What comes to mind when you think of the colour yellow?
Yellow: Some lemony beam of light, some lazy butterfly, the chirp of a morning warbler unzipping the light of day. Sunflowers, daisies, clumsy bumblebees, the summer-honeyed laughter of children at play.
To what extent are our thoughts about the colour yellow captured in this poem? What else comes to mind?
Yellow in nature is used in a diversity of ways. It can be used as a warning: The yellow stripes of bees are signs that a dangerous stinger isn’t far away. It can also be used to attract: the colour yellow in flowers, for example, is particularly visible to bees and wasps, encouraging pollinators to move pollen between plants, and allowing the plants to reproduce. To understand and appreciate the colour yellow we need to look at its context, how it is used, where it is used, when it is used, and allow that to speak to us and teach us.
The same can be said in the church. Yellow is actually another colour that doesn’t really get used in the church. The closest we get is gold. Herein lies the challenge. Gold is the colour of riches. It is a sign of wealth and prosperity. It is meant for monarchs who reign above their subjects. Churches can use gold interchangeably with white at Christmas and Easter as a sign of purity, light, and joy. Beyond that, many churches have gold Communion sets. Some (typically Cathedrals) even have gold candlesticks, gold offering plates, and other gold elements throughout the church. These could be interpreted as signs of wealth. The question becomes: what message does this send? How does a church balance symbolism and social perspectives around gold? What does the context teach us?
Jesus answered them, ‘Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.
Humans are naturally drawn to abundance, wealth, and comfort. Who wouldn’t want to live in a context where we can easily access what we want and need, when we want and need it? There is more to life than what we want and need. We need to look beyond – like the colour yellow.
We need to look beyond – like the colour yellow. I mentioned the yellow in flowers attracted pollinators. That’s not all the flowers do. If we look beyond that, we learn that some flowers – the cup plant, coneflowers, goldenrods, and coreopsis, are not only beneficial to the pollinators they attract but the seeds they produce (as long as they are left uncut) will feed birds all the way into spring. We need to look beyond. There is more to life than what we want and need.
Jesus said: Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.
What is that food that endures for eternal life? Bread! Made from golden grains of wheat, transformed for us into Communion, food that we share together to nourish us so that we can use our gifts to nourish others. It is about more than what we want and need. Faith challenges us to look beyond the colour yellow, beyond the golden calf, and see God’s gifts, God’s invitations, the ways God is working in our lives so that we can do God’s work in this world.
May we continually come to Jesus, so that we are never hungry or thirsty and can share our bounty with others. This we pray as we sing: 259 For the Fruit of all creation