Many of us have read the parable about the wheat and the tares. (It is easier when it is the first book of the New Testament. 😊 ) Unfortunately, the reading of it hasn’t always brought the church to focus on souls, but instead a lot of finger-pointing at folks who do not do what people believe they ought to be doing. 

I want to give you a little of my pre-Christianity or pre-kingdom history. 

I was born in New England. My dad, “a lapsed Catholic” and my mom, who leaned more towards the Episcopalian and Congregational church thinking. My mom was the one who “took us to church”. But truth be told, other than the social piece, church gatherings seemed to have little to do with the Bible.  

For 35 years, I leaned more towards what many calls “alternate religions”. And then one day, Christ appeared to me. And my life changed. 

And that line in the sand, forced me to review the last 30 years. To evaluate my spirituality. Because of my “alternate religions” and beliefs, several well-meaning Christians had confronted me. And a number of them were not “nice” about it. Conversely, there were folks who were sincere and spent the time to talk to me. 

I grew up in the 60s. Vietnam, Woodstock, assassinations and moon landings. I was part of the “love generation”. Years later, I found the histories of the Jesus Movement and the Jesus People. Christianity in many respects, spilled out across the nation.  

And during it all, legalism and “conservative Christianity” came. Just as in the Bible, lines were being drawn.  Those lines were no longer being brought about “in the church” but now they were reaching out into the world at large.  

Before my move to Christianity, I watched over the years, what I call “isolationism”. I saw and heard about the camp areas, communes and communities where Christians were gathering.  (You can even think on Jim Jones and Guyana.) 

When I would ask about them, I was told that there were basically two schools of thinking that were out there.  

One group wanted to “be not part of the world” and the other, wanted to practice Acts 2:41-47. (Unfortunately, the full scripture for the first one, is, As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. … as one of its own if you belonged to it, but you are no longer part of the world. For the second it was the practice in Acts 2:41-47 where the community comes together. BUT, in Acts, it was open to others. To the people of the community.) 

I even had a group of folks in our fellowship as Y2K approached that decided that they needed to isolate. The results were frightening. My first church isolated a lot from other fellowships and gatherings. Over time a flourishing group deteriorated. These things are not healthy on ANY level. 

Any time the church gets into a return to tribal thinking, we begin to exercise exclusion instead of inclusion. The very antithesis of God’s message to us. 

For years many heard the messages of the history of the previous 30-50 years. The periods of missed opportunities. Bad words and teaching increased personal debt, many never saw education and others grew up in place of no love. 

Christ died for all of us. His prayer in John for unity. His death was for the whole world. 

We are called to go out into all the world. We sit on a great opportunity. Let us not repeat the history of past  generations and isolate. We must avoid the tribalization that many are seeking.  We are called to be light and light in the world. To be salt. We cannot provide that by the process of isolation. 

The changes we seek will not happen without our participation. 

Let us not miss our chance. 

Matthew 13:24-30. 

24 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; 25 but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. 26 But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared. 27 So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us then to go and gather them up?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest while you gather up the tares you also uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ ”