Lemons & Christian Witness

When life hands you lemons … you make lemonade. That’s what people say, people who know things, probably long before lemonade came in a powder mix. These days, I put lemon in my water, and on my baked fish. I’ve never made lemonade, not ever with real lemons. But the saying is meant to impart wisdom. Lemons represent, shall we say, life’s unexpected challenges. So lemons will vary accordingly in quantity and quality. And the making of lemonade represents a person’s power to keep a level head. First, you take a realistic assessment of exactly what you’re facing. Then you pull something good out of a less-than-ideal situation, thus averting a crisis. And you come away victorious, ever confident and fearless after having faced an onslaught of lemons, emerging a lemonade-maker superhero of sorts, ready for even more lemons.

The many disruptions in the normally calm and until recently uneventful lives of ordinary Americans these last few months have been a tsunami of lemons. The election of Pope Leo XIV has drawn attention to an increasingly common experience among many families, in our country and elsewhere, where there exists between him and his two older brothers points of disagreement in matters involving the Christian life. And yet they have found ways to express their deep love and care for one another. Even in the lead-up to the conclave, then Cardinal Robert Prevost had been playing Wordle and Words with Friends with his brother John in Chicago, as they do every day besides talk on the phone. It’s safe to say they’re close. His oldest brother Louis is a Navy veteran who has disagreed with him on social media for his bold support for the president’s immigration agenda. Yet Louis speaks warmly of his brother, saying he “will probably tone it down.” He doesn’t want to create heat for the pope, who is going to have enough.” And he also worries he won’t have as much access to his brother as before.

I suppose lemons are always in season. But much depends on what they consider common ground, what they can work with, what are non-negotiables, what they only find annoying but not critical, what they can’t or won’t step back from ever, where each draws the line in the sand, and how far they are willing to push before something is broken beyond repair. It doesn’t matter that one of them is the pope. He is as human as his brothers, and in the end, if they value their connection one with another, lemonade will be made in abundance. They probably hope and pray life also hands them such things as a loving friendship, mutual compassion and forgiveness, deep understanding, and a desire to see the best in each other, or at the least, lemons of excellent quality.

After Jesus was taken up to heaven, his disciples just stood there for a moment looking up at the sky. Then they noticed two men in white garments standing beside them. “Men of Galilee,” they said to the disciples. “Why are you standing there looking at the sky?” Might they have been hoping Jesus was just kidding? Watch. He’s going to turn around and come back. He isn’t? But if he did, life could go right back to the way it was before. He could reveal to them greater mysteries of the Kingdom of God. He could perform more amazing signs and wonders. He could even prove once and for all that he was truly the Son of God, who is indeed risen from the dead. He only needed to turn around and come back. If only he was just kidding. Life could be so much better than what awaited them at home, without Jesus their teacher and friend, hounded by their enemies, burdened with challenges and hardships and yes, lemons. Then it dawned on them. An easier life was not a realistic option. They had to learn to make lemonade.

The men in white garments who asked Jesus’ disciples that question also assured them he would return. But clearly, not yet. And as Jesus told them, so he tells us. “It is not for you to know the times or seasons that the Father has established by his own authority.” Clearly, we can’t trust anyone who says they know what only the Father knows. “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” It sounds like hard work—being his witnesses. But they were assured they would receive what they needed for the task—power when the Holy Spirit comes. This is going to be some epic awesome lemonade.

So let’s get to it. What lemons has life handed us? What are the challenges from which we are to make something good for the Kingdom of God? We examine our personal limits—physical, intellectual, emotional shortcomings. Some of them we can overcome. Some, we can ignore. But the mission Jesus entrusted to us and to his church determines whether these shortcomings are even a hindrance. “You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” We are to be witnesses of Jesus, who came to reveal the Father. And following Jesus’ example, we are witnesses of Jesus, who is God’s mercy and compassion, by our words, our convictions, and our way of life.

Our physical qualities need not present a hindrance to the mission. We can be witnesses of Jesus whether we are short or tall, whether we can play a sport or a musical instrument, whatever language we speak, whether we can sing and dance, whatever our abilities or disabilities. No lemons there.

Intellectually and emotionally, however, some obstacles might present. We need to know our own selves. If we have the gifts and interest to discover and grasp the depths of the life of God so we might draw others to discover and comprehend the same, then by all means, we should pursue academic excellence and advanced training in the arts and sciences. Or we could direct our efforts elsewhere. You can’t make lemonade out of bricks, no matter how hard you try. So despite what we always tell our children, no, we can’t all be president; we can’t all be pope. If our gifts and interests lie elsewhere, we need to pay closer attention and listen for the Holy Spirit’s voice. And if our overconfidence or selfishness gets in the way of our effective witness of Jesus, then we have ourselves become an obstacle to the mission he left us. You can only make lemonade from lemons, but not if you are the lemon.

And then there are lemons that pick us, limitations of other people, of our circumstances, and of our environment. These lemons might convince some people to give up even trying. But we soon discover that it’s either these lemons or some other lemons. The lemon you know is better than the lemon you don’t know. And if we choose to ignore the lemons, and close our eyes, and complain incessantly, and reject everything, we won’t make effective witnesses to Jesus at all, or any kind of lemonade for that matter.

What if you don’t like your government or your church very much, or your pastor, or the people you live with, or work with, or go to church with? You can insist on standing there looking at the sky, hoping for things to be different. Or you can take the lemons you’re handed and make some lemonade. Better yet, get creative and try a merengue, or a piccata, maybe even a limoncello. You just have to see past the lemons.