Readings for the Third Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 6)
This sermon was preached at Christ Episcopal Church in Eureka CA on June 13, 2021.
I love the Scripture readings for this Sunday. They’re all advertisements for Sacred Saunter. They’re invitations to saunter in the forest, aren’t they? Ezekiel’s prophecy of the high trees being made low, and the low trees being made high. We have the psalmist declaring that the righteous shall flourish like a palm tree. And then Saint Paul’s letter to the Corinthians uses the metaphor of walking: “we walk by faith and not by sight.” And, of course, the parable from the Gospel of Mark about the mustard seed, the smallest of all seeds growing to become the greatest of all shrubs. I preached on these same readings three years ago and they inspired me to talk about the gorgeous redwood tree in the Transfiguration House Garden, where I often pray. I quoted Presiding Bishop Curry who said the key to producing abundant fruit is always in the depth of the root. And I developed that a little bit with the Redwood tree and I said that we’re invited to deepen our roots in the soil of prayer just like the redwood tree, which has deep roots…(or does it?)
When I said that at the 8 AM service I saw several heads shaking “no” because you are all so intelligent, especially when it comes to your lovely Redwood trees. Three years ago, a number of you approached me after the service and said, “That was a wonderful homily, but I want to offer you this little piece of information: redwood trees are not necessarily known for having deep roots. Rather, they are known for having roots that reach out and stretch out broadly, intertwining with other roots in order to stand tall and be resilient. That’s why some of the tallest redwood trees are found among other redwoods in a grove. You shared that little piece of information with me, gently and yet earnestly; and I am so grateful for that because isn’t that such an amazing metaphor? A metaphor for how dependent we are on each other in order to be strong and resilient. And isn’t that relevant for this time of social isolation? We’ve been physically distant while remaining connected in invisible ways so we can be resilient during challenging times. I shared that metaphor of the redwood’s roots when I guest preached on stewardship last November at Christ Church in Sausalito, a church that also boasts a sanctuary made of old growth redwood. And I just recently shared it with the Humboldt COAD Relaunch Committee. COAD is an acronym for Community Organizations Active in Disaster and our mission is to enhance and develop partnerships for communication, coordination, and collaboration throughout Humboldt County among government agencies, tribes, faith-based communities, and businesses before and during all phases of a disaster, including prevention, mitigation, protection, preparedness, response, and recovery. And I thought this metaphor of the redwood roots was also relevant to the mission of Humboldt COAD and so we’re now planning to illustrate that metaphor in the Humboldt COAD logo. So, thank you again for sharing that little piece of information with me, which has grown in me and beyond me. And that’s what I want to talk about this morning: how small things can grow to become so much bigger than the sum of their parts. That’s what the parable of the mustard seed is about: something small, something can be thrown aside or easily dismissed, grows into the greatest of all shrubs, a shrub with medicinal qualities. I want us to think about the little things that we so easily take for granted.
Think about the little things that you experienced just this morning. Think about the experience of waking up from a refreshing sleep. Maybe you heard a bird chirping outside while you enjoyed your first sip of coffee. Think about the joy of simply getting dressed for church this morning, one of those little things that we have learned to appreciate anew since the pandemic.
When I read Jesus’s parables, it seems that he is so often paying attention to these small things that we (or at least I) often take for granted and easily dismiss. Jesus says, “Look at the birds of the air…and the lilies of the field….Are not two sparrows sold for a penny and yet not one of them falls to the ground apart from the will of our Father….Look at this man sowing seed.” Pay attention to these small things that are so easily dismissed and taken for granted. Pay attention. There is so much going on here. More than meets the eye. God is at work here. God is growing his glorious reign on earth among the small things.
It’s so easy to get overwhelmed and depressed by the big things, but Jesus invites us to pay attention to and give thanks for the small things, and this morning’s Psalm invites us as well: “It is a good thing to give thanks to the LORD, and to sing praises to your Name, O Most High” (92:1). What is the most frequent command in all of Scripture? Praise God! Give thanks to the Lord! Instant happiness is available to you right now by practicing gratitude, by practicing gratitude for the small things. I think that is part of Jesus’s invitation to us in the parable of the mustard seed. In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, he compares the mustard seed to faith (Matthew 17:20 and Luke 17:6), but the parable in Mark’s Gospel is broader and more open-ended. Jesus is saying, “Pay attention to the little things. Enjoy the little things because in the future, you will look back and realize that those were the big things.” Now this invitation to appreciate the little things is more than a clichéd spiritual invitation. Jesus is not only sharing a truth of the natural world and the spiritual life, he is also revealing a truth that is at the center of everything.
What am I talking about?
Scientists today have theorized that the entire universe, which spans trillions of light years in width, all of it began as a small thing, as an exceedingly small and dense little ball that grew and expanded and exploded into everything that exists today. This is part of the Big Bang Theory, which by the way was first postulated by a priest.[1] Often Christians think that faith and science are at loggerheads, in conflict and competition. We Episcopalians don’t see it that way. We see faith and science as deeply compatible partners. Genesis chapter one describes poetically what scientists are now discovering. Everything began as a small thing. When we see small, God sees the potential for all.
As I shared on Trinity Sunday, I love it when scientists today (with all their sophisticated tools) are discovering what saints and mystics experienced hundreds, if not thousands, of years ago by praying and immersing themselves in the mysteries of God revealed in Christ. The Cappadocian Fathers of the fourth century in modern-day Turkey immersed themselves in the mystery of the Trinity, which they experienced as a circle dance of lovers giving and receiving; and that energy is at the center of all creation. And scientists have discovered the building block of all matter is the atom, which is best understood as orbiting structure of three forces dancing with each other. Scientists in modern times are discovering realities that were previously experienced by saints and mystics centuries ago.
There’s a female mystic named Julian of Norwich who received visions and revelations of divine love. And one of the revelations is about the entire universe being seen as something small. She experienced and received from God what scientists are just now trying to comprehend. She lived in 14th century England as an anchorite, which means she lived in an anchor-hold, a small cell attached to a church, much like our sacristy. So just imagine Kathy Clague being at the church even more often, in fact, permanently. The service for the installation of an anchorite was much like a funeral service because the anchorite was dying to the world and permanently anchored and quarantined in her cell. Julian was quarantined during a pandemic that was wiping out a third of England and about half of Norwich. So the anchor-hold was actually one of the safest places to be at the time. She’s often pictured with a cat since anchoresses frequently had pet cats to help them take care of rodents in the cell. Julian is also considered the first woman of English letters because the earliest English text written by a woman is her description of her sixteen visions. In fact, I first learned about Julian in my British Literature class. (I went into college as an English major and that’s where I was introduced to some of the great English poets and theologians, who led me to eventually double-major in English and Religions Studies.) Julian is also considered by many (including Thomas Merton) to be the greatest English theologian. And her text is about her reflection on a series of visions she had when she was deathly ill.
And I was thinking about her on her feast day which was May 8th, when Sacred Saunterers were celebrating her with Mother Lesley at Deacon Anne’s redwood-studded property. I was thinking about her because I was sick in bed with the vaccine blues. After my second dose of Moderna, I experienced all the side effects: fever, headaches, soreness, chills, nausea, and fatigue (which fortunately helped me sleep through most of the other side effects). It was a feast day of Julian that I’ll never forget because I knew that that miserable sickness was ultimately going to be good for me; the sickness was, in a sense, redemptive. Julian’s text is all about her discovering the redemptive power of suffering. She becomes deathly ill and she asks God to increase her compassion and empathy for Christ who suffered on the cross and for all who have suffered. In this way, she discovered the redemptive power of suffering. She grew so ill that it looked she was at death’s door, so a priest came to offer her last rites and he stood over her bed and held up a cross like this. And when he held up the cross, these visions of divine love poured out. And she wrote about all sixteen of these visions in her text called Showings. And there’s this one vision that is perhaps her most popular and this is one I want to share with you; and I want to ask the ushers to pass out hazelnuts. It is often called the “hazelnut vision” because it was in this tiny, hazelnut-sized ball that she saw all of creation. The ushers are going to pass out hazelnuts and if you’re watching at home, I invite you to find a small round object like a marble or stone (or hazelnut if you have one) and hold it in the palm of your hand. You’re welcome to eat the hazelnut after the meditation since Julian also talked about experiencing God’s love through the wonders of human digestion.
I invite you to look closely at that small hazelnut that is jam-packed with healthy nutrients and fats and think about three little things that give you deep gratitude and joy. Receive these little things as expressions of God’s love for you.
I also invite you to prayerfully reflect on a small act of kindness you can offer later today or this week, knowing that the impact of small things grows far beyond the sum of their parts.
I’m going to read what Julian wrote soon after receiving this vision. Keep holding that hazelnut in your hand and let these words wash over you…
“Our Lord showed me a spiritual sight of his familiar love. I saw that he is to us everything which is good and comforting, for our help. He is our clothing for he is that love which wraps and enfolds us. He embraces us and guides us, surrounds us for his love, which is so tender that he may never desert us. And so in this vision, I saw truly that he is everything which is good as I understand. And in this, he showed me something small, no bigger than a hazelnut, lying in the palm of my hand. I perceived that it was as round as any ball. I looked at it and thought, what can this be? And I was given this general answer: It is everything which is made. I was amazed that it could last for I thought that it was so little that it could suddenly fall into nothing. And I was answered in my understanding: it lasts and always will because God loves it and thus everything has being through the love of God. In this little thing, I saw three properties. The first that God made it; the second is that God loves it; the third is that God preserves it. But what is that to me? It means that God is my creator; God is my lover; and God is my protector.”[2]
God is your creator; God is your lover; God is your protector.
And in this vision, I was invited into true rest. I was invited to rest in the truth that all shall be well and all shall be well and all manner of things shall be well.
May we enter that same rest today and in the days to come as we receive those “little things” as expressions of God’s love for us and as we offer up small acts of kindness as thanksgiving to God, trusting that all shall be well. Amen.
[1] Belgian Catholic priest Georges Lemaître (1894 – 1966)
[2] Julian of Norwich, Showings, Short Text, Ch. IV, trans. Edmund Colledge and James Walsh (Mahwah NJ: Paulist Press, 1978) 130 – 131.
DANIEL DeFOREST LONDON 