Let Both of Them Grow Together

This meditation is based on a passage for May 29, 2011 in the Daily Lectionary Year 1 from the Book of Common Worship for the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (1993).

Text: Matthew 13:24-34a

Reflection and Question: The first of these three parables told by Jesus is the story of the wheat and the tares (tares is an old word for weeds). The farmer chooses to let the good wheat and the undesirable weeds grow together until the harvest. Through this image, Jesus is repeating his clear point in the Sermon on the Mount: In this life, we are to grow together in the church, not distinguishing between good and bad. God, like the farmer here, will make that judgment at the harvest. What practices in the church might we stop, in light of this story?

Prayer: All the world is God’s own field, Fruit unto His praise to yield;
Wheat and tares together sown, Unto joy or sorrow grown:
First the blade and then the ear, Then the full corn shall appear:
Lord of harvest, grant that we Wholesome grain and pure may be.
(Come, Ye Thankful People Come, second verse, The Hymnal 1933, 460)