This past Friday I was watching “Designing Women” while I enjoyed my morning coffee and the episode was attempting to shine light on the realities of the HIV & AIDs epidemic. When I was in Middle school, I won’t tell you in what year, I remember having assemblies about the HIV & AIDs epidemic. One of our gym teachers was heavily involved in the fight against the stigma around the epidemic and as part of the assembly, children our own age who had HIV came to visit us. We met in small groups so that we could hear their stories and have a chance to ask questions. I don’t remember being particularly nervous about the epidemic, but I do remember that many people were quite hysterical about it. I also remember that many television shows of the time attempted to help with the hysteria, such as “The Golden Girls” and “Life Goes On”. The hysteria caused by the HIV & AIDS epidemic stemmed from many things, including misinformation about the disease, such as how it is transmitted and while I don’t personally remember being afraid, I know that the fear was palpable and that it led to divisions within communities. Some people were simply afraid and unsure what to do or say; some people felt that the people who were being infected were simply getting what they deserved for their life choices; and some people spoke publicly to correct the narrative, to help the public understand that those infected with HIV were simply people with a deadly disease.
As I read today’s gospel I was immediately drawn to the imagery of the wheat going to the barn and the weeds being burned; obviously meaning that the true believers will go to heaven and the heathens will burn in hell. Well, I caution us from going down that rabbit hole because as with most things involving God, not all is as it seems; but before we close the door on this passage let’s take a quick look at one part. Jesus says, “they will collect out of his kingdom all that causes sin and all evil doers” At first I read this as everyone who doesn’t follow the rules will go to hell, but that is not what he said. He did not say that everyone who sins will be removed, but the causes of sin. He ends by saying that “anyone with ears should listen” so that they can understand what is necessary for kingdom living, for the God life, for a life without sin. Damming someone to hell for all eternity because they did not follow the rules is inconsistent with the primary teachings of Christ and it misses the point entirely of this parable because the parable is about the patience of God, not about us holding other people accountable. The farmer in this parable is willing to wait and see until the end of the growing season before the weeds and wheat are sorted because he doesn’t want to rush things and harm the wheat. The farmer represents God, who also waits patiently for their crop to grow, the difference is that God’s growing season is of an unknown length, and as far as I know the End Times have not yet arrived, and whether or not they have, we do not get to judge whether or not someone else is worthy in the eyes of God.
During the height of the HIV & Aids epidemic, many people thought that because the gay community was the first to be hit that they were simply being punished by God for their sinful life choices; even people who didn’t believe in God voiced similar ideas because it is always easy to judge the things we don’t understand, the things that don’t fit into our little box of rules. With time though, our boxes usually expand, and we eventually incorporate new understandings of the world. HIV & AIDS is barely a blip on the radar now, it has gone from being a guaranteed death sentence to a treatable disease and outside of the health classroom or the doctor’s office, it is rarely discussed, at least in the West that is. Many parts of the world, and especially various regions of Africa, continue to struggle with controlling the spread of the virus, though much progress has been made. When the epidemic began it was seen as the mark of a weed, as a sign of something that needed to be ripped out by the roots and burned; it was seen as a sign of punishment. But now, 40 years later, most people aren’t even aware HIV exists and it is certainly no longer seen as the mark of a weed. The moral of this story is this, we do not get to decide who is in and who is out. We do not get to decide who has committed a sin, or who will be saved, or who God loves. The only thing we get to decide is whether or not we love God and whether we will harness the power of that love to better the lives of all people. When we use scripture, or anything else, to judge people’s fitness for membership or to create arbitrary rules then we are the enemy who sowed weeds among the wheat, which is why the farmer, why God, said let it all grow. Allowing the weeds, we plant in the world to grow along side the wheat is an act of mercy because God knows that redemption is possible, that given time we will figure it out and when we do God will forgive because that is what God does. Giving into hysteria, to our negative emotions when we encounter new things is what leads to sin, Love doesn’t always translate into action, sometimes love means you just keep your mouth shut and wait to see what happens.
Learning by Fire! 