Out On a Limb

By Rev. Joan Kessler

Luke 19:1-10

This morning’s story has me thinking about tree climbing. I was never much a tree climber, preferring to leave it to my adventure-seeking friends and family members and I was quite happy to watch from the safety of the ground. But I wondered this week what I maybe missed out on. Perhaps you know this feeling as well. Were you a tree climber? Did you scale up the trunk, calculate your footings, go to the nearest branch to perch or continue on up as high as you could go?

The poetry of Mary Oliver always helps me pull on theological threads. This morning, I share with you her reflection on whether or not to climb a tree and the argument she is having inside herself. It’s entitled Green, Green is My Sister’s House:

Don’t you dare climb that tree

or even try, they said, or you will be

sent away to the hospital of the<