My youngest daughter loves dandelions, particularly in two different stages. There is the blooming stage, when it can be applied like makeup to her face, and to the poor unsuspecting dog. And then the most fascinating stage when it goes to seed and just begs for children everywhere to blow the seed to all the neighboring lawns. When I hear the phrase, “going to seed,” I think that is the end of something. But what if we reversed that? What if the end is really the beginning?
In Christianity there are lots of reversals. In creation, a “day” begins at sundown, “And there was evening, then morning – the first day” (Gen 1:5). Jesus says, “The last will be first and the first will be last” (Matthew 20:16). So, when I think of hope as defined in Christianity I think the same metaphor applies.
Hope is sometimes defined as a wish like, “I hope I win the lottery,” or “I hope it doesn’t rain today.” There isn’t a lot invested in it, and the outcome, though disappointing, is not of great despair. However, this type of hope will not sustain you in crisis and adversity. And when I come to the end of my life, or just the end of a life-stage, this definition of hope leads only to depression, gloom and well, hopelessness.
When we hope, we are looking toward the future. But what happens as we age and “who I am” is more “what I was?” I think back to that dandelion in my daughter’s hand. I see her reach for the yellow ones, brushing them lightly upon her cheek. She chases the dog to rub the yellowy powder into her furry face. In a couple weeks, she will be just as happy to go out when those blooms she didn’t pick have turned to white seeds.
I think some of us believe life is at its best when in bloom. We can’t wait to grow: from shoot to bud then bloom. But we aren’t so attracted to the seed stage. We pick flowers right before they blossom for our loved ones and dry them to cherish their memory before they wilt too far. But what if in the end is the beginning? What if evening is the beginning of the new day? What is the last is the first?
See, a flower, “blooms where its planted.” But the dandelion seed has the greatest adventure dancing upon the traces of the wind looking down from the sky to find a new green place to color with patches of gold. Do not despair. Have hope. The best is yet to come. When you come to the end of something see the beginning that will sprout from it. The potential in your seed outweigh the beauty of your once perfect bloom. When you feel that you are more defined but what you were think of the dandelion and have hope. A flower’s job is to make the next season brighter.
My daughter was working on her first grade class project about fruits and vegetables. She chose one of her favorite vegetables to study, the bell pepper. Come to find out her beloved vegetable was in fact a fruit. Which lead to the discovery that cucumbers, eggplants, sunflower seeds and others are also fruits. Simply defined, fruits are the seed bearing part of a plant. My salad has never been more confusing. I have been misled my entire life.
For my family, this information excited and encouraged us to dig deeper into botany. Did you know there are some plants that can figure out the type of caterpillar eating its leaves by the saliva, and send out an effervescent distress call to insects that like to eat that particular species of caterpillar? That would have been cool to learn in school! A botanist on one of the nature shows said concerning plants being able to communicate, “most people will say I’m crazy; most scientists will say I am wrong and crazy.”
And then I read that in 1893 a unanimous Supreme Court decision concluded that for import tax purposes a tomato was a vegetable even though it was proven botanically a fruit. At that time fruit did not have an import tariff
I hope we keep discovering and learning and reforming in our theology without being dismissive or lose faith. Keep reading your Bible, and when God speaks may we have receptive ears. Who knows when that, “still small voice” might become a, “crushing clamorous sound” calling us to redefine our beliefs.
Grace demands a response. Well, at least ancient grace. That is, the 
kind of grace in a honor/shame culture of the biblical era of the middle east. We live in a rights-driven culture. Our transactions are judicial rather than personal. Modern grace has a narrower definition.
The patron is the one who grants the gift. It is based upon favors and loyalty. Consider Don Corleone and the opening scene of The Godfather. This is an unequal partnership where the one granting the favor (the patron) expects absolute loyalty from the recipient. Grace demands a response of loyalty by way of respect in demeanor and action as well as publicizing the benefactor’s gift and gratitude. This Sicilian grace is similar to the other ancient Mediterranean cultures.
God gave his all in his Son on our behalf. How can we not give our all back in gratitude? Isn’t that the meaning of baptism? There is a difference between paying someone back and paying them homage and gratitude. But I’m afraid little honor culture left in the Americanized church. We are not consumers and worship is not for us. In days of yore they to worship giving expensive sacrifices and long pilgrimages. Now many churches go to extreme expense to encourage and maintain memberships. Once sacrifices and gifts were turned away if they were not without blemish. Now the church welcomes hand-me-downs when members upgrade their own living-room idols. 
Sunday used to be the Lord’s Day, now, as the movie Concussion says of football, “You’re going to war with a corporation that owns a day of the week.” From the fatted calf to the pigskin.
From Boniface to Luther the tree took on specific meanings. The lit evergreen speaks to the light, life, and eternal love of Christ, especially in the stark winter where everything else seems dead. It points towards heaven and its triangular shape represents the Trinity. We top it with either a star or an angel, the first messengers of the Gospel to magi and shepherd, imploring us to spread the message as well. So we spread the message faithfully. God even describes himself as this festive conifer saying, “I am like an evergreen cypress, your faithfulness comes from me.” (Hosea 14:8)
I love autumn and watching God’s creatures go about their business. There is plenty we can learn observing nature. While doing yard-work this week I witnessed Canada geese in formation hastening noisily to their southern retreat. Around the house my wife’s purple asters are filled with foraging bees. My kids enjoy watching the bees, (my dogs enjoy snapping at them). Sometimes we like to look at them with a magnifying glass. The whole family loves to watch the hive installation at the Franklin Public Library as well.
Positive communication goes a long way. Just as the bees use positive and helpful dialogue so do those geese flying overhead. Have you ever wondered why they are so noisy? I thought maybe they were complaining, “Are we there yet?” or, “He should have taken a left at that second cloud.” What researchers have discovered is something the opposite of the ways human talk and travel – they are encouraging the leader. See the geese use the formation to reduce air resistance for the flock but the one in the lead thus must work harder than the others. They aren’t complaining, they are cheering their champion through the resistance.
We are on this faith journey together. Let us, “encourage one another daily” (Hebrews 3:13). Those receiving the most resistance need our honking approval. Let’s goose our flying V with encouragement. Where others bicker and complain let us “be the bee” cheering on the hive. We’ve got this!
Much has changed over the years and yet, “nothing is new under the sun.” The desires of Adam and Eve still drive the humanity today, only with cooler gadgets. This summer my girls participated in a Lego Robotics Workshop hosted by the Franklin Public Library. I was overjoyed to see them bent over Legos and laptops while creating in an air-conditioned room rather than bent over handheld screens, consuming a foreign-made app, and walking aimlessly around town. 
We have shifted from creators to consumers. America used to create and consume, now we outsource the creation but continue to consume the products. There are some pockets of resistance like this robotics club and maker’s markets for that I am thankful. But overall we are falling back to the original lie in Genesis: to be godlike one consumes rather than creates.
When I was young I played with toys of creation. We had Tonka Trucks, Lincoln Logs, Erector Sets, models, and (of course) Legos. Even the parents experienced the maker’s universe before Christmas as they conquered the chaos of multiple parts, tab A and slot B, building bikes and Barbie playhouses. As I grew I worked for my neighbors, mowing in the summers and shoveling in the winters. Money and extras were earned. My allowance came with dirty jobs like taking out the garbage and clearing the dinner table.
Adam and Eve, even without an iPhone, followed the same mentality. Why work when you can get it by consuming something? They were called to create and cultivate and instead they chose to partake in order to gain the benefits without the work. We forget that the Sabbath Commandment begins, “Six days you shall work…”
This summer I began watching Star Trek. It started as a Netflix nightcap. I’m not nor have I been a Trekkie. Therefore, I humbly request grace from the Trek Nation. To parody Bones, “I’m a theologian not a astrosciencefictionist!”
Of course, when the original series aired it was the antithesis of 1966. The world was embroiled in a cold war (but Chekov was a navigator on the bridge of the Enterprise). It was the time of the National Organization for Women and the African-American Civil Rights Movement. Yet, before there were female astronauts or military officers in the USA, Star Trek’s Chief Communications Officer Uhura was a black woman. President Kennedy had been assassinated a couple years earlier, we were at war in Vietnam and protesters of various kinds marched the US streets.
There is a Jewish saying called, “Tikkun Olam” translated as “Repairing the World.” From Genesis our first commands are protection and cultivation of the whole planet. Israel was a culture-busting nation. What other nation provides cities of refuge for the accused to have a fair trial for instance? Let us tone down the rhetoric and work to repair the world, to provide a vision of the utopia to be had, where the Joel 2 prophecy of male and female, slave and free, is as obvious in reality as it is on the fictional Enterprise bridge.
Let me begin with its history. Anna Reeves Jarvis in the mid-1800’s organized a “Mother’s Work Day” to gain awareness and bring together mothers who lost children from both sides of the Civil War in order to care for the poor health and sanitary conditions.
On Mother’s Day Sunday I stand in the pulpit and see a different scene than the one promoted in commercials. I see the hurting more than the healing. I see the daughter who still grieves her mom who died too early. I see the empty seats of the lovely woman and her husband who went through many failed pregnancies and the mother of a stillborn who couldn’t find the strength to attend worship today. I see the women who never married, the woman who had to give up her child, the one who had an abortion, and the one who outlived her teen son.
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