“[The righteous] are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.” (Psalm 1:3)
I’ve been fascinated with this simile for sometime. The first psalm intentionally begins with the image of those who are open to God’s instruction. “[Those who are open to God’s instruction] are like trees transplanted beside a source of water; they are never without a resource to sustain their lives – mainly God’s live-giving instruction. What the tree imagery highlights is not primarily the aspect of fruitfulness but the importance of a stable rootedness. The root is in precisely the proper place – beside water, which represents God’s life-giving instruction.” (J. Clinton McCann, New Interpreters Bible Commentary, volume 4, p. 685)
The world asks us to seek a different rootedness. I often wonder if the world is rooted in the virtue of happiness. The saying goes, “Do whatever you want as long as it makes you happy.” Most of the time, our happiness leads us to an incredibly self-centered life. If you don’t believe me, go to any bookstore and see the number of books in the self-help section that help us to unlock the secret to our best life now. Don’t buy those books because I can tell you the underlying message of them: Life is about enjoying what I want, I need, and I desire. My happiness is what matters most.
Unfortunately, this sort of teaching often gets brought into the church as the gospel. But this sort of teaching is not the gospel of Jesus Christ. The church has said that those self-centered wants, needs, and desires often lack the deep roots necessary to sustain a fruitful life.
In other words, we take it seriously when we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” It’s not about you or me; it’s first and foremost about God. My wishes come in second place to God’s wishes.
To use a bit of circular logic, self-centeredness is a problem because it puts the self at the center. That was at the heart of Adam and Eve’s sin.
Thank God our sin is not the final word. The ability to lead a deep life has been made possible through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We human beings would be perfectly content with being enslaved to sin. But God knows better. God chooses another way for us and liberates us from sin, death, and the Devil.
I remember a time Caroline and I planted several bushes in our yard. Where we were living had some very tough clay for the soil. We spent a good part of an afternoon, working hard digging through the clay so that we had a deep enough hole to plant the bushes. Despite the sweat, sore backs and blisters, it was worth it. Had we chosen to stop working or to plant our bushes in shallow ground, our plants would not have survived. Thank God for the shovels and other tools we had to dig deep. Without them, we couldn’t have made a dent in the tough soil.
So it is with our faith. With out the hard work of digging deep, I am not sure our faith will survive. God calls us to use tools of our faith – Word, sacrament, community, and prayer, in order that we can bless others. As we use those tools to dig deeper, we can be sure that Jesus is there, breaking away the tough soil of our hearts and minds.
