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Grace, mercy, and peace be unto you, from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Sometimes, as we look at today’s world and all that’s going on, we can get pretty sad by the continued state of degradation of things. And sometimes, living in this world and putting up with the things that we have to constantly be confronted by can get pretty wearisome and overwhelming even. It makes us kind of wonder sometimes, does God know what he’s doing? Because it seems at times he doesn’t.
Our Lord Jesus said this about the last day: “As were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.” For as in those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark. And they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away. So will be the coming of the Son of Man.
Jesus makes it very clear that the end of the world and things in this world will go on as it seems like they always have been going on. And it even has the appearance that God’s not in control until the last day. And then at the last day, everything is made right, and everything is seen for what it is. But until then, you and I as believers live in faith and in hope. Not hope that we hope it might happen, but hope in certainty that it will happen.
It happens that way not only in this world, but sadly in the church. There have been squabbles and squawks within the church for thousands and thousands of years. Christians getting upset at other Christians within the same church. Christians not seeing the other Christians’ point of view with love and with compassion. Christians who would rather be right than necessarily work it together. We in the church can sometimes be the worst to ourselves. We can even be harsher with ourselves than we are with the people of the world.
And brothers and sisters, that ought not to be. How we treat one another ought to be completely different than how we treat the rest of the world. Hmm. It seems as if Jesus isn’t even reigning at times. And yet, our Lord says very clearly in this morning’s text, He’s in control. He says He’s in control in this morning’s text when He says, “Leave the weeds and the wheat to grow up together. Then, at the last day, come in and uproot the weeds and throw them into the fire and harvest the wheat into the barn for glory.”
He makes it very clear to us. He has already begun to act and is acting now and reigning in grace. He’s graciously reigning because He still is reaching out through you and me. Hence, why did He give us the prayer, “Thy kingdom come?” The kingdom of God comes indeed without our prayer, but we pray in this petition that it may come unto us also when God breaks and hinders every evil desire, every evil will that’s set against Him. His word and His name not being hallowed.
He has already begun to do kingly deeds, dispensing the grace that flows from His side in His hands, letting seed fall from His mouth to be planted in your and my heart and others. He is reigning, brothers and sisters, with great power and might in grace. Yes. And yet it looks like, just as it was before the flood, so it is now. It looks like things go on as they always have been.
And even within the church, do we really expect that Jesus’ ministry now is going to be different than it was then? When Jesus went around proclaiming the kingdom, many people followed Him. Many people gathered around Him, and you and I know that of all the people that followed Him and gathered around Him, we know that not all of them were believers, were they? And yet He did not ever point them out as being less than, and He did not encourage the believers to look upon anyone else with disdain, but rather with grace and compassion.
The same kind of heart that He shows you is the same kind of heart He shows them. Which means His kingdom has not changed in how it comes. Simply because we’re in a more technologically advanced era, and simply because there are so many more things now than they had then, does not mean that His kingdom is going to come in a different, more glory-filled way. It still comes in the way that it came then. And there still are weeds in amongst the wheat.
Where you and I get tripped up as we can’t tell who’s who, can we? But we are tempted regularly to think we can because we’ve been enlightened, haven’t we? Pretty bold and bodacious of us to think that. That’s why Jesus said, “Let them both grow together.” That’s His will. That’s His will that they both grow together. It was not His will that the evil one came and sowed seeds of weeds in amongst the wheat. No. But it is His will to show His power and His grace together. To allow both to coexist and grow together before the harvest at the last day.
Just as it was in the day of Noah, people were marrying and being given in marriage until the day that the door of the ark was shut and the floods came. He is saying, “I will continue to rule my church in the same way.” My visible church. There will always be in the visible church believers and unbelievers.
Now, as we grasp that thought, I mean, that’s kind of hard to grasp, isn’t it? Surely there cannot be an unbeliever amongst us, but we’re trying to figure that out by judging by sight. Simply because everybody sits in the pew with us does not mean everybody is a believer. Simply because everybody’s name is on the roster does not mean everybody is a believer. Simply because we see them with us in the same building regularly does not mean anything other than they are here with us.
Now, we use the word pronoun “they” at each turn, and I mention that as an example. It is as if we can determine who they are and who they aren’t. And that’s the problem, is we can’t. It’s not our job to do so. Our job is to proclaim what God has done in us. Our job is to give the grace that’s been given to us, to show mercy as mercy has been shown to us. And as we pray in the Lord’s Prayer also to forgive as we’ve been forgiven.
Even if, Jesus says in a sense, even if my church looks like it’s full of weeds, do not despair. Even if it seems like the church is going the wrong way, the visible church, take heart. My truth is still within the midst of her. Just as the truth was in the midst of the early church. And God did His own ways of separating sheep and goats. So the very parable of the sheep and goats talks about them being intermingled. And God separates them at the last day, just like the parable of the weeds.
But during this life, during your and my time serving in this kingdom and in this vineyard, both grow together. But our hope is that very thing: He’s in control and He reigns graciously. You see, when the kingdom comes at the last day, His reign of grace ends. When the kingdom comes at the last day, His reign of grace ends, and He reigns with power. There will be no opportunity for anyone. The door is shut. The ark is floating. The flood has come. It is the end.
But until that day, we coexist in a visible church of hypocrisies, of sinner saints, and it will not get any better than this. And we are fools to think that it will, listening to Satan’s siren yell rather than God’s still voice. In the midst of living out our faith among other Christians with whom we bump into—bump into with joy and bump into with friction—we see that the kingdom of God is violently and visibly attacked. And we’re rightly incensed.
“What can I do, Lord, to stop this affront to your holy church? There’s got to be something.” I think we need to begin to cleanse the church. We don’t practice that same cleansing in our own home, do we? If we’re all about cleansing the visible church, then we ought to be all about visibly cleansing our own household.
What we do is continually bring the word of God to them if they’re willing to have the word of God brought to them. For we know not when God’s will will be done in their lives with conversion or with change. And here’s a thought: We know not when God’s will will be done to us. And we will change.
In the meantime, in this imperfect field of weeds and wheat in which we exist, we will continue to be used by God to proclaim this kingdom of grace and mercy. We will be used by God in our own life with humility being shown as to what grace has done and is doing. And we will not bowl our chest out saying, “Look what God has done in me,” because we know there is nothing good within you and me.
We will show God’s grace, not our strength, but God’s strength. Not our great abilities and powers, but God’s ability and power in me and in you as frail as you and I are. And God will use that. He will use that among the other people within this congregation and in the world. And He will work mightily through us in spite of us and without our even being aware many times.
We cannot judge by appearance. And yet that’s what we are tempted to do, both towards someone else and within ourselves. We love to judge by appearance within ourselves when we see good things, but when we don’t see such good things, we’re not so thrilled about judging by appearance. And God reminds us not to, very clearly, because guilt wells up and crushes, choking us.
His desire is for us to stay the course of this seemingly contradictory existence of weeds and wheat in the same field until the last day. It’ll be put right on the last day. It’ll be fixed on the last day. The goat and sheep will be separated. The weeds and wheat will be separated. And then it’ll be realized by all of us as believers. Is that not what Paul said in the epistle reading?
Amen. He talks about this existence in the seemingly contradictory world of believers and unbelievers in the same visible church. He says in the beginning of the epistle reading, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time of being intermingled with others who are not necessarily of the same mind and belief is not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us.”
Future. And so he’s saying, in the meantime, I will put up with this. I will endure it and stay the course, because you have shown me, O Lord, you reign graciously now. You’re redeeming the creation now. You’re proclaiming and extending the kingdom now and among us, even if it doesn’t look like it.
He also says, “The creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God.” That’s you and me. The creation’s waiting for that too. It was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. There’s that word again, in hope, that the creation itself will be set free from decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.
We wait eagerly for adoption as sons, waiting in the contradictory, paradoxical existence of sinners and saints, believers and unbelievers, in the same visible church. And we live out our faith in this seemingly contradictory existence, in hope. That’s sure and certain hope. For in this hope we were saved.
Now, hope that is seen is not hope. Who hopes for what he sees, Paul says. But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. This is our hope. The Lord is saying, take the long view. Take the long view. Set your hope on that day when it will be made right. And until that day, live out your faith in compassion and in mercy.
Having received grace and forgiveness, give grace and forgiveness. There is hope. God will do His work, for He reigns. He is king, and He reigns with grace for all, including we who do not deserve it.
Let him who has ears hear and believe. In the name of Jesus, amen. The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds on Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.
