Week 03 || The Slow Apprenticeship - Wheat and Weeds || Matt 13:24-30, 36-43 & Rom 8:12-25

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peace. Good morning everybody. In today's Gospel

reading that Jenny has just read out, we could

have the slide thanks, Jesus stays at the Sea

of Galilee speaking to the gathered crowd. And

because most of his listeners were rural farming

people, Jesus used images which they could relate

to. So today we hear Jesus talking about the

parable of wheat and weeds or tares of the field.

The staple diet of Jesus' community was wheat

or grain. But another plant looked almost identical

to wheat in the early stages of its growth. And

this is called in the Greek text, zezania, danal,

or weeds, or tears. And in Jesus' parable, the

following conversation takes place. When the

wheat plants came up and bore grain, then the

weeds, zezania, 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. And I would like to place

the story within the context of the lives that

we lead. I think of the sustaining, life -giving

aspects of my life, the good seed, the wheat.

And these have come from my family, my friends,

my spiritual life, my work, and this lovely community

where I formed so many friendships. I also think

of the noxious elements in my life that have

sprung up through various enemies, the enemies

particularly of my own failings and shortcomings,

the enemies of some life experiences and setbacks.

So what is Jesus' message of how we deal with

what we see as the negative parts of our life?

We find this in the ensuing conversation. The

slave said to the householder, then do you want

us to go and gather the weeds, pull them up,

get rid of them. But he replied no, for in the

gathering the weeds, you would uproot the wheat

along with them. And then the key words, let

both of them grow together until the harvest.

Now Carl Jung, was a German Swiss psychiatrist

who lived in the late 19th century through to

the 20th century. And he presented the notion

that every person has a shadow self, a Schattenselbst.

Alongside the persona that we admire and want

to present to the world, the wheat, there is

a hidden and darker aspect of a personality,

the weeds. And Jung recognized that like the

slaves in our story, The human instinct is to

try to deny or repress or rid ourselves, pull

up that less desirable shadow self. And Jung's

advice, like that of the householder, was to

acknowledge these less desirable parts of our

personality as natural components of human nature.

And the Jungian approach presents some archetypes

with the shadows, the weeds that need to be recognized

and addressed. So we have the caregiver, what's

more wonderful than being a caregiver. But there

could be a shadow side, falling victim to extreme

self -sacrifice and burnout. The creative person

could have a shadow of self -indulgence, perfectionism,

becoming obsessive. The explorer might have a

shadow of chronic restlessness, lack of direction,

perpetual dissatisfaction. The idealist might

be in denial, ignoring reality, remaining naive

to the point of danger. The joker, the jester,

might be using humor to hide pain, avoid true

meaning. The leader could be a shadow of becoming

bossy and controlling. Now Jung's approach to

how we should address the shadows in our life

is very much in line with Jesus' message in our

parable today. That we should address our shadows

with realistic self awareness and with kindness

to ourselves. And Jung said the following, until

you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct

your life. Your visions will become clear only

when you can look into your own heart, have that

self -awareness. Who looks outside dreams, who

looks inside, awakes to the self. the acceptance,

the kind acceptance of oneself. The acceptance

of oneself is the epitome of a whole outlook

on life. That I forgive an insult, that I love

my neighbour in the enemy in the name of Christ,

these are undoubtedly great virtues. But what

if I should discover that the most impudent of

all the offenders, the very enemy himself, that

these are within me and that I myself stand in

need of the arms of my own kindness. That I myself

am the enemy who must be loved. And I think of

my time when I was a deacon at another parish.

One day I received an anonymous email from a

parishioner. He confided that he was a male.

but he found himself being attracted to other

men. And he wanted more than anything in the

world not to be like that. So I thought long

and hard about what reply I should send to him.

So my reply was to recognize the turmoil that

he was undergoing, his self -awareness. But I

also asked him to remember that he was a child

of God. I asked him to try to be kind to himself,

not be ashamed of who he was and the feelings

that he had. I suggested that he might find peace

in entrusting his troubles to God, who loved

him just as he was.