Explaining to ourselves the spiritual and psychic wounds that we have experienced is a tough conversation. I, for one, need metaphors that guide toward a meaningful handle on daily life.
“When the tree tends to wood and leaves, and not to fruit, we wound it, gash it, and almost always, it turns its energy to fruit.” Harry Emerson Fosdick wrote and spoke these words in the 1930s as a pastor in New York City. He had a friend orchard owner who shared this insight. I take his word for this and have not checked it out with a 21st century orchard owner. Some life experience seems to support the validity of this insight. All religions seem to address the mystery of necessity and/or free will. My brand of Christianity holds that free will is elementary to the human condition. In other words, we can choose how to deal with the facts of life, good and bad.
An apple tree responds as it is programmed by natural development. Humans can choose how to deal with issues of natural development. Learning from natural forces like apple trees enables us to better grasp our human ways of dealing with assault and injury, both physical, mental and spiritual. This applies to both individuals, groups and communities.
The global wounds to the Christian Church today are an example of opportunities for response choice. The martyrdom of Christians in some regions of the world seem profoundly distant from most Christian communities. Yet the martyrs are gashes in the community of faith – the Body of Christ. For the most part this gash in the Body is not even known by the world wide Christian community. Busy with survival techniques and happy evangelism we are into our own universe. This gash in the Body is a distraction from an already busy and hectic life. To turn attention to the martyrs means to interrupt the agendas of denominations and congregations. How to get this on the agenda appears to be the issue.
It could be that awareness of martyrs could lead to release of fruitful energy. Since some martyrdom of Christians happens in Muslim regions the fruitful energy released bu this “gash in the tree” among Christians could produce actions that relate Christians with Muslims for the good of both. We are competitive religions. We compete for people, for attention, for domination, for being “right”. That is a fact of religious life in the Orchard of the World. The Orchard metaphor presents a choice regarding use of energy released by the gash of martyrdom.
Delton Krueger dkrueger@visi.com
Tags: Christian/Muslim, energy. competiton, Martyrdom, World Christian communitiy
