When Ginger and I flew out here from California last September to meet with the search committee, everything was so beautiful here in central Illinois. The sun was shining, the temperature was perfect, the humidity was just right, and the trees were full of beautiful green leaves, with just a few early hints of changing colors.
But now, look…
Except for one beautiful but short fir tree outside my bedroom window, the only leaves I see now are on the ground, withered and faded.
So, naturally, when I read today’s scripture, what stood out to me was the verse that compares God’s people to a fading leaf; or, as the CEB puts it, a withered leaf.
And while the leaves may still be green back in California, here in Illinois, they’re pretty much all withered.
People don’t like to look at withered leaves. Decaying leaves. Leaves on the lawn and in the gutter, all turning to muck.
So the leaves get raked up… and collected… and vacuumed! Not more than 30 minutes after we arrived at our new home, got the keys from the landlord, and began settling in, we saw the city workers come by and vacuum the leaves.
They don’t do that in southern California. I had no idea they did that anywhere. Yes, I took a picture.
Ecologists and naturalists tell us that it’s good to leave leaves on the ground, to not rake them up, because then they can decompose into the soil, and they become fertilizer, helping the trees and flowers grow in the spring.
But I hear that the leaves that the city vacuums up get mulched and delivered to farmers to use as compost for their crops. So that’s good.
I do get why we want the leaves off our lawns. Faded, withered leaves that fall and decompose turn all icky and messy and gross after a while.
But even though they look icky and messy and gross to us, they become the fertilizer that makes next spring’s flowers and crops grow so beautifully. Beauty and new life come from these faded, withering leaves.
Like Thich Nhat Hanh said: no mud, no lotus. There is beauty and life in the muck.
And that’s how it is in God’s kingdom: what we often consider icky and messy and gross is actually what makes life possible and beautiful.
In that same verse that talks about the faded, withered leaf, Isaiah also mentions that the people have become unclean, and their deeds like a filthy cloth.
But when I read this verse in the CEB, it didn’t say, “filthy cloth.” It said “menstrual rag.”
I didn’t know that was in the Bible. Is that really what it says?
I looked into it, and sure enough, in Hebrew, the phrase does indeed refer to a menstrual rag.
Apparently the translators of the NRSV, who were almost all men, were a bit embarrassed by this phrase. That’s my guess, anyway: that these men were too uncomfortable to talk about menstruation. So they just called it a filthy rag. The NRSV is a great translation, the one I use most, but no translation is perfect.
The CEB had 20 women on their translator team. I don’t know if that’s the reason or not, but they decided that it was important to be specific, and translate this phrase as menstrual rag.
A part of me wishes they hadn’t. Because then I wouldn’t feel compelled to talk about menstrual rags, and menstruation, in my very first sermon with you. That’s something they didn’t teach me how to do in seminary!
But they did teach me to tell the truth. And a lifetime of preaching and ministry taught me to not shy away from the truth, and to be real, whenever possible, and to not sweep things under the rug just because they make me uncomfortable.
We do that in the church, sometimes. We sweep things under the rug. We refuse to talk about things, and we silence people from talking about things… even though these are real things, real issues, that people are dealing with… It’s not very helpful.
And not just in the church; there is at least one state that has made any talk of menstruation against the law, at least in elementary school. But some girls experience their first period at the age of 9 or 10, and if it happens at school, but there’s no trusted adult who can talk to them about it, it can make a potentially scary and confusing experience into something far more traumatic.
Also: 1 in 5 girls in the U.S. have missed school because they didn’t have access to menstruation products.
In developing countries, lack of access to menstruation products often forces girls to quit their education altogether.
Not only do they miss school, but their mental health also suffers. They feel broken inside; less than whole. And their communities suffer, too. Less educated young people means a higher rate of poverty in their community.
So some organizations, including some church groups, make reusable menstrual pads to send to girls in developing countries. With access to these products, the girls miss less school, they get an education…, and this benefits the entire community.
Those reusable menstrual pads are a blessing. They allow those who receive them to keep going to school, to get an education… and maybe even learn to see themselves and their bodies as sacred, holy, and beautiful. It restores them to wholeness.
So even though it’s an unusual thing to talk about on a pastor’s first Sunday, not to mention the first Sunday of Advent, I hope you can bear with me.
Both decaying leaves, and menstruation, really are signs of hope, of beauty, and the miracle of life.
Leaves decaying and turning into fertilizer, to nourish crops and trees and flowers, are signs of life and beauty.
And menstruation is a sign of the human ability to bring new life and beauty into the world.
And as I pondered these things, I wondered how it is that the church has no problem talking about and singing about the blood of Jesus. There is power in the blood! Life comes through the blood of Christ!
Why can we say that life comes through the blood of Jesus, but not that life comes through the blood of menstruation?
I used to donate blood regularly. Donating blood helped make me more aware of how blood gives life. Every time I donated blood, they thanked me for saving lives. And what could be more beautiful or sacred than saving lives?
And even though I am a bit squeamish, being a blood donor helped me see blood as something beautiful, something sacred, a symbol of life. It’s a completely different way of thinking about blood than we might be used to. It’s not icky, or messy, or gross at all.
And all the dead, decaying, rotting leaves that are left on the ground this winter: they, too, can be seen as something beautiful, something sacred: symbols of life.
And this is the power of the gospel: God takes what humans consider filthy, icky, gross, and unclean, and transforms it into a thing of beauty.
Last week, as I was driving across the country from California (I think it was as I was passing through Tucumcari, NM,) I was listening to a podcast, and a woman was telling a story about finding beauty in herself after having a mastectomy. And she talked about other women she knew who, after chemo, and after they lost their hair, refused to be seen without a wig on, or have their photo taken.
They thought they had become ugly or disgusting.
But this particular woman had learned to see the beauty in herself and in others, despite these circumstances.
That’s what the gospel does. That’s what Jesus did. He helped those who had been told they were ugly or disgusting or unclean see the beauty in themselves, the beauty that had been present since they breathed their first breath. And it made them whole.
As my drive across the country continued, I pondered how to share with you all these things that God was placing on my mind…
Because as a preacher, when God grabs my attention, and helps me learn something new, I know I’ve gotta share it.
And I need to be ready for that. I need to be ready. I need to keep my mind open, so that I can continue growing in understanding. I need to keep my eyes and my heart open.
I need to be ready.
And being ready is the larger theme that is conveyed not only in this passage from Isaiah, but also in the other lectionary scripture readings for the first Sunday of Advent. Today, all around the world, Christians are hearing scriptures and sermons urging them to keep awake, and be ready…
Be ready for Christ’s coming. Be ready for the kingdom of God, which is always breaking into our world. Be ready for whatever new insight God has in store for you. Be ready to find new ways of showing love, to God, to yourself, and to your neighbor, whoever and wherever your neighbor may be.
Advent is a time when God really seems to reach out and grab our attention. It’s a season of scripture passages filled with words like, “Behold!” and “Lo!” which is really just scripture’s way of saying, “Yo, check this out!”
And if we are open to what God is saying in this season, and if we are ready to receive the message that God is sending to us, then we will see new things. We will see God tearing open the heavens and coming down! We will experience mountains quaking!
And if we are open, and ready, we will notice God taking what is often thought of as icky, messy, and gross, and revealing the true beauty that is within. We will see just how it is that God takes all our uncleanliness, and all the world’s uncleanliness and transforms it, bringing us hope and new life.
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