Ever been weeding in the garden or the flower bed and pulled out what you think is a weed, only to discover that it was actually a plant or flower you have wanted? I know I have. It can sometimes be difficult to tell which is which. Earlier this week, April introduced me to a woman who goes by Alexis Nikole and makes TikTok videos about plants found in the wild. She has started a series of videos that she calls, “Poison or Snack?” In her most recent of these videos, she shows a chestnut and a buckeye. If you’ve seen both of those things, you know that they look remarkably similar. It is their similarity that has led to buckeyes being called horse chestnuts. However, buckeyes are mildly toxic for humans. Though I did find some recipes for cooking them, so maybe the cooking process somehow mitigates the toxins. Or people are just gluttons for punishment. Getting back to my point though, it can sometimes be difficult to tell the difference between weeds and plants, just as it can be difficult to tell the difference between what is edible and what is toxic.

One of my family’s favorite shows is The IT Crowd, a British comedy about two nerdy computer geeks (Moss and Roy) and the woman hired to be the department manager (Jen) who is friendly but knows absolutely nothing about computers. In one of the later episodes, Jen and Roy have gotten themselves into some trouble when a video of them is posted on the internet in which Jen sort of accidentally insults a homeless woman and Roy gets in an argument with a short person. There is a lot more to that story, but we would be here far too long if I elaborated. At any rate, Moss sits them down and tries to help them come up with a way to improve their images. At one point, he asks them what small people and women have in common. When Jen and Roy seem confused, Moss answers himself, saying, “They don’t like being attacked.” This leads them to an answer for their problems. Moss creates a pepper spray solution to protect small women.

Now, this is all sounding pretty ridiculous, I know, but I promise there is a reason I’m telling this long and confusing story. You see, when the pepper spray is ready, Jen prepares a presentation and Moss puts the product into these lovely little pink spray bottles. A bag with one of the bottles is set beside every chair as a gift to all who attend the presentation. When everyone comes in and is seated, Jen begins the presentation by telling everyone that there is a gift bag next to their chairs. Everyone leans over, picks up their bags, pulls out the spray bottle, and begins to spray it on themselves thinking that because of the elegant bottles it is actually perfume. Very quickly, the scene devolves into screaming and crying and the rubbing of eyes as all of the people who came for the presentation try to get out of the room to rinse out their eyes. It is a ridiculous scenario but it illustrates the fact that we are not always very good at looking at things and knowing whether they are good or bad.

In the gospel passage for this morning, Jesus tells his disciples a parable in which a farmer sows good seed in his field. The Greek word used here for “good” is kalos, which means beautiful, good, valuable for use or appearance. This is high quality seed that should produce fruit every time. But overnight, an enemy sneaks out into the farmer’s field and sows weeds or darnel in the field with the good seed. If you aren’t familiar with darnel, it is a ryegrass and looks remarkably like wheat until the grains form. That seems to be the time at which the farmer’s slaves noticed the issue and informed the farmer. They ask the farmer if he wants them to pull the weeds, but the farmer says no. He tells them to wait until harvest when the reapers will collect the darnel first and burn it before bringing the wheat into the farmer’s barn.

Now, as you probably know, Jesus’ parables usually have a deeper meaning for us, a lesson to be learned. So, what might Jesus be saying to us through this story about the farmer and his enemy? Well, Jesus’ disciples seemed to have wondered the same thing because a little while later they ask Jesus to explain the parable to them, which he does. Jesus says, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!”

Now, I don’t know about you, but that explanation didn’t entirely clear things up for me. In fact, it may have muddied the waters a bit. There is a lot within this parable that we could try to unpack, but rather than doing that, I want to instead focus on the big picture. What is the main message that Jesus is trying to convey here? The message, I think, is rather simple. From the planting of the seed to the reaping of the harvest, God does all the work. We do not plant ourselves or others, and we do not decide what is wheat and what is darnel. All of that is for God. God made us good, planted us where he wanted us, and God will determine our end. As much as we may want to try to take those jobs away from God, we can’t. God is the one in charge. And I find that fact extremely comforting.

This week in our sermon series, we are appreciating whatever is just. That small word just is a surprisingly tricky one…and even a bit controversial. When we talk about justice today, I feel like there are two major trap we fall into. The first is that we view justice as the result of rule following. As long as everyone follows the rules, we will have a just world. From this view, appreciating whatever is just would mean lifting up that set of laws as the most important thing for us both as Christians and as citizens. The second trap is the trap of viewing justice as a limited resource. This means we look at it from a perspective of scarcity that tells us that if I extend justice to someone else, then there is less of it available for me. This leads us to a me-first mentality of justice. I want to do what is right or just for myself and then if I have anything left, I will be just toward you as well. The biggest problem with this view is that we rarely get around to looking at how we can be just to others because we get too easily wrapped up in our own stuff.

When it comes down to it, we quite often view justice within a context of punishment and reward. If we follow the rules, if we live as God has called us to live, we will receive a reword. If we fail to live up to God’s standard, then we will be punished. We will be burned up with the darnel. We get so caught up in that view that we begin to make ourselves the judge of who is doing things right and who is doing them wrong. We begin to hold ourselves up as a standard while tearing down others who have made different choices in the pursuit of justice. It seems clear however in our passage for this morning, that we are not the ones who determine the justice, the righteousness, of others. That job belongs solely to God through Jesus Christ. He alone will be our judge at the harvest.

So, then how do we appreciate whatever is just, if it is Jesus alone who determines what that is? Well, I believe we do so in two ways. First, we appreciate whatever is just by living out the principles Jesus stood by, the principles he lived out in his life here on earth. That means loving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves. It means dining with outcasts and sinners. It means having compassion to those who society deems unclean or undesirable. It means lifting up the poor and oppressed. It means choosing love over judgment. It means choosing mercy over hate. It means striving for unity even when the world is doing everything it can to divide. We appreciate whatever is just by appreciate the one who showed us true justice in giving himself for us to save us from our sins.

And the second way we appreciate whatever is just is by tempering our tendencies to be judgmental. It seems to me that judgment and judgmental have two very different connotations. The word judgment seems to be about a decision made about the rightness or wrongness of an action or situation after careful consideration has been made of both sides of the story. On the other hand, the word judgmental seems to be about making determinations about someone or someone’s actions based on our own strong feelings about it rather than taking time for consideration. In order to temper our tendencies to be judgmental, we need to slow ourselves down and allow ourselves time for careful consideration of both sides. Therefore, as an action step for you this week in learning to appreciate whatever is just, I want to encourage you to consider the following questions: Are there words or phrases that, when you hear them, they evoke a strong reaction in you? (I can think of several for myself) Why do they engender this reaction? (And then here comes the hard part.) Could you rewrite them or restate them in a way that would allow you to entertain them and consider if they have any merit at all?” (Duffield, p. 60) In our deeply divided society with strong passions and key phrases and talking points on each side, it is so much easier to be angry and shout judgment at those across the aisle. But is all that shouting and vitriol going to change hearts and minds? What if we were to view appreciating whatever is just as a challenge of understanding rather than judgment? What if we looked at how Jesus lived his life, eating with prostitutes and sinners, reaching out a hand to the unclean of this world, washing the feet of one that he knew would betray him? Perhaps if we sought to understand rather than judge, knowing that God alone is the true judge, perhaps we would find that we have more things in common than we do things that divide us. And maybe that will change the world. Amen.