Trees figure in both the Ezekiel and Mark readings on this
day. Perhaps the preacher might be inspired to evoke the lush place held by
trees in scripture and, indeed, in the life of Earth itself. The Gospel, of
course, shows us the lowly mustard seed becoming yet another large home for the
nests of winged creatures.
Residing at the heart of today’s imagery, trees teach us
about God’s care for all living things, including their own kind.
Mark 4:26-34
Gail Ramshaw, in her book, Under the Tree of Life: The Religion of a
Feminist Christian, described the nurse-log. In the forest, a fallen dead
tree is hollowed out by rot, giving the food of its trunk to the mosses and
creatures of the forest floor. But it also gives life to the sprouts of seeds
that grow to become new trees: nourished by the remains of the dead tree, a new
tree rises in its place.
Ramshaw used this image to
illustrate the relationship between her first marriage and her second. It is
also a useful image for other human experiences of loss or change: the death of
a parent or spouse devastates a family, but may also nourish the ever-evolving
family with both the wisdom of the dead and the painful lessons of death
itself. The end of an old sibling rivalry, heated but oddly useful in
childhood, gives life to a new friendship between adults—adults with a shared
history, a lifetime of companionship in all its delights and frustrations. The
loss of a troubled romantic relationship can give birth to a deep and abiding
friendship. – Stephen Crippen
A tree fallen to the ground, serving up its body to earth,
gives life to new trees. Together, trees grow up into forest communities, root
systems for watersheds, canopies of life-giving branches and leaves, homes for
insects and birds and climbing mammals, shade and rest for humans. The metaphor
holds that the growth of giants comes from smallness, creating individuals and
also communities.
How does the parable of the mustard
seed grant hope and encouragement to churches and individuals who see their
efforts to serve God as being small or insignificant? How can this parable help
our congregations see that small acts of love and justice can grow into
expansive and flourishing expressions of God’s shelter and peace? – Ben Sharpe
Ezekiel 17:22-24
Ezekiel gives us the mighty cedar––a home for birds and a
signal even to the fields that the Lord is at hand. Creation rejoices over
itself. In the response to the first reading, Psalm 92, the cedar and the palm
are used as visions of what the righteous resemble: a tall, straight, grand
tree!
God’s power stretches in many directions: inside created
things, outside of creation, beyond the universe, bigger than existence itself,
and also between creatures. God’s power, in other words, also works to sever
and to bring together. The Epistle reading takes our thinking in the direction
of God’s ultimate judgment, final recompense for how we have lived our lives.
Ben Sharpe asks us to ponder reconciliation in the light of the writer’s call
to “regard no one from a human point of view…” Where the “old” has passed away,
a new creation can be born.
2 Corinthians 5:6-17
The 2 Corinthians passage focusing
on reconciliation virtually sings with wonder and love for the One who
reconciles us to one another and God. Does the ministry of reconciliation set
us singing? How can we help our hearers experience and express the ecstatic joy
that comes with a new creation born out of reconciliation with God through
Jesus Christ? How is the reconciliation Paul rhapsodizes about effected? What
sacrifices and self-giving are required from us as we share in the ministry of
reconciliation? Does every act of authentic reconciliation require a cross of
some kind? – Ben Sharpe
Stephen Crippen
is a psychotherapist and a deacon in the episcopal
Diocese of Olympia, Washington.
Ben Sharpe is a minister of Christ Church, Winston-Salem, North
Carolina, of the Anglican Mission in America affiliated with the North American
Missionary District of Province de L’Eglise Anglicane Au Rwanda (PEARUSA).
Homily Service 39,
no. 7 (2006): 31-41.
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