“We sat in silence, letting the green in the air heal what it could.” 
? Erica Bauermeister, The Scent Keeper

Green. It is, hands down,my favorite color. All the many shades and hues of it. I think it has always been my favorite. I have probably one too many green coats and I am always drawn to any sweater whose threads create a green warmth. And in my part of the world the amount of rain we have received has given rise to greenness everywhere they eye lands. On a drive along the Wisconsin side of the river over the weekend, I could have been lured into believing I was in Ireland if there had only been more sheep and stone fences. My eyes were very, very happy! I am sure the farmers are also happy as they have been enduring a severe drought over the last springs.

The color green spells such promise…of beauty, of growth, of the longed for summer days that will be here before we know it. Green heralds the bounty of our gardens and of the Midwestern fields that will soon be sporting stalks of corn and rows of soybeans. I have been watching as the trees in my neighborhood begin to leaf and I marvel at the varying greens that each one offers to the world. Driving across the Mississippi River as I do every day, I focus my eyes on the ever increasing palette of green that paints and frames the now burgeoning water. From chartreuse to kelly and on to deep, forest green, the picture unfolds.

Every Sunday I sit in the sanctuary of the church I attend and look up at the stained glass windows that tell stories of faith of the Christian household. I love this community and this church building for a myriad of reasons but one is that each week I am graced by the looming presence of a green faced Jesus. It is one of the first things I noticed about this church when I began attending. This central figure in the front of the sanctuary has a green face, green hands and green feet. It is subtle but green nonetheless. I love this for so many reasons. For one, I am reminded of my Celtic ancestry and the Green Man that plays a central role as a harbinger of the season of spring and the rebirth of all things. Like my green coats, I probably also have too many of these wild, leafy-faced fellows gracing my walls. While I do not know the intention of the artist who created this window, I love this green faced Jesus because he reminds me that this faith household that I have chosen and who has chosen me when I have been unable to choose it is an ever-unfolding, ever-growing pursuit to make meaning of what it means to be human.A pursuit that spans the ages with all its changes and complexities 

This pursuit walked into the spotlight over the last weeks. The church I have loved since I was a teenager chose to give itself to that unfolding, that growing. The church I was drawn to as a young person because it stood for justice for all people and worked for peace and solidarity during the Civil Rights movement and the Viet Nam War, finally opened the doors to  officially include all people. By removing harmful language and practices toward our LGBTQIA siblings, the United Methodist Church opened its heart and its doors to the greening power of love. And while this does not mean that all people are in total agreement, the process has allowed for there to be enough room, enough light, and enough nurturance for new things to grow. 

The medieval mystic Hildegard of Bingen wrote of ‘viriditas’, the greening power of the Divine. In a cautionary note she also wrote, “Now in the people that were meant to be green there is no more life of any kind.” Writing for her time about situations I know nothing about but were holding her heart captive, she called out to the people of faith to open themselves to the greening power of the Universe.

The people who were meant to be green. It seem to me that each spring the Earth harnesses that ‘viriditas’, that greening power of the Divine and we once again see the rebirth of all that was dead and dormant. And every now and then the people who were meant to be green make the choice to be just that…green and growing…green and unfolding…green and open to the promise of new life. All change is difficult and making large, systemic steps toward a new way, a new life is almost always full of pain and uncertainty. 

Yet that urging toward greening is at the heart of who we are as people and at the heart of how the world moves. The green-faced Jesus looking out at me reminds me of this every Sunday and I vow once again to try as best I can to be a part of it. As Hildegard also said:” The Word is living, being, spirit, all verdant greening, all creativity. This Word manifests itself in every creature.”

And so we move on…