Psalm 86:11-17

Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to revere your name.
I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name forever. For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. O God, the insolent rise up against me; a band of ruffians seeks my life, and they do not set you before them. But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant; save the child of your maidservant. Show me a sign of your favor, so that those who hate me may see it and be put to shame, because you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.

Matthew 13:24-30

He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field, but while everybody was asleep an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’  But he replied, ‘No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them.  Let both of them 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.’

Looking for Peace and Happiness

Everyone wants peace and happiness. Throughout the entire world, everyone wants peace and happiness. Right now, there are 8.3 billion people on Earth. I looked this up yesterday and I found something called the “Worldometer.” It’s a live streaming count, a live ticker showing the population of the world in real time. So you can actually see the numbers changing: the current population right now, births today and the deaths today, and these numbers are ticking on the screen, just like watching the stock market tickers, you know. And so, the current world population is about 8.3 Billion people. And everyone wants peace and happiness. Even birds and animals want peace and happiness. All living creatures want peace and happiness. The problem is that we don’t know how to create that peace and happiness which we so desire. But there is a way. There is a way to peace and happiness. And in the parables about the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus teaches this way.

Matthew 13

This week we continue reading chapter 13 of Matthew’s Gospel. Chapter 13 contains the Third Major Discourse in the Gospel of Matthew. Remember, there are Five Major Discourses, that is, Five Major Teachings in Matthew. The first one is the Sermon on the Mount. The second one is on the Disciples’ Mission, and now, the third one, the Third Discourse is the series of parables in Chapter 13. Altogether there are seven parables in Chapter 13. Last week, we looked at the first parable, the Parable of the Sower. And now, this week, we take a look at the second parable.

Fourteen minutes

Yesterday I sat down and read through Chapter 13. And I timed it. It took me 14 minutes to read Matthew Chapter 13. And that included taking a few notes. So you know why I’m telling you this, right? Fourteen minutes. It only took fourteen minutes to read the whole chapter. And once you read it, then you can have it in your mind to think about. You can see all the parables together and get a sense of how they are structured. Fourteen minutes to read these seven parables. And Jesus talks about why he is teaching in parables, too. And, he offers explanations of the parables. So this is very good information. We can get a sense of what the Kingdom of Heaven is.

Parable of the Weeds among the Wheat.

Now, the second parable is called the Parable of the Weeds among the Wheat. One day, a farmer planted a wheat field. But that night, his enemy went into the field and scattered a bunch of weed seeds onto the nicely planted field of pure wheat. Later, the slaves working in the field noticed weeds growing in the wheat and asked what to do. The farmer told them to wait until harvest and then separate out the weeds from the good wheat grain.

So this is a type of agricultural sabotage, you know? Someone scatters impure seeds into the wheat field and pollutes the crop. So it has to be purified.

Of course, there are many interpretations of this parable. Remember, Chapter 13 is about the Kingdom of Heaven, and we are asking: “What is the Kingdom of Heaven and how do we get there? How do we create that? Everyone on Earth is looking for Peace and Happiness. How do we create that?”

Interpreting the parable

Sometimes in the past, this parable has been interpreted to mean “Get rid of all the bad people, and then you will have the Kingdom of Heaven.” That’s a “Pure Society” approach. Kill all the “bad people” and then, you will have the Kingdom of Heaven.

Or another interpretation focuses on the Day of Judgement and Hell. This is a kind of hellfire and damnation approach. The weeds represent all the bad people who get thrown into hell and the wheat represents the good people who get into heaven. So the Kingdom of Heaven is something that happens after we die.

But I want to suggest another interpretation, another way of looking at this parable. The Kingdom of Heaven is available to us, right now. It is right here and right now, if only we can see it, and if only we don’t mess it up.

Yesterday Shari and I were at home. It was a quiet afternoon. I was reading in the living room. Shari brought in some tea for us. And we sat there together, enjoying the tea, simply being there together, enjoying the quiet summer afternoon. And there it was, the Kingdom of Heaven. It was right there. So simple and peaceful. It was peace and happiness, right there.

So in this view, the Kingdom of Heaven is a matter of perspective. The Kingdom of Heaven is here, always here, right in front of our noses. But we mess it up. We mess it up with our negative thoughts; our thinking mind, our conceptual mind. We ruin our own peace and happiness with thoughts that create depression, anger, hatred, greed, anxiety, jealousy, all kinds of afflictive emotions.

Have you ever noticed, you can be in a beautiful place, you know? Maybe some of you have been to Hawaii. Or some other beautiful place like that. Some place where everything is perfect, you know? Beautiful scenery, pleasant weather, everything is ideal. But then, something starts to bother you. Your habitual mind, your habitual patterns of thinking, criticism, judgement, comparisons, all sorts of negative thoughts arise in your mind. A thought arises in your mind and it destroys all your peace and happiness. It doesn’t matter how beautiful the mountains and the oceans are, it doesn’t matter how good the food is or how fancy the hotel is. A powerful negative thought can destroy all our peace and happiness. And this is a habit. It’s a habit pattern of thinking.

So these negative thoughts are like the weeds that pollute the wheat. Our thoughts are very powerful. Negative, afflicting thoughts can ruin your day. Have you ever noticed? There is a connection between our thoughts and our feelings. Most of the time, we notice our feelings, but we are not so aware of our thoughts. But actually, the thoughts come first. Our thoughts create our feelings. Our thoughts generate our feelings.

Thoughts create feelings.

That our thoughts create our feelings is the premise of a very important book on depression and anxiety. The book, called Feeling Good by psychiatrist David Burns, is about Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Cognitive Therapy takes a look at our thoughts. As Burns writes, “The powerful principle at the heart of cognitive therapy is that your feelings result from the messages you give yourself. In fact, your thoughts often have much more to do with how you feel than what is actually happening in your life.”[1]

In his book, Burns presents a list of ten cognitive errors, that is, ten mistakes in thinking. These are ten mistakes that people make in their thinking, in the messages they tell themselves, that make them feel bad. For example, one of the cognitive errors is called “overgeneralization.” Here is an example. Burns writes,

“A depressed salesman noticed bird dung on his car window and thought, “That’s just my luck. The birds are always crapping on my window!”  This is a perfect example of overgeneralization,” Burns writes. “When I asked him about this experience, he admitted that in twenty years of traveling, he could not remember another time when he found bird dung on his car window.” [2]

Negative thinking is a habit, and negative thoughts are the weeds that pollute the wheat. Negative thoughts destroy our peace and happiness. Instead of creating peace and happiness, we create suffering: all the painful emotions: anger, greed, hatred, anxiety, jealousy, envy, all these emotions come from our habitual negative thinking, our mistaken thinking.

So, do you see how this relates to the parable? Coming back to our story of the weeds in the wheat field, these negative thoughts are the weeds in the wheat field.

The invitation this morning is to read Matthew Chapter 13 and then take some time this week to notice your thoughts. Notice your habit patterns and the way thoughts arise in your mind. And see if you can notice how your thoughts create your feelings. Everyone wants peace and happiness. We are all looking for the Kingdom of Heaven. And so, may we find it, right here, right now.

Amen? Amen.

[1] David Burns, Feeling Good (Harper Collins: New York, 1980) xviii

[2] Ibid, 33.