So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well (Matthew 13:26)

I was watching the final of Celebrity Masterchef on Friday night. One of the contestants was making dishes that were really complicated. She was putting all sorts of things together, carrying out all sorts of culinary processes and working really hard. One thing one of the judges said though struck me. “When you’ve got so much going on on the plate it’s hard to get everything perfect. I’m sure he’s right. 

The more complicated things are, the more difficult it is to get things absolutely right. And life is complicated. In each of our lives there is so much going on. There are decisions we have to make every day. There are choices we make every day. Some of them can seem trivial - what jar of coffee do I buy? - while others can affect the lives of people that we love. That’s the thing about being human. We make decisions; we make choices. We make lots of them - perhaps far more than we realise. Life is complicated.

Which is why, sometimes, we want to make things simpler; we want to hide from the complexities of life and describe things in clear, black and white terms - good and evil, right and wrong. Sometimes we want to be able to categorise people in those same, clear, black and white terms. We want clear heroes and villains, we want the good guys and the bad guys to be clearly distinguished like back in the early days of cinema when, I’m told, the good guys in cowboy films wore white hats and the bad guys wore black hats. 

But life isn’t really like that. And so the parable of the wheat and the tares. In the parable the owner of a field goes out and he sows good seed. He should be able to expect a perfect crop. But an enemy comes and sows weeds in the field as well. The two grow together and it isn’t until the good seeds are producing grain that it becomes clear that a mixed crop has grown up of wheat and weeds. The fact that it isn’t until near the time for harvesting that it becomes clear which is which is important. Almost certainly the weeds involved are a plant called darnel - a weed that looks so similar to wheat that it’s not until one produces grain and the other doesn’t that you can reliably be sure which is which.

In part this parable is about one of the big questions in religion. If there is one God and if that God is all-powerful, why do we not live in a perfect world? Why, alongside all the good things that go on in the world - and we should never lose sight of those - do so many bad things happen? Why, alongside all the good people in the world - and we should never lose sight of them - are there so many evil people? Why, in a world where there is one perfect God, capable of sowing perfectly good seed, is the world such a mixed crop.

Partly because the world is complicated. What do we mean by “good people” and “evil people”? How do we know which is which? They don’t all wear white hats and black hats. They don’t have little theme tunes that go around with them the way characters do in films. Wouldn’t that make life so much simpler? Take someone like Nelson Mandela. When he died a few months ago he was hailed as one of the world’s great men. I remember, though, a time when the Prime Minister of this country branded him a terrorist. That’s the problem, sometimes, in defining people as “good” or “evil” - it can depend on perception - it can depend what we actually know about them and on what our priorities are. One person’s terrorist can be another person’s freedom-fighter. One person’s strong leader can be another person’s dictator. 

The way people are viewed - in the media, by history - can change over time; the roles people can play can change over time. People can change over time. Take someone like John Newton, the writer of “Amazing Grace”. In his early years he was the captain of a slave-trading ship. He spent his time onshore drinking gambling and with ladies of ill-repute (now there’s a phrase to conjure with in terms of this sermon!) In 1748, though, he underwent a spiritual conversion, became an Anglican clergyman and, after much prayer and reflection, became a committed abolitionist. Good guy or bad guy? Hero or villain? Wheat or weed. Sometimes it’s hard to tell because life is complicated. People are complicated.

Humanity is a mixed crop because, truth to tell, each of us is a mixed crop. Most of us - almost all probably - want to be good people. There are very few amoral sociopaths in the world. But life is complicated. People are complicated. I know there are things I have done in my life I’m not proud of. I’m not a closet axe-murderer, but there have been times when I’ve said things I shouldn’t have said and hurt people, or I’ve made choices for selfish reasons. I hope I’m not the only one here that applies to. Of course I’m not. We all have the parts of ourselves we’d rather other people didn’t see - the private selfishness, the secret temptations. None of us is perfect. None of us is all wheat or all weed. Each of us is a mixed crop.

Even when we try to do what is right - and most of us do, most of the time - sometimes we make the wrong choices and wind up doing the wrong thing for the best of motives. We choose the cheap jar of coffee because we need a little extra, but that has a knock-on effect on the planters and growers in poorer parts of the world. We vote a particular way in a referendum, or in an election, and the consequences are negative. We can’t know everything. We can’t know the future and how our decisions will pan out. We don’t even really know ourselves. That’s why the results of human actions is such a mixture of wheat and wheats; why it’s a mixed crop.

And all of this is why the Cross of Calvary is so important. The Cross is the mark of God’s forgiveness of a faltering and failing humanity. It is the mark of God’s love for flawed and fallible human beings like you and me. It is the mark of God’s grace - the offer if we just accept it, that everything we have done wrong - all the rotten thoughts and selfish choices, all the stupid decisions and careless words - can be washed away. That when our time comes to stand before our maker - the one who has tried to guide humanity for as long as there has been humanity - all   the mistakes we have made through our greed and our selfishness and our petty hatreds will be washed away. However mixed a crop we have been, all our weeds will be separated from our wheat and thrown away.

Until then all we can do is heed the words of St Paul and try to cleave to what guides us in the right path. We can try to be generous and compassionate. We can try to look after the weak and the poor and the hungry and the homeless. We can try to stand up to wealth and power and greed when it inflicts misery. We can try to recognise all of humanity - every man, woman and child on this planet - as our brothers and sisters. We can try to reach out to those who feel excluded and forgotten. And above all, perhaps, if we realise that we - each of us - is a mixed crop of good and bad - perhaps we can be a little more forgiving and tolerant of others. If we are a mixed crop we can, at least, try to be more wheat than weed.

Lord when we get things right, encourage us. When we get things wrong, correct us. Help us to do what is right in the world and to give the failings of others as we have been forgiven

Preached at Tundergarth Church