The Fifth Sunday After The Epiphany 2017
All Saints Church, Saint Andrews
The Venerable John A. Matheson, Rector
“And above all these things put on charity which is the bond of
perfectness.” Colossians 3:14
‘And above all these things put on love...” Isn’t this a message we
need to hear, given all the things that have happened in the last few
weeks? An act of senseless violence in Quebec has put our whole
nation into mourning, the executive order of the new U.S. president
has caused the whole world—the so-called ‘Western’ world, at least--to
do a great deal of soul searching. Where is charity to be found in our
world? Where is love? Why does it take an attack on a mosque to bring
religious leaders together to denounce violence aimed at particular
faith groups? Why does it take a gun turned on innocent worshippers
to move civic leaders and ordinary citizens to denounce proposed
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government policies—in Quebec and in the U.S.—that would
discriminate on the basis of ethnicity and religious belief, even on the
distinctives of religious dress?
Shortly before the birth of Christ, the Roman poet Virgil wrote: “Amor
vincit omnia.” “Love conquers all.” St. Paul, writing to the Christians in
Corinth a few generations later, echoed Virgil’s simple dictum: “Love
suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade
itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own,
is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but
rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things. Love never fails.” (1 Corinthians 13:4-8)
Amor vincit omnia.
The parable we have heard this morning, found in the thirteenth
chapter of St. Matthew’s Gospel, is one of seven parables recorded in
this chapter. The best known is the Parable of the Sower, which we will
hear once again on Sexagesima Sunday. The others are, perhaps, less
well-known--the Parables of the Mustard Seed, the Leaven, the Hidden
Treasure, the Pearl of Great Price and the Fishnet. They are all
parables about the nature Church, the life of the Church illustrated
with everyday scenes that would have been familiar to those who first
heard them. There is, of course, a bit of a ‘experience barrier’ for us
living in the twenty-first century, many of us don’t understand
broadcasting (in its original sense), or the importance of leaven
(yeast) in the making of bread, but we can learn. The parables, Jesus
told his disciples, are for those who ‘have ears to hear,’ that is, who
are willing to learn, who really want to know about God’s kingdom,
who really want to live the eternal truths they contain. And so he
quotes to them the words of the prophet Isaiah:
“By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye
shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed
gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have
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closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with
their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be
converted, and I should heal them.”
Jesus gives his disciples an interpretation of both of the parables about
planting found in St. Matthew 13. The Parable of the Sower he
interprets just after he has told the story, the interpretation of the
Parable of Tares he gives only after Jesus has sent ‘the multitudes’
away and he and his disciples have gone into a house, and behind
closed doors the disciples beg him to explain it to them. It would seem
that the parable was a mystery to them, a challenge, maybe even a
scandal. He tells them that the one who sows the good seed is the Son
of Man (the Messiah or Christ) and the seeds are the “sons of the
kingdom,” that is to say, those who follow Christ, those ‘with ears to
hear’. The field is the world into which they are sent to spread the
Gospel. The bad seed, which grows up to be tares (weeds) are the
sons of ‘the wicked one,’ that is to say, the devil.
We didn’t hear this interpretation today, it is further on in St.
Matthew’s Gospel than where our reading ended, but what we did hear
is Jesus saying that the servants of the owner of the field (who is God,
of course, no matter what the devil may think) were told not to try to
pull out the tares, that will be the task of the reapers, who, in the
interpretation of the parable, Jesus identifies as angels, not men.
As men, human beings that is, we are not particularly charitable. We
are even worse judges, our eyes blinded by self-interest, jealousy,
ignorance and a host of other short comings. Jesus ‘knew (and
knows) what is in man,’ and that, presumably, is why he tells us not to
presume to pull out the tares, lest we pull out the good plants with the
weeds. “Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye
judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be
measured to you again.” (St. Matthew 7:1-2) St. Paul, following his
Master’s teaching, says that he does not even judge himself, “For I
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know nothing by myself; yet am I not hereby justified: but he that
judgeth me is the Lord. Therefore judge nothing before the time, until
the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of
darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts...” (1
Corinthians 4:4-5)
There are many situations in which we should apply the charitableness
St. Paul recommends in today’s Epistle and the reticence to judge the
Parable of the Tares teaches. None are more relevant than the
situations that command our attention today, in relation to
immigrants, to those of other faiths and cultures. If they are to be
converted, it will be through love, not discrimination and violence.
Looking at the bulletin cover Rachel chose for today, I decided to see
what Martin Luther, (who is depicted on the cover), has to say about
the Parable of the Tares. Luther, who himself was not above judging
others and sometimes was uncharitable, especially to the Jews, had it
right this time, however, when he wrote: “From this observe what
raging and furious people we have been these many years, in that we
desired to force others to believe; the Turks with the sword, heretics
with fire, the Jews with death, and thus outroot the tares by our own
power, as if we were the ones who could reign over hearts and spirits,
and make them pious and right, which God's Word alone must do. But
by murder we separate the people from the Word, so that it cannot
possibly work upon them and we bring thus, with one stroke a double
murder upon ourselves, as far as it lies in our power, namely, in that
we murder the body for time and the soul for eternity, and afterwards
say we did God a service by our actions, and wish to merit something
special in heaven.”
”But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they
hear.” Amor vincit omnia. Love conquers all.
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