Sermon Title: The Patience of the Kingdom
Parable of the Wheat and the Tares (Matthew 13)
We already began last Sunday with the 13th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. In this chapter, Matthew helps us understand what this kingdom of heaven is that Jesus has come to establish.
Kingdom of Heaven: Context and Meaning
Kingdom of heaven. Matthew uses this phrase because he is writing primarily to a Jewish audience. Jewish people were careful not to use the name of the Lord lightly, so they often spoke of the “kingdom of heaven” rather than the “kingdom of God.” In the other Gospels you will hear the same reality described as the kingdom of God. It’s a small but important detail you would have learned if you joined Ian and me at Bible study on Wednesdays — just a little advertisement! You can also join us online.
So what is this kingdom of heaven, this kingdom of God, all about? Jesus came to establish something new. Anyone who truly embraces Christ is called to live already in a new reality — a new kingdom, a new way of seeing the world and one another.
The kingdom of heaven has very specific qualities, and in these parables Jesus describes them. What is the closest thing we can imagine to the kingdom of heaven here on earth? I would say the Church. The Church is a community of believers who gather to live in this new reality that Jesus has established. Yet the kingdom of heaven is much larger than the Church. Jesus is speaking of something far bigger than St. Barnabas, bigger than the Anglican Church, bigger than any single congregation — whether growing or struggling.
The Purpose of the Church
Still, let’s begin with the Church. What is its purpose? Above all, the Church exists to change our lives — to change how we engage the world, how we see the world, and how we see ourselves. If we truly engage with Jesus, we should have no reason to remain in despair. St. Francis of Assisi would tell a sad brother, “The only reason you should be sad is if you have committed a sin — because for a Christian there is no reason to be sad.”
What about forest fires or any other tragedy? When we place even the hardest moments of life against what Christ has done for us, and when we truly receive the peace that only He can give, we discover that our hope cannot ultimately be taken away.
This is what the Church is meant to be. Yet it is also what the Church so often fails to be. How many times, as churchgoers, do we let the details and troubles of life steal our peace and our hope?
The Parable of the Wheat and the Weeds
That brings us to today’s parable: the good seed growing alongside the bad. Anyone who has tended a garden knows the real frustration is not the garden itself — it is the weeds. And this was not just a story Jesus invented. In Jesus’ day, if you wanted to harm your neighbour who was a farmer, you would sneak in at night and sow weeds among his wheat. The particular weed in this parable looked almost identical to wheat until harvest time. Only then could the two be separated — usually by women who sat and painstakingly sorted the brown grains of wheat from the greenish grains of the weed.
Jesus uses this familiar scene to say: Be patient. Patience is a defining quality of those who belong to the kingdom of heaven, those who belong to the Church. It is so easy — even for someone like me who likes cleanliness and likes to get things done — to act like the servants in the parable who want to rip up the weeds immediately. “Look at us! Our church has only saints. Everything is clean and organized. No problems here.”
But if that were truly the case, maybe we wouldn’t even need Jesus. We would have it all figured out already.
To anyone looking for a church I would say: find a community that is honest enough to be a mixture of wheat and weeds — a community patient enough to welcome all kinds of people, and humble enough to leave the final separation to God. Our job is not to uproot everyone we think doesn’t belong. That is God’s work at the end of time.
Called to Patience and Humility
So what is the Church called to be? We are called to be a community of both wheat and weeds, of the perfect and the imperfect, of brokenness and wholeness. When we look around and see imperfection — in ourselves, in others, in our church — how do we respond? How do we live with patience as individuals, as families, as a parish, and as a country? How do we focus on the good we can do instead of obsessing over everyone else’s sins and failings?
St. Paul speaks of this same patience and humble endurance in our second reading today. Imagine what our lives would look like if we truly embraced this virtue — trusting that God has a unique role to play in my life, in my church, and in my community.
Jesus gives us these parables about the kingdom not to solve all our problems at once, but to show us that there is more to life than the simplistic answers we often reach for. Our whole life is a continual journey of growing, understanding, and appreciating the mystery of God. Anyone who claims to have all the answers should make us cautious — sometimes I sound like I have all the answers too! But none of us do. That is why Jesus speaks in parables. He invites us to keep entering the mystery, to stay humble and patient, and to remain connected to God.
Then, even in the darkest and most confusing moments, we will hold on to the peace that only God can give through His kingdom.
Closing Prayer
May our community, this church, our families, and our own hearts be deeply rooted in the kingdom of heaven that Christ offers us each day.
Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.
Fr. Wojtek Kuzma