Butterfly House

"I am so grateful that God reaches us through God’s creatures."
Image: A yellow morph (female) Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly perches, 
wings spread open flat, on one in a bunch of purple cone flowers.

I approached the butterfly house with low expectations. From the outside, I could not see much through the black mesh of the quonset hut at my local Watershed Headquarters. Upon entering, however, a cloud of bright, colorful butterflies fluttered all around me in an enchanting swirl of gentle wings.

My heart melted. A sense of joy and gratitude swelled. Happy tears filled my eyes and my whole face smiled.

Beauty. Goodness. Diversity. Adaptive Creativity. Delight. Gentleness. Freedom. God was powerfully present in God’s creatures. God’s gift of God’s whole self - i.e. God’s grace - resets our hearts, re-tunes our mind and restores us to our most soulful state - alive, serene, emotionally available, heartfelt, grateful, receptive, appreciating.

I am so grateful that God reaches us through God’s creatures. I am so grateful that God has flooded creation with goodness and excellence that resemble and point to the ultimate goodness of God.

When we are under stress or brought low by the assaults of bad news, it is helpful to remember that the good is there and that it surpasses the bad in every way. As people of faith in the risen Christ, we know that evil is passing away - a defeated remnant. As people of faith in our good Creator God, we know that evil has no positive existence in itself; it is only ever the negation of the good. All that really exists is what God called good and very good from the beginning.

It is no accident that butterflies are a common symbol of risen life in Christ.

Blessings,
The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Rector


What creatures make you think of God's creativity, love, and beauty? Let us know in the comments.

Also, please save the date for our St. Francis Day Blessing of the Animals on Sunday, October 6, 2019 at 2:00 p.m. You can find us both in Pastorius Park and right here at St. Martin's at that time.

Aesthetic, Ethical, or Religious?

The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel

I apologize in advance that this Rector’s Note is rooted in the writings of Soren Kierkegaard. On sabbatical in the library at Princeton Theological Seminary, I renewed my love for this Danish philosopher and spiritual writer. Kierkegaard observed that the spiritual life moves through three phases; the aesthetic, the ethical, and the religious. 

Episcopalians famously flock to the first and the second phase. The aesthetic phase is all about our enjoyment of beauty. Music, art, liturgy, poetry and literature all contribute to our immediate aesthetic experience of pleasure. Kierkegaard states - and I agree - that all of these experiences are good except when they are treated as ultimate goods in their own right. Pleasure in beauty serves its full function when it leads us to transcend ourselves toward God in praise and thanksgiving.

The ethical phase concerns ordering and shaping our lives toward right action. Many mainline Christians would identify with this phase. We want to live a good life and make good decisions and contribute to the common good. The odd problem with the ethical phase is that often we merely import our existing commitments and sprinkle the holy water of the church on them, rather than derive them from the teachings of Jesus. Liberal Christianity - which is practiced by the whole range of political stripes - goes even further and says that doubt prevents us from making any ethical claims based on our faith. More on this in my next note!

Finally, we have the religious phase. This is the phase where we orient our whole life toward relationship and ultimately union with God. Our preoccupation with self goes on the back burner and we seek God as our ultimate end. All else becomes secondary to the unmatched importance of our dependence on God. Through prayer, worship, sacrament, service, study, conversation, and contemplation we strive to accept God’s invitation to participate in God’s life. 

In my experience, this last phase is most difficult because we resist dependence and we resist submission. The gateway to God is trust and devotion to the God we know in Jesus through the Gospels. For many modern people this feels foolish and embarrassing. While I know those feelings, my life has only grown healthier and more honest, the more I put myself under the teachings of Jesus. When we embrace the religious path, we receive the aesthetic and the ethical again in a new way, with freedom, love, hope, and endurance to fuel our enjoyment and our ethical striving.

Blessings,
The Rev. Jarrett Kerbel
Rector