Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at the harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat in my barn. 

Matthew 13.30 

Pastor Oscar Banks of South Shore Christian Church in Corpus Christi tells the story of a children's sermon that took a hard left turn. The pastor asked the boys and girls what she would have to do to get into Heaven, proposing increasingly heroic acts of service and self-sacrifice. Well-schooled, the kids said no, that none of that would do the trick. In mock frustration, the pastor fumed, "Then what do I have to do to get into Heaven?"

"Well," replied one little boy. "First of all, you have to be dead."

Jesus threads the same idea through this parable: We never do well to get ahead of Heaven. Heaven comes after we've waited it out with the weeds. Utopian schemes of earthly paradise, Jesus warns, only make things worse. In fact, a lot of waiting goes on in this entire chapter: the farmer has to wait for the seeds to find good soil after a lot of trial and error; the hearers have to wait until the meaning of the parables emerges and most won't stick around that long; the birds have to wait until a mutant mustard seed goes full-on giant sequoia and the housewife has to wait for the dough to rise. 

So what is the calling of the Christian in this weedy old world? Put down the perfectionistic weed-whacker, tend to what's growing, and wait it out. And be humble: Someone has said that a weed is only a plant growing where I don't want it, and a lot of our condemnation of others has far more to do with their inconvenience to us than their disobedience to God. And be joyful: One day servants of the Householder will conduct a surgical strike, burn the bad seed and bundle us into his barn. Until then - on your job, in your family, at your church - don't expect Heaven; you're not dead yet.