September 30, 2014
Dear St. Paul’s Family,
This Friday, the Cherokee Community Theater begins its two-weekend run of the Pulitzer Prize winning play “The Diary of Anne Frank.” My older daughter Grace has been heavily involved with the show, having been given the privilege of being a student director, an important role rarely given to an eighth grader. It has given her great experience working with terrific directors and an amazing cast, including some of her best friends. I hope you’ll take some time to see one of the productions, purchasing tickets either through the box office or cherokeect.org.
It is likely that we are all familiar with the basic story of Anne Frank and her family, who were Jewish residents of Amsterdam during World War II. Forced into hiding from the impending arrival of the Nazis, they took up residence in the upstairs annex and attic above the office of Otto Frank, the family’s patriarch.
Eventually, the family was discovered by the Nazis and sent to the concentration camps. Otto Frank, the sole survivor, returned to discover Anne’s diary, which vividly chronicled their more than two years of hiding.
The girls and I had the incredible privilege of touring the Anne Frank residence when we visited Amsterdam back in 2010, as part of my Lilly Endowment-funded sabbatical. The rooms were small and worn, and the walls seemed to speak of both somber tragedy and steady tranquility, as the family braved the unknown with relentless and tender companionship.
THE CHESTNUT TREE
One of the things I best remember from that tour was looking out through the window in the attic, at the branches of the same chestnut tree that captured Anne’s attention in her diary:
Nearly every morning I go to the attic to blow the stuffy air out of my lungs, from my favorite spot on the floor I look up at the blue sky and the bare chestnut tree, on whose branches little raindrops shine, appearing like silver, and at the seagulls and other birds as they glide on the wind. As long as this exists, I thought, and I may live to see it, this sunshine, the cloudless skies, while this lasts I cannot be unhappy.
The tree is referenced in the stage production, as it played a significant role in sustaining Anne’s hope and imagination during her toughest times. For her, that tree represented freedom and nature, a kind of liberty that she longed for in the face of oppression and darkness.
In a speech he gave in 1968, Anne’s father recounted his surprise upon reading Anne’s diary and learning of her attachment to that tree:
How could I have suspected that it meant so much to Anne to see a patch of blue sky, to observe the gulls during their flight and how important the chestnut tree was to her, as I recall that she never took an interest in nature. But she longed for it during that time when she felt like a caged bird. She only found consolation in thinking about nature. But she had kept such feelings completely to herself.
But there is more tragedy in the story. Just weeks after the girls and I visited Amsterdam in July, 2010, an August windstorm blew through the city and knocked down the 150-year old tree. Little did we know that when we saw the tree that summer, we would be among the last to see it alive, as it had apparently been suffering from an incurable disease for the past several years.
THE SAPLING PROJECT AND THE MUSTARD SEED
But here’s the good news. Prior to the tree’s death, skilled botanists worked tirelessly to extract several healthy saplings from it, in order to preserve it after it died. Since then, thanks to an initiative called The Sapling Project, the same chestnut tree that sustained Anne Frank during her harrowing months in the attic is now being shared to sustain Anne’s legacy, as saplings have been planted in locations all over the world. That includes eleven locations in this country, from the Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C. to the Children’s Museum in Indianapolis.
Two things converged for me as I read about The Sapling Project in preparation for this weekend’s opening night. The first is the parable of the mustard seed, which Jesus shared in the gospels to describe the Kingdom of God, and is our scripture passage for this Sunday as we move through our “Kingdom of God” sermon series.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that someone took and planted in his field. It’s the smallest of all seeds. But when it’s grown, it’s the largest of all vegetable plants. It becomes a tree so that the birds in the sky come and nest in its branches.” (Matthew 13:31-32)
One need not be a botanist or a biblical scholar to get a sense of what Jesus said here. Sometimes, the work of God in this world starts out small, natural, and seemingly insignificant, but it grows big enough to change the world. From a tiny sapling from the seed of chestnut tree, or from the tender words of a teenage girl pouring her heart into her journal, the work of God takes ordinary efforts and exacts an extraordinary impact. Anne herself said it best:
“I don't want to have lived in vain like most people. I want to be useful or bring enjoyment to all people, even those I've never met. I want to go on living even after my death!”
I think we can all agree that Anne Frank has succeeded in that regard, influencing the world long after her death. All of us can do the same, with the faith of a mere mustard seed.
WORLD COMMUNION SUNDAY
The second thing I thought about is the significance of World Communion Sunday, which we will also observe this weekend. It is our annual opportunity to celebrate our connection with the people of God all around the world. It is a time for us to take down the denominational and interreligious barriers that divide us and acknowledge that, together, we are part of one family.
And what a critical time it is for us to come together. With violence, brokenness, and division coursing through our news feeds, demeaning human dignity and destroying communities, we can affirm our mutual mission of putting God’s love into action and inject some basic goodness into the world again.
The girls and I have made a donation to The Sapling Project, in honor of the upcoming production of Anne Frank, and as a tribute to her amazing resilience and hopeful challenge to all of us. She had the faith of a mustard seed, and modeled for us a steadfast belief in a worldwide communion of peace:
“In spite of everything I still believe that people are really good at heart. I simply can’t build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery, and death. I see the world gradually being turned into a wilderness, I hear the ever approaching thunder, which will destroy us too, I can feel the sufferings of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I think that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again.”
Let’s believe those words together, and work to make it happen. See you Sunday.
Grace and Peace,
Magrey
The Rev. Magrey R. deVega
St. Paul's United Methodist Church
531 W. Main St.
Cherokee, IA 51012
Ph: 712-225-3955
Email: mdevega@sp-umc.org
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