July 20, 2014
The disciples want to pull all of the weeds
out of the Kingdom.
That means, of course — pull out everyone who
doesn't agree with them!
Every group has to set some limits on
membership in order to maintain identity, but for some members its just that
they like to keep a neat garden.
The scribes did not like Jesus letting
prostitutes and tax collectors into their perfect little kingdom.
But if we eliminate taxes, there would be no
roads or bridges.
Everyone wants to kill all the lawyers these
days, but without law, society would plunge into chaos.
Through the centuries, different Christians
have wanted to eliminate members for their heretical views.
That sounds like a great way to keep the
faith pure.
But the word "heresy" really means
"choice," and one person's truth is another person's error.
Many heretics have later been proven correct.
The truth is, we need them!
After all, without people disagreeing with
us, how are we going to keep us orthodox …honest?
Hummm! If the church world is too intertwined
to weed, let's see what weeds might be pulled out of our secular world.
How about let's weed out the Democrats who
favor abortion and gay rights?
But wait: if we throw those rascals out, we
would lose their passion for civil rights, for truly caring for the needy, and
education.
So why don't we try the Republicans?
No, wait a minute!
We might lose their sense of private.
You see, politics is blue and red only on a
map and — too often — in our minds; in real life it is always a shade of
purple.
If the public realm of church and state
defies our determination to distinguish weeds from wheat, let's turn to our
home garden.
We surely know those
characters well enough to separate.
How about eliminating that husband who has
affairs and yells at his children?
Well, he deserves some kind of correction,
but simply getting rid of him leaves an empty paternal space in the family —
and we are told all too often by the media and politics that family values
demand a husband and a wife or else there's no chance for happiness.
But how long do we have to put up with those
ungrateful, unproductive children? Or our babies who cry during mass.
Well ,
once in a while, a child just might end up to be worthwhile, after all!
Our own modern church is unpleasantly divided
between conservative and liberal factions.
We could go back to Latin in order to save
our linguistic heritage, to get back to true reverence and awe in our worship,
but it really is nice to know and understand just what it is we are praying
for!
I know!
We could make the sanctuary holier by putting
a Communion rail back in!
But, no, that would once again separate the
church between us (meaning me, male, priest, celibate, ordained) and them
(pretty much, all of you).
We could fight it out in the streets, as they
did in the Middle Ages — but then we would look just plain silly — and not very
Christian.
I know!
Let's ask the bishops
what we should do.
After all, they are our ordained leaders.
Except that many of you might just want to
weed them out for their lack of oversight and accountability.
So, maybe Jesus was right in letting the
weeds grow along with the wheat.
You think he might have been on to something?
That doesn't mean that he approved of weeds
or preferred a messy plot.
Maybe it was just that he understood the
difficulty of telling a rotten person from a healthy person.
Perhaps he also had that idealist's hope that
even a weed might evolve into a wheat stalk, given enough time.
But there is in human nature an unquenchable
passion to judge others.
What if we gave in to that temptation right
now?
What if we weeded out of this assembly all of
you who are morally, politically or ecclesiastically incorrect, how many of us
do you think would be left?
That's what I thought!
So I think for now I will go with the tax
collectors and prostitutes, the heretics and the gays, maybe with the Democrats
and, yeah, I'll side even with the Republicans..
Not just because any of them are more fun,
but but
Well, I'm going to take their side simply
because the King said they would enter the Kingdom first.
I don't know what you will decide,
But I, for one, would like to be along for
the trip
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