Rejection is something that we all have to live with and it is often the case that our peers whilst growing up will often not recognise our abilities, gifts, etc as they have already pre-judged the person. Even Christ was disbelieved in his own community (Matt. 13:54-58). For us such rejection is often devastating leading to the person slumping into depression and an inability to continue life's journey. Such a reaction negates the possibility that is inherent in such a situation. In feeling rejected and demeaned within your own circumstances may open up possibilities for the person or the community if they are encouraged to seek them out. We are usually so focussed on the negative that we rarely look for a positive within the accumulating negativity. This does not mean that we should suggest that there is always something positive in, say, the life of a person living with pain or a long term disability. That is simply demeaning and not worthy of us as Christians.
However, small rejections often lead to bigger problems especially if the rejection is an immediate response. Just think back to those days when you applied for jobs and got rejection after rejection especially when the employer wanted experience which you did not have because you have not been given the opportunity to gain experience. These can all lead to depression and other problems because there is a focus on the immediate rather than on the long term. We are sometimes pathetically upset by the long way round or are fascinated by the view of time held by those who work the land. We often fail to see the driving motivation and become agitated when the result is not immediate. Often we have moved this attitude into our modern farming productive methods because we want to have immediate results. Unfortunately, nature and God do not really work like that no matter how much we would like it to be. Like God we need to start to look towards the future, it may not happen in this generation but if the seeds are correctly planted no matter what the vicissitudes of life there will be a harvest at the end. We sometimes concern ourselves overly much, like the servants and the workers in the Matthew parable, with obtaining an immediate satisfactory perfection overlooking the long term potential. This can be applied to any situation within our spiritual as well as our mundane lives. Yes, occasionally, there is a need to act with haste and immediacy but we need to remember that there is a consequence to every hasty action we take.
The servants and stewards in the parable want to remove the weeds immediately but it is the sagacity of the owner who reminds them that in taking out one weed the probability of taking out good plants is high and therefore likely to reduce the final yield. We want to focus on the irritants, we want to dive in and save the day with our programmes and our schemes. Once again we forget that God is the one who is leading us along the path to redemption and salvation. We only have to look at our hasty actions of the past (reminding ourselves about the effectiveness of hindsight) when it comes to our goals in terms of the environment and our human sustainability. We see the immediate benefits of something and jump in to utilise that for our benefit. In this day and age it would have been thought that we would have learnt from the hastiness of the past and be more deliberate about how we take up new things. Especially when the new thing does not appear to have an immediate benefit and we reject it because it may clutter our lives. Just with the darnel and the wheat, we cannot necessary tell the difference between which seed is good and which seed is not. Only by listening closely to God's presence and recognising God's prevailing Spirit do we come to choose our course with care. This is even more concerning when we are discerning the future of the church or the parish or the programme or ministry. Our lives need to be governed by the sagacity of God's presence in our lives and not the instant gratifications for our own gratification.
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