Rev M~ standing at the front of the church...

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Lessons from an Amaryllis

Once again, I've had a chance to eat some humble pie, have a big chip knocked off my shoulder, and receive a blessing all at once.  Whew...it's a good thing I have a hard head!  Or is it??? 

A couple of weeks ago, I had a chance to get together with my Mom to finally have Christmas with her.  My brother Andy, his wife, Lee Anne, their son, Tim and my Mom met me for lunch near Mansfield, at the designated half way point between their home and mine.  Mom and I hadn't had a chance to exchange Christmas gifts yet - and Andy also brought with him a gift from my other brother, David.  David's gift was an Amaryllis bulb.  Andy said he'd left it in his car and it had done through one of our cold snaps and, if it didn't sprout, he'd buy me another one.  I thanked him for the delivery and said it'd probably be fine - after all, Amaryllis bulbs are pretty hardy.

On the way home, though, I kept thinking, "An Amaryllis?  Really?  He got me an Amaryllis?  You get an Amaryllis for the piano teacher, or the guy in the next cubicle at the office...not your sister.  I can't believe he got me an Amaryllis!"  And when I went to plant it, I saw that it had started to sprout and been withered by the frosty temperatures in Andy's car and started grousing some more.  "Fine...a wilted, moldy Amaryllis.  Perfect.  Merry Christmas to me!"

And then I got an email from my brother, David.  It said in part:  "I hope Andy brought our gift to you yesterday, namely the Amaryllis. That is more than just a flower we thought you might like. It stands as a kind of visual prayer, in my mind. The substrate is dry and dormant, the bulb is dry and dormant, and the whole thing looks like it has little potential-----when we first get it. But add a little water and some light, and TRANSFORMATION happens. We have one, and we can almost watch the greenery growing, at this point. There is a bulb of promise at the top of one of the shoots, and we expect to see beauty spring forth any day now. We are praying the same for your constrained circumstances-----that the Lord will add some living water, and that there will be a new burst of thriving life springing upward, soon to be crowned with a new bloom of multidimensional beauty in your life experience."    

My hard heart melted at once, and I realized what a putz I had been.  I need to write to David and let him know that not only has the dormant bulb begun to show signs of vibrant green life, but it did so after being stopped dead in its tracks on the first attempt to sprout.  Having been damaged, then pruned by me to get the dead and moldering parts off, it has managed to find the strength to try again.  Amazing - truly amazing.

I hope I can let its continued growth be a visual reminder to me of the power of prayer, and the power of the resurrection to meet me on the other side of every big or small, literal or symbolic, mental, emotional, physical or spiritual death.  If you are going through "constrained circumstances" maybe you'd like to see if there are any Amaryllis plants left at the local garden store.  A visual prayer can be a wonderful reminder in tough times of the subtle, quiet ways our God works.
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Welcome

Welcome to "Theo-blog-ically Speaking" - a blog by the pastor of New Creation Metropolitan Community Church in Columbus, OH. New Creation MCC is Columbus' oldest predominantly LGBTQA (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and ally) church. We were founded in the LGBTQA community, but we reach beyond it into the neighborhood around our church, into the hearts and families of gay couples who come to us for a Holy Union, and now by reaching into the blog-o-sphere. Some of the essays posted here will be new, current items and others will be slightly revised versions of old "Margaret's Minutes" from the archives of the church newsletter. Sometimes, I'll do a series of entries based on something I'm reading at the time or a class I'm teaching, or a sermon series I'm contemplating.



I've chosen to call this blog "Theo-blog-ically Speaking" because I want to encourage diaglog about theological issues and ideas, and to get people thinking about their spiritual experiences. Since I was a child, I've known that my calling in life was to be a teacher, and if I demonstrate any gifts or talents as a pastor, it's in the areas that draw on the teacher in me. And, remember, I'm the gal who went to seminary just because she thought it would be awesome to sit around and talk about God for three years! Theological thinking, reading, and speaking came naturally to me and it still does. So think, read and dialog with me, won't you?

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About Me

Richwood / Columbus, Ohio, United States
Margaret is pastor of New Creation Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) in Columbus, OH. A graduate of The Methodist Theological School in Ohio, she began working for MCC as a guest preacher in 1990. By 1993 she joined the church and by 1997 was ready for full ordination in MCC. For the better part of 20 years, she and New Creation MCC have seen fit to travel a spiritual road together - learning and growing, sometimes gracefully and sometimes awkwardly, but always dancing into blessings. Ecclectic in her spiritual life, Rev. Hawk stays with the Christian church because it gave her what she calls her "first language of faith." "If I find that I translate everything I gleen from other traditions into my first language of faith - Christianity - then what's the point of thinking of leaving? Christianity has a great deal to offer us, even in the 21st centruy; even in a world very different from that of Jesus. My heart has been captured by the love story of God's encounter with the world in Christ, and I could not leave it if I tried."