Mtr Mary Trainor
Dear friend,
Maybe you recall a popular poster from a couple of decades ago. It featured a tree limb and a big-eyed kitten, holding on to the limb with his front paws, his lower legs dangling below. He was clearly not confident of the outcome. The caption? Hang in there.
Hang in there. Easy to say, often harder to do. All situations don’t accommodate this slogan. Eventually, under only our own power, we come up against a circumstance where “hanging in” does not apply, or doesn’t fix the problem. Maybe our own “little paws” just give out, and we fall to the ground.
Today the Church remembers Alexander Crummell, and the lectionary offers a most appropriate Gospel text (Mark 4:1-10, 13-20), the Parable of the Sower.
You may recall this parable about a sower sowing seeds, and the various contexts into which the seeds fall: birds eat them, rocky soil fails to protect them, some land among thorns and spend their energy wanting to be somewhere else.
These seeds cannot hang in there.
And then there are the seeds that fall on good soil, and the seeds reciprocate with bountiful production.
We can all be the good soil that welcomes and nurtures the word of God cast our way. I suspect we can be a bit of rocky soil and thorns, too, wanting to give up when the path is challenging.
That’s where it might be helpful to learn about Alexander Crummell, whose contributions to building up God’s kingdom on earth cannot be captured in just a few words. There’s a link below should you wish to read more about this awesome minister of God. But just to summarize, when the word of God came to Crummell, nothing could keep that seed from flourishing. An ardent speaker against slavery, founder of the Union of Black Episcopalians, missionary to Liberia, and more, Crummell allowed the word of God to guide his steps--no matter what. He persisted in the midst of adversity.
Maybe we could say, he hung in there.
Mtr Mary