The Rev. Otis Moss III delivers his sermon “The Blue Note Gospel” Sunday in the Amphitheater.
Like a tree planted by the water, in the year of drought, it will not be anxious and it will not cease to bear fruit.
“If I were in Chicago, I would say, turn to your neighbor and say, ‘Neighbor, stay rooted.’ So turn to your neighbor and say, ‘Stay rooted,’ ” said the Rev. Otis Moss III. And the congregation turned to their neighbors and said, “Stay rooted.”
Moss preached at the 9:15 a.m. Monday morning worship service in the Amphitheater. His sermon topic was “Stay Rooted: The Spiritual Lessons from a Tree,” and the scripture reading was Jeremiah 17: 5-8.
Professor Paul Harvey, in his book Howard Thurman and the Disinherited: A Religious Biography, wrote that Thurman was influenced by the “power and brilliance of his grandmother and creation and around him.”
Thurman would go outside after a storm or hurricane and found it peculiar that everything made by humans was either in disrepair or was ruined, but the trees stood straight. “Thurman understood that if we look at nature, we hear the whisper of God,” Moss said.
Anita Scott Colman was a poet of the Harlem Renaissance and wrote about people who were disenfranchised. Moss quoted her poem “Portraiture,” but changed the first words from “Black men” to “Black people.” He quoted: “Black people are the tall trees that remain standing in a forest after a fire. / Flame strips their branches, / Flame sears their limbs, / Flame scorches their trunks; / Yet stand these trees, / For their roots are thrust deep / in the heart of the earth. / Black people are the tall trees that remain standing in a forest after a fire.”
He told the congregation, “We have all witnessed what has happened in our nation. As the Rev. Gardener C. Taylor has said, ‘Maybe the disenfranchised will save this democracy from itself.’ There are arsonists among us. We are a nation in trouble and we refuse to face the truth of our history. We are not perfect, we are not exceptional, but this is not a place of despair. We have to hold the Blues and the Gospel together.”
Holding the Blues and the Gospel together means holding the death of Sonya Massey with the gold medals of Simone Biles. It means holding Emmett Till together with Wynton Marsalis; George Floyd with Kwame Alexander.
Moss said the Blues and the Gospel have to be held together because there are people who believe that everything is broken and want to go back to a time before when everything was perfect. “In the yet-to-be United States, we are called to bear fruit for those not yet here. We are called to a more excellent way.”
Jeremiah, a poet and prophet of the sixth century BCE, had witnessed leaders who were ethical and those who had no acquaintance with ethics, who were drifting from the covenant with God. “They were people,” Moss said, “who looked for new songs that did not speak to the soul. He tells the truth that people trusted in the material and they think that leads to liberation.”
He continued, “We must remain rooted in our values to move through the sea to the wilderness to the promised land. Those who trust in God are like a tree planted by the water. And if I were in Chicago, that is all I would need to say, but we need a poetic look at creation and the lessons for us to be like a tree planted by the streams. What will we teach and what will we say?”
The first lesson from trees is they live in a community. Moss said the redwoods have roots that go down but also out to connect with each other. “A stronger tree will send nutrients to a weaker tree, to give power to the other one. An elder tree will pass on food to the younger tree,” he said. “That is what I love about Chautauqua. It is a redwood type of experience here, with the older ones passing on to the next generation.”
The second lesson was that “trees give shade, they don’t throw shade.” Moss noted that trees in the Amazon give shade for plants and trees that can’t function in too much sun. On the eastern side of the Amazon the trees block the morning sun and send a message to the trees on the western side that “though it is dark, the sun is coming.”
Moss said his father would tell him, “I have been here before. I was raised in segregation and I’ve lived long enough to see a president kissed by the sun. I have seen some light. Joy does come in the morning, the sun is coming.”
He continued, “What I love about trees is they are blessed by a storm. Howard Thurman said there is something inside a palm tree that will bend in the wind of a hurricane. What is inside of us (as human beings) is that we are rooted in ideas of love that can survive a storm then move into the next place.”
Moss said some people are potted plants who can’t handle change. Some children are raised as potted plants and have never been through a storm. “The trees told me, ‘Let them experience the wind and rain in life.’ ”
Trees also told Moss to practice DEI. Trees don’t tell birds they can’t nest, or squirrels they can’t run up a tree. Trees have a diverse ecosystem. “We are stronger with our diversity, there is strength in our diversity,” Moss said. “Like the orchestra, we are going to hear a lot of different instruments this week.”
Moss illustrated the need for diversity in a story about Chevy, the auto manufacturer, and how it tried to sell its Nova car in Colombia. While selling well in the United States, they did not sell at all well in Colombia. Finally, a Spanish-speaking janitor told the executives that the car had the wrong name. “Nova in Spanish means ‘no go,’ ” he told them. Moss said, “We miss out when we don’t have the full diversity we need.”
Another lesson from trees is that they produce fruit, not for themselves but for others. “Have you ever seen an apple tree eat its own fruit?” Moss asked. “Who are we producing fruit for? Are we producing for the not-yet born, even for another person?”
Yet another lesson from trees is that they get power from photosynthesis. They produce oxygen, not just for one person in particular, but for all of us. “They don’t operate on the principle of discrimination,” he said.
“When we are exposed to the Son, something happens to us,” he said. “When the wind blows, trees stay rooted because something inside helps them stay rooted. When the roots go deep, they stay rooted. When trees live in community, they stay rooted. Trees don’t throw shade, they give shade and stay rooted. Trees love diversity, and stay rooted. When midnight comes, they let us know the morning is coming. Stay rooted and you will see something powerful happen in this nation.”
Moss kept repeating “stay rooted,” as the congregation applauded and gave him a standing ovation.
The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, senior pastor for Chautauqua Institution, presided. The Rev. Roger M. Rice, a retired Presbyterian minister and an avid potter, read the scripture. The musicians of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago provided the music for the service. The musicians included Bryan T. Johnson, Mike Flowers Sr., Mike Flowers Jr. and Dawn McIntosh. They sang “Walk in the Light,” and “Blessed Assurance.” The anthem, sung by Johnson who accompanied himself on the piano and backed by Flowers Jr. on the drums, was “There is a Balm in Gilead.” The postlude was “Blessed Assurance,” played by Flowers Sr. on the piano. This week’s services and chaplaincy are made possible by the Gladys R. Brasted and Adair Brasted Gould Memorial Chaplaincy and the Daney-Holden Chaplaincy Fund.
