“Woes and Blessings”
Jeremiah 17:5-8
Luke 6:17-26
1 Corinthians
15:12-20
Image that you are a tree. What
type of tree would you like to be? Perhaps an oak: mighty and
strong with branches stretched out. Or a beautiful willow, gracefully
swaying in the wind, almost as if the long branches are conducting a
tune with the wind. Or a birch: straight and tall. Perhaps
you would like to be part of a grove of Aspens, all connected through
a common root system.
What is it like being a tree?
What do trees do? I don't know. But, I can tell you what
they are not doing. They are not running all over town looking
for the best prize on a case of bottled water. They grow next
to a stream, a full stream rushing down a hill or an intermittent stream,
slow at times, gone at other times or perhaps an invisible underground
water source that their deep roots tap into. Standing next to
water that gives life.
They are not making much noise, calling
out to each other in idle conversation. In fact, they are mostly
silent, silent as I imagine they meditate on their creator. Their
hands are not busy with keyboards or game consoles or TV remote controls.
They are not looking for messages by checking e-mails and cell phones.
Rather, I imagine their hands, their limbs, always raised in praise
to God.
Trees are not fighting for the best
position, a position of power or a position of prominence. They
are content with where they are. There is no thought of moving
to gain an advantage; nor is there thought of moving to avoid potential
problems. No, they accept where they have been planted as the
place where they are to stay, to grow, to meditate and praise God upon
whom they are totally dependent. In return, trees are blessed
with life giving water, with sunlight that nourishes them, with a permanent
place where they truly belong.
We often confuse passive with weak.
These trees do not move, do not protect themselves from the snow and
wind or even the bugs that feed under their bark. But they
are not weak. In fact, they are incredibly strong as they stand
there and meditate. Some may bend under the snow so that it falls
off, others are so massively strong they can bear the weight.
They have survived strong winds, bugs, even been helped by the woodpeckers
that rid them of the bugs. Passive perhaps, but very strong, very
firmly planted near the living water.
They in turn are a blessing to others.
They provide shade for the hot. A safe place for birds to nest
in the upper branches. Perhaps there's a place for a squirrel
in the trunk or a fox burrowed under its roots. Their leaves and
twigs provide material for the nests. The leaves nourish the ground
when they fall. They are a landmark to guide other, more active
beings.
I can tell you that I am not much like
a tree. Some days, I feel far too remote from a life of calmness,
too eager to move around, to talk too eager to search for my own water
supply. The more active I am, the more I feel as if I am on some
type of tight rope. How much can I do before I cease meditating
and praising God? The more that I try to do, the more I try to make
my life better, the more I seem to risk harming others, unintentionally,
but still causing harm by misplaced priorities. Sometimes I realize
that the one being harmed is myself.
Luke talks of woes and blessings.
Blessings - what a strange word. What can it mean that we are
blessed when we are poor or hungry or weep or are hated for what we
believe? That doesn't sound much like being blessed to me.
Surely it is better to have money, food in my stomach, to laugh and
to be well respected, even loved. Yet Luke describes those as
woes.
Both Psalm 1 and the reading from Jeremiah
might help understand what it means to be blessed. Those in Psalm
1 who are happy are those who are like the tree. Those who are
happy find their delight in the law of the Lord. When we think
of the law of God, the Torah, we think of modern laws, of arrests and
prosecutions. Yet, Torah has a much broader meaning; Torah is
much more than merely defining crimes and punishment. Torah more
broadly means instruction, rules for living. We are to find delight
in God's instruction for our lives. Not to avoid penalties but to find purpose, God's purpose for our lives
and instructions on how to live to achieve that purpose. Those
who single mindedly meditate on what the Lord desires us to do, how
we should live, how we open ourselves to God's instruction, are the
ones who find a place to stand like a tree and put down roots.
They are the ones who find the living water of God's word.
Jeremiah adds that we should not only
seek the word of God but also trust in it and find life. It is
not enough to meditate and know the Word of God, we must take the additional
step of trusting in God. Those who trust will be like the trees
that have water that sustains us during droughts; yes, there will still
be times of dryness, but we will not cease to bear fruit. Yes,
there will be times of drought, but our leaves will still be green when
we trust in the Lord.
If to be blessed, to be happy, is to trust in the Lord, to drink freely from his living water, then perhaps we can look at this passage from Luke differently. When we seek whatever riches we can hoard, when we search for our own nourishment, we should think of the trees. They do not search for either but they are still amply fed by God.
In all my academic studies, engineering,
physics, management, leadership and business, I learned many ways to
become rich and ensure food on my table. But none of those classes
told me how to be happy nor did they tell me what to do with what I
had earned. It takes something beyond knowledge and material things
to become happy.
Deep inside me a voice starts to cry
out in alarm. Sure, these blessings are not bad things.
But, but, this starts to sound pretty dangerous. Better to be
hungry and poor sounds like being close to death. Really, you
never know when you'll need some extra cash these days, whether for
unexpected medical costs or a great sale, you need some reserves.
Be hungry? Sounds like courting death through starvation.
That sounds like a woe to me!
Then I think of that verse about taking
up our cross and following Jesus. We are to die to ourselves and
live for Christ; Christ who is the living water. Perhaps this
is where we start to find how alive we really are, what life really
is about, and it is not just about ourselves and full stomachs.
Like the trees, we are to stand firm in the provisions, not of our own
creation, but the provisions of our Creator. We are to let God
provide the water of life, the water that provides meaning to our lives.
Psalm 1 continues, beyond the part we
read in the Call to Worship, with “The wicked are not so, but are
like the chaff that the wind drives away.” There is a sense
of dryness without God's living water, there are no roots to hold the
wicked in place. They are also passive, like a tree, but without
any strength, doomed to be carried away by any wind that might blow.
Let us put our roots down where God
has planted us. There is a stream of living water that faithfully
flows without fail. Living water from our Lord and Savior, a symbol
that we have been planted and claimed by the Holy Spirit, cleansed of
our sins. Let us meditate upon our creator, lifting our limbs
in praise and worship. As we seek God's instruction for our lives,
we will be blessed.
February 11, 2007
Rev. Al Hammond
First Presbyterian Church
Logan, Utah