Rev. Tyler's Monthly Message
(cross listed on Thymes)

The prophet Joel of the Old Testament called the people to repentance with such phrases as:

Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast
Call a solemn assembly, gather the people
Sanctify the congregation , assemble the aged
Gather the children....(Oxford Annotated Bible)

In Melbourne Australia it is said that the students will not take their exams until the trumpets fall. In Brazil it is considered a blessing to have a purple trumpet land upon your head.

Without a doubt, one of the most glorious view for me is to see the spring blooming of the grand, amazing, outlandish, unconfined Jacaranda Trees along the streets of Southern California town. On Indian Hill Boulevard near the #10 freeway of Claremont is a mile of “Blooming Idiots”. According to retired United Methodist pastor Quinn Bebee of Ventura, the translation for Jacaranda is “blooming idiots.”

These purple trumpet trees are native to Brazil and can be found in Argentina, South Africa and the Southern California with 40 species and blooming forth for a few weeks in the spring of Northern and Southern Hemispheres. In Australia the trees bloom at Christmas (spring) and songs of Christmas are filled with reference to the purple trumpets. In Los Angeles area the months ofMay and June are the greeters of these purple trumpet gifts.

Pentecost is May 27 this year and these trees are wonderful markers of this liturgical remembrance of the “birth of the church.” In the neighborhood where I live it is a complete delight to be showered as I walk my dogs with the trumpets of the Jacaranda tree as I gratefully celebrate the birth of the Christian Church—-the Body of Christ.

You are invited to look about your neighborhoods and streets and delight in these grand trees, the Jacaranda trees, that will not take “no” for an answer. Their enthusiasm of blooming is an invitation for you and I and our congregation and all the world to Rejoice in God’s Love for All People. The purple trumpet of the trees, if we could hear them, might blast out “you are God’s child” “you are precious” “live life each day as a gift” “we are invited to love others as Christ has loved us.”

Enjoy the Blooming Idiots of Spring and if you are fortunate, perhaps a purple trumpet will fall upon your head.