Prop 11, July 23, 2017
For those of you who get Friday Reflection and perhaps overlooked the piece at the end, and for those who don’t subscribe to it, I want to share this with you. I first heard it a few weeks back at the Central Deanery clergy meeting, and it has stuck with me.
Made for Goodness
By Desmond Tutu and his daughter Mpho Tutu,
"Don't struggle and strive so, my child. There is no race to complete, no point to prove, no obstacle course to conquer for you to win my love.
I have already given it to you.
I loved you before creation drew its first breath.
I dreamed you as I molded Adam from the mud.
I saw you wet from the womb
And I loved you then.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Stop racing ahead at your own pace, you will only be exhausted, flamed out, and spent before the task is accomplished.
Pace yourself with me, walk alongside me.
Do you think I don't know the demands of your life?
I see you striving for perfection, craving my acceptance.
I see you bending yourself out of shape to conform to the image that you have of me.
Do you imagine that I did not know who you were when I made you, when I knit you together in your mother's womb?
Do you think I planted a fig tree and expected roses to bloom?
No, child, I sowed what I wanted to reap.
You are a child after my own heart.
Seek out your deepest joy and you will find me there.
Find that which makes you most perfectly yourself and know that I am at the heart of it.
Do what delights you
And you will be working with me,
Walking with me,
Finding your life
Hidden in me.
Ask me any question
My answer is love.
When you want to hear my voice,
Listen for love.
How can you delight me?
I will tell you:
Love.
The tough, unbreakable, unshakable love.
Are you looking for me?
You will find me in love.
Would you know my secrets?
There is only one:
Love.
Do you want to know me?
Do you yearn to follow me?
Do you want to reach me?
Seek and serve love."
Last Sunday we heard about the sowing of the seed, and at the cathedral, where Bp David and I were, the bishop talked about love as the seed being sown. So when I first started thinking about this morning’s service, I had forgotten the poem by Desmond and Mpho Tutu. And I had forgotten that today’s gospel was also about love. Because too often, this particular gospel lesson makes it easy for me to stand in a place of self-righteous judgment and look at the world events through the lense of “I’m the wheat and they’re the weeds”. And then turn around and get all ashamed and think “good grief, now I’m a weed”...and the cycle just starts.
But, as Bp David would say, “Carmichael, go deeper…”
So I’m going to go back to Genesis--the story of Jacob's ladder. This has become one of those beloved Old Testament stories, but I'm not sure most people know why other than we get this great visual of angels going up and down the escalator to heaven.
But really this story challenges us because I think that from time to time many of us are like Jacob. We are smart folks who look out for our best interests...which isn't necessarily a bad thing, except when it means exploiting others. And that's what Jacob has done. If you remember from last Sunday, he talked his hungry brother into giving over his birthright (inheritance) for a cup of lentil stew. No wonder Esau was angry! And so Jacob is a man on the run from his brother. He is fearful that his devious actions will catch up with him. And along his journey back to his mother's homeland, he stops to rest for the evening and has the most wonderful dream. In his dream, God says to him, "Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go...for I will not leave you". That is incredibly reassuring. When we hear this, as Jacob did, we take comfort in knowing that God is with all of us...even if we're not perfect, even if we sometimes do bad things, even if we feel unworthy.
This dream is also a step in the right direction for Jacob. His spiritual journey to becoming a keeper of the covenant with God begins with this dream. He didn't know that God was present with him, and when he discovered this relationship, he gives thanks. Now, it would be easy to stop there and ask "when is God present and how do we know it" or "how do we give thanks for God's presence with us". And my sermon would be neat and tidy, and we could all go home feeling good about ourselves.
But no. We're confronted by Jesus and his parable about the weeds and the wheat. To the original audience, this was a good news parable. Who were they---they were the outcasts, the marginalized, the prostitutes, beggars and tax collectors; they would have been considered the weeds in a world of pious, law abiding Pharisees (the wheat). And yet, because Jesus teaches that the world is upside down, he puts his followers into the category of wheat and tells them that yes, because sometimes we can't differentiate between weeds and wheat, it is up to God (the harvester) to pick out the weeds at the time of Judgment. And in this world, Jesus' followers would have been encouraged to persevere, knowing that one day they would be redeemed, and overcome their persecutions. And if I thought that we could honestly stand back align ourselves with this new understanding of wheat, we would go home feeling good about ourselves.
But I just don't think it's that easy.
First of all, I think we’ve all had moments where we’ve acted like Jacob. In other words, I think that because most of us in this room would be considered to be in the majority, we sometimes forget that the way we live our lives can be at the expense of others. Where does our food come from? Where do our clothes come from? Or what about our bottled water? What about our health-care and medicine? The list can go on and on. And sometimes when we are faced the reality of these issues, it’s easier to think it's not really our problem, or that the problem is too big to tackle. And so we go on about business as usual.
In other words, we don't always pay attention to the dreams when God appears and says "I am with you and will not leave you...but you've got to make some changes in your life".
So I think we have to be intentional about the way we live in relationship with one another. We still wrestle with those who are different from us, whether that’s based on gender expression, race, education, economic status, sexual orientation, the list goes on and on...we wrestle as a church, as a community, and as individuals to fully acknowledge the humanity and dignity of all our brothers and sisters. Sometimes we're the weeds perpetrating the injustice, and sometimes, we’re the wheat that has to persevere. Either way, what I believe is true is that we as a community of faith are being called to be a safe place for all God’s people, and that means being open to the transforming power of love. In other words, it’s all about love. We love the wheat and the weeds because God loves the wheat and weeds, and sometimes, frankly, we’re a bit a both.
Now hang with me here...I’m coming back to the poem from Desmond and Mpho.
Don't struggle and strive so, my child. There is no race to complete, no point to prove, no obstacle course to conquer for you to win my love.
I have already given it to you.
Be we weeds or wheat, God loves us.
Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Stop racing ahead at your own pace, you will only be exhausted, flamed out, and spent before the task is accomplished.
Pace yourself with me, walk alongside me.
Be we weeds or wheat, God loves us.
You are a child after my own heart.
Seek out your deepest joy and you will find me there.
Find that which makes you most perfectly yourself and know that I am at the heart of it.
Be we weeds or wheat, God loves us.
Amen.