Sunday Reflection - 19th July 2026 - 7th Sunday after Trinity

Isaiah 44.6-8   Psalm 86.11-end   Romans 8.12-25   Matthew 13.24-30, 36-43

The Hopeful; Gardener! 

I wonder whether you've worked hard in your garden - and woken up one day thinking someone has tried to sabotage your work. In the Garden of Remembrance, we have a fox who comes by night and rearranges the flowers. In our garden, we have birds, squirrels and at least one cat who keep an eye on each other rather than the food we set out for each of them. And, amongst the bedding plants, you may spot a few other items growing that you certainly didn't plant.

That's the situation Jesus describes in his parable. A farmer sows wheat. But, as it grows, he sees weeds grow up amongst the healthy wheat that he longs to harvest. The weeds are no ordinary weeds. They are sometimes referred to as darnel. It only becomes apparent that they are weeds when the moment comes for them to ripen. Instead of the healthy ears of corn that the farmer expects, there is just nothing. They are taking up valuable space - and a nuisance.

In Jesus' time, this was quite a frequent act of sabotage. If you wanted to frustrate your rival farmer's harvest, you would do exactly as the enemy does in the story that Jesus tells. You'd get up in the middle of the night - and sow weeds. We know this because there was a specific law against this in the Roman law-book of the time! Jesus' listeners knew exactly what he was talking about.

They also knew the danger of separating weeds from wheat until the right time. Do it before the ears ripen, then you may be uprooting wheat as well as weeds. And, as Jesus points out, their roots may be so entangled that, if you pull up one, you may pull the other as well.

He tells the farmer, the gardeners, to be patient. Wait for the right time. Trust the person responsible for the harvest - and don't pre-empt them - or else you'll make the wrong judgement.

He likens the wheat to the sons and daughters of God's kingdom - those who obey God's teaching. He likens the weeds to the sons of the evil one - people whose behaviour, whether hidden or obvious, is simply mean, evil and selfish. He then advises patience... not in challenging what is wrong. He always encourages right dealing. But he advises patience before making judgement about a person's ultimate standing before God.

We're not the ones to deliver God's judgement on the people who appear mean, evil and selfish. That's God's role. Our job is to be patient, and bear faithful witness to the God that we know....

This is a theme that runs through both Old and New Testament. Paul writes, in Romans 12: "Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Don't take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay', says the Lord. On the contrary, 'If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this you will heap burning coals on his head.' [Proverbs 25. 21, 22]. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. " [Romans 12.17-21]

By keeping one's eye on God, and not on the moral condition of my neighbour, I have the resources to overcome the frustration that my neighbour may cause. Jesus' teaching reflects the opening of Psalm 37; "Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong, for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture." [Psalm 37. 1, 2] The Psalm continues: "Do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret - it leads only to evil." [Psalm 37.7b, 8]

This patience is grounded in hope. And that hope is in the God who is greater than the evil, the decay, the futility of what lies before the eyes of the Christian disciple.

That's Paul's message in our reading from Romans. Here, he is face to face with the mystery of the origin of evil. He cannot explain how it got there, why it exercises such power or why we have to cope with the consequences of the free will God gives to his creation, when that creation seems to take the wrong path, or make the wrong decision. What he affirms instead is that God is somehow nevertheless greater... otherwise God is not God.

God is not the author of futility, frustration and despair, but he is mightier than it in terms that are beyond our understanding. Paul says, "The creation was subjected to frustration...." - and the word "frustration" is actually much stronger -"matoites" in Greek - meaning "vanity", "meaninglessness", "futility". [Romans 8.20]. God overcomes it in order to present a greater, redemptive good - which can give us energy when we begin to exercise "Hope".

I think of Corrie ten Boom's sister Betsy in a Nazi concentration camp, who says, "There is no pit so deep than God is not deeper still."

I think of the reality of Hope that gives life in the darkest of circumstances.

I am challenged by this reflection of G.K. Chesterton:

"Love means to love that which is unlovable, or it is no virtue at all. Forgiving means to pardon the unpardonable, or it is no virtue at all... And to hope means hoping when things are hopeless, or it is no virtue at all."

You see Jesus exercising that Hope when he is face to face in the garden of Gethsemane with the prospect of his impending execution - and he wrestles with God his Father, saying, eventually, "Not my will but yours be done." He knows there is a greater future, a greater context, for his suffering than the evidence that the world will give to his disciples at that moment.

And it's from that resurrection from the dead, that triumph over the powers of evil and darkness, that Paul inspires his readers to place their trust in the God who will free the whole of his creation from its bondage to decay - its forces of corruption.

So we are faced with the challenge of forces and forecasts that feel too big for us today... how therefore are we to live?

To live hopefully is first to trust the future judgement to God. Don't give up on our neighbours when they do wrong. Exercise patience. Don't fret. Keep our eyes on God and do good.

To live hopefully is secondly to trust the present darkness to God. Persevere. Don't give up on seeking God's kingdom. Know that God's values, God's love, God's justice will ultimately prevail, though the evidence around you may seek to tell a different story.

To live hopefully is thirdly to trust your future to God. This is the way God calls me to live. I am secure in the hope of the future that he has won for us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Trust the future judgment to God. Don't be jealous of other people, Don't mistake weeds for wheat. Leave God to do God's job.

Trust the present darkness to God. Don't give up but instead look up.

Trust your future to God. Remember those words in our OT reading today: "I am the first and the last... apart from me there is no God."

I heard someone say in a meeting about climate change, "Hope is expressed by Acts of Love that extend into the future." Hope is a verb as well as a noun.  

Let's live hopefully today - looking in, looking out and looking up.

Steve