Of Trees and Doors

There is a huge sycamore tree in Ritter Park, beside the creek, that I noticed yesterday. It must be very old. I’m sure that I didn’t capture its immensity in the photo. About 20 feet up the tree (or 50 feet – I can’t estimate these things) is a hole. Growing out of the hole is another tree. Can you see it in the next photo? It’s not a small tree – of itself it is probably 20 feet tall (or 110 feet – see above), with a trunk the size of a track discus. It’s not a branch of the sycamore tree – the leaves are very different – it’s a whole other tree, growing out of the main tree.

It struck me as kind of unfair for both trees (once I got over the, "#%$^*! Look -- a tree is growing out of that big tree" phase). The sycamore tree has been there forever (or maybe a century). Now it has this other tree as a parasite, stealing its nutrients. The parasitic tree can never reach its full potential. It wasn’t designed to grow like this. Its roots can never be deep enough; it will never grow tall or very strong. If it does, it will kill its host.

This is not a particularly good analogy for what I want to mention today, but give me a break – it was a tree growing out of another tree. If it can do that, then I can stretch the analogy just a little bit.

Have you seen this commercial? (That's a hyperlink; my hyperlinks don't show up very well in this template.) It is put out by the United Church of Christ. First of all, let me say that I applaud the message. So often we “reject” people who are different from us or who we don’t understand. I believe the UCC is trying to reach people by saying, “God love you, whoever you are. At our church, you will be welcomed!” Bravo. My only problem – the thing which is nibbling at my brain about this commercial, is that the UCC is delivering the message (which is a good one) through a vehicle whose bumper sticker says, “Look at this other church where you are not welcome.”

I’ve never been in a UCC church, so the statements I am about to make are based only on my knowledge of humanity. Every church – mine, yours, the UCC down the street (figuratively) closes doors. We are sinful, and man (woman) is man (woman) everywhere. Doors will be closed in and by our sin.

Isn’t there a better way to get the message out that “God loves you; you are welcome here,” than couching it in “you are not welcome in that church.”? I admit that those who have been rejected (or ejected) by one church or another already know that in some places, they will find the doors closed, so the commercial won’t be news to them. But do we really have to make the point of God’s love by highlighting someone else’s (or some other church’s) sins? Especially when we know that we, too, are sinful?

It's easy to see a smudge on your neighbor's face and be oblivious to the ugly sneer on your own. Do you have the nerve to say, "Let me wash your face for you,' when your own face is distorted by contempt? It's this whole traveling road-show mentality all over again, playing a holier-than-thou part instead of just living your part. Wipe that ugly sneer off your own face, and you might be fit to offer a washcloth to your neighbor.

(Matthew 7:3-5; The Message)

That nibbling thought got me thinking about the Methodist slogan, “Open hearts, open minds, open doors.” Do we do the same thing? I love the UMC commercials, and I hope no one sees them as a “my dog is better than your dog” message. But we should be careful of that.

When the Igniting Ministry campaign was first started in the UMC, I was introducing it to the Nurture committee. We were planning on using it at the theme of our August picnic – kind of a “invite a friend” idea. One gentleman on the committee asked, “But is it really true? Do we have open minds?”

I’m not sure if he meant that our minds should be open and welcoming (and that we needed to work on that) or if he meant that he didn’t believe that having an open mind was a particularly good characteristic, and he was glad we didn’t have them (open minds, that is).

Personally, I love the slogan. Do I think we have open minds, hearts, and doors? No, not always, but if we are going to advertise that we do, then we have better start propping some things open. It’s a call to us to get our act together – to be more of what we say that we are – to be a church of integrity, matching what we say to what we do (walking the walk, to steal a phrase).

Before we point our fingers at others, we should point them at ourselves. Then, with humility, we can say, “Come; you are welcome.”

Images from Ritter Park. The one below is, yes, a snake. It was swimming in the creek. When I showed it to Josh, he said, “Can snakes swim?” I can now say, “Yes, they most certainly can; at least this one can." Sorry it’s blurry, but that’s the best you get from my camera when a snake is the portrait subject. It was at least 4 foot long (or maybe 110 feet, see above).

And then I left the park.