Psalm 25:1–14
John 6:37–51
The Dean and President of the Seminary of the Southwest (SSW) when I attended school there was a priest named Doug Travis. To my class he was a monumental figure. He almost felt like a folk hero with a hallmark deep, booming voice. He hailed from out in West Texas in a little town called Tulia. Anytime he presided at Holy Eucharist he—how do I put this?—glistened. Once when he was having a coughing fit during the Eucharistic Prayer he even drank some of the unconsecrated wine just to keep going with the service. But, his legend did not only have to do with humorous liturgical moments in the middle of the service.
Dean Travis had helped SSW through some of its darkest days. During the aftermath that followed the 2008 financial crisis, he made some very difficult decisions that allowed for the seminary to keep going. When he had to fire some longtime employees he did so with such grace and care that people still talked about it when I arrived a couple years later. He never talked about these difficulties, rather he chose to point to what he truly believed was the goal of seminary education: forming mature, Christian leaders.
Almost every sermon that Dean Travis gave had to do with this theme of developing influential people to step up in the 21st Century Church. My friends started to think that he was like a toy with a drawstring that once pulled released one of a handful of catchphrases. Sure, “Mature Christian Leadership,” was one of them, but he also almost always said, “The older and older I get, the more and more convinced I am of…” (fill in the blank). One such sermon still resonates to this day.
While talking about some research that showed that people are more spiritual than they have ever been, but at the same time less religious, Dean Travis pointed to something one of his daughters said. She was more convicted of the power of the Church than ever. Dean Travis on the other hand insisted that the older and older he got the more and more convinced he was not of the power of the Church, but of the power of God. Though the Church is flawed, God is not. Even if the Church fails, God won’t. Hearing these words from the leader of a seminary were both powerful and challenging. He then charged us to be part of leading people to Christ in the Church—not for self-promotion, but for sustenance, life, and transformation. Dean Travis’ words continue to challenge me to wonder why is it that I do what I do, why do we do what we do? We stumbled upon our answer today.
In this afternoon’s first lesson we heard of the perfect vision—not for the Church, but for all of Creation. Isaiah described that in God’s perfect reign even the nature of wild animals changes such that all dwell in peace. Wolf and lamb, leopard and kid, calf and lion, child and snake all living in harmony with one another. These images are so profound that they often overshadow the very first words about this peaceable kingdom. “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse.” These words that prophesized Christ Jesus’ ministry also provide an image for us in the modern Church.
Think about this, a stump is something that is dead or dying. When we see stumps in our yards we want them removed. I watched during construction as a landscaping company sawed down some stumps and used machinery to dig up their roots. A stump then is an eyesore, a nuisance, or at best a place to sit for a moment. But, it is from that place of death and dying that God brings about the salvation of all people. We can take heart in this.
In our own lives, in the world, and even in the Church we might see things that are not life-giving. What are the stumps of your life? A once vibrant relationship now dormant? A long ago brilliant hope in our government now decaying? A closely held belief, now dying, that you might finally pursue your true calling in life? Whatever the stump God wants to raise a shoot out of it. God yearns to bring new life and God’s reign of peace from it—especially in the Church! So how does this happen?
The saint we celebrate today had an answer for this question. Vida Dutton Scudder was born driven! She was the child of Congregationalist missionaries in India in the mid-19th Century. After excelling in school and college Scudder founded several religious organizations devoted to community living and intercessory prayer. It is in this latter area of ministry that Scudder provided for us a way to bring new shoots out of stumps where resurrection is needed.
Scudder’s example and writings about having an active and vibrant prayer life give us a most helpful pathway. On this journey we are invited to access God’s deep desires to bring new life to us. Scudder wrote, “If prayer is the deep secret creative force that Jesus tells us it is, we should be very busy with it,” adding that there exists a surefire way “of directly helping on the Kingdom of God. That way is prayer. Social intercession may be the mightiest force in the world.”[1] If you are seeking something, pray for it. If you are yearning for new life, speak to God about it. If you want a shoot to grow out of a stump, give it to God in prayer. And not just like we are writing a letter to some cosmic Santa Claus.
When we pray we open our hearts to God. We speak and we listen. We pass along our deepest desires and we hear God’s deepest longings for us. To paraphrase Dean Travis, the older and older I get the more and more convinced I am that when we take the broken stumps in our lives to God in prayer God raises new shoots in us such that we become mature Christian leaders for this day. Pray always for God’s reign to come!
[1] Lesser
Feasts and Fasts (2006). “Vida
Dutton Scudder.” 410.
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