A Snapshot of Beautiful

 

Hic sunt dracones that is Latin for ‘here be dragons.’ On early maps, particularly those from the 1400s, cartographers included labels, like ‘here be dragons,’ and drawings of fantastical creatures. Dragons, sea monsters, serpents marked unexplored territory – the wilds- and areas of experienced or potential danger.

The Bible does mention God’s creation of ‘sea monsters,’ but nowhere says in a text, ‘here be dragons.’ Although, this would certainly be an interesting rabbit hole to go down, but you will have do that on your own later.  The focus this morning is on the geography -void of dragons- that the Gospel text draws our attention to.

The Gospel writer uses a number of specifically named places:

Jesus decided to go to Galilee. Philip was from Bethsaida. We have found the one, Jesus son of Joseph from Nazareth; including commentary about Nazareth. That is a lot of places to be named in a few short verses.

At first glance the naming of these places doesn’t really add to the story. Such detail might draw in hearers who love facts or maps, but otherwise ... ?

 

I have a pen pal who, in regular times, travels all over the world, often taking ‘quick’ trips, meaning a long weekend in one city to which she can fly. Once she visited Halifax and I was able to meet her for an hour over her scheduled lunch, so between sites on her must-do list.  I had offered dinner on our veranda, volunteered to be a sightseeing guide – to share some of the places off the beaten track. This is not how she travels.  She picks a city to check off her list: within the city she has a check list of the sites and a schedule to follow to catch a bit of all of them.  Halifax, the city, has been done.

When I go to a city – let’s say Toronto- my story is not, “I have been to Toronto.” Check.

The story is: riding the escalator 10x in one afternoon at the Eaton Centre; it is riding the full length of subway in the forward car- then doing it again in the back car; it is the company and conversation had in a hole in the wall Greek restaurant located off a dubious ally; it is the big bin full of blue jeans (or other clothing) at Honest Ed’s department store; it is the smell and the humidity of the exotic flowers in the Allen Garden.  The story is not Toronto, it is the places discovered within the city, and through those experiences and moments of joy, wanting to follow up, to go back to re-discover the places that warmed my heart, engaged my senses, to seek more of the sentient moments.

 

The Gospel text reads a bit like this to me:  if my pen pal had lived in 1^st century Judea, her list of places to visit and check off would likely have included Galilee, Bethsaida, and Nazareth.  My traveling on the other hand would have included a story of the enjoyment of watching people pass while eating lunch under a fig tree. I would want to follow up the visit with another in the future because somehow this moment was a snapshot of beautiful.

 

Our text after referencing the places on a map, has Jesus speak to Nathanael, “I saw you – before Philip called you – I saw you under the fig tree.”  This is very different than Jesus saying, I saw you in Bethsaida, or Galilee. To say, “I saw you under the fig tree,” is personal, specific, and intimate. If Jesus saw Nathanael under the fig tree – what did Jesus see him doing? That is quite a thought isn’t it.  Good heavens, if someone said that to me I would start to go back in my mind to that moment when I was under the tree and think about what I was doing or not doing – yes, my mind would go first to the embarrassing whether I was picking spinach out of my teeth, or not so delicately blowing my nose.

 

Jesus sees Nathanael under a fig tree.

In Jesus’ time, to be under a fig tree, was to be in a significant place.  One could expect to have an experience of some sort. Fig trees were a common place where people would go to pray, or sit together with a rabbi and learn scripture. Fig trees offered fruit and offered shade at the heat of the day.

In 1 Kings 4: 25, as one example of many, ‘to sit under a fig tree’ was used as a description for a time of peace and security:  During [King] Solomon’s lifetime Judah and Israel lived in safety, from Dan even to Beer-Sheba, all of them under their vines and fig trees.

In Micah 4: 4, a similar sentiment but used as prophecy, a possibility of what could be/will be– and they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees, and no one shall make them afraid.

The peace, security, ..... leisure.... of being able to sit under a fig tree is imbued with a spirit of repose, contentment, expectancy, possibility, and hope. It is on so many levels a snapshot of beautiful.

 

Once a week Tim and I connect with a group of friends via Zoom to play Dungeons and Dragons.

To play, one creates a character and with the other characters interacts in a world created by the game’s Master. It is a game where dice are used to determine one’s abilities when working through situations that arise on the quest. There are certainly maps used in the game, some labelled with place names, and perhaps the words ‘here be dragons.’  One never goes to a place on the map to check it off the tourist list – one goes to investigate. The fun is in using one’s creativity and imagination to discover what is in named places, investigating whatever suits one’s fancy with the purpose of moving along in the journey.  Within the search, there is even the ability to create scenarios outside of the Master’s original storyline or intended outcomes.  It is in the seeking out of the finer things, exploring the details, where one discovers new worlds, knowledge, experiences,  truths, and mystery within a temporal space. The game has players learning ‘to be’ in a space – in a relationship kind of way- rather than just passing through.  One hones their skills of paying attention to the seemingly ordinary, for it is the ordinary that can have great significance. Perhaps one will find the Mystery present.

 

In Dungeons and Dragons one works as a team or at least has relationship with the other characters, each with their own abilities and gifts. Kind of like the group of disciples Jesus is gathering: Peter, Andrew, Philip, Nathanael.  In other Gospel stories we know that Peter likes to talk before thinking, is solid and committed. He and his brother Andrew are hard workers and skilled fishers. We see that Philip is excitable – probably an extravert- going around collecting his friends to bring them to Jesus “Come and see, come and see!” Nathanael is under the fig tree, perhaps more of an introvert, one who takes time to meditate and to pray. It takes a community, a team of characters, for the journey quest the disciples follow. In their following, some of the characters will be more adept at paying attention, or seeking out knowledge, or experiencing the Mystery, or engaging others that they encounter to come along too: come with us on this journey, follow us as we live into the mission – which is some form of saving or healing the world.

 

Following the story of Philip and Nathanael, whether extroverted or introverted, there is a place for all of us to participate in meditating and praying under a fig tree, and in getting excited enough to invite others to come along. Living with the intent of seeking, finding, and experiencing Mystery, is being aware and helping open windows for others to grasp and experience the same Mystery.  This week Pastor David Maginley sent a note from the hospital requesting homemade quilts for the ICU as their stock was running low.  I took over all the quilts and afghans the church had, along with some prayer shawls. Pastor David told me that when a person is dying in the ICU they are wrapped in handcrafted cover, after their passing the family takes home the covering for their continued use. Over the year 150 love-blankets are given out from the VG’s - ICU. On the day I took the blankets to David he had tears in his eyes as he spoke about the beauty of the gifts – the rich colours, the love, the Mystery in each.  He was going -instantly, after my departure- to wrap people in the beautiful; our love, God’s love.

For many the ICU is the place marked on the map, ‘here be dragons.’ Yet, if you look the Mystery is present -bigger than life, greater than death- in the care of the nurses, in the love of family (present or beamed in via smart phone), in the words ‘I will miss you,’ ‘I love you,’ in the beauty of the colours of a quilt/afghan/or prayer shawl; the Mystery weaves in and around and through any fear, sadness, grief, dragons of any shape or size.

In the middle of a ‘here be dragons’ kind-of-place, as followers of Jesus we can seek out a metaphorical fig tree, and sit under it. In prayer, in giving our attention, in searching the details, in being open to experiencing the Mystery ---there in that place we rest in peace, safety, and leisure; a place imbued with a spirit of repose, contentment, expectancy, possibility, and hope. Following Jesus – seeking Mystery- we live into being this snapshot of beautiful.