GLEANINGS from the Daily Office – Advance! Advance!

GLEANINGS (from the Daily Office) – Advance, Advance – Year One, Proper 25, Friday, October 30, 2015, Matthew 13:24-30

“. . . the weeds appeared also.”

Forgive my absence yesterday. Our oldest, Mary, had a cardiac ablation at UAB. The surgery went better and faster than we could have imagined. For this we are grateful to God.

Wheat and weeds often grow in close proximity. We have recently recovered a part of our yard once devoted to parking. We need all the yard we can get with boys 7, 5, and 3.  Where a parking pad was dirt was spread and Bermuda sod laid. One might think the thick carpet-like grass would snuff out weeds. But no, at least not all. Our beautiful grass has weeds growing in it. Attempts at pulling the weeds must be made with great care as we might easily pull up the sod up before it sinks roots. Promoting the health and spread of the grass is our best defense against the weeds.

Jesus tells us the Kingdom operates in much the same way. The Kingdom, not the church mind you, advances in the face of antagonism, indeed an antagonist. Weeds, that have the potential to snuff out wheat, are ever present and were planted by the antagonist. Until the harvest, the wheat and weeds will coexist side by side. At the harvest the wheat and weeds will be divided and that the act of another, not the wheat itself.

Always applicable but how applicable now? First, do not be unnerved by the presence of evil and antagonists. It is part of the plan. That which would hinder the Kingdom won’t be eliminated in this life and certainly it is not ours to take it down. Second, advance the Kingdom and its health. It is not as much what we are against as it is what we are for. We tend to the wheat. We promote the Kingdom and its health. And not only is that our best bet. It is the plan. If we grow healthy grass it will take up more room and by its overwhelming presence it will snuff out weeds.

So we keep on keeping on. Advance! Advance!

–Frodo: “I wish none of this had happened.” Gandalf: “So do all who live to see such times, but that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.”–