St. John s United Church Sunday Service September 18th, 2016 Scripture: I Corinthians 12:14-20 Reader: Jane Charlotte Reflection: Rev.

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1 St. John s United Church Sunday Service September 18th, 2016 Scripture: I Corinthians 12:14-20 Reader: Jane Charlotte Reflection: Rev. Karen Verveda SCRIPTURE READING: 1Corinthians Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. 15 If the foot were to say, Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear were to say, Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body, that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. 19 If all were a single member, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many members, yet one body. REFLECTION: Who s Who in the Honey Bee Hive? Last week we launched The Season of Creation, and we opened what some in the Christian tradition have called, the second book (the book of nature), to consider how God and God s hopes and dreams are made known to us through the witness of creation. The Season of Creation is a time when Christian communities around the world take Job up on his suggestion to speak to the earth, and let it teach us. This year at St. John s we re spending the Season of Creation speaking to the bees, and asking them to teach us. It has been kinda fun to be on this journey this week and focusing time on learning more about Who s Who in the Hive. I ve been reading Mark Winston s Bee Time, watching YouTube videos about bees, reading blogs and hobby farm articles about bees. One things I ve been noticing is differences in the descriptions of the hive. One writer compared a healthy hive to a polished and well-oiled machine. Another writer described the caste system that one finds in the beehive. (I confess I ve started wondering what if we could speak bee, how would they describe their community?) 1

2 These comparisons (of course) are an attempt to understand more about bees by comparing it to other things we know about or have experienced It s not that different from today s scripture reading where Paul describes Christian community by comparing it to the human body, For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body The human body is made up of 206 bones, 639 muscles, 6 lbs of skin, ligaments, cartilage, veins, arteries, blood, fat and more! Every time we hear a sound, every time we take a step, every time we take a breath, hundreds of parts work together so that we experience a single movement, our minds and bodies working as a single unit. The human body is one of the most complex systems in existence. And because of this it s one of the more powerful images for the church that is offered in scripture. Comparing human communities to the human body is not original to Paul it has a long history in classical literature but what is original to Paul is that he gives the comparison a revolutionary twist. Where others have used the comparison to reinforce hierarchy ie: lowly worker (drones) ought to carry out their role of obeying and supporting their military, political and business leaders Paul sees no basis for hierarchy or subordination. Rather he draws attention to the importance of diversity, interdependence and egalitarianism in the human body and in healthy spiritual communities. For Paul, the body teaches us to welcome diversity in our spiritual community. He says diversity in our spiritual community teaches us to rely not on ourselves but on the Spirit we learn to rely on the Spirit to unite us as a community and to breathe life into our communal body. If healthy human bodies and a healthy human communities function thanks to hundreds of parts, healthy honey-bee hives function thanks to tens of thousands of bees, up to as many as 60-80,000 female worker bees, and a few hundred or as many as several thousand male drones, each one performing their job dutifully. From the moment it emerges out of its hatching cell to the moment of its last breath, a honey bee is working. Functioning as a unit, bees produce a workforce capable of pollinating thousands of acres of flowering plants, producing upwards of 100 pounds of honey per year and continuously rearing more bees to replace those lost throughout the season. 2

3 Knowing what the colony needs to survive, worker bees build appropriate cells for the queen. The queen lays one egg per cell. In most of the cells, she lays a fertilized egg that will develop into a worker bee. In cells that are slightly larger than the worker cells, she lays unfertilized eggs that will grow into drones. After three days, these eggs hatch into worm-like forms called a larva. Worker bees feed the larva royal jelly for the first few days and then switch to honey and pollen. An exception to this is a future queen: this larva continues its diet of royal jelly. A larva eats almost constantly and grows quickly. Within just five days, it grows 1,500 times larger than its original size. At this point, worker bees cap the cell with wax and the larva spins a cocoon around itself entering the pupa stage. The larval stage lasts about six days. It's shorter for the queen, longer for the worker bees and longest for the drones. In the pupa stage, the tiny organism hidden under the capping is starting to look like an adult bee. Its legs, eyes and wings develop and, finally, the little hairs that cover its body grow. After seven to fourteen days in this stage, depending on the type of bee, the now adult bee chews its way out of the cell. This stage is shorter for the queen, longer for the worker bees and longest for the drones. Show video Without doubt, the female worker bees in a honey bee colony comprise the largest population (about 50,000 female workers to about 500 male drones) and are arguably the hardest working (aside from the queen, of course). Worker bees have specialized structures, such as brood food glands, scent glands, wax glands, and pollen baskets, which allow them to perform all the labors of the hive. As worker bees grows older, age dictates their role in the hive. Worker bees take on a variety of roles in their lifetime. Upon hatching, each fledgling worker bee immediately cleans out its hatching cell to prepare it for the next egg. Its first duty as a working member of the hive is to care for the young: in their first role as nurse, young bees feed the brood, the collective term for the young pupae and larvae. Honey bees are sticklers for cleanliness. Along with many the bees coming and going from the hive, there are always some who have died. Thus another role worker bees take on is that of undertaker. These bees are responsible for carrying out the hive s dead, cleaning up bee parts and removing other debris. 3

4 As young worker bee age, their wax glands mature. When they are able to secrete wax, they are able to build comb and ready to take on the role of architect. Architects bees attend to several tasks. They are needed to cap larva entering the pupa stage and ripened honey cells. They repair damaged honeycomb, and they fill cracks in the hive with propolis, a sticky substance that bees collect from tree resin. Some worker bees take on the duties of cleaning their sisters in the hive and tending to those who return from foraging trips. These worker bees remain in the hive to collect pollen and nectar from returning bees, organizing it by packing it into cells and putting it away for later. Some of these bees take on honeymaking duty. Raw nectar requires digestive enzymes from worker bees, as well as diligent fanning to reduce moisture and create ripened honey. Since the queen is so busy with her own duties she s unable to groom or feed herself. Thus she enlists a dozen or so bees who take on the role of attendant bees. These worker bees her daughters care for the queen as she goes about the hive. When a worker bee matures, it develops a working stinger stocked with venom. At this point, it may leave the hive and become a forager bee. Foragers are the breadwinners of the hive: They re tasked with scouring a 3-mile radius from the hive for suitable nectar and pollen. Once its stomach is full and its pollen baskets filled to the brim, a forager will return to the hive to drop off its bounty to one of its sisters. Then it leaves again and starts over, continuing this cycle as long as the sun shines. This work, flying hundreds of miles per day, will eventually leave its wings torn and tattered. Foraging is one of the last duties a worker bee will perform: It will work until it collapses from exhaustion. Don t be fooled every role in the hive is critically important to its success and survival, even if the role of forager receives the most press and prestige. The notoriety is because the result of foraging namely pollination is the thing that benefits humans the most (followed closely by honey production of course). The role of a guard bee is one of the few that requires a worker to develop a mature stinger. As a guard, a bee stands watch over any of the hive s entrances there can be more than one to keep intruders out as necessary. Guards allow foragers from the hive to enter, but keeps everyone else out: bumblebees, wasps, honey bees from other hives and even humans. If you re 4

5 ever stung walking up to a honey-bee hive, it s likely a guard giving you a warning. In addition to worker bees every colony has a Queen Bee. Her job is crucial. She ensures the future population of the entire hive. She lays up to 2,000 eggs per day, choosing where to lay them and how many of each type (worker or drone eggs) to produce. For the majority of her life, she s sequestered to the hive, only leaving for her mating flight as a young virgin queen or with a swarm of bees. Unlike a worker bee, which may live for three to six weeks during the summer or several months over the winter, a queen bee can live between two and five years. A queen is easily distinguished from other members of the colony. Her body is normally much longer than either the drone s or worker s, and her wings are shorter. Queens have neither pollen baskets nor functional wax glands, their stinger is curved and longer than that of the worker, but it has fewer and shorter barbs. Drones (male bees) are the largest bees in the colony. They are generally present only during late spring and summer. The drone s head is much larger than that of either the queen or worker, and its compound eyes meet at the top of its head. Drones have no stinger, pollen baskets, or wax glands. Their main function is to fertilize the virgin queen during her mating flight. Drones don t have the best reputation. They are often seen as the lazy, hungry and fat members of the hive that mooch off of their sisters hard work and produce very little in return. There is a bit of truth to this: drones don t carry their weight in the hive. They don t make honey but they do eat it; they don t protect the hive or the queen; and they don t help rear the young. Their job is outside of the hive, to mate with neighboring queens and spread healthy genes. We might think that it s a pretty easy job but it s no less important than what the worker bees do. For the survival of the species, healthy drones are critically important. I don t know about you but I find Who s Who pretty fascinating it s kind of aweinspiring actually. And I guess that is what most catches my attention as I learn more about bees the sense of awe. In Bee Time Mark tells the story of a university student internship at Environmental Youth Alliance. She spent her time developing a curriculum that used bees to engage young children with agriculture. Reflecting on her 5

6 experience she said, Something I ve learned from bees, especially working with children, is how little it takes for something that is seen to provoke so much fear to disappear quickly and turn to awe. Last summer a swarm landed in a tree a little distance from the hive. I got to go with the children and gently place our hands on the swarm, because the bees are quite docile at that point, and one of the kids commented, It feels like you can feel their heartbeat. It is so amazing that fear can quickly turn into curiousity. If nothing else that happens during the Season of Creation but turning some of our fears into awe and curiousity that would be enough. There s something about awakening our curiosity and awe that reminds us of who we really are. The Westminster Catechism says that our chief purpose as human beings is to glorify and enjoy God. When you wonder about your purpose in life one of those questions that sometimes haunts us late at night maybe a good antidote might be to ask when, where, how do I connect with a sense of awe? I came across a quote from the first century this week. St Leontius of Cypress suggests that inspiring awe is creation s gift to humanity, and humanity s awe is our gift to creation. Through heaven and earth and sea, through wood and stone and relics and temples and the cross, through angels and men, and through all creation visible and invisible, I offer adoration and worship to the only Creator, Maker, and Lord of all things. For the creation does not adore the Creator by itself, but it is through me that the heavens declare the glory of God, and through me the moon worships God, and through me the stars glorify God, and through me the waters, storms, dews, and all created things worship and glorify God. The bees praise God by being bees. And the human who stands in awe worships God because of the bees and on behalf of the bees. Praise is amplified. The apostle Paul knew that humans belong in spiritual community, for there we learn that we are not alone or part of some fixed hierarchy, we belong to each other and we depend on the Spirit to unite us as a community and to breathe life 6

7 into our communal body that we might glorify God. Today St. Paul, and Mark Winston, and St Leontius, and the honeybee hive remind us that praising God is best done in community with all creation together we become a symphony of praise. We are not alone. We live in God s world. Thanks be to God! Amen. 7