Concern and Patience, Hope and Prayer - Sermon for the 8th Sunday after Pentecost

 8^th Sunday after Pentecost,                
July 23^rd, Year of Our + Lord 2023
Our Savior’s and Our Redeemer Lutheran Churches
Custer and Hill City, South Dakota
Concern and Patience, Hope and Prayer   
Matthew 13:24 - 43 and Romans 8:18 - 27

   We’ve heard more planting and harvesting parables today.  Jesus again uses seeds and their growth to describe the kingdom of heaven.  But this time Jesus defines the seeds differently. 

   Last Sunday the seed was the Word of the Kingdom, the Word of Christ, which both
describes God's Kingdom of Grace, and is also God’s living and active instrument, his means for bringing people into the kingdom.  Some of this seed, Jesus said, fell along the path and was eaten up by birds.  Some was burned up by the sun or choked out by thorns.  But some produced a good crop.  God is the Sower, and He is extravagant with His planting, scattering the Word in many places. 

   The Father scatters wildly, because He gave His Son into death to pay for the sins of the whole world, and raised Him from the dead, in order to reveal and proclaim that forgiveness and salvation are available to all.  Desiring for all to be saved, God scatters the seed of the Word far and wide.  As precious as we rightly think this Gospel Word of the Kingdom is, God willingly sends it to places where it will be wasted or rejected.  And He does this again and again.  Our God is a relentless missionary. 

   Today’s parables focus us more on life in the Church, especially as we approach the End of this age.  Jesus tells a parable in which the Good Seed is not the Word, but rather it is the children of the Kingdom, that is, the true believers.  Jesus' new way of using seeds in this parable may make us squirm.  The missionary idea of the seed as the Word being proclaimed to all nations is very comforting.  Yes, we have to wrestle with whether the Word is growing in us, whether we are rocky soil or full of thorns and cares which choke out the Word and its growth.  But we are here in church, aren't we?  Certainly we must be good soil, right? 

   But when Jesus says the good seed is the children of the kingdom, and the bad seed is the children of Satan, and that they exist side by side inside the Church on earth, I for one think that's pretty uncomfortable.  Last Sunday's parable of the Sower spreading His Word makes us think of conversion, of justification, of the missionary moment when God converts a sinner with His Word.  We might think of life-giving waters and new birth. 

   Today's parable is much more about sanctification, much more about Christian living.  And Jesus says the visible reality of the Church on earth includes both true believers and hypocrites, good wheat and evil weeds.  What's more, Jesus warns us that the workers in the kingdom can't sort out the wheat from the weeds, lest too much damage be done to the good wheat.  This sorting task must wait for the angel harvesters, who come on the Last Day. 

   As we hear Jesus and consider this parable, we have reason for concern, and we have reason to be patient.  We have reason to hope, and we have reason to pray. 

   We have reason for concern, because Jesus paints life in the Church as a serious thing, but we very often aren't all that serious.  The reality is that the Church on earth will always be a mixed bag, full of good seed and bad, of wheat and weeds, right up until the end.  This fact should create in us in us a concern for true faith, and a concern for the eternal welfare of others.  But all too often we use the mystery of the co-existence of wheat and weeds in the Church as an excuse not to be concerned about Christian living.  The Church is full of hypocrites, many say, so what’s the point of trying to live like a Christian? 

   The reality of wheat and weeds should concern us because of what happens to the weeds at the Last Day.  They are gathered to be burned.  Jesus means they are sent to hell.  Some people who confess to be Christians are not Christians.  This should not produce indifference in us.  Some apparent members of the Church are destined for everlasting punishment, unless their unbelief and hypocrisy are driven out by true faith. 

   Jesus doesn't say how many weeds are in His Church.  Are there weeds in our congregation, or maybe they are only in those ‘other’ churches.  The troubling possibility is that some of the people in our church family, people we love, and with whom we look forward to knowing and loving in heaven, some of these people might not truly believe.   

   That’s terrible.  But to be honest, even more troubling for me is the question of my own status.  Am I of the wheat, or the weeds?  Elsewhere Jesus tells us that that we can distinguish the children of the kingdom from the children of Satan by their fruit.  Humble servants, the meek, those dedicated to God's Word, those who sacrifice for the good of their neighbor, these are the good seed.  Liars, lazy people, busybodies, the greedy and adulterers, those who listen more to the World than to the Word, these are the weeds.  But, which am I?  Which are you? 

   Do you lie?  Does your eye wander?  Do you want what isn't yours, and begrudge giving God a portion of the gifts He has first given you?  As I examine myself, I know that I look very much like a weed. 

   Our concerns are real, whether we consider the individual Christian or the Church at large.  Thankfully, Jesus also gives us reason for patience.  Jesus teaches us patience with the parable of the Mustard Seed.  As Jesus explains, the Mustard Seed starts out very small.  But despite all appearances and expectations, it grows into a large plant, large enough for birds to land in it. 

   Very often as we look for growth in the Church, whether outwardly in the number of members or inwardly in the holiness of the lives of believers, we are ready to give up hope.  We lose hope because the Church seems to be constantly losing ground, and because the Church seems so full of weeds.  Churches sometimes seem to be nothing more than societies for petty bickering and pious hypocrisy. 

   Christians, called to love one another, and even to love their enemies, are far too often found scheming and fighting amongst themselves.  Those called to be lights in a dark world are often found instead to be sneaking around in the dark, willfully sinning like pagans.       

    A close examination of the Church or of individual Christians will tend to depress
your hope.  But have patience, say Jesus, for from the smallest seed God brings forth mighty trees.  From the least auspicious beginnings, God brings forth His eternal Church.  We have every reason to be concerned for our Church, and for our friends and family, and for ourselves.  Our problems are caused by sin.  Sin is an abomination to God, and we sin.  Often.  But while we are concerned, we also have every reason to have patience.  The work of God is not over until He says it is over, and the results are in His merciful hands.  Peter denied Jesus three times on the night He was betrayed.  Paul was a persecutor of the Church.  Nevertheless, in the end God used both of them mightily to build His Church. 

   So yes, take your faith seriously, and your sin.  Fight against sin with all your might, because this is the right thing to do.  But struggle knowing that God is in control, and the results that matter take time.  Struggle by staying focused on the Mustard Seed of the Gospel, and never doubt the power of that Mustard Seed, for it belongs to Christ. 

    We have reason for patience, and even more we have reason for hope, as Jesus teaches us with the parable of the leaven.  Leaven is yeast, the little fungi that give growth to bread.  Just a little leaven spreads in the mass of dough and breathes life and growth throughout.  Jesus doesn't tell us if the leaven is the Word or if it is the believers, but it doesn’t really matter so much.  For believers have the Word on their lips.  And we know it is the Word of Christ that brings salvation. 

   We have the Gospel, the good news of forgiveness through the Cross of Christ, and so we have hope.  Even if sounding forth from our lips the Gospel seems weak and ineffectual, the truth is a little Gospel goes a long way.  When we face our concerns by seeking out the Gospel, we learn once again that despite what we deserve, God has overcome our problems, in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.  Gospel leaven works, breathing forgiveness and new life in us.  Repent of your sins done in the daylight, and those hidden in the dark.  Repent, and believe that your bickering, your quarrels and bitterness toward your brothers and sisters, all of these sins are forgiven, in Christ.

    We Christians are sinners, like everyone else.  By necessity then, the Gospel Word that makes us Christians and keeps us in the faith is the Word of forgiveness, forgiveness flowing in the blood of Christ.  Forgiveness from Jesus is the leaven, a tiny and life giving spore, spreading from sinner to sinner, giving growth where we least expect it.  In fact, as Paul told us in our Romans text, the whole creation is leavened, infected with the promise of the kingdom, groaning in expectation of the End, when the Children of the Kingdom will be revealed, when the masks of false believers and the masks of our mortal bodies will be taken away, when the truth will be known, and the Children of the Kingdom will be revealed. 

    This is the promise of the Spirit's prayers on our behalf, that those redeemed in Christ will be revealed - body and soul - in the Last Day harvest.  This promise and the Spirit's prayer are reasons to hope.  Just consider what Paul teaches us.  We encourage prayer.  Sometimes, I fear, we scold about prayer.  We constantly tell ourselves and each other to pray.  But prayer can be such a struggle.  How often do you feel guilty for your lukewarm prayers, or your utter failure to pray? 

   These are legitimate concerns.  But despite all these failures, really because of them, Paul reminds you that God is praying for you: the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  It’s like this:

·      You couldn't pay for your sins, so God sent Jesus to live and die and rise on your behalf, and free you from the condemnation you deserve. 

·      You couldn't believe such good news, so God sends His Holy Spirit to teach you and correct you and forgive you, and create the faith you need to receive salvation. 

·      And even still today you can't quite get your prayers right.  So God the Holy Spirit makes intercession for you at the throne of grace, constantly reminding the Father of Christ's victory over your sin. 

   Now that is a reason to pray.  In the Holy Spirit’s intercession for us, we find the freedom we need to pray.  Because the Holy Spirit is already praying for us.  God is praying for you, within Himself, and He always prays rightly.  Since God prays for you, you know your needs are covered.  You are free to add your requests without fear, in Jesus Name, because you already know that Gods' response will be good. 

   Life as a Christian is a struggle, and we are right to be concerned.  But we also have reason to be patient, with ourselves and others, always staying focused on the Gospel Word, and remembering God is in charge of the timing.  And we have reason to hope, for the Gospel that delivers the forgiveness won by Jesus is powerful, even though it appears weak.  So we can pray with confidence to the God who has promised to make His Children to shine like the sun.  His Promise is sure, because God has completed all that we need to be saved.  So let us act on God's promise, and rise for prayer.