Homily for the 5th Sunday after the Epiphany, 2022

Jesus, Patient Judge

Fr. Tony Melton

During Advent, we reflect on our waiting. “Why not now, Lord? When will you come? Maranatha!” During Christmas, we cherish our Savior and contemplate the Incarnation. “How can this be? Such beauty, sweetness, and mercy. Alleluia!” During Epiphany, we learn who this Messiah is, and what He is here to do. Epiphany sets the backdrop that clarifies and enriches our understanding of the Atonement. These past 4 weeks, we’ve learned that Jesus is the King of Wisdom, Lord of Gifts, Giver of Wine, and Taker of Shame. By establishing His Kingdom, He is making the World clean, purposeful, happy, and wise. 

One of the things I’ve learned as a parent and as a teacher is that you can’t ignore the question of justice. I’m sure all of you have seen a child incensed at the injustice inflected upon them, go to their parent or teacher with their brows raised and their eyes frantic, poised and ready to escalate if their pain is not recompensed with another’s blood or tears. “What are YOU going to do about this?” Most of the time, it is not enough to say, “Hey, chill out. You are a terd sometimes, too!” They want justice, judgment. And this is only natural. God has put within us a desire for justice, and we must be very careful not to squelch this. 

It is only right that this should be a theme for Epiphany. If we are asking, “Who is Jesus and what does He mean?” then the question of justice and judgment is natural. Wasn’t the Messiah supposed to judge the nations with a rod of iron? Wasn’t He supposed to be a refiner’s fire? There is so much evil in the world, and it was still there after Jesus died and was raised. Every now and again, we are awakened to the severe wickedness in the world, and our brows go up, our eyes get frantic. We look to God and ask, “What are YOU going to do about this?”

This is true on a global scale. Who does not think about the judgment of the wicked when they hear about the Uighurs in China, or the mass slaughter of the unborn by contraception or a host of other more violent methods? Yet, what is even more painful for the Faithful is the evil that exists within the people of God. I don’t know about you, but I can section off the actions of the unbelievers in my mind a bit. Heathens do what heathens do. But what really boils my blood is when there is such wickedness in the Church. I struggle to reconcile it within my soul. How can so-called clergy teach the things that they do? How can there be such abuse? How can there be such enmity between churches, and between believers? How can fights go on for centuries within the wider church? How can conflicts go on for decades within a single parish? How can there be such confusion on so many things? And what does this show about our Jesus, and His Kingdom?

This is the natural question after four weeks of looking at beauty of Christ. Now we look at His Kingdom and the World, and dissonance stings our minds. “How, Lord? When, Lord?” And it is with this dissonance in mind that Jesus utters the Parable of the Meadow, within which are planted both wheat and tares. This morning, we will learn what this parable has to say to those crying out for justice and who thirst after righteousness in the Kingdom of God. Then we will ask what the Parable of the Meadow means for you and our church. 

First, what does this parable mean? We see here a farmer who sows good seed in His field. These seeds produce wheat. All is well. But, Jesus says, an enemy snuck in at night and planted bad seed. Those seeds produce tares. Today, a “tare” is sometimes called “darnel”, and its nickname is “drunkard’s wheat.” If you eat it, you’ll suffer from vertigo, or something more serious. While it is growing, darnel, or tares, look exactly like wheat. And that is significant. You cannot tell them apart until it is time for harvest. In the parable, the farmer’s servants want to go out and pull up the tares, the darnel, and therefore make the field pure. But the farmer forbids them out of concern for the wheat saying, “Nay, [do not tear up the tares], lest while you gather up the tares, you root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest.” 

A few questions. What does this mean? The Kingdom of Heaven is mixed. The Church Militant, the Church on Earth, is mixed. It is not pure. Just like the meadow, the Word of God is sown within it, but so is the Word of Satan, which is heresy. Within the Church there is real fruit of righteousness. There is holiness. In fact, the image we get of the meadow is not that it is mainly tares. It is still worth harvesting, so the predominant crop is obviously wheat. So, too, of the Church. But, it is a mixed thing. 

And what does the parable says is to be done about this? The farmer says, “Let both grow together until the harvest.” Seemingly nothing. Does the farmer tell the servants to do anything about the tares in the field? He doesn’t. And this is not decided out of indifference toward the situation. It is decided out of tender concern for the wheat. “Lest any of the wheat be rooted up in the purge.” 

What does this parable teach us about Jesus, because isn’t that the point of Epiphany? It shows us that in addition to being the King of Wisdom, Lord of Gifts, Giver of Wine, and Taker of Shame, He is also Patient Judge. He is tender and kind. Think about how tender and kind and patient Jesus is. Isn’t a king judged by the merits of His Kingdom? Do we not judge mayors by the crime rates within their cities, governors by the quality of the schools within their state, and presidents by the gas prices? That one always puzzled me…Of all the things to complain about in our country. “These gas prices!” 

But think about this. Jesus could have been so concerned for His kingly reputation that He would have insisted on the purity of His Church, even if it had a little bit of collateral damage, some friendly fire. Did He not have every earthly precedent for this? The Pharisees were notorious for being hyper-vigilant about who would make it into their ranks, their pure field. Yet, Jesus is willing to endure shame, not only on the Cross, but for all of the Church’s history, for our sakes. “Let them grow up together. Let them alone. I don’t mind if the other farmers gossip about me that I don’t know how to sow good seed in my field. Let other kings despise my kingdom. I will endure shame and criticism for the sake of my people. They are more important than my reputation.” That’s who Jesus is. He is Patient. Humble. Tender. Kind. He is perfectly just. He is perfectly Holy. His wrath is stored up for the wicked, He will burn the prideful, the unbelieving will be thrown in the fire. Yet Jesus is long-suffering. So merciful. 

We’ve seen what the parable means: The Church is mixed. We’ve seen what we are to do about it: Seemingly nothing. We’ve seen what this shows about Jesus: He is Patient. But, why is He Patient? Why the delay? He has given a time of clemency so that three things can happen. First, He waits to judge so that the fruits of righteousness will have time to grow in His Church. He gives time so that the seeds planted in the Incarnation would have their intended effect, that our wills and beings would not only be saved from the wages of Death, but saved for the fruition of Everlasting Life. Second, He defers Judgment until later so that there is sufficient time for the Lost to repent. And third, He is Patient so that there is no excuse when He returns and judges mankind. 

This parable is so important for us to hear. There are thousands upon thousands of denominations. Sometimes schism is legitimate, but very rarely. Most of the time, it is due to an overzealousness for immediate purity. God’s people have not learned the Patience of their King and Judge. I say this as a priest within the REC and the ACNA. I obviously think schism is right in some cases. Yet, the warnings from this parable still hold true for any and all who separate the wheat from the tares, whether rightly or wrongly. True wheat will be torn up in the process along with the tares. Perhaps more damaging is that the servants of the farmer develop a fixation on purity that continues to injure souls. This is always the case when Schism and Reformation are necessary. It is always injurious to the Faithful, the wheat, and the Servants. 

How the act of purging the Church damages the souls of Christians is how our Gospel connects to our Epistle. The Farmer tells them to let the field be, but this does not mean that they are to do nothing. Our Epistle shows what this time of clemency is to be filled with Charity. “PUT on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; 13 forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. 14 And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. 15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.”

This is what it looks like for the people of God to imitate Jesus, Patient Judge. We are to be busy, not in searching out one another’s faults, not in pondering whether or not so-in-so is a true believer, not in fighting this-or-that theological or political battle within the Church, not in learning all the classifications of doctrine and developing our opinions about which ones are more wheaty and which ones are more tarey. We are not to put on our harvesting boots and take hold of our scythe. St. Paul says we are to put on charity, to take up mercy, to be long-suffering, to have humility over zeal, because the Church is mixed. 

But here is the real kicker…so are we. And with this I close. We have a further reason to be merciful and patient and tender. For we are like that meadow. We are mixed. We have growing within us both good and bad. When Christ returns, will we not, too, be purged of all that is not holy? And, yet God looks on us with such tenderness and mercy. 

We have before us today a perfect illustration. For just as we are like the Meadow, we have our own Meadow. And this morning she had the Good Seed cast over her. Today, we took hold of the Promise of God that the Word of God would take root in her tiny heart and would bring forth a crop of righteousness. And, yet, the Meadow of Meadow’s heart is mixed. Who among us does not wish Meadow every success in her life with God? Who among us would so fixate upon tearing out every root of sin within her, if it meant that her soul would be irreparably damaged in the process? Let our feelings toward Meadow be a guide to our feelings toward the Meadow of the Church. Though Meadow be mixed, she is beautiful. Though she is a daughter of Eve, though even after being washed she still retains the nature of sin within her, though she will struggle in this life, she is also a daughter of the Church. She carries within her the presence of the Holy Spirit, the seed of Life. We are confident that she will overcome the World, the Flesh, and the Devil through Christ who strengthens her. And, so we have mercy toward her. We love her. We rejoice over her. We sing to her psalms and spiritual songs. 

Beloved, be the same toward the Church. Be the same toward your Christian neighbor. Be the same toward one another. For the Meadow of the Kingdom is mixed, too, yet for your sake and the sake of redemption of the World, the merciful Love of God shines upon it all. Amen.