Text: Matthew 7:24-25; Ephesians 3:14-19
Who holds you up?
What keeps you from toppling?
In the midst of storms and fire and viruses and racism and accusation and conflict, how do you not fall apart?
When you are juggling kids and work and zoom meetings and the dog and the lawn needs mowed what are you supposed to do?
Consider the lilies, Jesus says just a handful of verses before our scripture from Matthew today… or maybe in our case, consider the trees.
How does a giant sequoia remain standing for not years, not centuries, but for thousands of years?
General Sherman is the world’s largest known tree and can be found in the midst of Sequoia National Park. As Lyons and Barkhauer remind us, it is:
“…not the tallest, nor the widest, nor the oldest, but don’t let the lack of superlatives lower your expectations. General Sherman is the largest by volume and by weight. A sign at the tree’s base states it could hold enough water to fill almost ten thousand bathtubs, and that it weighs about 1,385 tons. Estimated at 2,200 years old [my note – that’s older than Jesus!] – the tree is more than 36 feet across at the base and towers 274 feet above you.” (America’s Holy Ground, p. 201-202)
Think about what that single tree has withstood…
Earthquakes.
Wildfires.
Drought.
High Winds.
Humans.
And still it remains standing.
What can we learn from trees like this?
What lessons do they have to teach us?
I think the first lesson is that you have to have strong roots and a firm foundation upon which to stand.
Imagine the depth and the breadth of the structure that is required to support such an immense tree.
For millennia those roots have sunk deep into the rocky soil, pushing water and nutrients up the trunk to provide growth.
Without a strong foundation, it would topple over and collapse.
And we are the same way.
Without the foundations in our lives that give us support and structure, we, too, would collapse.
These verses from the gospel of Matthew come at the end of three chapters filled with instruction and encouragement about how we should live in the world.
The “Sermon on the Mount” teaches us what it means to be truly blessed…
That the Kingdom belongs to the hungry, the hopeless, and the grieving…
the humble, the harassed, and the peacemakers
Jesus tells us how to share God’s love with others…
And he stretches our understanding of the law so that it is fulfilled not by adhering to the letter, but the spirit…
He reminds us that it is not enough not to kill, we should not even be angry at one another…
That we should not simply refrain from adultery, we should not objectify others…
Turn the other cheek…
Love your enemies…
Stop showing off your faith for others and actually turn to God…
Don’t worry about yourself, but seek God’s kingdom…
Don’t judge others, but pay attention to the fruit you are producing in the world…
And then Jesus concludes this amazing teaching by saying:
“These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life… improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on.” (7:24 MSG).
These are not adornments or afterthoughts.
These are the roots.
This is the foundation.
This is the solid rock upon which everything else rests.
If these principles have not already formed the basis for our faith, for our lives, for our souls… then when the winds and rain and conflict and turmoil come our way… of course it will all fall apart.
Without a deep commitment towards others, a deep well of mercy and forgiveness, a deep sense that God is with us in the midst of anything we face, we will “become disoriented, unsteady, and unsure.” (p.203)
We will become angry and reactive and defensive when the winds of change or turmoil or conflict begin to blow.
And if that is how you are feeling in your own life… then we can start by shoring up those foundations.
We have to care for our own bodies and minds.
Just recently, we sent home to our families a “Guide to Self-Care” in the midst of this pandemic.
It contains very simple reminders of things we can do like get enough sleep, take time for friends, leave room for our feelings, and breathing.
There can be so much pressure and stress blowing in our lives right now and these simple things ground us in the moment.
We also can turn to and remember our own history and the people who have come before us.
Today, on Father’s Day, we are invited to remember the wisdom of our fathers and grandfathers and generations past who have taught us how to get through difficult moments.
From simple things like how they helped us to get back on the bike when we fell off…
To their own experiences with the civil rights movement, or how they responded to the polio epidemic, or how they kept going in the midst of a loss in their life…
Our forefathers, our ancestors, those roots of our family tree… they are a source of love and hope and strength during these tough times.
And then, we need to strength our faith foundations.
Turn to scripture.
Spend time in prayer.
Join a small group to re-center your faith.
Nurture the roots, the foundation, the ground in which you live and move and have your being.
That was Paul’s prayer for the church in Ephesus.
He was seeking to strengthen their faith and help them withstand whatever controversies or oppression they might face and so he prayed that God might give them strong roots in love.
He prayed that they would open their hearts and allow Christ to make a home there.
He believed that this would create a firm foundation of rooted and grounded faith. That it would build deep sustained roots would allow them to be able to grasp the width and length and height and dept of God’s love.
And he believed with these strong foundations, these amazing roots, that God could do amazing, miraculous, holy and wonderful things through the church.
That is my prayer for you, too.
That our own foundation and roots might be strengthen by one another and by God so that no matter what comes our way, our faith and our community will not topple.
But the other lesson that I think we have to learn from these trees is that what can appear to adversity can actually be the source of new life. We are learning that strong roots and solid foundations provide resiliency in the midst of storms that creates new opportunities.
I learned this week that giant sequoias need wildfires in order to continue as a species.
They are remarkably fire-resistant… some with bark up to thirty inches thick.
But more than that – without the intense heat of the fire, the sequoia cones cannot open to release their seeds.
Fire also clears away any of the clutter and overgrowth on the forest floor, creating space for seedlings to germinate and survive.
I think some of what we are seeing in our world today feels like that dangerous wildfire coming at us faster than we can run.
There is a lot of anger and frustration spilling out and we don’t know how to put it out or stop it or what to do with it.
But maybe it is a question of reframing.
First – where have I become afraid or anxious or reactive when I am actually more protected and safer than I thought?
Adam Hamilton reminds us in his book, “Afraid” that facts are more important than fear.
Taking the time to get the facts, to understand another perspective, to prepare yourself and create a plan… all of these are ways we can build up that think bark of protection that allows us to stand resilient in the midst of the turmoil.
Second – What is being revealed that we couldn’t see before with all of the clutter? As we notice things related to the coronavirus, or racism, or institutional and systemic practices… sometimes we get frustrated that they were not brought up or handled before.
But some things can only be seen in moments of chaos and conflict when everything else is cleared out of the way.
This moment has helped families to find respite from their busy schedules.
It has helped us to recognize the lonely and vulnerable who are our neighbors.
It has uncovered some of the problems with how we interact with one another we were too busy or distracted to see.
Third – we are seeing the seeds of this time and changes and new life and opportunities springing up all around.
Common sense reforms that make communities and police officers safer.
Real conversations about our history of racism.
We are building new ways of reaching out to one another like our caring connections groups.
Even online worship opportunities are impacting more people than we ever would have done had we remained within our walls.
God does not promise that wind and fire and turmoil and conflict will not come our way.
They most certainly will.
But God has invited us to claim a faith, to be grounded in love, to build our lives upon a firm foundation that can weather the woes of the world.
And with God’s help… with Christ living in our heart… with the Spirit providing strength… we lives we have built will not fall apart.
As Paul writes:
Glory to God in the church!
Glory to God in the Messiah, Jesus!
Glory down all the generations!
Forever and always.
Amen.
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