I have been grappling with this weeks lectionary readings, and have found myself particularly drawn to the Gospel. An uncomfortable reading, ending with judgement and burning, and yet it has spoken to me powerfully!
Weed and wheat are Jesus illustration and yet the field was so carefully planted by the sower; the wheat is obviously the intended crop and yet enemy sown weeds grow up alongside the wheat. In Jesus tale the farmer counsels his workers to leave the weeds alone, to tend to the whole field, to nurture the wheat and not to focus on the weeds. The weeds are in effect the farmers problem, not the workers problem!
I find this hugely releasing, it enables me to serve the whole church, wheat, weeds and all, in the wonderful mystery that whilst I do ( no discernment set aside here) an amazing transformation might take place. Some of those weeds will become wheat, a healthy crop, useful, and nourishing. If I had weeded them out then I would have usurped the farmer and thrown away potential!
We are called to patience as well as discernment in pastoral ministry, and so often that means walking with folk, accompanying them, hearing their stories, helping them to pray. In thses disciplines transformation becomes possible. If we had simply weeded then there may have been a huge pile of kindling, but the crop would have been sparse and even bare...
But in God's field miracles abound and the impossible is made possible when we trust him...
