Bluebell Service at St Michael's

Sermon preached at the annual “Bluebell Service”, 3pm Evensong at St Michael’s Baddesley Clinton.
Sunday 9th May 2010 – 5th Sunday after Easter

Readings: Psalm 8 Gen 1: 26-31 Phil 4: 4-7


Well obviously I am the new rector and I am very new, and I am still learning what we are about here in the Parish of Baddesley Clinton, and in this church of St Michael’s. And although I recognise that I still have lots to learn about this place it does seem to me that one of the things that we are about is harmony with nature. We have this beautiful church building, in this beautiful setting, surrounded by bluebells. And many people have worked very hard over very many years to maintain all this and to keep that harmonious balance between nature and our human needs for order and purpose.
And sometimes people say, “Yes, but would it not be more beautiful still if humans never got involved and it was just nature.” Well if that was the case then we would have no church building, no grass mowing, no bulb planting. It probably would still be beautiful, but it would not reflect our legitimate human needs. And our bible reading today made it quite clear that in both the Christian and Jewish understanding, human beings are encouraged by God to work with nature to bring about good human outcomes. Human beings are made in the image of God. We reflect God’s own nature and God encourages by God to be master of creation, to work with God on his creation to make it more beautiful and to meet our human needs.
Now the key phrase here is “in harmony with God’s creation”. When we do things in harmony with God and his creation then the outcome is beautiful, and hopefully that is what we see reflected here around us.
But the trouble is we know that human intervention in nature is not always guided by harmony with God. Sometimes it is driven by greed, or arrogance or selfishness and the results are very ugly. And as we meet today we have very aware of a huge oil slick in the Bay of Mexico, arising from human activity and which threatens to do enormous damage to nature. And we all have to be very humble about this, because we know that we all live western lifestyles which are very hard on nature and very demanding on the world’s resources.
When we think about harmony with nature, one of the saints who has most to teach us is St Francis of Assisi. He lived outdoors in extreme poverty. His carbon footprint must have been as low as they come. He celebrated all aspects of nature, writing the great canticle “Brother Sun, Sister Moon”. St Francis emphasised that all created things ultimately want and need to move in harmony with their creator. He is famous for preaching to the birds and to the fish. His followers thought he had completely lost it, but he preached to them nevertheless, and they appeared interested and then dispersed when he had finished. Francis rebuked himself for never having preached to the birds before!
Well, here at Baddesley Clinton I am not preaching to birds or fish, but I am almost preaching to bluebells. The nice thing about preaching to bluebells is that if there is a breeze then they nod gently up and down, as though they agree and appreciate what is being said. Not many congregations do that, or at least not when I am preaching, they don’t! But this not of agreement also reminds me of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who when approached by the Angel Gabriel gave her agreement, “Be it unto me according to thy word.” And the blueness of bluebells is another reminder of Mary, who has to be the ultimate example of co-operating with the creative power of the creator.
So as we go from here, let’s give thanks for the beauty we experience. Let’s seek to build on that beauty by living lives in harmony with the will of the creator. And let’s remember the example that we have in St Francis and also in Mary, and let’s say our yes to God, like a bluebell nodding in the wind.