Tricky Business

"Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn."

Tricky Business

I confess, to take a Black Lent Resistance journey is “tricky business.” We are all trying to find ways to embrace what Elizabeth Strout calls “big bursts and little bursts,” which is “tricky business, really.” Strout describes big bursts as “intimacies that keep you afloat” and little bursts as “friendly” gestures that “know how you like” things. On my Black Lent journey, I am fellowshipping in three houses of faith each week. I confess there is no better walk than walking with the Black Church for forty days. Each worship experience, no matter how low I am, when the usher gives a simple hearty salutation, I am lifted. Nonetheless, to buy black for forty days, to think black for forty days, to love black for forty days, to have a “man does not eat on bread alone” diet for forty days is tricky business.

I know our parents said, “Life is not fair,” but really! Because life is not fair never meant we would not have enough Black restaurants or clothing stores or grocery stores to satisfy our wants and needs. Still, life has shown itself not to be fair. To be on a Black Lent movement is tricky business.

This notion of tricky business made me ponder the parable Jesus talked about wheat and weeds. Jesus says in the parable that a man sowed some good seed, yet, while sleeping, an enemy came and sowed bad seed which became injurious weeds that looked like wheat. At the break of day there were wheat and weeds in the field. However, Jesus insisted that the wheat and weeds must grow side by side until harvest. You and I know that letting the good and the bad hang out together is tricky business. And yet, if we are honest, we are a composition of wheat and weed, good and evil.

When I read this parable, I can’t help but ask: When do human intuition and the Divine message converge? God is in us and all around us. Moreover, although God is everywhere, that does not cancel out the fact that evil also has its fingers on a lot of stuff. Nevertheless, wheat and weeds are in the same field and Jesus says you and I must embrace the fact that life is not fair, and it is tricky business. Both bad and good things will happen in our lives. These happenings, big and little bursts, wheat and weeds—will find their way into our lives because we have sown good seeds and because the enemy does awful things. Yes, it is an undeniable fact.

Now, before you get upset with me because I’m aware of my culpability for the good and bad that takes place, please know I have a resolution for living in a field of wheat and weeds. The parable does proclaim, “Let them both grow side by side till harvest; and at harvest-time I will tell the reapers to gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to be burnt, but to collect the wheat in my barns.” Life indeed is tricky business, but according to this parable, there is nothing complicated about what takes place at harvest-time. At harvest-time when the wheat and weeds are separated, one is burned and the other finds a home in the barn.

Twenty-nine days ago, some Black people turned toward one another. Some of those Black people are no longer mindlessly spending; they have discontinued subscriptions and have helped Black businesses believe again. Let’s be honest: we already can distinguish the wheat from the weeds. Harvest may not be in a few days or months or years, but the wheels of inevitability will deliver her soon. I pray that while on this Black Lent journey together, we are doing those things that will ensure a pleasant place in the assurance of God’s grace. No one is exempt from making the decision to be either wheat or weed. When our journey ends, the wheat and weeds will be separated, and only the wheat enters the joy of the Master.

+ Rev. Darryl Aaron, Providence Baptist Church