Drawing the Circle Wider

St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD

June 11, 2023

Year A, Proper 5: The Second Sunday after Pentecost

Genesis 12:1-9

Psalm 33:1-12

Romans 4:13-25

Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26

Drawing the Circle Wider

If you were here last week, you may remember that it was Trinity Sunday – the day when we are invited to reflect on, and celebrate, God’s inner life.

Our God is One in Three Persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier – bound together by love. 

God is Community.

God is a Community of Love.

And, as I said last week, I assume that our God who is a Community of Love could have just gone it alone for all eternity, perfectly complete and fulfilled.

But, on the other hand, by its very nature, love needs to be shared, right?

And so, in a way, maybe it was inevitable, even necessary, that God would widen the holy circle by creating all that is – inviting all of us to be part of the holy community of love.

Over the past week, as I’ve continued to reflect on the Trinity and how God widens the holy circle, and as I’ve sat with today’s lessons, I’ve been thinking about how God is a risk-taker.

It would have been much easier and safer – there would have been no divine headaches and heartbreak – if God had simply continued to go it alone.

But, once God creates a physical universe – once God creates all that is – once God creates us – God creates the very likely – really inevitable – possibility that things will go wrong.

God creates the likelihood that we will reject the divine invitation.

But, God still takes the risk.

And, not only that, but God invites us to take the risk of widening the circle of love, too.

We heard some risk-taking in today’s lessons.

In the Old Testament, God calls Abram to leave home – to abandon just about everybody and everything he has ever known – God calls old Abram and childless Sarai and their nephew Lot – God calls them to leave home and journey to an unknown land.

God promises that somehow Abram and Sarai (who will be renamed Abraham and Sarah), with no offspring of their own and seemingly way too old for new life – God promises to make of them a great nation.

And, not only that, God promises that in them “all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Scripture makes it clear that Abram and Sarai were nobody special – none of their family or friends would have expected that God would choose them for such a monumental task.

But, God takes a risk and chooses a couple with seemingly more days behind than ahead to plant the seed of a people who would carry the news of God into the world – to widen the holy circle in a history-shattering way.

And, obviously, Abram and Sarai take a big risk, too.

Leaving home – especially at an advanced age – in no small thing. 

And yet, they take that risk, they place their trust in God, and, step by step, they widen the circle.

And in today’s gospel lesson we heard some serious risk-taking and circle-widening, too.

One of things I try to keep in mind when reading the gospels is that they are set in a very difficult time for the people of Israel.

God’s people lived under Roman occupation, governed by local puppets who served at Rome’s pleasure.

The time of Jesus was tense with simmering resentment and ever-present fear, and the persistent hope that the God of liberation would act as God had acted in the past and free God’s people.

As in every occupation, there were local people who collaborated with the occupiers, whether to save their own skin or to profit off of the misery of others – or maybe both.

And in first century Israel, the tax collectors were probably the most despised of the collaborators.

They were Jews who worked for the hated oppressors. They were widely seen as corrupt, lining their own pockets by overcharging their own people.

So, it is no small risk when Jesus approaches Matthew the tax collector and says, “Follow me.”

And it is no small risk when Matthew leaves his tax booth and goes off to follow Jesus.

And it is no small risk when Jesus dines with Matthew and his tax collector and sinful friends.

The Pharisees flip out – what is Jesus doing, breaking bread with these horrible people – the worst of the worst? By hanging out with these rightfully outcast people, Jesus jeopardizes his own credibility – he risks becoming an outcast, too. 

But, nevertheless, Jesus takes the risk of widening the holy circle – inviting even the people who are hardest to love into the community of love.

And the two people who ask Jesus for help, they’re risk takers, too.

The leader of the synagogue kneels before Jesus – his daughter has just died – in fact, back home the funeral is already underway – he kneels before Jesus absolutely confident that Jesus can bring new life out of death.

And the poor woman who has been bleeding for twelve long years – by now, most people probably give her a wide berth – you know how it is when somebody’s been sick for a long time, even kind people grow weary of other people’s problems – this woman who has been suffering for so long, she takes the risk of reaching out and touching the fringe of Jesus’ garment, confident that Jesus offers healing.

And, Jesus draws the holy circle wider, inviting everyone – even the seemingly hopeless - into the community of love.

And now, here we are today, in our own difficult time, with simmering resentment and ever-present fear.

Today, God the risk-taker’s invitation is the same as it was in the days of Abram and Sarai – it’s a call to journey from the familiar into the unknown.

Today, God’s invitation is the same as it was when Jesus widened the holy circle by calling everyone, even Matthew the tax collector and his friends, even the hopeless, into the community of love.

One of the biggest reasons why I love St. Thomas’ is that I see us answering God’s invitation all the time.

Frankly, we have the resources to spiritually coast for a good while, but that’s never the choice that we make. 

Instead, so many of you ask, what might God be calling us to now? 

How can we be an even more generous servant church?

How can we welcome even more people into the Community of Love?

And so, we deepen our support of the Community Crisis Center and we’re about to welcome back the Paul’s Place Camp.

We open our hearts to a couple of young guys from Afghanistan.

We slide down the pew to make room for newcomers - spiritually hungry people who arrive here just about every week.

Next week, parishioners both young and not so young, will kneel before the Bishop confirming or reaffirming their faith.

Our God who is a Community of Love takes the risk of widening the holy circle.

And God invites all of us to take some risks for love, too.

I’m going to close with a blessing by the Rev. William Sloane Coffin:

May God give you the grace never to sell yourself short;

Grace to risk something big for some thing good;

And Grace to remember the world is now too dangerous for anything but the truth and too small for anything but love.

Amen.

The Parable of the Pollinator Garden

St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Owings Mills MD

June 4, 2023

Year A: The First Sunday after Pentecost – Trinity Sunday

Genesis 1:1-2:4a

Psalm 8

2 Corinthians 13:11-13

Matthew 28:16-20

The Parable of the Pollinator Garden

In case you were wondering, now almost two years into my Maryland adventure, I’m still in awe that I get to work and live in such a beautiful place.

Many of you know that the rectory sits in what’s like our own personal park, filled with so many green plants and trees.

And there’s a trickling stream and there are birds circling overhead and a variety of woodland creatures bounding all over the place.

It’s pretty amazing.

A couple of weeks ago, here at St. Thomas’, we celebrated Rogation Sunday, giving thanks to God for the abundant and very good creation, and we asked God to help us be better stewards of all that we have received.

On Rogation Sunday, the Green Team led some walking tours of our campus, making their way through the “New Cemetery” and along the quiet nature trail and then back around past the playgrounds and to the parking lot.

It was fun watching parishioners look in wonder at the beauty that’s all around us – seeing some of it for the first time, or maybe for the first time in a long time.

Right in the heart of it all is our Pollinator Garden, just across the driveway in the circle outside the church offices.

I see and think about the Pollinator Garden all the time since it’s where I park my car during the week.

I have what must be the prettiest parking spot in town.

When I began reflecting on what I might share with you today, I kept thinking of our beautiful garden. So, finally, I called our Green Team co-chair, Donna Eden, and asked her to tell me about how the Pollinator Garden came to be.

She told me that a few years ago, several parishioners participated in a program sponsored by Blue Water Baltimore, learning how what we do up here in the County effects water quality downstream, in the City and in the Harbor.

St. Thomas’ became much more aware of water runoff and you began to look for ways to take even better care of our water and our land.

And so, the Pollinator Garden – back in May 2020, on a rainy day during some of the worst of the pandemic – several parishioners – masked and distanced – planted the garden – they nourished it and it took root and grew. 

And by the time I arrived here almost two years ago, it was beautiful and thriving, providing lots of good food for bees and butterflies.

But it was fenced in, preventing us from walking through and fully appreciating all of that beauty.

And so we took down the fence – and, well, you know what happened next.

The deer – starved of habitat and without natural predators – the deer moved right in and treated our garden like an all-you-can-eat salad bar, leaving behind a depressing scene of devastation.

Not wanting that to happen again, few months ago a parishioner generously volunteered to spray deer repellant on the garden several times a week.

        (Don't worry, there are plenty of other plants for the deer to eat!)

        And, later, others did some serious replanting – and, well, the results have been just amazing.

Some dedicated, talented, and persistent people – Frances, Donna, John, and others - took the good gifts that God has given us and nurtured them, creating the conditions that have allowed those plants to thrive.

I think of this as… the Parable of the Pollinator Garden.

Today is the First Sunday after Pentecost – Trinity Sunday.

It’s the day when we are invited to reflect on and celebrate God’s inner life – our understanding that God is One in Three Persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier.

Over the centuries, lots of ink has been spilled and lots of hot air has been expended in trying to explain the Trinity.

That is a fool’s errand.

The Trinity is not a puzzle to be solved but a mystery to be celebrated – a mystery that reveals to us that God’s very essence is community.

God is a Community of Love – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit bound by love, forever and ever.

And, presumably, this God who is a Community of Love could have gone it alone, perfectly sufficient, forever and ever.

But, instead, God creates all that is – and, in a truly mind-blowing plot twist - God invites us to be part of this eternal Community of Love.

God widens the Holy Circle, welcoming us, and giving us the good – very good creation – that provides all that we need.

And since we are kind of slow to grasp this amazing truth, God came among us in and through Jesus – showing us what God the Community of Love is really like – and then sending us out to invite even more people into the Holy Circle – where all are welcome – where all are able to lay down their burdens – where all are nurtured – where healing and new life are offered – where, no matter the devastation we have endured or perhaps even caused, we can all thrive.

You may remember that a couple of months ago the Rev. Caroline Stewart gathered a group of parishioners to reflect on how we experience and respond to loss and grief.

We offered this group – which we called “We Gather Together” – because several parishioners had specifically asked for it.

And, if we’re honest, we know that all of us who’ve been around for a while have faced the devastation of loss and grief – and we all need help to keep going in the face of such sorrow.

In her usual Caroline Stewart way, we began gently and quietly and thoughtfully, creating a safe space – a community of love – a holy circle - where people could express some hard and painful truths, and lay down, even for just a short time, some heavy burdens.

I knew that “We Gather Together” was going to be rich and valuable but what I didn’t expect was that, really within our first hour together, a community began to form – a community made up of some people who had known each other for a long time and others who had never met.

With God’s help, like good gardeners, Caroline and we had created the conditions that allowed this little community of love to rise from the devastation and grow and thrive, feeding all of us.

And I see that same dynamic happening all over at St. Thomas’ – in the adult Bible Study, at our Wednesday service and Bible Study, at the Thursday Morning Group, among our fabulous choir, among the children and parents hanging out together during fellowship – over and over, God who is a Community of Love is widening the holy circle, inviting us to help widen it even more, welcoming everyone to the place where healing and new life are offered – where, no matter sorrows and burdens, we can all thrive.

The Parable of the Pollinator Garden.

Amen.