Matthew
13:24-30, 36-43
Let’s do some weeding this morning. Let’s separate the good from the bad, the
sheep from the goats, the thistles from the wheat, the white hats from the
black hats.
Let’s use, for example, the current
refugee crisis or immigrant crisis in Texas.
Now, just by giving it one title or the other, we begin to identify
whether someone is coming into this country to escape something at home
(whether that’s poverty or the drug wars), in which case they are refugees, or
arriving here because they are attracted by opportunity of some sort (whether
that is a decent education for their children or the chance to make, if not a
fortune, at least a respectable living), in which case they are
immigrants. Even deciding what to call
somebody means that we begin sorting them out.
For now I’ll use as neutral words as I can, which would be “arrivals” or
“newcomers”.
So in recent months we’ve seen a
suddenly influx of children arriving. There have long been newcomers who have
brought their families, but this is different because we are talking about
unaccompanied minors. How, exactly,
should we view the parents? In 1939, the
United Kingdom took in about 10,000 children from Jewish families in Germany,
Austria, Poland, and Czechoslovakia whose parents saw clearly what was coming
and put them on trains headed west to Holland and boats that carried them
across the English Channel to safety. It
must have ripped the heart out of those parents. How do you hand off your children, possibly
forever? But how do you not hand them
off when it means knowing the horrors that are approaching? In Central America, there are parents who
have to make similar choices. They can
allow their children to remain in what is essentially a war zone, with rival
drug lords killing and brutalizing whole towns and villages, or they can put
their children in the hands of other dangerous people who (for a price) promise
to get them to safety in the north.
Let’s do some weeding out here. What’s driving the problem may be the
parents’ fears. Those fears may be
well-founded. Drug cartels have created
an economic collapse that puts people in a position where they see few options,
if any, to survive apart from the drug trade.
One reporter wrote last week,
“Drug gangs have gained control of major chunks of Central
America, making honest economic activity perilous. Teenagers especially have
few options if they are not willing to work for the drug lords.” [1]
That was from somebody
who works at the Cato Institute, which is not exactly a haven for
bleeding-heart liberals. A parent who
wants a child to escape becoming part of a criminal network at home may send
them in the hands of criminals to commit an act of illegal entry here, in the
hope that they’ll grow up to live honestly.
How do you or I make sense of that?
I find some comfort in the parable
of the wheat and tares, that shows me how Jesus advised his disciples that
there are some situations so complicated that it takes God himself to sort it
all out, and assures me that God will do exactly that.
“The
kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his
field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among
the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain,
then the weeds 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.’ The
slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he
replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with
them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest
time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles
to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” [Matthew 13:24-35]
At the same time,
there is the warning that God takes very seriously the way that we let our
lives harm someone else’s, like a weed infesting a field. Consider again the problem of these transient
children whose lives have been endangered, stay or go, by the drug trade. What drives the drug business is profit. If there were no money in it, nobody would be
selling, and the market wouldn’t be worth fighting (and that means with guns
and knives) to control. Beyond the
sellers are the buyers who create the demand, and no one ever seems to mention
them, because of who they are. Maybe you
work with them. Maybe you live with
them. Maybe you are them.
The casual or
recreational drug user is the source of the problem. It’s that person’s money that pays for
bullets in Guatemala and bribes judges in Honduras and orders assassinations in
Mexico leaves children as orphans in Costa Rica and leads teenagers who see no
other options to join up with the gangs who prey on their own people. Every time a comedian on late-night
television trivializes smoking a joint, they trivialize the suffering involved
in its production and distribution.
Whether it is or is not the same as the use of any other drug is beside
the point.
There are times when
obeying a law causes harm, as when the law orders segregation or allows
domestic abuse. Those are laws that
deserve to be broken and opposed.
Obeying a law against drug abuse does no one any harm, and does many
people a lot of good, while breaking it encourages criminal activity, even to
the point of murder. So until there is a
change in the law, arguments that marijuana is no different than alcohol are
totally irrelevant. The point is that
nobody should knowingly do anything that leads to the harm of another human
being, which paying money to a dealer does.
If we are to begin
weeding anywhere, it has to be with our own hearts and our own lives. Jesus spoke especially strongly about doing
nothing that would hurt a child, even if it would mean forgoing things that we
may hold dear, even parts of ourselves.
He said,
“If any of you put a
stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be
better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were
thrown into the sea. If your hand
causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed
than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to
stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two
feet and to be thrown into hell. And
if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter
the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into
hell.” [Mark 9:42-47]
So if you think you
may be part of the problem, please get some help. If you don’t know where to
turn to do that, give me a call or drop me an e-mail. I’m not going to slam anyone who’s trying to
pull things together. That wasn’t Jesus’
way of doing things; it shouldn’t be ours.
“The Pharisees and
the scribes were grumbling and saying, ‘This fellow welcomes sinners and eats
with them.’ So he told them this
parable: ‘Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does
not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost
until he finds it? When he has
found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls
together his friends and neighbors, saying to them, “Rejoice with me, for I
have found my sheep that was lost.” Just
so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.’” [Luke 15:2-7]
[1]
Ted Galen Carpenter, “Drug Cartels Are Causing a Refugee Crisis” in CNN World, July 8, 2014. http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2014/07/08/drug-cartels-are-causing-a-refugee-crisis/
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