Based on Psalm 137, Lamentations 1:1-3, 2Timothy 1:7-14, Luke 17:5-10
I love flowering plants. If I had my way, all plants would have some form of beautiful flower, and I would have a yard full of blooms throughout the growing season. You see, I come from a long line of people who loved flowering plants. My maternal grandparents were known in their small Minnesota town for growing award-winning roses. My parents spent hours every year planning for new gardens and then tending all the flowering plants within. My mother even brought that love of flowers inside, growing many different colors of African violets.
I can still remember the excitement when the flower catalogs showed up in the fall – especially the rose catalog from Jackson & Perkins. In general, growing roses takes a lot of time and effort. This was multiplied by growing them in the sub-arctic climate of Minnesota. You can’t just leave the plant unprotected during the long, cold winters, for they froze to death. No, you had to dig a trench and bury them, then add layers of leaves, straw or other insulating material on top. It was a lot of work, and I always ended up pricking myself on the thorns. As I sucked on my fingers on my way to get a band-aid, I would curse those thorns. It wasn’t until the next Summer that I remembered why we went to so much trouble throughout the year.
Roses have long inspired writers, poets and painters to praise their beauty. French writer and social critic, Jean-Baptiste Alfonse Karr, is known for many long-lived quotes. Among those is “the more things change, the more they stay the same.” He was also notable for his passion for flowering plants. He discovered the beautiful flowering plant that we know as the dahlia and is credited with almost single-handedly starting the cut-flower craze on the French Riviera in the mid- to late 1800s. It was likely his love of flowers that led to another famous quote, “Some people are always grumbling because roses have thorns; I am thankful that thorns have roses.”
Being thankful and looking for beauty when life gets challenging or thorny is what our scriptures are about today. Psalm 137 and the Book of Lamentations are reflections of the aftermath of the Babylonian destruction of Judah and Jerusalem. Psalm 137 was written by those in exile in Babylon, while the book we know as Lamentations records the cries of those left behind to pick up the pieces of their demolished homeland. Both populations are enduring a time where there are far more thorns than roses. In fact, it will take 70 years of back-breaking work and enduring the taunts of Babylonian captors before there will be a chance for Spring again.
Jesus’ parables always give us a new perspective on life. Jesus is speaking to his disciples in the 17th Chapter of Luke, reminding them to not behave like the scribes and Pharisees. Jesus tells them to watch themselves so that they don’t cause another person to sin – especially the young and vulnerable. He also tells them that if someone sins against them, they are to rebuke that person. If the person repents, then they must forgive – even up to seven times in the same day! The disciples are aghast and ask Jesus for more faith. He tells them they already have as much faith as they need to perform miracles, they just have to do the job that is before them to the best of their abilities – trusting in God the Holy Spirit to give them what they need.
Timothy is struggling to get the church in Ephesus in order. There are a couple of rogue leaders who are misleading the people toward a more Greek understanding of living (debate, rationality and dissension) instead of the gospel of Jesus, which is about obedience to God, unity and trusting the Holy Spirit. In fact, the writer of 2Timothy reminds us that God’s Spirit “gives us power, love and self-discipline”. Timothy is reminded that carrying our crosses leads us by its very nature to some suffering. Jesus never promised any of his disciples that a life spent following him would be a bed of roses free of thorns.
Following Jesus, truly following his teachings and imitating his way of being in the world, is not a recipe for easy living. It is a road that offers many blessings, but it is also a road that is rocky, thorny and contains more than its share of suffering. In times where there are only thorns in sight, it is hard to hope for and trust in the roses yet to come. This is where the religious discipline of lament is most helpful. We are in a time in our families, towns, State, Country and world, where the thorns of violence and self-destruction are everywhere all at once. There is no escaping the death-dealing powers that are at work right now. Faithful people cry out to a God who seems absent, uncaring, clueless – “how long, O God, will you turn your face from us?!” “How long will we be surrounded by thorn bushes which rend and tear at us?”
Lutheran Pastor Diane Roth offers us some understanding of how to use lament in thorny times writing, “…It is hard to imagine the devastation Jerusalem experienced as it fell to the Babylonian Empire. Reading about it - the violence, the siege, the starvation, and the collapse of the city walls - there is unimaginable physical suffering but also the loss of a place, the loss of purpose, the loss of identity. Without Jerusalem, without Judah, who are the people?
Who are we? And who is God for us? The people of Jerusalem give voice to their sorrow, fear, anger, and loneliness…I keep thinking about how Jeremiah spends much of his time preaching judgment - predicting just such an end for Jerusalem if they don’t turn back, return to God, and stop listening to false gods with false promises…
These days it seems there are more and more opportunities for collective lament...over gun violence, over racism, and during [at] the time of yet another [a] violent event…Lament gets in between our defensive responses and just lets us name the pain and grief. It gives space to hear stories that are true, even if we don’t want to hear them. To lament is to name the devastation, to hear the stories, without talking back. And then to lay it all before God and listen….”
When we raise our individual and collective lament to God, we can trust that God hears and understands. When we finish our lament and wait in silence, then God can speak to us about how we are called to do the difficult work with God to cultivate roses where there seem to be only thorns. This is our task as servants of God – to do, as Jesus told his disciples, everything we were told to do with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives within all of us. With God’s help, we will once again discover the ability to be truly thankful that sometimes thorns have roses. Amen and amen!