Climbing ladders, scattering seeds ….Faith in Transition ...
As HARD as it is to say while living on the prairie, surrounded by vast weedless tracts of crops – canola, wheat, potatoes, flax, barley, oats … weeds are simply plants out of place … it may be anathema even to suggest that weeds have value …
The most ubiquitous weed around us – the dandelion is perhaps one of the most nutritious and versatile plants imaginable … if you google search dandelions you will find a HUGE number of references to dandelions … last night when I checked it was in excess of 2.1 MILLION web pages about dandelions.
You can make a salad out of the leaves, you can make ointments out of the stems, you can dry the roots and make coffee, you can dry the leaves and make an herbal tea, you can make a fine wine out of the blossoms, young children can create beautiful woven necklaces of the blossoms, bunches of the bright yellow flowers are a rite of passage for EVERY mother, and there is NOT a child alive who hasn’t delighted in making a wish as they blow the dandelion fluff into the wind … even the most die-hard gardener has to begrudgingly admit that the lawn full of blooming yellow dandelions makes a majestic sight in the spring of the year … they may be regarded as a pest or a weed, but they are high in vitamin C, nutritious, quite delicious and filled with incredible potential … they are proof that a weed is simply a plant out of OUR context … they are a blight on the modern lawn because we expect a perfect green vista, rather than the broad green leaves and bright yellow flowers of the dandelion …
The question then is one of perspective …is the problem that the dandelion is a weed, or is the problem our perspective?
Yesterday I recalled a story about a man walking across a parking lot in a rain storm. He was trying to avoid the many puddles that were under foot, and was trying to get to his destination through the driving rain … his mood was grey and dark like the weather. But then he heard a child’s voice say – “look mommy, a rainbow … a rain bow …” He glanced up and could see only grey dark clouds and rain … he glanced over at the child who was pointing at the puddle below her bright yellow rubber boots … on the surface of the puddle was a bright rainbow from the sheen of oil floating on the top of the puddle.
Now, environmental concerns about WHAT those residues could be set aside for a moment – the little girl in the midst of a grey dark rain storm found a rainbow at her feet … and the man learned a valuable lesson about perspective … pausing to consider where the gifts and blessings might be found.
This year’s canola will become next year’s weed in a field of grain or flax, just as this year’s dandelion will be regarded as a weed in the middle of a lush green front lawn … but is this what Jesus meant when he offered the harsh parable of the weeds growing amongst the crop?
If we step back and consider the story of Jacob we have before us today, and the saga of the Patriarch’s life that we are currently moving through in the lectionary cycle, our perspective on issues of faith are challenged in ways we may not have considered.
We have a tight and neat image of Jacob. He is the father of Israel. We will celebrate his devotion for Rachel, but overlook his first wife Leah . We will remember that it was from his sons that the twelve tribes of Israel arose. We remember him as the gentle aged father who warmly welcomes home his son Joseph after the nastiness of Joseph’s brothers sent the young man into slavery in Egypt. We have a warm fuzzy image of Jacob that leaves much out … we tend to forget his conniving ways that tricked Esau out of his rightful inheritance … we overlook the treachery that Laban invoked on Jacob … in short, we will gloss over the bits that don’t fit our perspective of Jacob as a hero of faith.
Yet, a reading of the Book of Genesis – even a cursory reading, will reveal to us a lot of political machination, a lot of posturing and more than just a little bit of conniving and treachery by everyone involved … okay, almost everyone – I remember one of the ministers in my past pointing out that in the life of Jacob the one person who never engages in any form of deception is poor Leah who stands on the margins of the story, yet is central in being the mother of seven children – six sons and a daughter, while the other six sons came from Rachel and two maid servants Bilhah and Zilpah. Loyal and devoted Leah stands, just wanting to be loved by her husband ... But alas, that is a story for another day, for today we are offered the image of Jacob’s dream of a ladder stretching up into heaven.
The image of Jacob’s ladder is one that has become central to our understanding of the linkage between heaven and earth … lined with angels ascending and descending, and the voice of the Living God assuring Jacob that he is being accompanied by the divine promise – the covenant uttered to Abraham when God said – “I will be your God and YOU will be my people …” there is an implied understanding and experience that permeates everything that we are about …
We are chosen by God. We are the select. We are the in group. We are God’s people. … We have a specific perspective that radically defines WHO we are and how we move through the world … we can forget all the uncomfortable bits and see the world through a rose coloured set of lenses that block out the treachery, the deception, the machinations …that dub certain plants weeds, and that focus only on what makes us warm and comfortable and SAFE.
Everything outside the tight definition is to be cast into the fire and burned …
The problem arises when we begin to consider whether our perspective is valid or not …
I remember as a child spending many hours talking about life and faith and all kinds of other issues with my Grandfather … many of his lessons have stuck with me … his challenge to never judge someone harshly because when you point a finger at another, there are THREE fingers pointing back at yourself, has been central in my life … but one afternoon I remember talking to him about Church and the whole concept of who is in and who is out … and he shared with me the experience of growing up in a congregation of the Free Church of Scotland Presbyterian Church in southern Ontario.
He noted that it was a very strict and devote group, and that they had a very firm understanding that THEY were AMONG the chosen of God, and that ONLY those who shared their faith would make it into heaven. Grandpa shared with me a conversation he had had a long time before with a young cousin who was troubled by this … the Young man couldn’t conceive of a heaven without the many good people who populated their small rural village.
How could a loving God make heaven for a small handful of the human family?
My grandfather said – “my view of heaven is that it is a wondrous place filled with all manner of amazing things and people, but in the middle of it is a HUGE wall enclosing a tiny little corner of heaven.”
“What’s inside the wall?”asked the young cousin.
“That’s where they put all of the folks from our church,” answered Grandpa, “so they think they have heaven all to themselves …”
It’s too easy to lose our perspective and to become TOO focused on only that which edifies us and makes us feel good … Life and faith are far more than THAT.
The story of Jacob shows us that God has plans for ALL people, even the likes of Jacob who spent most of his life tricking those around him, and in turn being tricked and cheated … But more than that, the story of Jacob reminds us that even God’s chosen are less than perfect, and that even if we think WE ARE – a change in perspective is a helpful thing …
The image of Jacob’s ladder has often been translated into the self-help processes of groups like AA, who seek to help free us from our struggles … we live here on earth with our burdens and our challenges … and the ladder of healing and wholeness stretches upwards as a gift from God … a Coptic mystic envisioned Jacob’s ladder as an analogy of the spiritual life. The thirty rungs of this ladder begin with detachment – letting go and trusting in the divine presence … and move through a variety of reflections and meditations on ALL aspects of life from money to lying to laziness to pride … until the practitioner through a winnowing of values and understandings stands in a place of spiritual perfection fully enveloped with the Holy.
As difficult and seemingly far fetched as it may sound, the vision of St John Climacus has parallels in the 12 steps of AA, and in numerous modern self-help books like those of Eckhart Tolle, who all begin with an initial step of letting go and trusting in THIS MOMENT.
Naming OUR personal problem or burden is a dramatic shift in perspective, AND is the first step up Jacob’s ladder … trusting, not in ourselves, but in our higher power, in God, or the cosmos (whatever term people chose to use) is the second step that embodies the concept Jesus put forward when he questioned why we are so good at seeing the speck in our brother’s eye, but lousy at seeing the log in our own …
We can point those fingers at others … but we can also ignore the fingers pointing back …
When our foot touches the first rung of Jacob’s ladder and we begin to climb our perspective begins to change … today’s weed becomes tomorrow’s feast … it’s all a matter of perspective.
It’s easier to stand in a place of self-righteous judgement that sees the “weeds” cast into the eternal fire and burned … but …
The difference between a weed and a crop plant is simply a matter of perspective … our faith-filled calling is be open to God’s view of the world, that may not always be in synch with our own.
What we would be so certain to dub a weed may not be one at all … and what we are so convinced is a valuable crop, may in the fullness of time be regarded only as a weed … it’s all a matter of perspective.
If we consider the humble weed – dandelion, we can, if we are open to it, be struck by the versatility of the tenacious and ubiquitous little plant. It may be a nuisance to some, but to others it is a nutritious, delicious and beautiful gift from God’s creation … and when a tiny fist carries in a fresh picked bouquet of bright yellow flowers with the words – “Here, these are for you …” even the most hardened heart has to reluctantly admit to the beauty being offered to them …
And all of this comes from a humble weed …
It’s all a matter of perspective … and our calling of faith is to open ourselves to God’s perspective rather than holding tightly only to our own … when we point to a weed and denounce it as “useless” … my grandfather’s lesson about those other three fingers becomes relevant … it may well be a weed from our perspective … in a world of change, challenges and transitions, what we hold most dearly to may not be what we expect, and we must open our understandings and our beings to more … the lesson of Jacob’s ladder is about trusting in God’s presence, even in the darkest night to give us strength, comfort and wholeness …
In the coming days, may we have the courage, the faith and most of all the OPENESS to the fullness of life, which is a gift from God … and may we be open to the gift of dandelions in our world …
May it be so, today and always - Thanks be to God …
Let us pray …
