Proper 11 (A) God Gets the Last Word!

Proper 11 (A) God Gets the Last Word!

July 21, 1996

By Rev. Ernest F. Campbell

People have told me that when they attend a funeral they have sometimes wondered if they were at the right church. They hear the minister recount a list of the deceased’s praiseworthy attributes, none of which seem to match their experience of the departed. Having been the minister at many funerals for people I have never met, I hope you would agree that the minister is on-the-spot. It would be inexcusable to make the eulogy sound like headlines from the National Enquirer with no chance for rebuttal. The truth is, we see life only in parts.

We can never know the entire person. You don’t know all there is to know about me (thank God), and I don’t know all there is to know about you (thank God). It is possible that someone we think of as a saint is…. through the eyes of another…. A despicable scumball! Carl Jung wrote: “The brighter the halo the smellier the feet.” As one bishop explained to me, “You can only make judgments on what you know.”

When it comes to making ultimate judgments, like…. this one goes to heaven, and this one goes to hell, we simply don’t know, (nor can we know) the whole story about another person’s life. on the other hand, God does know….and if I understand the point of the parable or the weeds…. God will handle it.

Matthew 13:24-30

Jesus put before the crowd 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.’”

The workers were ordered to leave the weeds alone until that day when the secrets of all hearts will be revealed. I would guess that on that day there will be some big surprises!

For me, the most comforting good news to proclaim at a funeral is that when we die, we will stand before the most understanding, compassionate, merciful, forgiving, fair, loving judge we have ever known. (John 3:17) “God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world.” our ministry is to represent the spirit of God’s reconciling love in our daily walk.

Does this mean that as Christians we are not supposed to make any judgments about people or their actions…...especially when those actions are hurtful and destructive? Of course not! if we hope to survive as a society, it is imperative to be able to distinguish right from wrong.

When people say, “I’ve been through the mill.” Or “I graduated from the school of hard knocks.” They are saying that life has been a learning experience. We are like a bunch of “rocks-of-the-earth,” tossed together in a revolving rock polisher. We tumble with and against each other processing our respective rough edges. It is fun at times, but there are also times when it hurts like hell! This process of perfecting can be painful! You might hear someone say, “I would never wish________________ (insert any difficult life experience) on anyone, but I know I am a better person for having gone through it myself.”

Our journey towards becoming a decent human being begins when we are children. Hopefully we learn how to share, take turns and clean up our own messes. Our parents are there to make the process as fair as imperfect parents can make it. When there is a collision of wills, the parent must determine (judge) who started it, the extent of the damage, and hopefully come up with a reasonable and instructive consequence. If we do mess up…from within a FAMILY is a good place to do it. We can learn what works and what doesn’t work before we hit the real world.

Example) The line “Have you quite finished?” was not as cool when I used it on my dad as it was when I heard it said in the movies.

I learned a lot in “time out.” What I learned the most was that I didn’t like it! I also learned that before, during and after the time out, I was still an important and loved member of the family. That, as I see it, is what a Christian community is all about. In Romans, Paul writes: “My friends, I am convinced that you are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to admonish and instruct one another.” Paul again in 1st Corinthians: “Are you not competent to judge trivial cases? ….. I say this to shame you. Is it possible that there is nobody among you wise enough to judge a dispute between believers?” If no one disciplines us we could count ourselves illegitimate.

Like the rough rocks in the process of being polished, we are challenged to work things out!

Example) I was once the tie-breaking vote at a vestry meeting over whether or not St. Paul’s was going to be a smoking or a non-smoking building. I was the person who had to vote no. No, we were not going to allow smoking in our church or any of our shared spaces.

At the time, it may have felt like it, but the truth is, no one was pulled up by the roots.

The first priest I worked with after seminary, Dr. Ralph Higgins, said, “the trouble with this job is that you can’t tell anyone to go to hell.”

Today’s parable instructs us on how it will be in God’s Kingdom. In the end, on that day, there will be judgment, AND…...God will be the judge. In the meantime, we are here to live together as members of God’s family in community. When I, for instance, make a mistake, or when I need to work on something to do my part better, I would hope that someone in the community would let me know and then help me through it.

Example) My wife Margaret will let the waitress know if the soup isn’t hot. She does this as a result of what she learned as an administrator for a hospital. She learned that if there was a problem, she wanted to know what was wrong, and she needed help identifying the problem and then hear ideas on how to fix it.

Here’s a question that bugs churches across the land. What shall we do with the “no-shows” on our membership list. Do you think they deserve to be included with the faithful, hard-working, generous members that keep this place going? Shall we put the cursor on our computer screen behind their name and then press delete?

I’ve had that thought.

I’ve also wondered what would happen if we picked a name from that list, and then offered prayers for healing and reconciliation.

The promise (as I understand it) is when we have drifted away, we can repent and come home. Home is where they have to let you in. Our hope is that God will grant us that return. That He will welcome us home.