On Friday, before the election, I invited us all to not just consider the lilies and how they grow, but to be lilies.
Now that the election results are in, I want to remind you of that invitation. As I said on Friday, lilies are disruptors, growing in unlikely places, interrupting the plans of those in power.
Now I’d like to tell you a bit more about lilies, and how they are giving me hope this day.
Lilies are perennial bulbs. Any gardeners reading this will know that means they come back year after year, growing a new stem with leaves and their beautiful flowers each time.
When their blooming season ends, you wouldn’t necessarily know they are there, but when the next summer comes around new life will push up through the ground, year after year without fail.
Not only do they produce new stems and flowers each year, but lilies divide themselves. Each bulb hidden under the surface is growing new bulbs that will produce new stalks. A gardener might decide to divide them and spread them around their garden or give some to a friend. Or they could just leave them growing there in a big clump. Lilies don’t seem to mind being crowded.
Hold this image in your mind.
Today is a day of grieving for some. Grief is necessary. That’s why nearly all religious traditions have rituals around grief. Some of these rituals are individual, and some invite us into collective mourning. As my good friend and fellow CLUEista Rev. Edgar Rivera Colon has said, “The wrenching pain of mourning is the affective antechamber to the possibility of collective forward motion.”
Because collective grief is necessary we invite you to gather with other people of faith…
Grief and Action: A Faithful Response to the Election – Sun, Nov 10, 2024 – 4:30 PM-7 PM. Holman United Methodist Church, 3320 W Adams Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90018.
But let’s get back to the lilies. Do you still have the image in your mind, the image of the bulbs hidden under the earth, quietly dividing themselves to produce new stalks and flowers in their next blooming season?
That must be us. We must mourn. We must listen to one another, share our collective grief and fear of what’s to come. But we must do it in the knowledge that we’re not alone. Not only are we not alone because we’re surrounded by our current community, but because we are growing. We are working to connect people to their faithful roots. We are building coalitions with others that share our concerns. (There are over 2,000 types of lilies, after all.) We are training activists to be organizers. We are mentoring one another and building a movement together.
Remember that lilies naturally grow in clumps, in community.
We must stay connected to one another, supporting one another, protecting each other when necessary, visioning together, disrupting the plans of the powerful together.
I hope to see you on Sunday.
In faith and solidarity,
Rev. Jennifer Gutierrez
PS – If you can join us, we would love to see you at an Immigrant Solidarity Press Conference with CHIRLA and CARECEN – Thu, Nov 7, 2024 – 9:30 AM (gather) / 10:00 a.m. (start). Westside Steps of the Los Angeles City Hall (across from Grand Park). RSVP: Sithy Bin ([email protected]).
