Legacy

I enter the grounds of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, where I live, on my way home from work every day from the entrance at 110th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.  As I walk through the gate, immediately in front of me is Synod House.  Synod House was built to house the General Convention of 1913.  In all of its gothic glory, it could quite easily fit within the exhibit hall at a meeting of the General Convention these days.

As I come through the gate I walk directly toward the front door of Synod House with its pointed arches framing two huge wooden doors worn by weather and time.  The arches around the door contain statues of historical figures.  I don’t really know who they all are except the most prominent one in the very center, standing in a stately manner under a gothic canopy in stone with the other figures of kings and princes off to the side. 

The figure in the center is George Washington, who was, of course, an Episcopalian and who played his role in the early history of our Church in the United States.  His statue was placed in the place of greatest honor for that meeting of the General Convention 100 years ago.  It was a statement of history.  It was a statement of legacy. 

Now there’s one other thing about that statue I want to tell you about.  Sitting atop George Washington’s head is a bird’s nest.  It has been there for at least two years now, maybe three.  In its first season, it sheltered a family of birds, mother caring for her eggs and then her babies.  But now it is vacant, abandoned, and useless.  It just sits there decaying.  It is slowly losing its shape.  Some of it has fallen away, but most remains adorning the head of the father of our country. 

One of the things that is curious to me is with all the effort to put George Washington in the central position of honor as a monument to his important legacy, no one has taken the time to remove the bird’s nest from his head.  Something seemed right about that to me when the nest housed the bird family.

And with all due respect to General Washington, something also seems right to me now about the decaying nest sitting on his head, too.  Now, more than was true in 1913 when it was new, Washington’s statue, complete with bird’s nest, says something true about legacy.  The truth is that legacy comes down to an abandoned bird’s nest sitting on your statue’s head.  At least that is what legacy comes down to from the perspective of Jesus in this week’s gospel reading. 

“As he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!’  Then Jesus asked him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down.’”  (Mk. 13:1-2)  All of it will pass away.  Washington’s body has passed away.  Washington’s statue is host to a bird’s nest no longer used.  Legacy is in nothing we build.  There is no moment that lasts forever, and even those that last a long time will one day, usually sooner than later, lose their meaning and purpose. 

The only legacy that means anything is love because it is passed on from one generation to the next, from one person to another, from parent to child, from friend to friend.  Stone will not be left upon stone.  Only love lasts.  All else will be thrown down.

Peace,