SPEAKER_00: Our hope is in what we do not see.
SPEAKER_00: Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, to him who loves us and has washed us clean from our sins with his own blood, and made us to be a kingdom of priests to serve God and his Father, to him the all glory, honor, and dominion forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Well, it seems we found ourselves back in the field today.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus speaks it, so it is.
SPEAKER_00: In today's gospel, we heard the parable of the wheat and the weeds.
SPEAKER_00: It's the first of three parables, actually, occurring together following the parable of the sower that you guys heard last week.
SPEAKER_00: And like it, it's a parable about growth.
SPEAKER_00: It's a good time in the church year to hear about growth.
SPEAKER_00: We are in the growing season, after all.
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes we like to call this season the green season because it represents the growth of the church.
SPEAKER_00: And we're in that season following Pentecost, where we recognize the work of the Holy Spirit is growing his church after pointing to the death and resurrection of Jesus, just as he did on Pentecost and continues to do through his apostles and through his church today.
SPEAKER_00: And most certainly, today's parable is related to last week's about reading and growth.
SPEAKER_00: Can you recall the parable of the sower?
SPEAKER_00: The sower sows his seed, but he doesn't merely place the seed in good soil, rather, he sows it enthusiastically.
SPEAKER_00: Some fall on the path, other on the rocks, somewhere the thorns and the thistles grow, some on good soil.
SPEAKER_00: It falls everywhere.
SPEAKER_00: I would like to think that this would make any farmer crazy.
SPEAKER_00: Seed costs money, right?
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it might be the lowest cost, but it still costs money.
SPEAKER_00: You've got to make the seed count.
SPEAKER_00: But that's not how Jesus works.
SPEAKER_00: Today's gospel seems much the same.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus doing something most agriculturalists wouldn't do.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus put another parable before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.
SPEAKER_00: But when asked how to deal with this problem, the master says the strangest thing.
SPEAKER_00: He said to them, An enemy has done this.
SPEAKER_00: So the servant said to him, Then do you want us to go and gather them?
SPEAKER_00: But he said, No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.
SPEAKER_00: Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the harvest time I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first and bind them into bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.
SPEAKER_00: So this parable spoken by the mouth of Jesus should strike at least a familiar tune, but there's something really unusual about it.
SPEAKER_00: The master doesn't weed his field.
SPEAKER_00: He tells the workers to let the weeds grow amongst the wheat.
SPEAKER_00: How interesting is that.
SPEAKER_00: So this is a very unusual thing.
SPEAKER_00: Not only does the parable seem odd to us, but it seemed odd to the apostles as well, so they asked Jesus, explain it, please.
SPEAKER_00: He answered them, The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Different translation, but same.
SPEAKER_00: The weeds are the sons of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil.
SPEAKER_00: The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.
SPEAKER_00: Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace.
SPEAKER_00: In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
SPEAKER_00: Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.
SPEAKER_00: Dear baptized, don't let the fact that there is evil everywhere around you, in our lives, in the world, to cause you to lose hope.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the doer here.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_00: He is the one who is sowing the good seed.
SPEAKER_00: And just like he was in the parable of the sower.
SPEAKER_00: However, in this parable, he explains that he is the one who is responsible for making sons of his father's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Just as he sowed in his earthly ministry, so he also continues to sow good seed through his church today.
SPEAKER_00: After all, it is his church.
SPEAKER_00: He is the doer in the parable, and he is the doer today, even right here in Peace Lutheran Church.
SPEAKER_00: And the seed that he sows are the sons of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: He is making sons of the kingdom through his word and his sacraments.
SPEAKER_00: Not that that's a surprise to any of you.
SPEAKER_00: Though this means that he makes us sons of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: When we receive the Holy Spirit in our baptisms, we are marked as sons.
SPEAKER_00: And this is how St.
SPEAKER_00: Paul actually calls us sons, as St.
SPEAKER_00: Paul told the saints in Rome, and you heard this last Sunday, for you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, Abba Father.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God.
SPEAKER_00: Which is to say, when you're attached to Jesus, the Father sees you as his Son.
SPEAKER_00: So Jesus sows the seed of the sons of his Father's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: The field is the world, and throughout the world the devil sows the seed of his own children, who are evil, and they will grow up with the children of God even to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: They are the ones who slander.
SPEAKER_00: Their truths are not God's truth.
SPEAKER_00: They seek to divide, not heal.
SPEAKER_00: This is what the word devil means, after all.
SPEAKER_00: It comes from the Greek word diabolos, which means to accuse or slander.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what the devil's doing.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks out of his nature.
SPEAKER_00: And anyone who slanders, divides, and doesn't confess what Christ says, well, they take up sides with the devil.
SPEAKER_00: The devil plants the seeds of opposition against the church and its saints, all of you.
SPEAKER_00: And they are growing up around us.
SPEAKER_00: It happened in the first century by Rome.
SPEAKER_00: It happened in the sixth century by suppression of other religions.
SPEAKER_00: It's happening right now in the 21st century by everyone who accuses the church of intolerance and hypocrisy.
SPEAKER_00: It happens in all of your midst.
SPEAKER_00: Anytime anyone slanders, divides, and twists the promises of God.
SPEAKER_00: That's what Satan does.
SPEAKER_00: He's the devil.
SPEAKER_00: He slanders the church.
SPEAKER_00: He causes division in the church by speaking half-truths and words that twist God's word.
SPEAKER_00: And he tells people what they want to hear, not what they need to hear.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't submit to the truth that is preached, and he always rejects it.
SPEAKER_00: He always seeks to undermine the true doctrine of Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: But don't be alarmed.
SPEAKER_00: The church has never ceased to grow among the weeds of opposition since the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: And this is important.
SPEAKER_00: Because don't let your eyes deceive you into losing hope.
SPEAKER_00: Don't fear, dear baptized.
SPEAKER_00: The church has always found itself in the midst of opposition, but it has never ceased to grow.
SPEAKER_00: And it won't ever cease growing, even to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: Never lose hope.
SPEAKER_00: You do have one who fights on your behalf, Jesus Christ, the victor over sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: The church always grows in the midst of opposition because the Holy Spirit is always watering and feeding the seeds of the kingdom through word and sacrament, which always brings Jesus to us.
SPEAKER_00: This is how the Spirit of the living God calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies us with his gifts by giving us Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can't find the forgiveness of your sins, life, and salvation apart from Jesus, where he attaches himself to.
SPEAKER_00: But why is there evil in the world, Pastor, you might ask?
SPEAKER_00: Or if God is good, then why do bad things happen?
SPEAKER_00: Well, today's parable reveals this to us.
SPEAKER_00: God is not the author of evil, nor does the devil ever work any good.
SPEAKER_00: But all of creation has been subjected to man's fall into sin.
SPEAKER_00: And in our arrogance to be gods of our own lives, in control of all we do, we fail to realize how fragile our lives really are.
SPEAKER_00: Nor do we understand the mind of God.
SPEAKER_00: How many times in Scripture does our Lord say, all men are like grass, here today and tomorrow thrown into the fire?
SPEAKER_00: God's word forces us to take our hope for our future out of our hands, out of what we see with our own eyes, and let Jesus have his way with us.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is in what we cannot see.
SPEAKER_00: So who are the sons of the evil one anyway?
SPEAKER_00: Well, Jesus says, you'll know a tree by its fruit.
SPEAKER_00: If someone is sowing strife and division among the people of God, that is not from Christ.
SPEAKER_00: If someone is sowing truth and word and sacrament as Christ has given it, well, then it can only be from Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Nevertheless, don't let this take your focus off Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Our Lord promises to take care of such things, and he will all the way to the end of the age.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is in what we cannot see.
SPEAKER_00: Those who refuse what Christ gives out, that which convicts the heart of men of sin and of righteousness, it'll all be noticeable.
SPEAKER_00: Those who receive Jesus and all he has for them in both word and sacrament will be known as well.
SPEAKER_00: Because these are the means by which he makes true believers.
SPEAKER_00: These are the means by which he makes sons of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: And apart from these things, there is no relationship with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Yet with these things also, dear saints, and this includes all of you, dear baptized, he also, with his words and his sacraments, puts to death all the devices of the devil, our flesh, and the worldly passions around us.
SPEAKER_00: He who atoned for our sins on the cross will return for us at the end of the age, but for now he continues to rescue us here today from sin, death, and devil every day in his church.
SPEAKER_00: What we teach in our catechism holds true.
SPEAKER_00: In this Christian church, he daily and richly forgives all my sins and the sins of all believers.
SPEAKER_00: How do you stand growing up among the weeds with what Jesus gives you?
SPEAKER_00: And we know the Christian church is wherever the gospel is purely preached and his sacraments rightly administered according to Christ's institution.
SPEAKER_00: So then our concern really isn't, who are the weeds, Pastor?
SPEAKER_00: But it should be, who are we in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Lest we doubt because of our sinful flesh, let us boldly speak with confidence.
SPEAKER_00: I am God's own child, I gladly say it.
SPEAKER_00: I am baptized into Christ.
SPEAKER_00: He, because I could not pay it, gave my full redemption price.
SPEAKER_00: And at the close of the age, he will gather up all causes of sin and lawbreakers and have them thrown into the fire, that we will not be subjected to evil forever.
SPEAKER_00: That's our hope.
SPEAKER_00: Our hope is the belief in what is not seen.
SPEAKER_00: These are our eyes of faith looking forward to what will come.
SPEAKER_00: And then he will gather up all those who are made righteous in Christ, and they will shine like the sun in their father's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: This is your identity, dear baptized.
SPEAKER_00: You are sons of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Because Jesus paid for your sins on the cross of Calvary, and he made you a child of his heavenly father.
SPEAKER_00: Dear saints, you have been forgiven on account of Christ and everything he did for you.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Now, the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.