“Roots”
“Like a tree planted by the water………” Jer.17: 5-10, Psalm 1, Luke 6: 17-26
Our
gospel passage for today, from Luke 6, contains some words of Jesus that have
always been hard for me to understand.
Taken too literally, without connection to the wider framework of Jesus’
message, the words just don’t make sense, at least to me. But in recent years I think I’ve been getting
a handle on what Jesus means. So, let me
read and comment on the passage, and please follow along with me, on page 86
(NT) as we think about these challenging words from our Lord.
The
passage begins with phrases that sound similar to a segment of Matthew, (and
which we heard in the anthem today) the passage we often call “The Beatitudes,” (or “The Blessings”) because of the repeated
use of the word “blessed,” or “how happy.”
Luke 6: 20 Jesus
looked at his disciples and said, "Happy (or blessed) are you poor; the
There’s a similarity, but if
you had the Matthew Beatitudes open in front of you, you’d see some stark
contrasts. In Matthew Jesus says
“Blessed (or how happy) are the poor in spirit…..” “Poor in spirit” means humble and aware of
one’s need for God, but what does he say here in verse 20? “Happy are you poor.” He’s
talking about poor in the literal sense of the word – those who are struggling
to put food on the table, or who wonder whether they’ll have a roof over their
heads next month……. In Matthew Jesus
says "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness," - i.e. those
people whose heartfelt craving is to do the right thing and to be in the right
relationship with God, but what are Luke’s words, in verse 21? "Happy are you who are hungry now."
It's not hungering after righteousness but actual hunger and lack of food that Jesus
is talking about here. What's so
blessed, so happy, about that?
And
then, after also commenting on the happiness or blessedness of those who weep
or are being persecuted, Jesus says some harsh words that are not a part of the
Beatitudes in Matthew:
24 "But how terrible (or as other translations put it, "Cursed”) for you who are rich now; you have
had your easy life! 25"How terrible for you who are full now;
you will go hungry! "How terrible for you who laugh now; you will mourn
and weep! 26 "How terrible when all people speak well of
you; their ancestors said the very same things about the false prophets.
“How terrible for you who
are rich, full, laughing, well-regarded......." Why? What wrong with
having a nice sense of humor or a good reputation? What's Jesus saying?
One way of reading these words
- which doesn't make any sense at all to me - is to imagine that Jesus is
listing some virtues we should be striving for and some sins we should avoid.
It almost sounds as if he is saying "It's a good thing to be poor, hungry,
weeping and persecuted. Try your hardest to be like that, because that's the
lifestyle God approves...... And whatever you do, don't be well-fed, happy or
admired, because that's what God condemns." Just
to push to this to greater absurdity, someone might say that it's wrong to help
a poor person or to feed the hungry or to console the sorrowful, because that
would be taking them away from the supposedly blessed way of life Jesus was
advocating. All of which makes no sense to me......
But these words do make sense
to me, powerful and challenging sense, when I see them not as a list of virtues
and sins but as an illustration of the truth that was lifted up in the readings
from Jeremiah and Psalm 1 today. As you
may remember, those readings are also about blessing and cursing, about happy or
woeful ways of life, and yoking them with Jesus' words seems to bring a helpful
clarity.
I’m sure you noticed that the
Psalm-writer and Jeremiah use the same imagery, symbolizing human lives as trees or
bushes or plants. Jeremiah says that a blessed person "is like a tree
growing near a stream and sending its roots out to the water. It is not afraid
when the hot weather comes because its leaves stay green; it has no worries
when there is no rain. It keeps on bearing fruit.........." (Jeremiah 17:
7) The words of Psalm 1 are almost identical speaking of "a tree that is
planted by the water."
Six or eight summers ago we had quite a
drought – at least by the standards of what we’re used to in the northeast,
though I do remember Harold Steele saying “If you think this is a drought I’d
like you to see where I lived in west Texas.”
It wasn’t as bad as that, but it didn't rain for weeks and weeks and
when I dug into the ground it seemed like all I found was dry and lifeless sand.
The grass withered and got brown; our pachysandra along the front walk dried up
and died; flowers that weren’t watered soon withered - everything looked like
it was dying - but most of our trees kept their greenery. A few months of
drought wasn't about to stop them, because they were equipped to survive it,
well-rooted and connected to deep and distant sources of water.
Some lives are like that - equipped to survive
the seasons of dryness and want........ I've known some people, for example, who
have lost their jobs and been up against all the financial worries and personal
insecurities that come with such a crisis.
But these folks somehow maintained a serenity and calm - like a tree
enduring a time of drought..... I've known some people who have had to deal
with their husbands' or wives' infidelity. That's a crisis for anyone, but I
can think of several situations in which these wronged spouses survived a
season of estrangement - not excusing or justifying their partners' sins, but
enduring and finding the grace to forgive and start anew. Something kept them alive, like trees in the
season of drought....... I've known people facing long and frustrating illness
- their own or the illness of a loved one - and I can tell of some who found a
way to be sustained through all the disappointments, losses, pains and
troubles, like trees who endure.... Perhaps the folks who’ve gone to prisons
with the Kairos program can tell of a few inmates who
are not having the life drained out of them by their years in jail, but somehow
are finding a way to keep on living......
Some lives are blessed, "like
trees planted by streams of water, that yield their fruit in due season and
their leaves do not wither....."
But there are other lives which aren't
like that at all. The Psalm speaks of people that are like the chaff (the dry
discarded part of the wheat) which the wind just blows away. Jeremiah writes of
someone who "is like a bush in the desert, which grows in the dry
wasteland, or salty ground where nothing else grows. Nothing good ever happens
to him......." Perhaps you know
some people whose lives are like that, or maybe the description seems partly
true of you at times - easily defeated by the troubles that come to us; short
on resiliency, lacking the stamina we need if we are going to face life in this
real world of ours. Almost everybody is
OK when life is smooth and serene, but let even a small crisis arise and some
people seem to have no resources for facing it.
What's
the point Jeremiah and the Psalmwriter are making
with this commentary about healthy trees and scraggly bushes? They're not
making a distinction between "good people" and "bad
people," for the truth is that we're all sinners - but some of us sinners
have found a way to get our roots down into the source of life. Some of us, who
otherwise would be dried up and blown away by the droughts of life, have found
a source of living water - not that we have anything to brag about, or any
justification for judging anyone else. It's just that we, by the grace of God,
have been blessed enough to get our roots down into the life-giving water that sustains
us. If there's any credit due to such a person, it's only for the simple common
sense of sticking with the source of life we've been fortunate enough to have
found (or that found us.) The only
credit we might be able to take is that we've tried to stay rooted, tried to
keep our connection alive, tried to do the things that keep our roots connected
with God - like coming to church, reading the scriptures, being faithful in
prayer, keeping up Christian friendships, etc. (what John Wesley used to call
“the means of grace.”)
The blessed life, or the happy
life, is the life that is rooted in God. God says in Jeremiah, that blessed is
"the one who puts his trust in me......" (Jer.
17: 7) And the cursed life, the unhappy one, is the life of disconnection, as
Jeremiah describes the one "who turns away from me and puts his trust in
mere mortals...." (Jer. 17: 5) Trust is a feeling, but it’s not a random
emotion that just happens to occur. It’s a decision and action – we “put our
trust” in something or someone, as Jeremiah said. We decide – intentionally or by default – on
which foundations to build. We invest
our lives in the things we think will make them better. We decide whether to keep drifting or to put
out roots, and if we opt for roots we choose the places in which we hope to be
connected.
The Psalm-writer and Jeremiah are saying “The
difference between blessed and cursed is what you trust, and where you put your
roots,” and I think this is the idea behind Jesus' words. If you'll allow me a very loose paraphrase, I
believe what Jesus is saying is this: "You may be poor, you may be hungry,
you may be grieving, you may be facing trouble, but you can be blessed. In
spite of it all you faithful ones have a reason for happiness. If you're living
by trust in God you've got a vital rootedness, and if
you have that then blessed are you. The world may think you're nothing. The
world may think God's against you. But I am telling you this: Blessed are you
poor. You are the inheritors of God's kingdom..... How happy are you hungry folks. You're going
to be fed…... You weeping ones will find your comfort…..You persecuted ones
will get a reward in heaven........ Not because you are poor, or hungry,
or sad, or persecuted, but in the midst of all these things, blessed are you.
You can live by the sustaining power of God........."
And to those at the opposite pole of life,
Jesus has warnings, again in my very loose paraphrase: "You may think your
riches are a sign of ultimate success and permanent security, but if that's all
you've got, how sad for you. How
terrible for you who are rich. If you're counting on that to sustain your life
forever you're in trouble. It's not going to last for eternity........ Watch
out, you, who are full now. If you're trusting in your own might, you're going
to have some times of emptiness - and then what will you do?..... Woe to you who are thoughtlessly
laughing....... How sad for you who live for human praise...... These aren't
going to last, and what will you have when they're gone?......." I don’t think Jesus is saying "A curse
on you because you're rich, or full, or laughing, or well-regarded,"
but he’s bringing a warning. He says
"If that's all you've got, if that's all that sustains your life, you'd
better be careful. If those are your only roots how unhappy for
you........."
There's a basic question behind
the scriptures we've read today, and with this question I'm going to end. The
basic question is "How are your roots and where are they grounded?"
It's a good question, and a hope-filled one to ask, because this matter of our
roots is something over which we have some influence. Lots of things in life are beyond our control,
but this is an area of life in which you can do something. No one knows for sure whether you are going
to be sick or healthy tomorrow, whether you are going to be promoted or fired,
whether you will encounter wonderful friends or challenging enemies, whether
you will live or die..... We don't know for sure whether tomorrow, or next
year, will be a season of prosperity or a season of drought, and even if you
knew there might be limits to what you could do about it. But there is at least
one thing we can do. We can take care of our roots. We can make every effort to
be like a tree planted near the water. We can work at our faith, and invest
ourselves in strengthening our connection with God.
And according to Jesus, and Jeremiah, and
the Psalmwriter, with roots grounded in God, even if
we’re poor we can be happy. Even if hungry, we can have the blessed hope of
being filled. If grieving, or suffering,
we can know in the midst of it, God's blessing. There is a blessed life
available to us all, a life that can honestly be called “happy.” It’s the life of being rooted in the love of
almighty God, and living like a tree that is planted by the water.