Sermon - Well Planted

Preached on May 20, 2012 – Seventh Sunday of Easter and Confirmation Sunday, at First Congregational Church of Tallmadge, Ohio, UCC.

Scripture Psalm 1

¹ Happy are those
   who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread,
   or sit in the seat of scoffers; 
² but their delight is in the law of the Lord,
   and on his law they meditate day and night. 
³ They are like trees
   planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season,
   and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper. 

⁴ The wicked are not so,
   but are like chaff that the wind drives away. 
⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgement,
   nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; 
⁶ for the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
   but the way of the wicked will perish.

Sermon

“Happy are they whose delight is in the law of the Lord.  They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.”

If you have lived a long time in this area of northeast Ohio, or in the wooded hills of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, you get pretty used to the landscape.  Several years ago, I found myself driving through Pennsylvania with my son and his friend, a college student who had grown up in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  It was the heart of summer, and she reminded us, at every turn of the highway, of what we’d gotten used to.

“That is beautiful!”  “Look at all the green!”   “The mountains are covered in trees!”  
“Yeah,” we said.

But her enthusiasm won us over, and we remembered what a wonderful landscape this is.

The psalmist who wrote about trees planted by streams of water, living in Israel, would have been even more shocked by the sight of forested mountains.  We’re used to trees growing just about anywhere.  But if we are to hear the word of this psalm, we have to become like a native of Israel, or New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada.  Where trees hardly grow at all except along the banks of a stream, their leaves form a curving highway of shade through a dry and hot landscape where little green can grow.  Become that person, and then we can read the psalm.  If you haven’t read the psalm with a heartsick longing for the shade and the fruit of one good tree, then you haven’t seen Shakespeare the way its meant to be performed.

In the dry landscape of Israel, the poet psalmist meditates on the stream bed as a place of life, nourishment, strength, and the psalmist realizes what God wants for us: to be like those trees, well planted by water; to be people who are rooted to that which nurtures and gives us life; to be sustained by God.  Those who delight in the law of the Lord are like trees planted by streams of water.  And what is the law of the Lord?  Jesus said that you can get it all from these two: Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself.  On those two foundations of love are built all of God’s law.  It all follows from love for God and love for neighbor as self.

The psalmist sees that when we put down roots in any place that is removed from love for God and love for neighbors, we will wither.  Nothing else can sustain us over the seasons of our lives.  It is wicked, therefore, in the psalmist’s word, because it does not sustain life, does not strengthen and support us, is not rooted in the love of God that created the universe and gave us breath to live, and dwells among us.  We all have some roots in those places that do not sustain, and we know what happens when those places dry up.  That is not God’s punishment for us, and it is not God’s intention for us.  God wills for us to be like trees planted by water; to have roots.

In a few minutes, we will bring forward young people of our confirmation classes.  They will make or renew vows of baptism.  They will make vows of faithfulness to the way of Jesus Christ.  Among those vows will be promises to resist evil, and to strive toward justice and peace.  They will remind us of what it means to be well planted.  When we root ourselves in a life of God’s love, we grow as we were created to be.  We are well planted.

Four centuries ago, 102 members of congregation left England aboard a small ship called the Mayflower.  In danger for worshipping apart from the official religion of the state, and without much money, they hired a ship not designed for trans-Atlantic travel, pledging to pay back their debts from the goods of the English colonies.  102 people, who spent the two month journey almost entirely below deck while the crew worked above.  With animals in the bow of the deck, they crowded into bunk beds and hammocks in near darkness, becoming weak and sick along the way.  When we visited the replica boat last weekend, it seemed crowded with the thirty people who were touring the lower deck.  We strained to imagine their experience.  In the first hard winter, as they struggled to build the first homes and continued to sleep on the ship, about half of the congregation died.  The others kept on at it, as later ships brought others from their families and their congregation.

Where did they get the courage?  Where did they find the strength to persevere?

Two centuries ago, a handful of families came to this area of Connecticut territory called the Western Reserve, and chose this place to build their homes.  Just years after the American Revolution, they left the former colonies, now states, leaving behind schools, harbors, markets and stores to build a community here with their own hands.

Where did they get the courage, the strength, the hope?

They were well planted.  They were like trees, planted by streams of water, sustained by love of God and love of neighbor, strengthened by God’s spirit, able to bend without breaking, able to grow through rough seasons of life.

They helped to form a new way of shaping the church of Jesus Christ, with a seriousness of purpose to serve God, to avoid excesses of riches or distractions, to recognize equality among the community. They helped to form the Congregational tradition.  They are our ancestors in the faith. 

Today we celebrate the next generation of the Congregational Church.  Two years of Confirmation we celebrate today.  Affirming our baptismal vows; becoming members of this church: these are ways of joining God’s ongoing story of love and justice and beauty to redeem the world from hate and violence and fear.  These are ways of joining God’s chorus of those who sing the song of Amazing Grace.  These are ways of going to bat for God’s love for neighbors, whoever they may be.  We are like trees planted by streams of water.  

The best news, I think, about this idea that we can be like trees, is actually found in the way that we are not like trees.  Trees depend on wherever the seeds take root.  A tree is lucky to start in good watered soil, and if not, there’s nothing to be done.  But we are not stuck in the way things are at any given time.  We are not trapped by status quo.  We can move.  We can change.  That is, God can move among us, and God can change us.  God can bring us to the nourishing water of God’s spirit, and God is working with grace and power all the time to do just that.  God’s love makes us flexible in our strength, courageous in our compassion, and tall in our grace.

I want to share with you the words of a member of our congregation who is about to graduate from high school, with his permission.

“I realize,” he recently wrote, “how my church, my faith, has helped me.  The first time I ever sang a note was in church choir and now I sing at school choirs and musicals.  The first time I was outgoing with people was in church and now I am a strong, confident, opinioned and well spoken individual.  It took me a long time to realize that church was more than ancient stories; church is a part of me and is my home.  If I ever run into trouble later in life, I know I have three hundred family members waiting for me.  I know that no matter what trail I take in life, God is right there by my side.  …There is no possible way I could be who I am today without the help and support of my church family and my faith.”

Well Planted!

Happy are those whose delight is in the law of the Lord, the love of God and love of neighbor.  They are like trees planted by streams of water, which bear their fruit in its season, and whose leaves do not whither.  Thanks be to God.