Author: lakewooducc

Date: March 20, 2022
Scripture Lessons: Isaiah 55 and Luke 13:1-9
Sermon: Tyrants, Towers, and Trees
Pastor: Rev. Kim P. Wells

In Louisiana there is a prison that keeps all inmates in solitary confinement. The food is passed through the door. And the lights are kept off much of the time. The prisoners are shackled even to shower. It’s basically a dungeon. And ALL of the prisoners are young people. Under 18. Children. They get no education. No counseling. They are considered the worst of the worst and this is how are treated at the Arcadiana Center for Youth. Punishment? Absolutely. Rehabilitation? Absolutely NOT. The guards are barely trained and starting pay is only about $27,000 a year. They are afraid of the young prisoners. Oh, and did I mention that the vast majority of the prisoners are Black? Eighty percent. But you already knew that.

As I read about this I found it horrific. How could this be going on in the US, the great champion of human rights? This is state sponsored child abuse. There is nothing redeeming, no rehabilitation in this lock up. What is supposed to happen to these kids for the rest of their lives??? They are not being helped in any way to become constructive members of society. They will simply continue to be a burden on society. Because society is making that happen. That is unconscionable. From a practical standpoint. From an ethical and moral standpoint. And certainly from a Christian standpoint.

In discussing this with my spouse, Jeff, of course we both agreed that this is heinous. But I had the impression that the prison was opened about a year ago. Jeff had the impression that the prison was opened many years ago. And we got into a discussion about that. I thought that the prison being opened just a year ago made it even worse. In today’s world, how could that be happening? You can understand if it was opened many decades ago and has just continued on without question. But to have just started it last year? Jeff did not agree. He felt that it was worse if it had been open longer because that meant more children would have been damaged by the experience there. We didn’t resolve anything. We let the conversation drop.

In thinking about it, why did I bring up the topic of when it opened? The focus should have been on the children and their treatment. What’s the difference when it started? It needs to be stopped. I was sidetracked and missing the main point. Going down a rabbit hole. Distracted, as we so often are. Wasting my energy on that which does not satisfy, as Isaiah says it. Things of no lasting value. The conversation should be about helping the children in the prison. And transforming the sick society that produces such a place of abuse. That’s what is important.

What is important. That is what we hear about in the gospel lesson this morning. The disciples ask Jesus about the guilt of those who were killed by Pilate as they made their sacrifices in the Temple. Were they worse than others? Is that why this happened to them? Or the people killed when the tower of Siloam fell. Were they worse than other bystanders? Is that why they got killed? The people want to discuss an accounting game. Keeping score. In hopes that they can avoid an untimely death – at the hands of a tyrant or a faulty tower. They are interested in self protection. And Jesus completely dismisses the idea that the sins of the people who died contributed to their deaths. Being better or worse has nothing to do with the deaths in either situation. It is not a matter of blessing and curse based on behavior. They are asking the wrong question. They are discussing the wrong issue, like the timing of the establishment of the juvenile prison. That is not the issue.

What is the issue? Life is fragile and uncertain. It may be short. Death is capricious. No one knows how long we will be here. So pay attention. Get on board with God. Embrace the reality of God. Don’t miss your chance to know the abundant life of joy and love and community. Take delight. Don’t keep score. Your life may end soon. Don’t miss it!

Then Luke gives us the parable of the fig tree. As with other parables, the story is meant to function on multiple levels and to have many meanings and to speak to different circumstances and people. So, we’ll look at some of that. We are told there is a landowner, a gardener, and a fig tree.

Let’s start with the fig tree. The story features a tree that is very important for food. Figs were valued because they could be eaten fresh in the fall, a tear shaped fruit, 1-2 inches long, with green, purple or brown skin depending on the variety, and sweet reddish flesh with crunchy seeds. Figs, as we know, can also be dried meaning that they can be stored and eaten year round. And the fig tree is one of the first plants cultivated by humans before even wheat and barley and legumes. So humans know a lot about growing figs.

The fig tree is also an important tree symbolically. In the Hebrew Bible there are several references to people living beneath their vine and fig tree in peace and unafraid. The fig tree is a symbol of fertile, flourishing life in peace and security. It represents the vision of the Jews living in their own land in peace and plenty.

So, the fig is an important tree as a symbol as well as for food and it is well understood as an agricultural crop. A mature tree was expected to bear fruit after three years. The tree in the story is three years old and it has not borne fruit. It is taking up space and soil and nutrients and resources but it is not producing. So, the landowner wants the tree removed and replaced. The figs are needed for food. This isn’t just an ornamental tree. Or a random tree in the forest. The gardener asks for one more year to nurture the tree, give it special treatment, promote its development and production of fruit. This is a risk. It involves the input of resources without assured return. It could be a waste. But the landowner agrees to the proposition of the gardener. One more year. The wildness of mercy.

The gardener will loosen the soil, perhaps add more nutrients and more rich dirt to stimulate the roots. Let’s take a moment to look closer at this plan. The dirt, the soil that enables the tree to live and grow has nutrients and bacteria and other components that are fostering the life of the tree.

In a scene in the novel, Bewilderment, by Richard Powers, the main character, astrobiologist Theo Byrne is sitting on the wet grass of the lawn with his nine year old son, Robbie:

“Robin dug his fingernails into the soil and pulled up ten thousand species of bacteria wrapped in thirty miles of fungal filament in his small hand.” [Richard Powers, Bewilderment, p. 177.]

Ten thousand species of bacteria wrapped in thirty miles of fungal filament in a single handful of dirt. That just begins to describe the composition of dirt, created by millions of organisms decomposing organic matter. Dirt. Earth. Soil. Humus. From the same root as the word humble and humility. Slowly and perfectly the correct growing medium forms to support life.

So the fig tree is benefitting not only from the time and efforts of the gardener, but it is benefitting from all that is being provided by nature – that has taken decades to produce through decomposition.

The tree is being fed by the soil. And the tree will be given water. Remember those verses we heard today from Isaiah?

All you who are thirsty,
come to the water!
You who have no money,
come, buy food and eat!
Come, buy wine and milk,
without money, without price!

What is needed is being provided for the tree. At no cost. To foster the flourishing of life. The fig tree will be given what it needs, provided by nature and good will, so that it can bear fruit.

Jesus is talking about this lavish network of support to promote growth and bearing fruit being provided for free. Out of the wildness of mercy. And it is available not only to the fig tree but to us! This lavish life!

And what the disciples are worried about is being on the naughty list. The gospel is calling attention to all that is being provided for us. To all we are receiving. So that we can live rich and full lives of meaning and purpose in the reality of God. Bearing fruit. Like the water and soil provided to a plant, we are being given all that we need. Not only food and water and figs, but also wisdom, grace, guidance, and love. All being given to us every day. So that we might thrive in the reality of God. On Earth as it is in heaven.

While we are busy calculating our accounts and trying to justify to ourselves that we are blessed and so will not be killed by a tyrant or taken out by a tower, we are being pointed to a reality that doesn’t depend on us. We are being shown all that we are receiving. That we are being given. Gift. The wildness of mercy. And it doesn’t depend on us. It is because of who God is not because of what we do or don’t do. We are being shown that it’s not about us. It’s not in our control.

What we can influence is our awareness of the blessings of life. Of the goodness of life. We can cultivate an awareness of what we are being given. We can pay attention to what we are receiving and how it is sustaining us. We can see the grace and sacredness of this precious life. And we can throw out our account books, our lists, and our legalism. Because we are receiving more that we can represent in words or numbers no matter how many zeros we use.

Jesus is reminding his followers to be mindful because time may be very short. Calamities happen. Death comes. Accidents, disease, crime, violence, Covid, we never know. God is not specifically inflicting these things. That is not the point. That is the distraction. Don’t waste your time and energy on things of no lasting value. The fig tree got a reprieve of a year. What would you do if you knew that you had but one more year to live? What would you do in that year? What would be so important to you? That is what Jesus is getting at. Don’t miss the opportunity to experience the abundance of this life. Don’t procrastinate. Don’t get distracted. We don’t know how long we have. Don’t miss out!

Theologian and priest Suzanne Guthrie tells us: “Anchorites, [religious recluses] dug a trowel full of dirt from their grave each day, or hemmed their shrouds or slept in their coffins, not for some morbid exercise, but to emphasize life! Breathe now. Look at beauty now. Let the holy in you rise and be fruitful now. Now. Now.” [ http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/lent3c.html ]

Jesus is imploring his followers to change their orientation. The liberator God is eagerly seeking to offer real life – freed of greed, consumerism, accounting, images, scorekeeping, the daily “emergencies” that distract and keep us from looking deeply at what matters. The future is not in the hands of a tyrant or a building code. Look at Jesus, the one known for being sinless. He dies on Golgotha. Our future is in our hands. Instead of trying to justify ourselves, we are to appreciate all that is being given. The caring and tending we are receiving like that fig tree being babied by the gracious gardener. And when we realize all that is gift, sacred, miracle, each breath, then we can bear fruit. The fruit of gratitude. Tending to each other, especially those who are languishing. The time is short.

There are those children in the prison in Louisiana. A former staff person there says: “These kids were in their cells with no beds on a concrete floor with a state-issued green mattress — flame retardant — a blanket and a sheet and nothing else. No light. No nothing.” [https://www.themarshallproject.org/2022/03/10/no-light-no-nothing-
inside-louisiana-s-harshest-juvenile-lockup . “No Light. No Nothing.” Beth Schwartzapfel, The Marshall Project; Erin Einhorn, NBC News; and Annie Waldman, ProPublica.] It doesn’t matter when it started. It needs to be stopped. Cut off. Yesterday. The law doesn’t allow us to treat a dog like that. And the state is doing that to children? And we need to ask why these young people, these children, are becoming criminals? Children need to be tended. Of course they need more care and nurture than a tree. Fertilize, hoe, water, trim, weed, deadhead, divide, whatever it takes to foster full and abundant life. Where is that care? Not only for those children languishing in Louisiana but for all children, for all people, and for this precious planet, our deeply abused mother, and all of its species. We are distracted with the wrong matters, the concerns that are not of value, that do not satisfy. Jesus calls us back to life! He urgently promotes flourishing life for us and for the world. Time is short. Life is fragile. We may have a year. Or we may only have today. Amen.

A reasonable effort has been made to appropriately cite materials referenced in this sermon. For additional information, please contact Lakewood United Church of Christ.

Devotion 23
Thursday March 24, 2022

I don’t know about you, but if I have a scab that is exposed, I will probably want to pick at it. Help it along. Even though I know that may introduce infection or delay the healing process. Even though I know that at the right time in the healing process, my body will release the scab. With no help from me. I will still probably pick at a scab.

I also know what it is to be embroiled in a situation that I have no control over and cannot change but also cannot get out of my mind. I find myself thinking about it. And regurgitating it with others. Obsessing over it. Because it is bothering me. Yet re-hashing is not resolving anything. Does this happen to you?

I also have a very good memory. Just ask my spouse. As soon as we are having an altercation about something, I can think of all the previous instances that provide validation for my viewpoint. Yes, I know that the rules of fair fighting say stick to the matter at hand, and don’t use the words ‘always’ and ‘never.’ But sometimes the temptation is irresistible when you are given so much to work with!

It’s not surprising that I love the Garth Brooks song of yesteryear, “We Bury the Hatchett and Leave the Handle Sticking Out.”

Given my proclivities to revisit the past, I did major in history after all, I was very interested to learn that the root of the word for ‘forgiveness’ in Greek is, well, ‘let it alone.’

Let it alone. I have been thinking about that and how it ties into forgiveness. Let it alone. It’s one thing to say, “I forgive you” whether the other person asks for forgiveness or not. And there are those times when we need to ask for forgiveness from others. Yet so often we hear, forgive and forget. Well how easy is it to forget when you have been hurt or offended or wronged? How easy is it to forget when you have done something that has been devastating to someone else? Even if they have forgiven you? Sometimes forgetting is simply not an option nor should it be.

But what about forgive and ‘let it alone.’ Don’t obsess over it. Don’t keep digging it up. Don’t keep revisiting it. Don’t let it consume you. Forgive. And Let. It. Alone. Let the situation or the person stop having power over you. I like that! That is a mercy I can embrace.

Prayer
As human beings we are by nature imperfect. We make mistakes. We hurt ourselves and others. We endure wrongs. Harm befalls us. We cause pain to one another. As we reflect on the wildness of mercy, may we practice not only forgiveness, but may we also learn to ‘let it alone.’ Amen.

Devotion 22
Wednesday 3.23.22

In a conversation after church last Sunday, a congregant commented, “I don’t like having to be dependent on other people.” Can you sympathize with that? I can!

I had two surgeries on my heel in recent years, and I can tell you I HATED having limited mobility and having to rely on others for help. I mean I could not drive a car for months. Nor could I manage taking the bus or riding a bike. I could not walk our dogs. I couldn’t do my laundry because that involved going into the garage which meant going down one step. You get the idea.

So this comment, “I don’t like having to be dependent on other people,” really hit home with me. I like to think that I am competent, and capable, and responsible. I like to think that I can manage things on my own. And not only that. I like to think that I can do things to help others. Have you felt this way?

But of course, it is all a big delusion. Because we are, all of us, every single one of us, dependent on each other. Our food, our clothes, our homes, our cars, our books, our electronic devices, our toys, our medications, and so much more, all come to us thanks to others. I cannot provide all of those things for myself.

And then there is the social and emotional support that we need from each other. We can’t thrive as human beings without interaction with others. We are designed that way. During this covid time, with the lock down and isolation, people, especially elders and children and those who are vulnerable in other ways, suffered greatly. People withered and languished like plants with no water. There is still so much care that is needed to help us recover and regroup and heal from the trauma of loneliness and loss.

The idea that we are self-reliant, pull yourself up by your boot straps, make it on our own; it’s all a lie. Delusion. And when we let the reality of this truth emerge and become clear, we see all that we have to be grateful for. All that we are being given. How bound up we are with so many other people in a beautiful tapestry of interwoven dependency and well-being. We are dependent on thousands upon thousands of strangers the world over that we will probably never meet. Yet they are supporting us. How crazy is that?

And we can know about this. Animals, plants, bacteria, fungi, nature is also part of the web of mutual dependency, but nature will never be conscious of that. Our dogs will never know that they are provided for. Nor will they know what they provide. But humanity is the one species that is capable of having a consciousness of our interdependence.

No, we don’t like having to be dependent on other people. Being dependent can diminish our sense of dignity and independence. But how much more beautiful to know that we are tied together in an intricate multihued tapestry of interdependent life! Far more than we could ask for or imagine. Not left to our own devices. Thank goodness there is a crazy wildness in mercy!

Prayer
Think of a time when you had to depend on someone else. When you were in need of help from another person. Thank of a time when you were able to give needed help to someone. Think of someone you will never meet yet who helps you to have what you need. We have a special bond as human beings – our need for one another and our awareness of that need. Let us give thanks that we are dependent upon one another and that that need makes us one human family in community with all of Creation. Amen.

Devotion Twenty-One
Tuesday March 22, 2022

Lent is a time to consider the wilderness. As mentioned in the sermon for the first Sunday of Lent when the scripture lesson was about Jesus spending 40 days in the wilderness, we noted that the wilderness is not blank and featureless. There are land forms and light and clouds. There are stars and planets to observe. There are some plants and many wild animals and insects and lizards. What is important about the wilderness is what is not there. There is not a lot of human messaging. Not a lot of human voices to be heard or evidence of human life in the wilderness. For us that can mean time away from screens and ear buds and speakers and print and social media and email and phones, etc. Something that rarely happens except when we are asleep.

I remember when the covid lockdown was in full swing. I used to take long bike rides around our neighborhood. First of all, I noticed that there was little to no traffic. We live near a busy road, 22nd Avenue North, and there were few if any cars on the road. Then there was the noise. Of birds and squirrels. So much chirping. It was loud. I wondered if it was always like that and I just didn’t notice because of the background sounds of the traffic or were the birds really making more noise? I now know that the birds were making more noise. Were there more birds? Now, I wonder about the bird population and the all the chirping. Are there fewer birds? Or are they just quieter? That all leads to wondering more about the impact of human activity on the animal community – not just on some distant savannah, but in my neighborhood.

And that is the whole point of the wilderness experience; of tuning out the human noise. You are exposed to a bigger reality. And new perspectives and thoughts. You notice different things. You ask questions. You wonder. You listen. And are aware. Of a larger world. What are we hearing from the birds? From trees? From fish and turtles? From plants and water? From lizards and bugs? From sky and sea? From God?

Yes, in the wildness of mercy, we may get just the message we need to hear from a social media post. But there is no need to restrict our listening to the human realm. May we make this Lenten season about the wilderness.

Prayer
Take some time to tune in to silence or to nature. Mute the human messaging. Notice what that is like. Pay attention to what surfaces and emerges. See how your reality expands. Creating more space for love and mercy to flood in. And to flow out. Consider making this kind of experience part of your regular spiritual practice. Amen.

Devotion Twenty
Monday 3.21.22

Each day we are hearing the devastating news of war in Ukraine. Since the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the toll of war is coming home to us through our screens and speakers thanks to the brave journalists who are working there. People killed. Communities destroyed. Hospitals and homes bombed. People fleeing to safety by the millions creating a refugee crisis. And over the carnage, Putin dangles the threat of nuclear attack. The news reports are heartbreaking, disturbing, shocking, and perhaps infuriating. How can this be happening? How can it be ‘allowed’ to happen? How can one man create such upheaval in the world? Most of us are trying to figure out how to do something good as one person.

In the midst of this, I heard an interview with a NASA official who was asked about how things are going on the International Space Station where there are astronauts from Russia and the US. Apparently, all is well on the space station. The astronauts are functioning as professionals. They know that they are dependent upon one another for their safety and survival.

The intent of the space program is to further human knowledge — about space, the universe, the cosmos. It is to learn about the stars and galaxies and planets. It is to learn about the conditions and forces. And to see how that knowledge can help to advance life on Earth.

Maybe what we need from the International Space Station is not calculations about distance, or temperature readings, or how to grow things in zero gravity, or images of far-flung planets. Maybe what the space station can give to humans on Earth is wisdom about how to live together in peace and how to cherish life here on this precious planet. Maybe given the wildness of mercy this will be another unintended consequence of the space program!

Prayer
Look at the sky. The sun. If it is night, look for the clouds, the stars, and the moon. The vastness of it all. With a consciousness of this greater reality, surely humans can learn to live together in peace. May the wildness of mercy stir us to make peace with each other and with our gorgeous blue-green marble planet. Amen.