Trees
Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all. ~ Mark 9:35
Peace and grace to you on this beautiful fall weekend. I invite you to notice how the trees on our beautiful 5-acre, wooded campus are turning colors.
The trees on our campus are a gift to us, especially in an area that is increasingly losing its canopy trees. Before or after worship, stroll around the campus. Breathe deeply, along with the trees. They breathe in carbon dioxide and breathe out oxygen. We are called to both enjoy and care for them. And we are. Just last week, a tree service completed its work to remove dead trees and thin out some so that others will thrive. This morning, a team of parishioners and Scouts are spreading the wood chips left from the project.
Many of Jesus’ sayings are paradoxical, such as the one we will hear this Sunday, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Why doesn’t Jesus just invite us simply not to care whether we are first or last? If you take your place as last, can you really be first? The logic don’t add up.
Perhaps Jesus is inviting us to see that the kingdom of God has its own logic, a logic that is so radically different than our own that we are pressed to surrender our desire even to understand….to surrender our desire to control, to know where we are in the pecking order, or to have a pecking order at all.
When we surrender to God we can embrace the life of a servant. We are free to give ourselves in service to others and to creation. We are free to serve the least and in so doing, we live the values of God’s kingdom.
Sometimes serving the least means caring for those with no voice. Jesus operationalized his assertion by bringing a child, one with no voice in the community in the first century, to the center. In doing so, Jesus gave that child position in the community. What or who in our society has no voice? Who is Jesus inviting us to serve?
I would suggest the trees, and creation, fit the bill. Where is their voice? Do we prioritize the trees? Come to Saint Peter’s and take a walk. Listen to the trees. Place them in the center of your heart. What would it mean for us to serve the trees and creation?
Tomorrow we continue to observe the Season of Creation. We will welcome Brian Sellers-Petersen who will lead a conversation about Food, Faith, and Land in 9 AM in the Parish Hall. See you then!
