September 15: Acorns into Oak Trees

LISA Wiens Heinsohn

Acorns into Oak Trees

Homily for St. John’s Episcopal Church

by Lisa Wiens Heinsohn given September 15, 2024

Mark 8:27-38

 

I once had a teacher who gave every person in the class an acorn, at the beginning of the class. She said that even though we didn’t know anything about the subject yet, that we had everything we needed right inside ourselves to learn what we needed—to grow and change and transform like acorns into a huge oak tree. It was all present in the acorn. We were full of potential, innately. It was an immensely powerful affirmation. I still have that acorn, on an altar in my office.

 

The world is so full of miracles they seem normal to us, but they are mind-blowing. Somehow, an acorn becomes a shoot. First it has to fall to the earth and be buried. Then it sends up a tiny shoot, and begins converting light, water, and sugar into wood. A huge amount of wood. And into leaves. Built into its DNA is the code for this kind of growth, this kind of transformation. In a mother’s womb, a zygote becomes an embryo and a fetus and ultimately a living child is born. A caterpillar builds a cocoon and then essentially liquifies and is rearranged into a butterfly. You could almost say that it dies, decomposes, and is reborn. Every day the sun rises and sets, and deep darkness sets in. Every year we have winter, the world seems to die, and then it is reborn in the spring.

 

There is something in the fabric of creation itself that is a rhythm of birthing, growing, and dying, then starting all over again. I do wish the dying part were easier. I wish winter were less cold, and had more food for all the creatures who must stay alive until spring. I wish we did not have loss. But it is inevitable. We all will die. We all will experience loss. And then our bodies will rejoin the earth and become pine trees, or raccoons, or coronavirus, or morel mushrooms.

 

In many spiritual traditions there is a kind of initiation, a kind of transformation, that is sometimes compared to death and rebirth, and that mimics this natural rhythm that seems to be the pattern of creation itself. For example in many different branches of Buddhism, practitioners contemplate or meditate on their own death, in order to transform the way that we live. In the Lakota spiritual tradition, the Lakota word for sweat lodge is inipi, which means “to live again.” It is a process of purification intended to help a person become humble and “undergo a kind of spiritual rebirth.”[1] And in Christianity, baptism itself is meant to represent a death and resurrection from the old ways to the new. If we can swim back through time, to the original Jesus, this powerful healer and visionary and lover of people, he gives us teachings about this kind of transformation in the gospel reading for today. He says:

 

If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life?

 

This is a hard teaching. In the millennia since these words were written down, they have sometimes been used abusively to enforce the submission of oppressed people—women, African slaves, Native Americans, LGBTQ folks. But if we can imagine standing before the original Jesus, this one who went where the suffering was, the one who would not condemn anyone but from whom healing poured out in an unceasing stream, what do you think he meant?

 

We don’t have to look hard at all to see that to be fully human, to fulfill our divine vocation to love God, love our neighbors, most of us need some work. I know I do. Jesus begins his teaching about this needed transformation by telling us not to live in a way that is grasping in fear, trying to avoid risk, trying to protect ourselves from all loss–but instead to walk forward in courage, not afraid to lose the one thing you cannot keep, which is your life. He says, “what will it profit you to gain the whole world, and forfeit your life?” which can also be translated, “what will it profit you to gain the whole world, and forfeit your soul?” There are some things, he is saying, more important than trying to avoid loss, even more important than protecting yourself. They have to do with being true to your innate goodness, your divine wisdom, your shining light that is within each one of us. There is such a difference between living with hands grasped tight, holding on with eyes squeezed shut, and living with opened hands and eyes with courage and serenity. Jesus is telling us to let go of the illusion that we can control everything. He is asking us to follow him, to mimic his behavior and his attitudes. To acknowledge that there are some things that must die in us to make room for other things to be born.

 

This past week my spouse was at a silent meditation retreat on Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, led by a partnership of Buddhists and traditional Lakota spiritual elders. During this retreat it became known to them that there would be a procession repatriating the remains of three Oglala Lakota children named Fannie Charging Shield, Samuel Flying Horse and John Cornman from Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania.[2] My spouse and the retreat leaders and others joined the procession for a time. It was powerful and heartbreaking and full of honor. The Carlisle Industrial Indian School opened in 1879 and operated for about 30 years to rapidly assimilate Native children to European-American customs and values. Many thousands of Native children were forced to speak only English, adopt English names, wear European style clothes, and adopt European-based values. This school became the model upon which many other boarding schools were based. Many Native children died and were buried there without the opportunity to be reunited with their families. The founder of the Carlisle boarding school, Captain Richard Henry Pratt, believed that they should “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.”[3]

 

Whether our ancestors were indigenous to this continent or from Africa, Asia, Europe or Latin America, everyone who has spent time in this culture has been swimming in the legacy of this original contradiction in our nation, the difference between the beautiful founding values that believed all people are created equal, on the one hand, and slavery, racism, and the oppression of Native Americans, women and LGBTQ folks, on the other. This same tension is reflected in the historical theology of our church. On the one hand, we have the incredible power of Jesus’ message to love God, love and serve your neighbor, which has led to acts of selflessness and bravery and generosity and care like the ones preacher Howie Anderson spoke about last week in his sermon about the Martyrs of Memphis.[4] On the other hand, the colonial version of Christianity predominant among Europeans who settled this continent, including the Episcopal Church, promoted itself as being superior to all others, and the only way to God. And this tension exists not only systemically, but within us as well.

 

The line between good and evil doesn’t run between the races or genders or political parties or even the presidential candidates, but straight down the middle of each one of us. And this is why Jesus’ words from today are so powerful, important, and hopeful. We are not stuck. We can follow Jesus’ Way of Love, and in doing so, allow old patterns that no longer serve us to die. And then we can be spiritually reborn, over and over again, on a daily basis. We can open our hands and walk, not with contraction and fear, but with the conscious decision to love and be generous.

 

For in the end we are all acorns growing into oak trees. We are disciples growing into the true stature and lineage of the original Jesus. Although the line between good and evil runs through us, the very first thing that is true about us is original blessing, original goodness and being made in the image of God. Ultimately we must simply become who we already are, by prioritizing love and engaging the spiritual practices we need to be reborn, new every day.

 

But what are our spiritual practices for this kind of transformation? We do not have sweat lodges like the Lakota, and we don’t have traditions about meditating on our own death like Buddhists do. For Episcopal Christians, the five promises of baptism are a roadmap for living this kind of transformation. In each case they are a question, followed by the response, “I will, with God’s help.” They are:

 

Will you continue in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of the bread, and in the prayers?

I will, with God’s help.

 

Will you persevere in resisting evil, and whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord?

I will, with God’s help.

 

Will you proclaim by word and example the Good News of God in Christ?

I will, with God’s help.

 

Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?

I will, with God’s help.

 

Will you strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being?

I will, with God’s help.

 

To convert these promises into authentic spiritual practices that can help us along Jesus’ Way of Love, I created a worksheet for anyone interested that you can take in person or download from the sermon manuscript online. Of course, you can also find your own way to practice transformation and spiritual rebirth.

 

Let us walk forward with open hands, letting go of control and fear. Let us accept that which we cannot change, and have courage to change the things we can. Let us take joy in the goodness of every living being, and grow into the full stature of our divine vocation to love. Amen.

[1] “The Right of Purification—Inípi,” in Aktá Lakota Museum & Cultural Center, accessed September 14, 2024 at https://aktalakota.stjo.org/seven-sacred-rites/inipi-rite-of-purification/

[2] See Kevin Abourezk, “Caravan Brings Children Home from Carlisle,” in ICT, A Division of IndiJ Public Media, September 13, 2024, accessed September 14, 2024 at https://ictnews.org/news/caravan-brings-children-home-from-carlisle

[3] For the full text of the speech in which he said this, see https://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/teach/kill-indian-him-and-save-man-r-h-pratt-education-native-americans

[4] You can view a recording and read a transcript of Rev. Anderson’s sermon on St. John’s website at this link: https://stjohns-mpls.org/sermon/september-8-2024-the-martyrs-of-memphis-and-mankato/

10am Service