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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.
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