Rejoice that the Lord is
longsuffering and patient, allowing everyone the opportunity to repent and
be gathered up with the good seed. The Lord, the Master of the harvest, will
not allow the weeds to choke you out, nor will He allow you to be burnt with
those weeds. You are a son of the kingdom by faith. You are His good seed,
and He will not let you die. In the name of the Father and of the Son (+)
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God which passes all understanding will keep your hearts and
minds in Christ Jesus always. Amen.
--
Rev. Alan Kornacki, Jr.
Pastor, St. Peter Lutheran Church, Campbell Hill, IL
[email protected]
http://pastoralkorn.blogspot.com
___________________________________________________________________
'CAT 41 Sermons & Devotions' consists of works that are, unless
otherwise noted, the copyrighted property of the various authors;
posting of such gives members of this list implied consent for
redistribution _with_attribution_ unless otherwise specified by
the author (as long as no charge is made for the work and it is
not made part of a compilation), as well as for quoting or use
in a congregational setting _with_or_without_attribution_.
Note: This list's default reply is to the *poster*, NOT the list.
Do *not* reply to the list with your comments, but to the poster.
Subscribe? Send ANY note to: [email protected]
Unsubscribe? Send ANY note to: [email protected]
Archive? <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>
For more information on this or other lists offered by Confess And Teach
For Unity, you can contact the CAT 41 list administrator at:
Rev. Fr. Eric J. Stefanski <MoM [at] lists (dot) cat41 <dot> org>
