“Woven Together in Love”

                                             Sermon by Pastor Dan Wilkie

                                    First Congregational United Church of Christ

                                                Grand Junction, Colorado

                                                     August 8, 2010

                                          Scripture:  Proverbs 31:10-31

            As we continue to reflect on how the arts impact our faith, I am going to be talking today about the fiber arts, particularly weaving and spinning. To begin it is important to point out that weaving and spinning have been important in human culture for thousands of years.

            At one point in our history, these particular fiber arts were much more than simply art mediums, they were absolutely necessary vital for survival.  By spinning and weaving the very items of shelter from the elements were made, things like cloaks, tents, awnings, and sleeping mats.  In fact it was so important to our Jewish ancestors, that there were prohibitions against taking someone’s cloak in the Torah.  You could sue someone and take their tunic but no matter how much they owed, a person could not have their cloak taken away as it would have been tantamount to a death sentence from exposure to the elements.

            Woven fabric was also a trading and bartering medium, the better the quality of the weaving, the greater the value and the more goods it could be traded for. 

            Women who could weave and spin were highly prized as wives, because men knew, they would be an asset and better able to care for their families; the better their ability, the more sought after they were. It was said, ”If a woman was not nobility, but wanted to become like royalty, all they had to do was become the very best of spinners and weavers, and they would be married by a king”. 

            Over time as people traveled to other parts of the world, they were able to experience different materials like linen, cotton, silk, hemp, and bamboo.  They also were able to see different ways of dying fabric, and making designs.  As these experiences became more common, they found ways to blend materials together, making even more diverse fabrics. People could then tell what part of the world a person was from by looking at the type of fabric, the colors used, and the weave design of the fabric, for examples brilliant colors in a silk fabric usually meant the person was from the far east, fine linen lace and the person might have been from Belgium, or Ireland.

            As the industrial age progressed, people found ways to mass produce the yarn and thread and create the material relegating hand spinning and hand weaving to the status of cottage industries, and art colonies.

            Today; a person can still tell, by design, color and design, where a particular weaving or fabric is from, with some materials bringing premium prices to collectors around the world, as in the case of Persian or Navajo Rugs from the American Southwest.

            When one looks at the importance of weaving and spinning to home life in the culture of our Jewish Ancestors, it was about more than simply making good, sturdy long lasting fabric, home was the center of the Jewish family, it was here that children learned valuable lessons of faith, where they learned lessons about life, where they learned about making wise decisions and where they found safety and comfort when the decisions they made were perhaps not as good as others they might have chosen. Things they needed to learn to live in the wider community, the same kind of lessons that the scripture passage from Proverbs talks about.

            The writer is not only talking about a good wife, but about the wisdom of the lessons learned in the home and how they relate to community.  Do good not harm, take care of your household and neighbor, purchase wisely, don’t let your lamp go out, what you undertake do well, feed the poor, teach kindness, and in doing these things you won’t have to worry about the future, especially the ills that might happen in the future. 

            Why is this important you might ask, think for a moment about the weaving process as you watch Donna and Pam here with me, Donna spins yarn, a beautiful woven strand, a raw material with a lot of potential, yet the strand alone can’t be something without being interwoven on a loom, or through a process like knitting.  This is much like us in community, we don’t simply live by ourselves everything we do in some way effects someone else, and what they do impacts us. Nothing is simply black and white we don’t all think the same and feel the same because we are all different and diverse.

            If you have ever seen the movie Pleasantville starring Tobie McGuire, you have a pretty good understanding of what I am talking about.  Tobie’s character and his mom are sitting in the living room watching their television and talking, when this face, played by Don Knotts, a quirky crazy repairman appears on their television and the television of everyone else in town.  Don’s character wants to repair everything in town and make life pleasant.  To have this happen, all they have to do is to follow him into the picture.  When the community follows him, their world becomes black and white, everyone is the same, everyone thinks alike, and dresses alike, all the men work, all the women stay home, all the kids are well behaved.  Everyone likes the same foods, the same activities.  In all of this, there is a part of Tobie’s character that refuses to conform, and he begins to challenge what is happening, and each time he challenges something, it goes from black and white to color, art appears vivid and different, flowers come alive in color, people begin to think for themselves.  Of course people are rebelling against what is happening, and a city council fight with the mayor ensures, but in the end people realize how wonderful the color and difference is and the black and white Pleasantville is no more.

            Now it might seem that it would be great to live in a place like the black and white Pleasantville where everyone thinks the same, but the nagging question for me becomes is who gets to set the standard for what everyone believes? Is it some quirky repair guy? A Christian? A Moslem?  A Buddhist?  A Senator?  A President? A King?  I seriously imagine for most of us this might be the same question because unless it was someone we already agreed with, or they agreed with us, we would all find this seriously uncomfortable. 

            So the reality is that we live in “Pleasantville” with color, people of differing nationalities, different religions or no religions, different family histories, different abilities, different thoughts and different values; none better than the other, only different, and all of us are sisters and brothers; children of God the master weaver who has woven us all together in the tapestry that is life.

            What this means is that we must become more tolerant of others values and opinions, letting go of our own rigidly held opinions and values, after all in their eyes their values are just as important.  We must all let go of the idea that any of our countries has some sort of favorite nation status, because what matters to God is not borders, or national pride, but how we treat and live with each other.  We must let go of the notion that we can live as we choose with the environment that others no longer matter. We need to let go of our own understandings of power and control, and trust God to be in control.  Think about it, in many ways aren’t we sort of trying to be like the leaders in the Black and White Pleasantville, the very people we had questions about setting the values we all believe?

            Maybe what Christ taught us really true?  Maybe what is important is that we love God with all our heart, mind, and spirit; that we love our neighbor as we love ourselves.  Perhaps if we all, not just in this church or community, but all citizens of the world walked a little more humbly with God and each other; loved mercy, and sought justice by opening hearts and minds and spirits a little more to each other the world could be a much different place.

            Indeed, in the fabric that is life, each of us is but a single thread, with great potential it is how we are woven together and how we live together, and work together and respect one another and love one another that matters.

Amen!