May This Church Be like a Tree

 

May This Church Be like a Tree – what a beautiful prayer and blessing for the church.

This blessing was written in the form of a hymn by Pablo Sosa and was his contribution to the Lutheran World Federation’s 500^th Commemoration of the Reformation, which was held in Namibia. It is common practice in Namibia to gather for worship and meetings under trees, just like in his part of the world, the Apostle Paul would go to the water the place people gathered to pray.

 

May This Church Be like a Tree is hymn number 1042 in All Creation Sings. It is a suggested hymn for today, as it echoes the imagery from Jeremiah and the Psalm of the day, Psalm 1.

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 leave shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. Jer. 15: 7-8

 

The World Council of Church’s in memorial piece for Sosa refers to him as the “grandfather of what became known as ‘ecumenical worship.’ …He was engaged in a creativity that not only learned from other traditions and cultures, but formed new liturgies so that the ecumenical community might participate with one another.”

Sosa believed that singing and music is “embodying the theology of another, and in the process understanding more clearly how we were shaped by our presumptions.” Sosa also believed that by embracing global song and singing together, “God was accompanying the people in the song, living within their history. Even the rhythm of the song brought God closer, incarnate within the beat of the street. The music itself was part of song’s theology.”

The 500^th Commemoration of the Reformation and the song May This Church Be like a Tree, emphasized to the Lutheran World Federation what a tree the global church has grown into and what abundant fruit there is yet to bear. The hymn calls the church to be a joyful place of feast (communion) and simple prayer; to be about justice, acts of love, and compassion; a resting place, a welcome shelter, open arms and an embrace for the pilgrim and stranger; a place of self-giving and abundance sharing.

Take a moment to think about this – the Lutheran expressions of church around the world that we represent, or ministries we have been connected with. Since WWII, especially, the church has changed their leaves, and grown new branches, letting other branches to be pruned and discarded. Branches of social awareness have abounded, and the theology of the church has become more expressive in contemplating the connection between faith life and worship life, the biblical connection between worship and justice. Sosa reflected much on this and the lifting up of hope with song. Sosa delightfully described worship as “the fiesta of the faithful.”

 

But this ‘fiesta of the faithful,’ was – is - born in and through the pains of a weary world.

Pablo Sosa grew up in Argentina. As an adult he became a composer and a pastor of a large Methodist Congregation in Buenos Aires. He taught liturgy and hymnology at a seminary. He served in Argentina during a period known as the Dirty war, Guerra sucia, 1976-83. During this period, Argentina experienced military dictatorship and a state of terrorism. Political dissidents, students, young professionals, intellectuals, trade unionists, writers, journalists, artists, citizens suspected of being left-wing activists, anyone associated with socialism or having left-leaning sympathies were subject to harassment, detention centres, torture, concentration camps, or death squad. Others were simply ‘disappeared.’ It is estimated that 22,000 to 30,000 people were murdered or disappeared.

 

Pastor Sosa and his congregation experienced the atrocities of the regime when two girls from the congregation were ‘disappeared’ because they worked among the poor. … Because they worked among the poor - Compassion and mercy- faith living threatened the regime. Churches both Protestant and Catholic were conflicted on how to be under and in this state of terrorism and military regime. How was the church to be? Was it to speak out, be silent, support the government, subversively undermine authority? Continue to openly resist by offering compassion and work for justice, or to only speak in house building resilience and hope among the people? During this time many people lost faith. As the Dirty War continued it caused economic meltdown and plunged the middle-class into poverty.

 

There have been and always are places in the world where God’s faithful question what it means to live faithfully. The Church – even from those who do not profess the faith of the church – is looked to for statements, answers, or action; and if none are forthcoming the church is vilified. Today we have an inkling of what it is to personally, as a community, and as a larger church body, understand living in a place and time where the church is seriously contemplating and discerning what faithful living is amid an aggressive world, where those in leadership only make this weary world wearier. Do we speak or stay silent, does the church support the powers that be or blatantly defy orders? With whom does the church stand, work, support?

 

In 1977 in Argentina, Las Madres de Plaza de Mayo held their first vigil for the ‘disappeared.’ A group of women gathered in the Plaza de Mayo, in a demonstration requesting to have their young adults returned to them alive. The women, and others, have gathered in solidarity every Thursday afternoon thereafter. They pursued details of the fates of their lost relatives. They named the disappeared as ‘fighters for the people.’ Their justice work in human rights continues today, until, in their own words, there is a “defeat of imperialism and the sovereignty of the people are achieved.” Faithful acts of love, compassion and mercy. A continued persistence in seeking justice.

 

ELCA pastor and professor Mary Hinkle Shore wrote: “With the beatitudes, Jesus announces that the provision of God is trustworthy when the world is offering poverty, hunger, grief, and rejection. With the woes, Jesus announces that the provision of God is even more trustworthy than acting in what we imagine is self-interest. The Messiah embodies a whole way of being in the world that is better and more basic to life than either eking out an existence or building barns and filling them.”

 

This is what I feel it is to be like a tree – embodying a whole way of being in the world that is better and more basic to life than either eking out an existence or building barns and filling them – some form of middle ground where no one has too much and no one too little.

This is what I feel it is to be like a tree – embodying a whole way of being in the world where worship and justice are connected. Where worship is the fiesta of the faithful. A place to be connected with God and each other, to be filled with a zest and power, to go and be the embodiment of hope in everyday life.

This is what I feel it is to be like a tree – embodying a whole way of being trusting in the provision of God. Where this principle is the root that waters discernment and decision making; our love, compassion and action. May we – the Church- be like a tree.

 

Blessed are those who trust in the Lord, who 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. Jer. 17: 7-8