Meditating on Proper 17: Graft, Religion, and Goodness

 

Proper 17    

The Sunday closest to August 31

Lord of all power and might, the author and giver of all good
things: Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in
us true religion; nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth
in us the fruit of good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord,
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God,
for ever and ever. Amen.

Preface of the Lord's Day

(Image by Grok)

When I came across this collect for the day, I looked at that word “graft” and couldn’t help but think of gardening. I am not a gardener. When someone mentions graft to me, I assume they are referring to corruption in government. But in terms of gardening, I know that grafting involves taking a branch or stalk of something and slipping into a slit in a living plant or tree, and that tree gives life to the grafted branch, which grows, develops and, eventually, bears fruit.

Saint Paul uses the grafting metaphor to describe how Gentiles are part of the community of faith. He warns them against being arrogant (as regarding to those who reject Jesus), but mostly he identifies the source of their new life not in their being branches, but in their being grafted to the good tree, the healthy tree (Romans 11:13-20). What strikes me in our prayer is the request for God to “graft in our hearts the love of (God’s) Name …” If grafting refers to the thing added, then we are asking God to add a “love branch” to our hearts. Implied in that is that our hearts are good, healthy instruments that can and will sustain the love of God to such a degree and in such a way that God’s love will bloom and/or bear much fruit.

We often talk about love as something we must do. We are called to love God, neighbor, and self, for instance. That’s stuff we’re supposed to do. But this prayer calls to mind that love isn’t something we do, but something God produces in and through us. That takes a load off my mind, because instead of wondering how we might go about producing more love, or better love, or tastier love, we discover that it is God who does the grafting and producing. Our task is to provide the soil and the nutrients that will allow that love to blossom, bloom, and produce!

The second petition asks God to “increase in us true religion.” That begs the question: What exactly is true religion? This prayer was written during the period of the reformation and division of the Christian faith in Europe between Roman Catholic and Protestant sects. “True religion” would have presumed a perspective of “my church and not your church,” which seems a bit arrogant and foolhardy. In our own day with hundreds if not thousands of brands of Christianity (not to mention all the other world faiths, sects, cults, and so on) that we are prone to fall into the other extreme of accepting all religions and faiths as equal (the way we presume that “all people were created equal). I say po-tay-toe, you say po-tah-toe.

All religions are not the same, and since we are human, there are parts of our own religion and practice that could be false, too. So what are we asking God to increase in us? The root of the word religion is “ligare” (“to tie” – ligament, ligature, e.g.), by which we are asking God to bind us one to another in true humility. We do not debate who’s got the best god, the best bible, the best theology. Those are the kinds of matters that sent Jesus to the cross. So we pray for God to help us be more truthful with one another. True religion bonds us together with our fellow humans.

We ask God to “nourish us with all goodness; and bring forth in us the fruit of good works.” While these are two petitions, they are tied together by “goodness,” which nourishes us and feeds others. 

Have you ever had a relationship that felt one-sided? Where it seemed you put all your time and energy into it, while it seemed the other just wasn’t that into it (unless they needed something from you)? We’ve all had those, and they can be very exhausting. There is a school of thought that says, “Let them go. Don’t let them drain you. Let them go and be free to become who you are.” That makes a lot of sense. We just need to be careful not to assume that the “other” is the “toxic person.” God is Judge; I’m not. When a plane crashes, the rule is to leave your things behind. It frees the way for those behind you to also make their way to safety. It’s in that spirit we do the best we can and leave the rest to God.

Jesus tells us to take up our cross. The cross is not a burden, but a life-preserver. While there may be human relationships where our sanity requires our willingness to let go, Jesus looks us in the eye, just as he looked his mother and the beloved apostle in the eye and told them: “Take care of one another. She’s your mother now. He’s your son now.” (John 19:26ff) Too many relationships in our world have become transactional (if you give me this, I will give you that). Jesus overturns the tables in the temple and says, NO! 

We pray for God to graft love in our hearts and increase in us true religion precisely so that we may never tire of doing good or nourishing a world starving for God’s love. Success requires two things: That we hold still to let God cut into our hearts in preparation for the graft, and that our hearts accept that graft so that love may grow and flourish for us and for the world. Amen.