A Tree Gives Glory to God

 



Thomas Merton said: “A tree gives glory to God by being a tree”. This simple and odd statement makes me smile. He goes on to say that it is because the tree doesn’t try to be anything other than what God has created it to be...”it consents to God’s creative love”.

I often think we fail to give that consent which is so desired by God. We might say we are “only” human and yet Merton seems to be urging us to be aware of something more in our humanness. It might be the spark of the divine which is the spark, dust, ash, stardust, with which we are all imbued. The tree-like consent might then be to say yes to that which makes us the bearers of Kingdom glory, that which caused God to declare us good. Chiseling away at the false images which obscure this true identity is not easy, not clear. It is, however, a choice to take that road to glory and be our authentic selves and to learn from the trees...or the lilies of the field or the birds of the air.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Love is Love

Image
  Blessed be God who animates our lives and loves us beyond measure that we too might bring love into the world. AMEN What a joy and honor to be here! I have been privileged to journey with Dana and now, to witness with her cloud of witnesses the sacrament of ordination, is something to behold!  Anyone who knows Dana knows she is passionate about the two great commandments and one of the creative ways she marks this covenant of Love with a capital L is to point consistently to the Robert Indiana Sculpture, that famous square of L O V E! (parenthetically the work of art also marks her love of Philadelphia) But let me use Love as the jumping off point today for it seems to me that no matter what or where or when, the Gospels point us to the Love of God or more accurately toward the God who is Love. And this love is expressed and lived and surrounds us through the mysterious and powerful dynamic of the Trinity. Moreover in our precious sacramental lives, ordination being such a moment but
Read more

Behold and Become the Beloved

Image
  Blessed be God who animates our lives and marks us as Christ’s own forever, God’s beloveds and     Kingdom bearers. AMEN You may have recognized the prelude which Jon played this morning; you may have noticed a tear falling. Hardly a sermon goes by when I don’t think about the words to the Hymn: I love to tell the story of Jesus and His love. We all have such stories, some biblical retellings and some contemporary adaptations. Whatever the story of Jesus and His love, they seem to illuminate the grace even in darkness and despair. One of mine goes as follows:  Almost exactly 23 years ago to the day, on a dark and stormy winter afternoon at St Christopher’s in Gladwyn PA, I received most difficult news. After a year of interviews and psychoanalysis and being told my ordination made so much sense, suddenly the rug was pulled out and with no explanation I was told no ordination, no second chances.  That evening was a baptism of sorts for me…there was water everywhere. Teeming rain outsi
Read more

Advent 4/ The Mystery of the Incarnation of Love

Image
  Throughout this season of Advent certain things have been everpresent and close to the surface. Certainly the pandemics invade our lives every day still and yet Advent offers us the opportunity to dig down below the thin covering of fear and anxiety and grief and recover or reuncover the love and hope we knew and are to know. Advent is a bit of a recovery mission. The candles on the Advent wreath call us intentionally to hope and peace and joy and love. And by now just days before the Incarnation we might locate those gifts and life giving graces in our own bodies and souls in order to be more fully present at the manger, to witness the birth of Love Incarnate.   We look, no gaze deeply, and then cause our eyes to bring what we perceive into view in our own lives. In Advent we pull back the veil which might mute or distort our own incarnations and remember, re-member, love.  To do so requires us to embrace our vulnerability. It can be painful. Yet in this poem by Denise Levertov we m
Read more