The Passion Flower

We’ve had Passion Flowers growing in our garden for quite a number of years. They are beautiful flowers, one of my favourites in the garden. But this year I thought we’d lost the shrub that had continued to spring up every year, year after year. I thought it had been strangled by the other shrubs growing around the area — I hadn’t been able to trim them up last cutting season, so they were all a bit overgrown.

Today I was trying to tidy things up a little. And right at the back of another bush, there was some Passion Flower growing through. Just one piece had grown up the back of the bush, and when it got to the top spread itself out, until it covered quite a large area on the Berberis. There were a couple of flowers in full bloom. Although they were completely inaccessible — so the picture I’ve used here comes from where I find many of the images I use on the blog: stock.xchng, a very useful site.

When I see a Passion Flower, I often think of the story that goes with it. I first read the story in a hand-written book that came from an elderly aunt. But I’ll copy a piece here from the BBC’s h2g2 site — which is similar to Wikipedia.

The Passion Flower

Unusually for such a story it has a well-documented and undisputed origin. Jacomo Bosio, a scholar, lived in Rome in 1609. He was working on a treatise upon the crucifixion when an Augustinian friar of Mexican birth showed him drawings of a remarkable flower. After much prevarication (and a rather liberal interpretation of the facts) he agreed to include the drawings of the flower in his book. The symbols of the Passion of Christ were many and varied. The unique corona represented the crown of thorns. The ten sepals and petals represented the Apostles (except Judas and Peter, who both distanced themselves from Christ prior to the crucifixion). The five anthers were the five wounds on Christ’s body, and the three stigmas the nails. The leaves were the spear that pierced His side, and the tendrils the scourges that flayed His flesh.

Click here to read the full article

Clicking on the image below will take you to a larger picture:

You made us all in your image

I think I would want to stress the “all” in the phrase I’ve chosen to reflect on from this Collect for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity. “You have made us all in your image”.

When you look around at people, it’s obvious that we are all quite different in our outward appearance. But if you think about it, we’re not so very different in the way we’re made up. Most of us have two eyes, two ears, a nose, a mouth, a couple of arms with hands on the end, and a couple of legs with feet on the end. Obviously there are some exceptions to this, but basically we’re all pretty much the same. And we all reflect something of God, all!

We might differ a bit in eye colour, skin colour, the way we walk, the way we talk, etc etc. And there is, of course, the much more obvious differences between men and women. But despite the outward differences in our appearances, we all reflect something of God, all!

There are probably many more differences between us that are less visible. Some people are happy all the time, some are depressed; some are healthy, some ill; some are addicted to drink or drugs, some never touch either; some are homosexual, some are heterosexual; etc etc. And there are, of course, many people who fall between the extremes mentioned here. But despite the less visible differences in our appearances, we all reflect something of God, all!

If we take seriously the thought that we all reflect something of God, because we are all made in the image of God, then, surely, we must also take seriously Jesus’ command that we should not judge one another.

‘Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. For with the judgement you make you will be judged, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. Why do you see the speck in your neighbour’s eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye? Or how can you say to your neighbour, “Let me take the speck out of your eye”, while the log is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbour’s eye.
–Matthew 7:1-5

Whilst that passage gives us an indication of Jesus’ wonderful sense of humour, it also carries a very serious message, “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged”. We have to learn to accept people for who they are, whoever they are! It isn’t for us to decide that one person is worth less than another, or worth less than us. And neither is it for us to decide that one person is worth more than another, or worth more than us. Because we are all worth everything to God, and we all reflect something of God, all!

I know how easy it is to slip into making snap judgements of people for all sorts of reasons. But, surely, an important part of living our Christian lives is learning to be non-judgemental — as hard as that can be at times. However, we must strive towards that important goal, because we all reflect something of God, all!

Creator God,
you made us all in your image:
may we discern you in all that we see,
and serve you in all that we do;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Additional Collect for The Sixth Sunday after Trinity
is Copyright © The Archbishops Council