Luke
1:46b-55
Back
in April, we went outside together after the second service and stood around a
hole that Barry Lee had dug in the churchyard.
Next to it was a tree that was waiting to be planted. Earlier, he had shared with us the tradition
of the Iriquois, who had planted this kind of pine, whose branches grow in
clumps of five, as a sign of unity that was to grow among their Five Nations
when they set aside the violence and hatred that had controlled them in the
past. We, like them, buried reminders of
those ways that we want to see banished from our community and our hearts, and
planted the tree to grow over them, as a guardian to see that they are not dug
up again, and to replace them with something of life and beauty. This we did with prayer and with song.
Since
then I’ve been watching the tree take root and grow. I hope you’ve been paying attention to it, as
well. What starts out small grows big in
time and spreads its branches wide. When
I was small, there was an enormous pine tree in my aunt and uncle’s yard. I don’t know how many times different
relatives pointed to it and told its story.
It had been a seedling that someone dug out of the ground in the Poconos
one summer and that year it had found its way onto a table inside as a
Christmas decoration before it went outside again and took over most of the
front yard. When I look at our peace
tree, I think about what it will be in thirty years.
You
do know, don’t you, that trees aren’t the only things that do that?
There’s
a man whom I’ve met twice, very superficially, but whom I admire greatly, who
is the Rev. Thom White Wolf Fassett.
While the tree has been growing, I have been reading (not as steadily as
I should, I admit) his book about the historic interaction of European and
Native Americans and also the intersection and interaction of Native American
spirituality and European Christianity.
It’s called Giving
Our Hearts Away, and in it he reflects on the sort of
experience that Mary’s song of praise looks forward to as well.
“He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.” [Luke 1:51-53]
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.” [Luke 1:51-53]
God takes
the small, the lowly, the poor and dispossessed, and overturns empires. God uses the hurt and the ill-treated, the
lost and the insignificant, to establish justice and peace.
Since the planting of that tree out
there, we have seen something unprecedented.
Out on the plains, the Sioux stood up to an oil company and the Army
Corps of Engineers and said, “This patch of land and river matter to our souls
as well as our bodies. Do not cross it.” In times past, and we all know this to be
true, the Army would just have shot them or moved them on. This time it didn’t work. Time will tell whether the decision will
hold, but at least for now the more powerful group has had to back down.
It kind of makes you wonder what we
mean by “powerful”, doesn’t it? Maybe
for once power is seen not as force but is seen as the ability to touch the
conscience. Maybe strength is not all
about ballistics but is embodied in depth of conviction. Maybe influence lies in the ability to call
upon the things we hold in common when we are at our best, including respect
for one another and for the earth. Maybe
there is no shame in backing down when we see we are harming one another. Maybe there is dignity in being able to say, “I
see that I was wrong. Thank you for
helping me do better.”
Humility is an underrated
virtue. Part of that is that it is most
clearly visible among people who have little choice except to be humble. We discount the virtues of people we do not
value the way that God values them. A
young, unremarkable girl living in Nazareth is startled and afraid when God
sends an angel to speak to her. (Who
wouldn’t be?) But Luke tells us that she
became “much perplexed” [Luke 1:29]
when she is greeted with respect and honor:
“Greetings,
favored one! The Lord is with you.” [Luke
1:28]
I can just
picture her saying, “Who, me?” That wasn’t
how a woman was treated, besides which, wouldn’t God be wasting his time
dealing with somebody so far out of the loop, so removed from the centers of
power, so totally out of everything?
Then again, wherever God decides to
act, that is the center of things, even if it’s in some minor town in Galilee,
or in a dark corner of a stable behind an inn, or on a hill outside the walls
of Jerusalem where they execute criminals.
We’ve seen that. In fact, God
makes a habit of working most wonderfully when you get away from the capitols
and the cameras, although they eventually feel the result of what he does.
Thom White Wolf Fasset again:
“The teachings of Jesus free us from
confinement as we recognize God is at work in all things everywhere. While humankind may loose destructive forces
upon the face of the earth, God stands ready to love us unconditionally.”[1]
He speaks
from his own experience as part of a marginalized community, and as a
Christian.
“The sacred instructions given to our people by
God to revere and preserve in ancient times have been renewed and revitalized
in Jesus and the New Covenant. Love,
grace, and forgiveness bring healing and gentleness to the human community as
clear signs of a New Promise. …Does not the history of our people teach us of
the power of the Holy Spirit?
We
have been in preparation since ancient times to carry this loving ministry and
to move among the people of the earth.
We who live in two cultures and those claiming historic Christian creeds
need to affirm this ministry and reinforce our commitment to speak clearly and
prophetically on behalf of the dispossessed, the hungry, the naked, the sick,
the imprisoned, the poor, the oppressed and all living creatures who have no
voice.”[2]
The coming of the kingdom begins
small and unnoticed, and among the small and disregarded. But it is God’s kingdom, after all, and the
one who knows its ways best of all, Mary’s son, in fact, once observed:
“With what can we compare the kingdom of God,
or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground,
is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of
all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can
make nests in its shade.” [Mark 4:30-32]
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