Jesus’ Sermon on the Plain, which we've explored this week, could be summed up this way: Don’t put your trust in prosperity or well-being or what people think of you. Your strength comes from God, your reward comes from God; keep your focus on God. As it happens, in one of our readings this Sunday the prophet Jeremiah is singing the same tune:
Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit.
Years ago I went on retreat, when I was more in the habit of that life-giving spiritual practice, and in prayer I asked Jesus what he wanted for me or from me. This answer formed in my mind: “I want you to let me water your roots every day.” That’s in part where the name Water Daily came from. Roots that dry up cannot sustain vibrant life in the plant.
We need to stay close to the water of life flowing from the throne of God, and send our roots into that stream to soak up its nutrients. (We also need to drink more water each day – as my sister was just reminding me, even mood issues can stem from dehydration…)
I’ve got trees on the brain lately, as I explore Suzanne Simard’s memoir Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest. Her research has shown that “trees are a complex, interdependent circle of life; that forests are social, cooperative creatures connected through underground networks by which trees communicate their vitality and vulnerabilities with communal lives not that different from our own.” This network “heals, feeds and sustains the other members of the forest.”
When I first heard of Simard’s book, and heard her interviewed (On Being), I thought, “This is what churches are meant to be: a powerful network that heals, feeds and sustains the other members of the forest.” The applications of her findings to human networks and particularly to the mission of Christ’s church are galvanizing.
Just imagine what a gift to our current culture we bring when we are “do not fear when heat comes,” when “our leaves stay green” (supple, vibrant), when we are not anxious no matter what is going on around us, no matter how many good reasons there are to be anxious. Just as hatred and anxiety can spread through communities, so can love and peace. We are to be conduits of God’s love and peace.
What is the best way you can think of to keep your spiritual roots watered? (I hope Water Daily is one of them!). Keep doing that, and you will not cease to bear fruit that transforms lives.
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