By Rev. Martha Martin
St. Andrew's United Church, Halifax

"Surely the Lord is in this place …"

Genesis 28:10-19a; Matt. 13:24-30, 36-43

This past week is one of my favourite weeks of the year - the week of the Atlantic Jazz Festival. It's not just about the music that I hear during the week, although the music is great - but I also love what happens to this city. I mostly hang around the tent on Spring Garden Road, once or twice through the week I'll get a ticket for one of the evening shows, but it's the free concerts in the afternoons where I usually end up. And if you hang around long enough and often enough throughout the week, you'll hear an amazing mixture of music - contemporary jazz, blues, Dixieland jazz, school jazz bands, Latin music, hip hop, and other music from around the world - all for free. People pop in on their lunch hours, or after work … I saw some of you there. It's just a great, festive atmosphere.

A couple of years ago, I even wrote about 75% of my sermon sitting in the tent … which I was kind of reluctant to talk about until Pat, my spouse, told me that he spotted Bruce MacKinnon, who happens to be Pat's cousin, in the tent this week working on one of his political cartoons. So, I guess you could say the experience is even inspirational for some, including myself.

Now, I wasn't really expecting that I would be working on my sermon again in the jazz tent this week, but here's what happened. I had looked at the scripture passages early in the week, done a bit of research, had an idea of a couple of places that I wanted to explore. But then, like many preachers I know, I just like to let things percolate a bit through the week, see what comes up, what I notice about the world, about God, about the people I see in the light of the readings …

It was Thursday at noon, and I wanted to catch the Deep River Boys, a gospel group with members from North Preston. Now in the past there hasn't been much gospel music during the jazz festival. In fact, an acquaintance of mine met with considerable resistance one year when he wanted to offer a Jazz Vespers service during the week. So I was a little curious about how it would go over in the bright light of day.

I got to the tent when things were in full swing - clearly the Deep River Boys had brought a sizable following with them - but the tent was full with a great diversity of folks - and it was hopping. With a great thundering bluesy/rock and roll kind of beat, the Deep River Boys were singing about Jesus in intricate harmonies and responsive choruses. It was a positively jubilant atmosphere, … and for those who didn't feel comfortable dancing, like myself, it was at the very least quite impossible to sit still in one's seat. I looked around in amazement, and the first thing that popped into my head was the line from our first reading today … "Surely the Lord is in this place …". And, after that revelation, out came my little book and a pen, and a torrent of thoughts and ideas about the sermon today.

So, I just want you all to know that when you see me in the future in the jazz tent, I really am working …

The interesting thing about my little revelation that day, was that I was able to see the sacredness of the moment as it was happening. That's not always the case. You'll remember that what Jacob actually said after he woke up from his dream was "Surely the Lord is in this place and I was not aware of it." That's more often the case I think … that we only recognize the presence of God in our lives in hindsight, as we look back.

Jacob's story so far, which we looked at in detail last week, is that he has cheated his twin brother Easau out of his inheritance. Jacob did this with the help of his mother Rebekah, who now fears for Jacob's life because Esau is so angry at him and has vowed to kill him after their father dies. Rebekah and Isaac have sent Jacob away to Rebekah's family to find a wife.

On his first night running away, Jacob has this amazing dream - a famous dream - the story of "Jacob's Ladder" that has been depicted in art and song over many years. Of course there is much written in the commentaries about this passage. Today I am borrowing heavily from a website entitled "Process and Faith", and the thoughts on the passages today written by Rev. Dr. Jeanyne Slettom. 1

One of the first things they point out is that God is not at the top of the ladder in Jacob's dream, but beside him. Now in my bible, it does say in v.13 "there above it, stood the Lord", but then there is a footnote that says "or, there beside him." It's interesting that they would choose the first way of translating as above, with the alternate translation of beside, instead of the other way around.

We can look at the ladder as the connection between the earthly and the heavenly realms, with the ascending and descending of the angels representing the interaction between the two realms. To see God beside Jacob, on earth, has profound implications. Slettom suggests that "God's desire for the well-being of earth and creation is front and centre, along with God's affirmation that God is present." Not only that, but she suggests that it is not only the place that is the house of God, as Jacob suggests, but that Jacob himself is "Bethel", house of God, because God promises to be with Jacob wherever he goes.

And isn't that what we heard in our Psalm today? This is my favourite of all of the 150 Psalms. This Psalm is an affirmation of the presence of God in every aspect of our lives, not in a "I'll be watching you" kind of way, but in an "I am always with you" kind of way. That at the very depths of our being, God knows us, loves us, accepts us. That nothing we do, separates us from this knowing, this love. Even though Jacob has acted deceitfully again and again, God still promises to be with him through this dream. And, Jacob must know this at the depth of his being to dream this dream … for dreams come from our unconscious being. Sletton says that the Talmud claims that unexamined dreams are "unopened letters" from God, and that " … if we examine Jacob's dream; if we 'open' the letter, then we come to those extraordinary words, 'Know that I am with you.' "

So, as I sat reflecting on the statement "Surely the Lord is in this place …" on Thursday afternoon, I realized that the statement might really be "surely the Lord is in every place …"

I have been studying this past year in a progam out of Tatamagouche Centre called the Atlantic Jubilee Program in Spiritual Deepening and Spiritual Guidance. It's a two year program that challenges participants to deepen their own spiritual journey in the first year, and then to practice and study the act of Spiritual Guidance with others during the second year.

This past year, the biggest challenge for many of us, including myself, has been to really "get" this statement in the very depth and fibers of our beings - "Surely the Lord is in every place …" The challenge to stop and see the world as God sees it is huge in the busyness of many of our lives today. It is a challenge to appreciate every moment for its own beauty and gift - it's something that the Buddhists call mindfulness. But, if we are able to do it, however sporadically and briefly at first, the rewards are rich. We begin to see that God truly is at work in the world, and present in all of creation.

And this brings us to the gospel passage today, the passage of the wheat and the weeds. Now, Jesus told stories, or parables, to challenge folks and make them think. So the fact that the second part of this reading includes Jesus explaining the parable suggests that it might more have been Matthew's need to explain the parable than Jesus' need. To explain a parable is kind of like an oxymoron.

By the time the gospel was written, the need for explanations and everything fitting neatly into a little package was already present. It's important to try to imagine what the original impact of the parable might have been.

Seasons of the Spirit offers this commentary:

"Early Christians faced challenges as their unique community emerged emerged. Some people wanted to return to the practices of temple worship. There were conflicts and disputes as church members struggled with what it meant to remain faithful to tradition while responding to the call to follow Christ in a changing world. Imagine the tension in Matthew's community as they wrestled with what it meant to be loved and guided by God." 2

It is suggested that the weed seeds Jesus is talking about were probably darnel, a type of rye grass which harboured a sleep-inducing, poisonous fungus, thought to cause blindness. Darnel and wheat seeds are similar in appearance, and the difference between them becomes clear only as the plants mature. Their roots intermingle, so pulling up a darnel plant can uproot a wheat plant too. So, in Jesus time, it made sense to separate the wheat from the darnel at harvest.

Although it is suggested in the parable that an enemy has sowed the weeds among the wheat, Jesus nevertheless says that it is God who will ultimately make the judgement about which is which. In the meantime, good and evil, wheat and weed live side by side.

The Reverend Barbara Lundblad, who grew up on a farm, offers a slightly different approach in her sermon on this passage. She says: "These parables about sowing seeds and leaving weeds must have sounded completely ridiculous to people who knew about farming. … Jesus' parables that seem so simple and ordinary don't really make good sense at all. Not to people who make their living by farming. Did Jesus really mean to draw such pictures of the Kingdom of God? Or was he simply a bad farmer?" She goes on to ask the question, "What good is it to be in the Kingdom of God if we are surrounded by bad seed?" She goes on to say that historically the church, beginning with Jesus' disciples, has tended to focus more on weeding than planting, or tending the garden, and that "… some of the more tragic areas in the church's life have been caused by this passion for weeding."

She suggests that God is more concerned about the weeds we pull up rather than the ones we leave. She ends her sermon by saying: "All I know for certain is this. Jesus told us to stp weeding. I know it's bad farming, but it is the kingdom of God" 3

There was lots of speculation and conversation on the lectionary websitses and blogs this week about the nature of weeds - just how exactly do we know something is a weed? Isn't it just all relative? We call it a weed, so it is a weed? If a rose grows in a wheat field, is it a weed?

The reality is, we are both weed and wheat together. Just like Jacob, who cheated his brother out of an inheritance, and then went on to be the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. What would have happened if we had weeded Jacob out of the picture early in the story?

How many of us were surprised, and I'll include myself in this, when we learned that it was a couple of the squeegee kids who came to a woman's rescue when she was being attacked in the Commons last year? I'm sure she's pretty glad that they didn't get weeded out, despite the fact that that is exactly what many wanted.

Of course, there is evil in the world, and in our midst. No matter where we go, there will be weeds growing alongside the wheat. I think Jesus is saying that we need to be more attentive to our own behaviour - sowing the good seeds and tending the garden to continue the metaphor, than in pulling up the weeds. It's comforting in a way - it's just not our job to pull up the weeds. We can let ourselves off the hook. We don't have to do it all. It might be even liberating.

Because God is already at work in the world, in ways we can see, and in ways beyond our imagination. "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I didn't even know it." Thanks be to God.



1 www.processandfaith.org/lectionary/YearA/2007-2008/2008-07-20.shtml
2 Women's Bible Commentary, Exodus
3 Seasons of the Spirit, Congregeational Life, Pentecost 1, p. 130