GLORY TO BE REVEALED

A sermon by George R. Pasley

Romans 8:12-25; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43

Let me tell you about a woman I know. I’ll call her April, though that’s not her name. Please listen close, because her story is your story and my story too.

April grew up in a family that had its share of conflict, just like most modern families. But April has plenty of good memories from her years growing up. April was in a 4-H club and rode her horse at the state fair. April was in an assortment of activities at her high school. April enjoyed life and had hopes and dreams about what she would do with her life.

April fell in love and got married. April’s life was like that field in the parable, prepared and planted and waiting for good things.

But it didn’t turn out that way. April’s marriage went sour and the conflicts were not pretty at all. In fact, they were ugly and sometimes violent. April fell into a group of friends that were not good influences. April got divorced and somewhere about that same time, April got in trouble and went to prison.

Once again, April’s life was like that field. What had started well was revealed to be filled with noxious weeds, and if she had read her Bible April would have very much understood what the Apostle Paul wrote about being subjected to futility and being in bondage to decay and having a spirit of slavery and living in fear.

I know this because she told me about her time in jail. She told me about reading a novel and coming across this line: “There are but few who in such extremities have the strength to obey their judgment, either in doing what it approves or avoiding what it condemns. And a good many are so weak as to give way to their habits all the more and are incapable of using their mind.”

I believe that April’s story is your story. I know that April’s story is my story. Not in its details- I haven’t been married and divorced, and I haven’t been to prison- but I have had hopes and dreams that I lost along the way. I do have sin in my life that prevents me from experiencing the full goodness of life as God created it. I have said things and done things that hurt other people deeply.

“We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now…while we wait for adoption and redemption.”

So what happens when the weeds take over?

In the end they gathered the Canadian thistle, the bull thistle, the Johnson grass, the pigweed and horseweed, the burdock, the stick-tights- they gathered every last weed, and cast them into a bonfire.

The roaring flames must have been a pleasing sight, especially after watching their beautiful field of wheat suffer all season long.

Judgment does wait upon humanity, and we err seriously if we deny it or forget it. But there is so much more in this parable than judgment, and we are cheated if we do not find it.

So take notice.

Notice first that when the weeds are revealed, the farmer had a plan, and it was not the plan that the hired hands proposed. They would have rushed in with their hoes and shovels, but the farmer said NO.

Why? Because in gathering the weeds while the crop was growing they would have uprooted some of the wheat and trampled even more. Translated from a field of wheat into human existence it means God is trying to save as many as can be saved.

God will not be content to save some and lose others to collateral damage. God wants us all.

Now, notice a contrast between the parable and human life. In the parable, every plant in that field was either wheat or a weed. But in life, we are all both good and bad. What this tells us is that parables do not explain everything, just some things.

In the parable we are not told and we do not see what is happening behind the scenes in the maternity ward of God’s Kingdom. But the Apostle Paul sees it: something is being born wherever God is at work, and it is difficult and anxious labor for those of us in whose lives the birth is taking place. “We groan inwardly while we wait for adoption.”

So draw this first conclusion for these two passages: God has a plan, and that plan was chosen because God’s desire is to store us safely away in the barn. Furthermore, whether we see the action or not, God is at work.

Then draw this second conclusion: Our primary task is like that of the hired hands in the parable- our primary task is to trust God.

But in human life, note this: any mother will tell you that the task of giving birth is not one in which they just sit back and let it happen.

We are involved in what God is doing. And some of our involvement is identified in the parable.

See the weeds!

Point them out to ourselves and to the God.

Trust our salvation to God.

Now, most of the time we can see the weeds. Sometimes we need to listen to God a little more and see what else we can see, but most of the time we see them.

More often our real problems is that we try and hide them or ignore them, but when we try either of those two methods we simply prevent God’s plan from being put into action.

So look at yourself, identify the sin, and confess it to God. Just to be safe, offer a general confession for whatever might have escaped your notice.

But sometimes we see our sin so well that we can’t trust our salvation to God.

When I look in the mirror I look real close. I see every pimple, every nose hair, every wrinkle and crow’s foot, every gray hair and every single extra pound.

I look at it all and I shudder

It’s the same way with sin. We look so bad we just can’t imagine the possibility of what God could do with us if we gave ourselves over completely.

But the farmer in the parable did not want to lose a single stalk of wheat, and he asked his hired hands to trust his plan and not theirs.

So no matter what you’ve done with your life, no matter how bad it is, no matter how much it hurts, no matter how ashamed of it you are, give it to God and trust God’s plan to work.

Judgment waits for us one and all, but God yearns to store us safely in the barn.

Now you parents KNOW that if you ask your child to sit still and wait, he or she will go absolutely nuts! God knows the same thing about us, so elsewhere in the Bible we are given some things to do while we wait for God’s plan to work.

Stop worrying quite so much about your neighbor’s sin.

Worry about your own sin.

Love your neighbors

Forgive your enemies.

Feed the hungry.

Stand up for the poor.

That’s a pretty simple list but its more than most of us manage to do.

But if we do those things while we are trusting God, good things happen and those good things crowd out the weeds.

April has put prison behind her. She moved to get away from the bad-influence friends. She’s working hard and taking care of her family. In fact, she’s even picked up some of those forgotten hopes and dreams, and waiting for the time when she can witness a bountiful harvest in life.

My prayer for April is that God will bless her labor, bundle up her sin and burn it in the fire, and reveal God’s glory in her.

But as for you, if the labor pains get too painful to bear, if the anxiety causes too much strain, if you get too impatient, take heart from these words of Paul:

“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.”

Glory- that means the magnificence of God.

Magnificent things will be revealed to us. Magnificent things that tell how wise and wonderful God is. Magnificent things about love and mercy, about righteousness and justice.

You might ask, “Where will se wee those things?”

Look in the mirror, that’s where.

So now that we know what to do, let’s do it.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen.