One possible implication is this: sometimes it's difficult to tell the difference between weeds and desired plants. I think of the child's delight in dandelions, both in their brilliant yellow color and when they've gone to seed. The child sees beauty and wonder. The adult whose job it is to keep the lawn pure goes ballistic when the child in their delight blows the seeds all over the yard... Which is it? Dandelion as weed or flower? (Or potential harvest when you might make some wine or salad from dandelions?) It clearly depends on your perspective.

Then there's the artichoke. I grew up in a part of the country where we didn't do a whole lot with artichokes (maybe at most an artichoke heart that is canned made into a dip...). It wasn't until much later in life that I've seen what can really be done with artichokes. Boil them up, dip them in butter or mayonnaise, getting the little bit of meat working your way through the thing until you find its heart. A compelling appetizer for some. I'm not entirely convinced, because an artichoke requires such hard work. Moreover, when I saw for the first time artichokes growing in their natural habitat, I had to ask myself: why do you want to eat a thistle?

So the difference between wheat and weed may well be a matter of perspective. In fact, there is nothing intrinsic about a weed that makes it a weed. The dictionary definition of a weed is this: “generally a wild plant growing where it is not valued or wanted and is in competition with cultivated, desired plants.” We know well that what is valued or desired can be quite subjective.

Again, the parable says let both wheat and weed grow together until the harvest: "and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, ‘Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’"

Furthermore, according to the explanation of the parable, we are not the reapers, the angels of the Son of Man are. We may claim to have an idea about what is wheat and what is a weed, but it's not our job to do the harvesting. We are not the ones to gather one from the other, storing one in the barn, burning the other.

You can fill in the blanks about what this means in your faith journey and in the life of our world. Suffice it to say that we humans have a tragic and deadly tendency to designate others as mere weeds. We may think these other people are weeds worthy of the fire, but in all humility, that's where it should end. God will sort it all out when there’s an accounting on the last day...

Note also what this parable does to our first inclinations. The servants are anxious to pull up the weeds among the wheat. You can hear the anxiety in the text: "Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” The Master replies, “An enemy has done this.” The servants said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?" It's dripping with anxious eagerness to get rid of the weeds. The answer persists, “No, relax, settle down. It will all get sorted out.”

From the perspective of the dominion of God, there is complete confidence that the wheat will prevail. There are no worries about whether or not there will be a good harvest. So we can settle down and relax. The wheat will not get choked out by the weeds. The promise is that straightforward.

But this is not the attitude in much of today’s church and world where there is such anxiety and indeed enthusiasm for rooting out perceived evil weeds. There are so many concerns today about religious and political purity – ‘we must not have any weeds among our fine wheat.’ If we deem one a weed, we may try to root them out by denying them communion or prohibiting baptism, proclaiming them heretics, excommunicating them, condemning them to the fires of hell, etc. And we may deem the perceived weeds as less than human.

But a community built around the values and attitudes of the dominion of God reflected in this parable has no room for such preoccupations with purity and anxious desire to get rid of the perceived evil: "Let both the wheat and the weeds grow together until the harvest."

According to the parable, the dominion of God is a messy reality full of wheat and weeds, entangled all together, growing toward harvest. Why can't we then relax together in our conflicted differences? And just let it be? There will be a harvest. The wheat will prevail.

And at harvest time we may be surprised to learn who is wheat and who is weed (since our ability to discern this has been compromised by our sinful brokenness and shortsightedness...). The Son of Man through his angels will separate it all out and take care of it. So relax. Let it be.

And if we can just relax and take ourselves a bit less seriously, then maybe we can come to see the thistle artichoke as something delicious. If we can let the wheat and weed dwell together, then maybe we can return to childlike delight in seeing dandelions as wondrous things, brilliantly yellow, curiously odd in how they go to seed. From the perspective of the teaching about the dominion of God reflected in this parable of the weeds among the wheat, maybe we can come to the point of delighting in each other whom we might otherwise consider weeds, and even come to enjoy this garden that is not pure, but nonetheless lush and full of growth and beautiful surprises.

That the church may faithfully, authentically, boldly and convincingly bear witness to the dominion of God (and this is our central calling), let it be so. Let it be, that we may we peacefully co-exist, wheat and weeds together, until the last day, the harvest time, when the "righteous will shine like the sun in the dominion of their Father." Let us who have been given ears listen…

Now I invite you to reflect on a couple of questions and maybe have conversation with those at home about them:

• Be honest with yourselves – what groups do you perceive as weeds in today’s world?
• What gracious promises in God’s word help you relax in letting the wheat and weeds grow together until the harvest?

God in Christ bless your reflections and holy conversations. Amen.