SUNDAY, JULY 19TH, 2026 – EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
WHEAT AND WEEDS
THE REV. RICHARD BURDEN
Photo by Katja Ano on Unsplash
Jacob is asleep…and dreaming of angels…and ladders
And when he wakes he realizes that God is here…has always been here…in this place…and he just didn’t know it…because…he was asleep.
In today’s parable pretty much everyone is asleep…but no dreams are reported — not even of electric sheep…
When the plants sprout and come up, the people all recognize that it’s not all wheat…there’s weeds as well…And they immediately want to start sorting and rooting out and destroying the weeds…But the landowner stops them.
Are they awake? Or are they still asleep? It never says anyone is dreaming…but it also never explicitly says that anyone has woken up.
Many spiritual teachers will tell you that you can be active, and moving around and still be deeply asleep…unaware of the things actually going on within you and around you…unaware of who and what you really are. Are you human…and carrying the divine spark…the image of God…around with you? Or are you a kind of an android? A replicant? Something that looks and acts human, but is really just running on autopilot.
Everyone in the parable wanting to go out and immediately start weeding is following an automatic reaction…they’re asleep…but they’re dreaming about decisiveness.
We know what this looks like, don’t we? We know what it looks like when a whole system becomes reactive…and starts demanding to know who is the wheat and who are the weeds. Who is a citizen and who is not…who has Temporary Protected Status…and who does not. Who has worth and value…and who does not. We could use a few more landowners saying, “wait…leave them alone,”… and jostling some people into waking up a bit more.
A hundred years ago, and a world away, another country was struggling to wake up from different Imperialist nightmare, and in that context, one of my all time favorite authors, Lu Xun, wrote his own parable about sleeping and waking. He imagined “an iron house without windows, absolutely indestructible, with many people fast asleep inside who will soon die of suffocation.” And he wondered, would it be better to wake them up, or let them continue sleeping? If they kept sleeping they would feel no pain…but if you woke them up…they would undoubtedly suffer. But only if they’re awake do they stand a chance of destroying the iron house. It’s pretty bleak, I know…a lot bleaker than wheat and weeds…And Lu Xun was not a Christian, but I think he sounds a little like Paul today… “Hope that is seen is not hope.” “[Even] if [only] a few awake, you can’t say there is no hope of destroying the iron house.” [Lu Xun, Preface to Call to Arms]. And the only hope is in waking up.
Jacob’s sleep is interrupted by God…who makes some astounding promises…”I will give you this land…all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you…I am with you…and will keep you wherever you go…I will not leave you.” Jacob begins to stir into wakefulness with this promise still ringing in his ears…he has no idea how or when all this will come about…and if you know the rest of his story, you know it’s not quick, and isn’t easy.
The landowner in today’s parable — who Matthew really wants us to understand is “the Son of Man” — also makes a promise… “I will take care of all the sorting…when the time comes.” Notice he also doesn’t say when that will be, or even what kind of harvest it will be…will it be plentiful? Will it be pitiful? No idea. What’s clear is that whatever sorting there is to do…is not our job to do it…
The sleepers in Lu Xun’s iron house don’t get a promise…unless the wake up call from someone — someone slightly more awake…someone maybe with “the first fruits of the Spirit”— is its own kind of promise…A promise that however difficult it will be to live in — and work at dismantling— the iron house at least we don’t have to do it alone. Which is the same promise that Jacob hears…Isn’t it? You are not alone.
We are not alone. Not here…not out in the fields of the Lord…not even when the walls seem to be closing in. And not only are we not alone…we can take steps to wake up…and to be sure that others…are not alone either…by being involved in No Ordinary Time activities…getting involved with immigrant justice and advocacy work…volunteering at a local food pantry…buying groceries for St. Stephens…making casseroles for MANNA… Doing the work that God gives us to do…with as much consciousness as we can muster. And remembering as we do so the words of an immigrant mother who found shelter here, “Only with God can you do what you are doing.” That’s a wake up call.
As we begin to wake up…the first thing we might notice is that…“Surely God is in this place”…wherever that is….and that the wheat and the weeds should be left…to grow together…And as we stir into greater wakefulness, we might become more aware of what really happens when two or three are gathered together in this way… trying however poorly to keep each other awake…to become just a little more conscious today than we were yesterday.
And as we do that…we will become aware of still more…and we might even begin to wonder…Is that the sound of the whole creation groaning in labor pains…or that the sound of iron walls coming down? Amen.