Weeks ago, a summer deluge turned our splendid topiary into a hot mess.
What once was an abundance of vigorous cone-shaped blooms caught the torrent and bent beneath the weight of heavy raindrops. Half a dozen branches snapped, and almost all of their neighbors drooped in ugly and unnatural ways.
My first instinct was to assume the ostrich position: Avert my gaze, and expect things to improve on their own. These hydrangea branches had once possessed the internal strength to reach for the sky, I reasoned; perhaps they would rediscover it.
No such luck. The topiary persisted in its “hot mess” state for many days, greatly diminishing our home’s curb appeal. So at last I went to work, enlisting my Sweetie’s help this week to rig a sort of exoskeleton for the distressed branches, one fashioned of bamboo poles and (you guessed it) zip ties.
Hearing the passage this Sunday from the Letter to the Hebrews reminded me of the work required to restore a semblance of order to our hydrangea. “My son, do not disdain the discipline of the Lord,” we are told. And yet, I notice that my instinct tends to run in the opposite direction. I’m not particularly fond of discipline; I much prefer to rely on the Lord’s mercy.
But here’s the thing: We encounter the term half a dozen times in today’s short passage – like so many zip ties threaded through (and bolstering) the weak spots in the branches of our lives. Discipline “seems not a cause for joy but for pain,” we hear, our heads nodding in accord. We resist the tension it introduces into our routines. We are impatient to experience discipline’s effects – “the peaceful fruit of righteousness [it brings] to those who are trained by it.”
So perhaps there comes a time when we finally understand why we need discipline. We can’t do this on our own. Our healing comes not from within, but from without. We do in fact need a Savior, and the path Christ offers is etched in the hard work of discipleship. “For many I tell you,” he says in today’s Gospel passage, “will attempt to enter but will not be strong enough.”
Better, then, to tie our fate to Christ, right?
Get zip-tied to him, and see how Christ will “strengthen your drooping hands and your weak knees,” how he will “make straight paths for your feet, that what is lame may not be disjointed but healed.”
Let us pause now…to recall that we are in the presence of the Holy & Merciful One.
IHS
With Us Still 