This past weekend, we enjoyed Cathedral in Bloom, when the glory of the Cathedral is matched by the glory of flowers and the talents of local floral artists.
To describe Cathedral in Bloom as I have above is to use biblical language to evoke creation, as in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. To write of “glory” is to write of the blossoming of life by the creative energy of God, and the creation of people in God’s image--those whose work will be to tend the garden God gives them.
In the Hebrew Bible, God has Glory, and all created things have glory, too. The Hebrew word for glory, kabod, can speak of the substance of God or of a created thing, as well as of their beauty. The beauty and substance of flowers attracts us to them. The beauty and substance of the Cathedral attracts florists to it, and we to their art. At Cathedral in Bloom, we enjoy the flowers together and become a community together reflecting the glory that was at the beginning of all things: the Glory of God.
From here we soon enter the season of Lent. In other seasons we enjoy an arrangement at the pulpit on Sundays, but in Lent we will fast from flowers. This past Sunday we were utterly surrounded as we read from the Gospel of Luke and heard a sermon on the Transfiguration of Christ, when the Glory of God in Jesus is revealed.
Jesus goes up a mountain with his disciples John, James and Peter to pray. As he prays, the “appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became dazzling white.” The disciples see the “glory” of Moses and Elijah the prophet, and they see the glory of Jesus between them. This glory on a mountain, as our cathedral Dean writes and also preached on Sunday, corresponds to the Glory of God in Jesus, crucified on Good Friday. As the Glory in the resurrected body of Jesus on Easter Sunday is revealed to his disciples, it extends through creation and time toward us.
As the web of life in the biblical story of glory and God’s love for creation wove through the understanding of the artists and artisans who built our Cathedral, it reaches us, whatever we understand of it. We welcome you to understand more. This evening, Tuesday, March 1 at 8 PM, join us for a free series on Zoom, Christianity 101, in which the Rev. Jonathan Beck will lead us to deeply examine the Christian faith through the beautiful and ancient liturgy of the Great Easter Vigil. Click HERE to learn more and to register.
The photos below combine images from both Cathedral in Bloom and the Great Vigil of Easter when baptisms take place, as in ancient times. Recently the baptismal font overflowed with the glory of white flowers, and carvings around the doors of the Cathedral's baptistery bloomed in Cathedral in Bloom 2020.
