Nothing is easy. To get somewhere it takes blood, sweat and tears. We don’t even see what we are working for. It is like being in the gym and try to get in shape. Getting in shape takes a lot of sweat, tears and groaning. But we keep the hope because if we don’t have hope, we cannot see what lays beyond hope.  We might be groaning with all efforts that we take. We might be groaning with what we see around us in the world. Paul tells us that “the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains. It is not only about humankind, NO! It is about all creation that is affected with what we did and still do with the world. It is a good idea and more peaceful at times not to watch the news these days. It often takes away and reduces your hope. Though we should never let anything do that. We must keep the hope that is within us. Because if we don’t have hope, we cannot see what lays beyond hope. The hope that is the fruit of God or shall we say today: the wheat of God!

When we look at the Gospel it is all about that wheat. Last Sunday we hear about the  seeds on the different kinds of soil. Today we hear about the Wheat and the Weeds. The Lord tells us that with the wheat there also comes up the weed. The two words look somewhat alike and definitely sound alike. And actually, that is for a good reason. Not only do the words look similar but Jesus tells us they are similar. In the time of Jesus, the Wheat and the Weeds looked alike. We should not understand it in modern way and for instance thing about the weeds among the grass or in between our flowers. That kinds of weeds are easily recognizable. But not so much the weeds that Jesus is talking about.
The Greek uses the words ‘Sitos’ which means wheat and grain. That seems logically and we know all what grain is. That is needed to produce our bread for instance.

When Jesus is talking about weeds however the Greek word ‘Zizanion’ or ‘Zizania’, which means ‘bearded darnels’, is used. This  resembles wheat, it is a spurious wheat or darnel, which is a plant that grows in Palestine. In Latin it is called the Lolium temulentum. It resembles wheat in many ways, but it is kind of worthless. Darnel usually grows in the same production zones as wheat and this weed was troublesome for the farmer because it was hard to recognize. It was not until the coming of modern sorting machinery that it enabled farmers to separate the darnel from the wheat. The similarity between these two plants is so great that in some regions, darnel is referred to as "false wheat". It bears a close resemblance to wheat until the ear appears. Wheat will appear brown when ripe, whereas darnel is black. That is what Jesus is talking about. That is the reason the landowner leaves it there until the harvest. Would he do it earlier it would be hard to recognize the Wheat and the Weeds. But at the harvest you can recognize it because of the differences in color.

We can look at news and social media in the same way. It became a kind of darnel in our spiritual life. It obsesses those who deliver and those who consume the news. And anything that obsesses becomes an idol. We need to tear it out and discard it. All this comes to mind as we read today's lessons and try to learn from them. There is great comfort and hope in the lectionary of today. In the world we live in there is much confusion about right and wrong -- wheat and weeds -- great polarity between all kinds of groups. There are fundamentalists on all levels, who explain scripture as it fits them. It is not a good time for hope, for reason, for patience to allow both wheat and weeds to grow together. There are voices clamoring for the evil to be punished, destroyed immediately. We want the evil be punished, and so we justify war, and we justify violence. But God calls for patience. But as we are confused and fearful, we look at the scriptures for guidance. The writer of Wisdom sees the Creator as full of righteousness; this righteousness, he declares, leads God to mercy, not vengeance.

St. Paul recognizes the futility of trying to live by the law.  But then, through the power the Holy Spirit St. Paul sees hope! We groan in labor pains, he says, until we are redeemed together with the whole of creation. The daily news, social media and other things take hope and joy away. It tries to convince us that about our own supremacy. That we are better than all the rest. It wants us to live in constant fear. That message is not from God but from his enemy who sows the weeds. He has sown the weeds of fear in our hearts. The enemy has made us forget that we belong to God almighty. Depending on human power will always fail. Trusting in God, in the hope of adoption as children of God, will save us. Scripture today gives us a hopeful message. It is not our job to pull out the weeds and bring vengeance to our enemies. "The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers," as Matthew tells us.

But we have to be realistic. We will continue to live together with those who don't trust in God's goodness. But as believers we are not meant to trust in human leadership or nations but in God only. So, let us put our trust in God. We will not be abandoned; we will not be left without hope. In the end God’s angels will collect the wheat and the weeds. So, let us not lose hope but keep the hope that is set before us. It is as St. Paul tells us in his letter to the Hebrews: “ We need to be looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God”. Amen
 
 

In the scene in the Gospel today, it looks like Jesus is going to practice some social distancing. He is getting the boat, before the teaches his disciple this wonderful parable we hear today. It is all about bearing fruit!

In order to bear fruit, we have to live in the spirit. In other means the scriptures tell us that we have to find union with God, to stay close to God. In that way we are like the seed that falls in good soil and bears fruit. We should not be deluded by fears and the things of the world. That is of no use to the children of God. As the first reading tells us. God’s ways are always higher than our ways. He does not think in the same way mortal human beings think. We have to get to know him and set aside everything we think we know about him. In order to know him we have to open our spirit and heart so God can reveal himself to us. God is incomprehensible to our limited understanding and can only be fully known in the Spirit. He can only be fully known when he reveals himself to us. That is what it means when scripture tells us to “seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him when he is near”. He is near to us when we open our spirit to receive him. He is near when we are silent and are able to experience his presence within us. If we are thirsty, we need to come to that source of living water within us. The place where Gods Holy Spirit dwells in us.
 
It as the Lord tells us: “he who has ears, let him hear’. In Greek the text uses the word akoueto or akoúo. In our language it means to hear, listen or perceive. That is what Jesus is talking about today: understanding, hearing, listen or perceiving. We have to take these words of the Lord to ourselves. We should not understand them with our mind and what we think it means or what other people (pastor, scholar, theologian) think it means. But what the Lord is telling us. We should understand his message within our hearts, within our spirit. We often want to explain it with our limited understanding. As if we can understand it if the Lord does not reveal is to us. We need to live in the Spirit and let the Spirit teach us the right way. We don’t want to be like the rocky ground, the path or the thorns. That is all short term following of the Lord. No, we want to be like the seed that fell on good soil and produced much fruit. Jesus talks about the fact that we need to understand the Gospel if the Kingdom. If not, the evil one will snatch away and with it our joy. We need to stand firm in that Gospel, even when persecution and hardship comes.

And we need to make sure that we live the Gospel, the true Gospel and not a cultural adapted Gospel. Because that Gospel sometimes sounds more like paganism then true Christianity. After Jesus expressed His reasons for speaking in parables, he showed the result of the word of the Kingdom in each of His listeners. Although there are four kinds of soil listed, there are only two types of listeners compared. Jesus talks about: those who listen to the Word, but do not understand it and those who listen to the Word and do understand. It is the personal commitment that is the benchmark of real listening and true understanding. It is necessary to enter into its deep meaning. Second thing we learn is that it is necessary for the Word to be received with joy. Such a welcome can become  unstable when the first enthusiasm has gone. Maybe because of experiences of suffering and persecution, maybe because of hardship in one or the other way. But if we really want to follow Jesus and his True Gospel that is inevitable. Because when we live with God, we speak truth and that is not always appreciated. The third is there are things that can choke the Word. It might be the riches of the world or our attachment to the world and all that goes with that. Finally, the seed lost in the threefold soil is compensated by the fruitful result. So, the parable in the Gospel offers three aspects of a persevering faith: listening, understanding and bearing fruit.
 
If we follow Jesus and listen to his words, we will understand the truth and the truth shall makes us free. If we understand what Jesus says, then we will be truly followers of his Gospel of the Kingdom. It will bring us joy, even if it brings persecution or hardship. And as result of that we bear fruit. Everyone in the amount that the Lord grants it to us. Amen.
 
 

Our minds can be a blessing or a burden.
When the Bible talks about sin it talks about separated from God. Sometimes when we talk about sin we look at the narrow minded understanding of sin. The sin of the flesh is more then sexual sins as it is often interpreted in our days.

Sin in the right understanding is everything that holds your back from the love of God. It is usually something from our side and not so much from Gods side. God always loves us but we are not able to feel that love because of the war the wages in our minds.
That is what Jesus came for. To deliver us from that war that wages in our mind. Jesus first send out his disciples in Matthew chapter 10. Then in Chapter 11 the, the emphasis shifts. John the Baptist is in prison, and let ask Jesus if “he is the one to come”.  Today Jesus criticizes the crowd for the way they responded to both John and himself. They found John some kind of a weird guy, so to say. He preached in the wilderness, dressed differently and ate locust. Some might have thought he was possessed. In our day and age he would possible be diagnosed ,according to the DSM V, as mentally ill. And Jesus hang out with the “wrong” people in their eyes and was considered a drunkard and glutton.
 
So Jesus question today is a legitimate one. “What did you come out into the wilderness to see?” It is a question to the people back then and to us here and now. We also have our expectations, assumptions about how God acts in the world. Those expectations can lead us to ignore or overlook the ways God is working in the world and in our lives. It also puts another perspective as for who God is uses as his messenger. It might be someone we won’t consider as one. In our, we need to be reminded that God chooses whomever he wants to choose. We need to be reminded also that he works in ways that we don’t want to see or want to acknowledge. There is also the assumption that following Jesus is difficult. Last week we heard that there is a reason for such an assumption. “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me”. Today we hear another message though. It are words of invitation and consolation. It are the words what we call in the Anglican tradition the “comfortable words”. In the liturgy we use sentences of scripture after the confession of sin. In the liturgical context, they are a reminder of Gods love and grace.  But in the scriptural context they tell us something about discipleship.

Following Jesus can be hard and has consequences. But on the basis lies the fact that it a relationship.  He called them to be “fishers of men”. And today he tells them that they can find rest in him. “Come, all you that are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” That’s an invitation we all need, clergy and laity alike. We live in a busy and noisy world. It is not hard to get overwhelmed by the voice of the world. At times we get overwhelmed by feelings of tiredness, sadness, anger and fears. Jesus invites us to lay it all at his feet. He invites us to find rest in him. It is like St. Augustine said: “Our hearts are restless until it finds rest in you”. This rest that both the Gospel and St. Augustine talk about is a rest between the teacher and his disciple. The teacher will always be with us, even if we move on her own. The words of the teacher go with us wherever you go. You probably keep the words of your teacher or mentor at school in the back of your mind, I certainly do.

Jesus presence is not just being with him but opening ourselves to the power of this presence. It is there that we find the ultimate rest that the world cannot give. We also have to extend that invitation to others. Jesus felt compassion for people for they were “without a shepherd”. We are called to show that same compassion. We are called to be a shepherd to each other. Our world is full of people that are looking desperately for “a shepherd” for a friend for their soul (“Anam Cara” In Gaelic). The question is whether we can speak the “comfortable words” to them: “Come unto him, all you that are weary and heavy-laden, and he will give you rest?” Amen.