by Frank J. Hernando
Delivered at the Filipino community, Zion Methodist Church
Seoul, Korea 20 July 2014
Scripture Text: Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43
1. I’m sure that you wondered that I posted on Facebook pictures taken in Hong Kong and I haven’t told you about it the last time I was here with you. I accompanied Gloria to Hong Kong and attended her meetings there as well related to program on marriage migrants, which has been evaluated under the auspices of the Asia-Pacific Mission for Migrants (APMM). It was an opportunity as well for us to mingle with the different organizations of Filipino domestic workers who spend their Sundays at the Central District of Hong Kong especially at Chatter Road and the surrounding places near St. John’s Anglican Church. It has been estimated that there are over 180,000 Filipino domestic workers in Hong Kong. Due to the hot weather in Summer, many Overseas Filipino Workers gather under shades of buildings such as the HSBC building near the Chatter Road. Other groups occupy the sidewalks for their meetings and socialization.
2. In the previous weeks and the last few days we are appalled and overwhelmed by so many perplexing events and issues in our country and the world. The recent typhoon that visited the Philippines made its devastating impact where several people killed due to strong winds, heavy rains and storm surges and 1.6 million people are still trying to recover from the severe impact to their livelihood and homes. There has been the political issue of Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) as irregular and unconstitutional. Then there has been Israel’s bombing of Gaza where many Palestinians mostly children and women died, and last Thursday evening Malaysian flight MH017 was downed by anti-aircraft missile in Ukraine killing all the 298 passengers and crew on board.
3. In this calamitous times, we inquire into our faith why do we and many people in the world have to go through all these threats and sufferings and death? Our Scripture texts gives a clue on how Jesus understood the world in which he lived in. The parable of the weeds and the wheat resonates the challenges to the kingdom of God wherein Jesus Christ represents the one who inaugurated it and the kingdom has been characterized as the growth of new faith and consciousness that was opposed to acquisitive and violent consciousness. The focus of the parable is the sower himself who generously sowed the wheat with the hope that a good harvest will come and that those who depend on the harvest for their sustenance will not be denied of the fruits of the land.
4. This parable has similarities with last Sunday's gospel reading, the parable of the sower, and Barbara Brown Taylor's made an eloquent rendering of it, I quote:
We emphasized that the parable is about God's gracious sowing over all kinds of soil. It's about God's unifying grace, not our divisiveness. In the parable, we have a Sower whose abundant sowing seems to indiscriminately gloss over the differences we like to hear about. In Jesus' explanation of the parable it seems to give them exactly what they want to hear, a judgmental focus on all the differences by focusing on the soils instead of the Sower. Moreover, before the explanation of the specific parable, Jesus gives them a general explanation of using parables which already plays right into the "us vs. them" ways reflected in their question in 13:10. And with tragic irony to boot. The disciples are the ones closest to the parable-giver. They get to see and hear everything firsthand. They are truly "blessed" in that regard (13:16). But are they also the ones who so hearing and seeing fulfill the prophecy: "'You will indeed listen, but never understand, and you will indeed look, but never perceive'" (13:14)? (unquote)
5. The parable in focus tells of the good seeds sown in the soil and when they sprang up there were too many weeds which the farmers wondered where did it come from and the Owner said it was the enemy who have sown the weeds while the farmers were asleep. More so the owner instructed them not to pull out the weeds because they may include the wheat as well. So they have to wait until harvest time when they can separate the wheat from the weeds and when separated the weeds are burned while the wheat are brought to the barn. The weeds and the wheat grow together until harvest time, a very vivid illustration of the coexistence of the good and bad and expresses the dualistic tendencies of human existence, that of separating the material from the metaphysical or spiritual aspects of life.
6. The biblical concept of last judgement is also heard in this parable represented in the act of harvest where the weeds are thrown into the fire to be burned. The time of judgement is indefinite, or classified as the kairos or the peak time and a time of God's choosing that can be a beginning of a new history or the coming of a new age or eon. There is not one kairos but many and it has occurred in the past and is happening in the present and in the future. The period between the planting and the harvest is the time when the enemy sows the weeds, at the same time when the goodness, grace and love of God grow in the lives of people. Here we get into the challenging situation where faith and practice of love and compassion of believers are tested in a refiner's fire. The enemy referred here is both internal and external force of influences in the life of Christians. It can be likened to the film title "Sleeping with the enemy". This simply means that while the kingdom of God grows in our individual lives, there are external factors and influences that pulls us to the violent, destructive and vindictive stances in life that the goodness in us has been defeated by the enemy within. Thus when the kairos time comes judgement falls like one is thrown into a furnace or hell like situation.
7. We all know how the hell like situations the high ranking official of the Philippines have been going through because of the scandalous misuse and corruption of government funds. President Aquino himself has been grilled because of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP). According to IBON News, President Benigno Aquino dispensed billions of pesos to legislators, agencies, local government units and beneficiaries at his discretion, for purposes that he defined unilaterally, and with only a semblance of legality. All these make the controversial DAP consistent with being pork barrel while not directly resulting in broad benefits to Filipinos, the group said. Pres. Aquino has admitted impatience with the prescribed budget process and short-cutting this to supposedly be able to deliver services more efficiently and immediately to the people. The profile of the projects funded by DAP do not fit with either delivering services to the people or stimulating the economy. The case of the DAP illustrates how the abuse of presidential powers and discretion makes hundreds of billions of pesos in public funds vulnerable to use for patronage and partisan politics and, at worst, corruption. (end)
8. Finally we who have been nurtured in the values of kingdom of God should not be discouraged of doing what is loving, what is just and what is compassionate that show forth the very person of Jesus Christ in our lives. Christians who matured in faith and live a just-righteous life be like blooms in Summer. The enemy or the those who work evil, destructive, violent schemes in our world today will be purged, but those who belong to Christ and live out their faith in acts of justice, love, mercy and peace will shine like the sun. I would add an important insight by N. T. Wright here, linking the righteous shining like the sun as one of the few references made by Jesus to resurrection by alluding to Daniel 12:3: "Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever" (Daniel also being the source for the "Son of Man" terminology). If we do read the "angels of the Son of Man" as those martyred in human fires of judgment, then they are also the resurrected righteous who shall someday shine like the sun. Therefore we should not be weary in doing good and in participating in the work of the kingdom of God. We are confident that we shall, in kairos time, overcome the enemy. Amen.
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Matthew 13:24-30; 36-43
13:24 He put before them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field;
13:25 but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away.
13:26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well.
13:27 And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?'
13:28 He answered, 'An enemy has done this.' The slaves said to him, 'Then do you want us to go and gather them?'
13:29 But he replied, 'No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.
13:30 Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"
13:36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, "Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field."
13:37 He answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man;
13:38 the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one,
13:39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.
13:40 Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age.
13:41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers,
13:42 and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
13:43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears listen!
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References:
1. http://www.textweek.com/
2. http://girardianlectionary.net/year_a/proper11a.htm
3. http://girardianlectionary.net/year_a/proper10a.htm#taylor
4. http://www.ibon.org/
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