Cultivating What Lasts

Bogart in 2020

Rev. Molly F. James, PhD

DFMS Noonday Prayer via Zoom

Nativity of John the Baptist

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. 

"The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand for ever." So says the good news of Isaiah today. The prophecy we celebrate on this nativity of John the Baptist. It has gotten me thinking about what fades and withers and what lasts. 

Our freshman year in college my roommate bought a plant. She named it Bogart. She cared for it all through college. After graduation, it was decided that Bogart was not going to make the long car trip to Miami, so he went to live with my wonderfully green thumbed mother. That was in 2002. Bogart is still thriving at my parents house, eighteen years later. It is a reminder to me that things (like grass, flowers, and plants) may wither, and it is also possible to care for and cultivate something to make it last. 

So, my friends, as we are in the midst of these tumultuous times, our Scripture for today invites us to think about what we should let wither and what should last - in our lives, in our Church, and in our society. In recent weeks, we have come to realize more fully just how many things  must wither and die for God’s kingdom, God’s dream for this world to be realized. The realities of systemic racism and white supremacy need to die. The complicity of people in positions of power in the structures and the sin of racism, needs to die. This means we have hard work to do. This withering will not happen by us sitting and waiting. This requires action. It requires us taking a hard look at our systems and structures and figuring out how to do things differently. No doubt there will be challenges and loss in that work. It will be painful at times, and yet it is work that is essential to realize a future where we are all free and thriving. 

There are structures that will need to die in order for us to move forward. There will also need to be withering in our hearts and minds. Building a new future requires us to be doing our own internal work with colleagues and friends with whom we can be honest and vulnerable. We need people who can hold a mirror up and help us to realize all the racism we have been taught and caught without even realizing it. We need to be looking at the world with an analytical lens. We need to be asking ourselves in all facets of our lives, personal and professional, what we can be doing differently. 

The fact that so much in our world is changing right now means that we have an opportunity. A remarkable opportunity. An opportunity to pause and reflect - to decide what we are going to carry forward. What from the old way of living and doing things are we going to keep and what can wither? From here on out, how can we cultivate habits that are life giving? 

Which are the facets of our lives that need water, need more sunlight, need a little bit of fertilizer? Which are the ones that no longer serve us, that are in fact, pulling away nutrients from where they are needed most? 

What might it look like for us to look at our lives with that question in our hearts: Is this of God? Is it something I want to last? If so, then cultivate away. If not, then cut it off or at least stop feeding it valuable nutrients. 

What might it look like for us to cultivate the kingdom, to cultivate God’s dream in our hearts and our communities? It think it might look a lot like this chapel group. I think it looks like taking time for prayer and reflection. I think it looks like prioritizing relationship and community as an equally important “task” in our workday. I think it looks like cultivating the habits of curiosity and kindness, so that they are our first reactions rather than judgment or fear. I think it looks like choosing to follow the Way of Love, to seek joy, to seek that which is life giving and to be willing to stand up and speak the truth when we experience or witness actions that are not life-giving for ourselves or for our siblings in Christ. 

May today be a day that we focus on cultivating the things that endure. Amen.  

Good News for Today

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Rev. Molly F. James, PhD

Chapel of the Lord, Episcopal Church Center

Micah 6:6–8; Psalm 43; Luke 4:14–21

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. 

Good news to the poor. Release to the captives. Sight to the blind. The oppressed go free. A year of the Lord’s favor. The Good News of our Gospel lesson this morning is good news indeed. I find myself particularly grateful for it, on multiple levels. 

The news headlines have been pretty overwhelming lately. From the destruction of Hurricane Dorian to yet another mass shooting. And news headlines are not always distant and global. No doubt many of us know people in the predicted or in the actual path of Dorian’s destruction. Our family learned yesterday that a dear friend and her husband were among the victims in that boat fire in California. And no doubt we have headlines in our local news about violence and tragedy in our own communities. The nature of news today means that it rarely matters whether or not it is a global headline or a personal one. We hear intimate, personal stories of violence either way, and they are tragic and painful. The speed and agility of communication in the 21st century means that we hear about the poor, the captives, the blind, and the oppressed in our own neighborhoods and in neighborhoods on the other side of the world. The sheer magnitude of human suffering is overwhelming. 

This is why we need the Good News this morning. We need to be reminded that God is at work in the world. That this prophecy of Isaiah that is retold by Jesus, does not just apply to Ancient Israel nor to the Palestine of Jesus’ day. It applies to us too. We need to be reminded of the stories that so rarely make the headlines. Stories of the hundreds and thousands of men and women around the world who dedicate their lives to feeding the hungry and caring for the disabled. Of lawyers and activists who give their time to help the oppressed and captives go free.  

I also think this is a prophecy that matters on a deeper, more personal level. It is Good News that can have a real impact in our own hearts and in our own lives. If we take Jesus’ words on a more metaphorical level, how might they apply to us as individuals? Are there places in our lives where we feel depleted or run dry? Are we suffering from a poverty of spirit? Are we allowing ourselves to be held captive by fear? Do we feel oppressed in some way? Do we need to find a way to break free or at least to change how we are taking care of ourselves? 

What in our lives might be a stumbling block for us? What might be preventing us from more deeply engaging in relationship with God or with each other? How might we see today’s Gospel as an invitation to move into a different future? What burdens might it be time for us to lay down? Are there amends we need to make? Or do we need to do a better job of surrounding ourselves with people who recognize our gifts and who help us to thrive? 

No doubt each of us could use a little Good News, a little transformation, a little restoration and reconciliation somewhere in some part of our lives. I hope that today, we can hear the Good News of our Scripture. We can take comfort in Micah's reminder that God does not require us to make sacrifices of cattle or oil. What God desires from us is to live lives of humility that seek to promote justice in the world. I hope we can hear in that a call to be a part of creating a more just future for all people. 

And I hope that we can hear the generous invitations in Jesus’ prophecy. An invitation to live into a new and different future. An invitation to look for and to give thanks for the ways that this prophecy is being fulfilled on a local and a global level. And finally, I hope we can live into Jesus’ invitation to trust in God’s love. An invitation to trust in the hope and possibility of a new future. An invitation to let go of whatever burdens, whatever fears, whatever it is that might blind us to the depth of God’s love or hold us back from living into the fullness of who God has called us to be. 

I pray that each of us will have the courage, today, and every day, to step out in faith, into a new future, trusting that the Good News of God in Christ is real and meant for each one of us.
AMEN.