Lillies & Acorns

Message for worship at West Richmond Friends Meeting, 19th of Second Month, 2023

Speaker: Lucy Price

Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you,

even Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these.

I. Consider the Lilies!

A. Here in the North Country

• Bulbs are all safely underground

• Last week's thaw is not the beginning of spring ==> Just a preview of coming attractions

• Snow covered again & likely to see more snow

• That's okay ==> Lilies are in their winter season, preparing for spring

Lilies are alive, even though we can't see that

II. And Acorns

A. Petunia

• Lent me some of her acorns

• What did you say, Petunia? ==> Good roasted with butter & salt

B. Oak Tree

• What would you say if I told you this is an oak tree? ==> Petunia doesn't see the tree

• Seeing the tree is what we mean by faith

• God's work is not always apparent to us

• Sometimes all we can see is the outside shell

• But God has encoded all the info, the blueprints, to make an oak tree, into this tiny acorn

• God has made the acorn to protect that info, until the season is right for it to grow

III. Lilies - Consider the Lilies, arrayed in all their Glory

• The Glory doesn't come from toiling and spinning

• The Glory of the Lilies comes from God ==> A Reflection of God's Glory

and God gives us the Light to see it

IV. Ash Wednesday this week - Beginning of Lent

• Quakers don't normally do the Liturgical Calendar

• As a gardener, I tend to think in seasons

• Lent appeals to me - a season of winter barren-ness in preparation for Easter

Emptiness of Lent is preparation for the Fulfilling of the Glory of the Resurrection

As we enter into our time of Open Worship

I'd like to invite Friends to reflect on the words of George Fox

from the cover of today's bulletin

And when the priest had done

I spoke to him and the people the truth and the light ...

of their teacher within them,

and how the Lord was come to teach them himself,

and of the Seed Christ within them ...

West Richmond Friends Meeting