November 10, 2019 - Twenty-second Sunday in Pentecost - Youth Sunday and Planting an Apple Tree

Photo by Ron Houser

Worship was led by Creator's Youth today.and featured, once again,  music from around the world.

They served all the volunteer functions as well. Ari served phenomenally as Assisting Minister, Ava and Maia served as Acolytes, and Aidan and Jacob as ushers. Both Kai and Ellie gave inspiring readings from scripture.

Today's Gospel was Luke 20:27-38 -Resurrection and Marriage. Pastor Ray preached that this was another aspect of death to think about after All Saints Sunday and the communion of saints.

We tend to picture heaven drawn from what we know from life in this world. Pastor Ray started off his sermon with a Saint-Peter-at-the-Pearly-Gates joke.  Tracing this idea back it is based on Matthew 16:19, where Jesus tells Peter, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.” and  from Revelation 21:21's description of the cit of New Jerusalem “And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass” Taking these verses together has formed the idea that Peter literally stands at some pearly gates in the clouds, admitting people to heaven. 

The congregation laughed at the joke. Unfortunately we have no better metaphors to replace this image of the "geography" of heaven as we can imagine it, which leaves a deep need and longing we carry with us.  We talk about God's love for us but there is a more fundamental need that needs to be satisfied in this image of heaven and God. Stated simply we long for God, or some eternal intelligence, that not only loves us but that we can imagine to be a witness to humankind's life and progress.

The search of the writer of Ecclesiastes is indelibly written on our hearts and punctuated with his conclusion in Chapter 12 verse 8 "All is futile (or vanity, that is also translated as smoke or breath), says the Preacher; utterly futile." For we know this world we live in is fragile and what we do in it is temporal, The eternal intelligence of God helps from the despair that comes out of this thought.

Interestingly enough, even though he did not bring it up in the context of mortality and the world's temporal nature, Pastor Ray preached about Martin Luther and the apple tree quote: "Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree."

It’s unfortunate that apparently Luther didn’t utter the apocryphal quote.One must remember, that the first written evidence of this saying comes from 1944 with Martin Schloemann’s book which has a section on the apple-tree quote.  Despite efforts to the contrary, as Scott Hendrix relates, “So far, however, this statement has not been found in his writings. Scholars believe it originated in the German Confessing Church, which used it to inspire hope and perseverance during its opposition to the Nazi dictatorship.”

Like most apocryphal quotes, Luther’s sentiment about the apple tree and the end-times resonates because it rings true with many Christians’ own self-perception. This is another existential way of dealing with mortality and the temporal nature of life.

Even if Luther did not make this statement this is another aspect of what worship is all about for me. Personally, each week of worship and writing this blog are other ways of planting my apple tree. The God of the Gospel is a God of Life, not death. Faith is this overshadows any despair about not knowing the mechanics of how God accomplishes this and Jesus shows the Sadducees the errors that are encountered when disembodied theologies are attempted.

For another more detailed blog on the difficulties I here is the link to a piece written by a friend of Pastor Ray's, a Lutheran pastor named Collette Broady Grund