20.07.2026
Saint Francis
Sermon Pentecost 8A (lectionary 16)
The Rev. Christian Jennert, Bridge Pastor
July 19, 2026
Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Grace to you and peace from God our Creator and from our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
A Pentecostal minister once suggested asking ourselves a few simple questions from time to time: What do I do? How do I do it? And perhaps most importantly: Why do I do what I do? What is the motive behind my actions?
Those are worthwhile questions – not only for Christians, but for anyone trying to live a meaningful life.
If I am honest, I can look back on my own life and admit that there have been times when I have done the right thing for the wrong reasons, the wrong thing for the right reasons, the wrong thing for the wrong reasons – and thank God, the right thing for the right reasons.
Today’s Gospel invites us to examine not only our actions but also our hearts.
Jesus tells the parable of the wheat and the weeds. An enemy secretly sows weeds among the wheat, and when the harvesters discover them, they immediately want to pull them out. But the landowner surprises the: “No. Let both grow together until the harvest.”
Why? Because in trying to remove the weeds, they may also uproot the wheat.
Jesus is reminding us of something both comforting and humbling: We do not always see the whole picture.
Matthew’s first listeners needed to hear that. They lived in difficult times. The Church was small. Christians were misunderstood and often persecuted. It would have been easy to divide the world into “us” and “them”. But Jesus refuses to let them – or us – draw such neat lines. Because the weeds are not simply ‘out there’. Sometimes they grow much closer to home. Sometimes within the Church. Sometimes within our own hearts.
The temptation is always to identify who the weeds are. Jesus instead invites us to examine ourselves. Where has resentment taken root? Where has fear crowded out hope? Where have prejudice, cynicism, or indifference begun to grow alongside faith? Those are the weeds the Holy Spirit patiently continues to uproot in us.
Jesus also speaks of an enemy who sows weeds among the wheat. Whether we think of that enemy as the devil, evil itself, or the power that oppose God’s love, the message is the same: evil is real – but it does not have the final word. Jesus’ explanation includes vivid images – even “weeping and gnashing of teeth”. They remind us that God takes evil seriously and one day all that destroys life will be overcome. But the point of the parable is not to frighten us or satisfy our curiosity about the last judgment. Rather, it is to free us from appointing ourselves as judges of one another.
The last judgment belongs to Christ. That is not bad news – it is good news. The Judge is also the One who stretched out his arms on the cross for the life of the world. The One who will judge the living and the dead is the very One who gave himself for sinners. That frees us from trying to play God in one another’s lives and allows us instead to sow seeds of faith, hope, mercy, and love.
Today many have been participating in the San Francisco AIDS Walk. William and I walked together from St. Francis, and this year’s walk has been dedicated to the memory of our beloved longtime member, Max Kirkeberg.
We do not walk because we believe we can fix every problem. We walk because Christ calls us to accompany one another, to bear one another’s burdens, and to witness to hope in the midst of suffering. It is one small way of sowing compassion instead of fear, kindness instead of judgment, and hope instead of despair.
That, too, is kingdom work.
The truth is, God has always been bringing good even out of circumstances that appear hopeless. Think of Joseph in the Old Testament. He could say to the brothers who betrayed him, threw him in a pit and sold him for 20 shekels of silver to a caravan of traders who took him to Egypt, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good.”
Joseph was not excusing evil. He was confessing something even greater: God’s grace is stronger than human sin. God can bring life even where we only see loss.
That same promise echoes through today’s Gospel. Yes, weeds exist. Yes, evil is real. But Christ’s answer is not panic. It is patient trust. Trust that God is still at work. Thrust that the kingdom is still growing. Trust that grace is often taking root where we least expect it.
The Church’s calling, then, is not to decide who is wheat and who is weed. Our calling is to keep sowing the good seed of the Gospel – to proclaim Christ, to forgive, to serve, to welcome, and to love – leaving the final judgment where it belongs: in God’s hands.
So let me return to those opening questions. Why do you do what you do? Where are you scattering hope? Where are you planting compassion?
May God make us faithful sowers of the Gospel, trusting that even when we cannot yet see the harvest, God is already bringing forth life.
And may the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.
