Good and Bad Fruit

 

Rev. Molly F. James, PhD

DFMS Noonday Prayer via Zoom

June 23, 2021

Genesis 15:1-12,17-18; Psalm 47; Matthew 7:15-20

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Really? We have to go here? All this judgment and condemnation. Where is the reassurance, the comfort, the inspiration we are all seeking in the midst of these uncertain and challenging times. Things seem “back to normal” in so many ways, and yet if we pause and reflect, even for a moment, we know that there is not really any “going back.”  The world, and we, will never be the same again. This past year has been a crucible, an experience of challenges and struggle, an experience that has reshaped our understanding of the world and of ourselves. We may feel comfortable eating in restaurants and getting on airplanes, but we are fooling ourselves if we think we have just picked up where we left off in March of 202o.

So, as we try to navigate our way into this new, maybe we can say “post,” Pandemic way of being, I find it hard to hear this text. Hard to think of God judging us so harshly. Wasn’t one of the central lessons of the past year how much it matters to be compassionate? We are all in this together. Everything will be better if we can show each other more grace and care. How do we square those important lessons with texts that seem to divide the world into good fruit and bad fruit?

As I think I have shared with you all before, when I encounter one of the judgment texts, I return to insights gained from psychologist Eugene Kennedy who wrote a book of reflections after 9/11 entitled, Meditations at the Center of the World. In it he talks about some of the various judgement passages in Scripture - how we often get this theme of bad fruit or chaff being thrown into the fire. Instead of seeing it as dividing the world into good and bad people, Kennedy invites us to see and have compassion for the complexity of ourselves and other people.

We are fruit, mostly good and with a few bad spots. Or perhaps better yet we are the barrel of apples. So much good, and also the occasional bad apple.  We are the whole stalk - the wheat and the chaff. None of us is all good or all bad. Life is just not that simple. 

What Kennedy also reminds us of is that what is good in us is real, it is what is eternal. It is what lasts. God’s “judgment” of us is not wholesale. It is about helping us come to see ourselves fully and to let go, to throw into the fire that which does not give life. That which impedes our ability to grow in relationship with God and with each other. That is what should be cast into outer darkness. That is the fruit, the chaff that should be burned. 

Hopefully one of the gifts that has come our way in the midst of this pandemic has been a sense of clarity about ourselves and the world. A sense of clarity about what really matters to us. Where are our priorities? What are the things that we put down that we don’t actually need to pick back up again? What are the things that we can let go of? We picked up plenty of new anxieties and challenges in the last year, and hopefully we also discovered more clarity about what brings us joy and where we want to invest our precious time and energy. 

So, my friends, I hope that you will see in today’s Gospel an invitation rather than a condemnation. An opportunity to pause and reflect as the world reopens and we do more and more things. There is new life possible out of all the pain and loss of this past year. We are an Easter people. That truth stands at the heart of our faith. May you find this time of transition to be fruitful and life-giving. May it offer you an opportunity to grow, in all the various roles you inhabit. Most importantly may it offer you the opportunity to say yes to a path that affirms your identity as a beautiful and beloved child of God. Amen.

Reflections on Identity

Rev. Molly F. James, PhD

DFMS Noonday Prayer via Zoom

June 17, 2021

Marina the Monk

May God’s Word be spoken. May God’s Word be heard. May that point us to the living Word who is Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

 

Today we remember Marina/Marinos the Monk, a 5th Century monastic. Marina was born as Miriam. Her faith was strong and at the age of marriage, she chose a monastic life rather than marriage. She shaved her head, doned male clothes, and joined her father at a monastery. It is unclear whether Marina was simply rejecting marriage, desiring to live as a monastic, but there were no convents, or truly needed to live life out as man because that matched his internal identity. The intrigue of this story could easily make Marina one of these people to add to your list for the parlor game of “If you could have dinner with five people, dead or alive, who would they be and why?” Even if we cannot know or fully understand the circumstances of Marina’s life, I do believe that the story provides us with much food for thought and opportunities for reflection on our own lives. 

I believe that there is a fundamental invitation here for us to think about identity. In what ways or times in our lives have we felt the need to be like Marina? When have we felt the need to hide some essential piece of our identity in order to fit in with a community or group? Of course, there is a certain amount of that we do all the time. We don’t share intimate personal details with a seatmate on an airplane the way we would at our best friend’s kitchen table. Having boundaries and knowing what information we should share and where is an important life skill. Like Marina, we have likely had times when holding back some piece of personal information was what kept us safe. As the saying goes, “Don’t bleed with sharks.” It is okay to be protective of ourselves, and to be discerning about how fully we share about ourselves in the communities of which we are a part. Being able to share the truth of who we are requires trust. So it is okay to be sure that is there before we open up. Especially if we find ourselves in communities like Susanna did in our first reading today - a situation where the deck is stacked against us and no matter what we say or do, we cannot convince those in power and authority of the truth of our experience. 

That’s one side of the invitation - for us to reflect on how we navigate our own identities, particularly in situations where we do not have power. The times in our lives when we are Marina. The other side of it is to think about the times in our lives when we are the monks or Marina’s father. What do we do when we are the ones with power and authority? When we are the ones responsible for creating the culture and environment. The monks assumptions about Marina and their rigid enforcement of how they believed things should be meant that Marina spent 10 years as a beggar at the monastery’s gate because they erroneously assumed Marina had impregnated a woman - only to learn upon Marina’s death that was a biological impossibility. So there is an important question here for us. When have we been like the monks? When have we been like the elders in Susanna’s story? When have we made assumptions about someone’s identity that have cost them dearly? When have we lost out on someone’s wisdom, insight, perspective because we were too quick to judge, too rigid in our assumptions, and too stuck in our own worldview? I would guess that we have many stories - from small moments when we were just moving too quickly to pay full attention, to big moments when deeply embedded ideas have cost us an opportunity or a relationship. Hopefully, today we have a reminder that it does not always have to be that way.

We have the opportunity and possibility - especially when we are in positions of power to shift the culture. We have the opportunity to transform a culture from rigid to open. We have the opportunity to foster community where people feel comfortable to bring as much of their identity as they choose. Where the realities of disclosure are decided by individuals themselves and not by those in power. Where diverse perspectives and experiences are honored, and where we are consistently open to learning and change. 

It is my hope and prayer that together we can find more and more ways to join with God in creating a world where people do not feel the need to hide the truth of their identity. A world where our diversity is recognized as a source of beauty and strength. Amen.