The Bungee Cord 8-22-22

Hello,

There is a wildflower that grows in our fields called butterfly weed. To me, it is a rather undignified name for the beautiful flower it produces. I don’t know why it is dubbed a “weed”, because it doesn’t seem to be obnoxiously invasive and the flowers are quite elegant. The flower is a cluster of little orange stars, and it stands out amid the yellow golden rod, the white queen Anne’s lace and the purple New York irornweed. The plant disappears in the fall, and it sprouts much later than the rest of the wild plants in the field, but it produces its flowers just in time for the butterflies which, as the name suggests, are attracted to it.

The reason that I am writing about the butterfly weed is because the guy who mows the fields around us that belong to the original owner of the property decided to get out early this year and mow them all down a month or so ago. He chopped down to the ground all the sprouting wildflowers that would have colored the fields. So, instead of fields of white, yellow, purple and orange, this summer the fields are just brown. The chopped plants have tried to come back to life, and so the brown is mingled with green leaves. But I miss the beauty that could have been.

Last week I was out mowing our grass which butts up against the sheered fields, and as I mowed I noticed some orange flowers low to the ground. Butterfly weed. Not a lot of it, but because it is a late sprouter, some of the plants were still young enough when they were cut that they hadn’t flowered yet. Specks of beauty amid the mower ravished fields caught my eye with delight. But not only my eyes. Butterflies had spotted them too. Monarchs, Yellow and Black Swallowtails sitting on them creating the appearance of a new breed of flower of graceful, fanlike petals.

It was an image to me of what the Christian faith is meant to be in our world. The beauty of life, which God intends to bring wonder and awe to the world seems to always be the target of a rampaging mower, chopping what will be beautiful down to the ground, leaving life dull brown and full of prickly dead stems. Blades of fear, stress, anger, tragedy, sorrow and despair regularly mowing across life.

But if one looks closely, there is a beautiful flower that resiliently rises up from life’s uglied fields. A flower of hope, of peace, of forgiveness, of love, of joy. Rising up from the stem of a cross of death. Like a butterfly weed in the field, bringing beauty to the barren, catching the eyes of butterflies, and drawing them unto its flower. Ever since that first Good Friday, the world has tried to cut God’s love down and destroy it, but the world hasn’t been able to keep it from rising above the stubble of life. Like little clusters of orange stars, God’s love in Jesus Christ continues to blossom in the world through the communities of faith that bear Christ’s name. And when it blossoms in this shredded world, it catches eyes and gathers people unto it like butterflies to butterfly weed.

Let me invite you on Sunday morning to take a close look at the world around you, see the bloom of God’s love in a church nearby, and when you feel your heart drawn to it, go and delight in the beautiful grace of God that sprouts forth there.

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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