GUIDED REFLECTION
A
story on All Things Considered last
week reminded me that a weed can meet a need. Archeologists studying a prehistoric
burial ground in the Sudan discovered evidence in the dental plaque of the remains of a pre-farming society that these people survived, in part,
thanks to a weed. The purple nutsedge, which looks like
grass with tiny potato-like nodules along the roots, was a staple in the diet of some
early hunter-gatherers. It grew everywhere. Still does. And though it tastes
like dirt, it provided starch for energy and an essential amino acid and
created antibacterial chemicals in the body that might explain why the early
“weed eaters” had relatively few cavities.
Purple
nutsedge continues to flourish. By the 1970s it was named the World’s Worst
Weed. It is pervasive and invasive and can
only be eliminated from crops by pulling each weed up by hand. (Sounds like the very problem our parable
references, doesn’t it?) But let’s give this weed some credit. It once provided
"snacks that people were munching on for millennia . . . while plodding along
the route to development. At the very least, it helped them avoid totally
horrible teeth” (http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/07/16/331677512/this-dirty-little-weed-may-have-cleaned-up-ancient-teeth).
There
is a weed we may need. And I don’t mean what they’re selling in Colorado.
Let’s
look again at the story I’m renaming “The Parable of the Wheat and the Purple Nutsedge.”
Jesus used the threat of weeds among growing wheat to help us think of our
response to evil. When a grain field
becomes infested with weeds, it might seem the work of an enemy. Yet we can’t
efficiently uproot the diabolical nutsedge without destroying the good plants,
too. It’s like the wartime dilemma of targeting an enemy who is embedded
among innocent civilians. To bomb an enemy leader hidden among children is to
intensify rather than lessen evil’s effect. (Setting aside for now the basic moral questions about war.) Jesus says we sometimes have to let
the weeds and the wheat grow together until it’s time to harvest the wheat.
Let’s
not read this as Jesus being “soft” on evil.
He named his enemies “snakes” and criticized unrighteous practices and
certainly paid the price for calling it as he saw it.
But
in this parable he may be speaking both theologically and practically. It’s not possible to completely and neatly
separate the evil from the good that reside together inside an individual or an
institution or a nation or a system.
Practically speaking, you can’t surgically remove the bad from the good.
Theologically speaking, you can’t dichotomize people or ideas or systems.
Jesus
cautions that sometimes we have to let a situation develop until we understand
it and before we can eradicate the evil weed. (Again, not what they’re
selling in Colorado!) Jesus elsewhere warns
us against pointing out the speck in someone else’s eye when there’s a log
obscuring our own vision.
We
who advocate for justice, protest on behalf of the marginalized, and speak
truth to power . . . we who work to dismantle oppressive systems . .
. we continue to remember the complexities of social problems. Let us neither oversimplify social problems
nor be incapacitated by the complexities.
So
here’s a spiritual exercise for us to try:
Think
of something within you that you wish you could eliminate: some habit or
tendency or failing or weakness that you believe prevents you from growing into
the fullness of your human potential. This trait might actually be seen as the
shadow side of a strength within you that doesn’t need to be eliminated.
If
you need an example, I will confess that a weed I’d like to pull from my life
is my tendency to talk too soon or too much. But this shadow side
of my personality is connected to a strength: willingness to lead and a passion for
justice. I must keep monitoring the
shadow side of that trait. Growing
together in me are both the desires to help and lead out along with the
tendencies to overdo, to monopolize a conversation, to inject my opinion
first. The good and the bad of me are
intertwined. Over time, I hope and pray, the strength will live and weakness
will disappear.
I
invite you to silently acknowledge a shadow trait in your life.
SILENCE
Now
link that trait to a strength and give thanks for the strength.
SILENCE
Next,
you may want to resolve to monitor that trait that is the flipside of one of your strengths.
Realize you don’t have to eliminate a part of who you are but be aware of
circumstances in which the shadow side comes out. Consider how you can cultivate your strong
side of that part of your personality.
SILENCE
SHARING
Next
think of a more systemic example of “evil.” Recall a time when you were involved in a
situation or relationship or an institution that had great potential for good yet
its very strength made it vulnerable to problems.
SILENCE
How
did you handle that situation or relationship or involvement in a group or
institution?
SILENCE
SHARING
“We
have met the enemy, and they are ours,” said Commander Perry after a naval
battle in 1812. “We have met the enemy,
and he is us,” said cartoon character Pogo, surveying his trash-strewn Georgia
swamp.
“I
have met the enemy, and he is my brother,” thought Jacob, no doubt, while fleeing the angry Essau.
You
and I have met the enemy. And sometimes she was our sister or co-worker. Sometimes he was a political leader or neighbor. Or ourselves.
The
ladder Jacob dreamed up connected earth and heaven, a reminder that the
human and divine traverse a continuum. The weeds Jesus said grew among the
wheat remind us that the evil and good are likewise not always such distinct
categories. As we tell our children, making a bad choice doesn’t mean you’re a
bad person. As we remind ourselves, no political party or leader is
entirely right or wrong about every issue.
Maybe
this second parable in Matthew’s Gospel, riffing off the first parable, is
telling us we should not resort to the theological equivalent of Round-Up. If we resort to such an attack on “enemies,”
we might despoil our own backyards. And
that purple nutsedge just might have some nourishment for us.
My
intention here is not to curb our enthusiasm for righteousness, dampen our
convictions, weaken our resolve, or soften our demands that friends, strangers,
and Mother Earth be treated kindly, fairly.
But
let us be way of a tendency to polarize complex issues or blame another for a
misunderstanding for which we, too, have some culpability. Let’s also consider that we can make strong, forthright
support for just and peaceful ways—without attacking others who see things
differently. Almost always we can do that.
And
trust God that evil will not have the final say.
PRAYER STATIONS
(The congregation may sing
the Sanctus, pp. 74-75 in songbook,
during this period of prayer.)
Prayer station 1:
STONE PILLOW, STONE PILLAR
Choose a stone from the basket. First hold it as you pray silently for one
who needs a good night’s sleep tonight—a sleep that will comfort, give
strength, restore hope, ease anxiety.
Next place this stone among or on top of the pile of stones to the right
of the basket. Place a drop of oil on it
as you offer a silent prayer for the new “Beth-el”/House of God we will move to
in two weeks. Think about your hopes for Open Table as you pray. We’ll bring these stones with us to All
Saints for our first service there and use them for a prayer at “Beth-el.”
Prayer station 2:
BURNED BETHEL
This print of the original
oil on canvas byJohn Biggers, “Shotgun, Third World,” 1966, is housed in the
National Museum of American Art at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. A community watches from across the street as
their neighborhood church burns in the night.
This church was their “Beth-el.” Their facial expressions are hidden
from us. The cause of the fire is unknown. But you might imagine a story about this
faith community. And your response can
be your prayer for our world.
Prayer station 3:
RECEIVING AS WE MAKE PEACE WITH OUR ENEMIES
Imagine that you are
receiving the Sacred Cup from one you might consider an enemy, that is, someone
you feel is doing harm in this world. Maybe this person who holds the chalice
for you is a leader in a political party not your own, or is someone who has
hurt a friend of yours, or has mistreated you. Now imagine that person has “a
back story” that you cannot possibly know. Are you able to receive something
from him or her that can strengthen you rather than poison you with bitterness?
Can you work against evil without enmity in your heart? At this table of
reconciliation, take a wafer, dip it in the common cup, and eat in an act of
radical faith that we can love even our enemies.
Prayer
station 4: GIVING FOR THE WORK OF THE CHURCH
As you contribute financially to the work of Open
Table, pray that the seeds you are sowing with your monetary donations and your
contributions of time, skill, and effort will yield a harvest of goodness.
FORMING
A SACRED CIRCLE
SHARING
ANNOUNCEMENTS
BENEDICTION May you leave this place saying, as Jacob did, “Surely the Lord is in this
place—and I did not know it!” May you
hear God saying to you, what was said to Jacob: “Know that I am with
you and will keep you wherever you go.”
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