The Wisdom of Trees – This morning we travel our Summer of Psalms by reading Psalm 1.  The Communion Meditation is delivered by our Senior Minister, the Rev. Dr. Carol Cavin-Dillon.  She notes that there are references to trees throughout the Bible.  The Genesis story of the Garden of Eden has stories involving several trees, and in the last book of the Bible, Revelation, there is also a tree of life.  Carol lists some other familiar stories of trees in the Bible, and here, in the first Psalm, is an example of a tree as a very positive image for us.  As pointed out in the psalm, she examines the characteristics of righteousness versus wickedness, as we do not often classify ourselves in either extreme, but maybe the images aren’t extreme.  The image of a tree whose roots are deep is a clear example for us, keeping practices of justice and righteousness at the forefront of our lives so we cannot be moved.  Trees with deep roots at a stream as depicted in Psalm 1 never stop growing, and that, too, is an example for us so that we, too, continue to be challenged and growing, standing our ground in the deep soil of God’s ways.  If we are thus grounded, we, too, may bear fruit to feed the world.

(NOTE:  Emphasizing the importance of the Word, the videos begin with the scripture reading, but if you want, you can scroll back to the beginning of the service in each video – the entire service is available.  NOTE: Due to a power outage at the church a few days ago, there were technical difficulties with producing this service, so you will notice differences in the video and audio from our usual productions.)