Drippings of the Honeycomb
(The Art of St. James)
More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey, and drippings of the honeycomb.
(Psalm 19:10)
A sermon by Siegfried S. Johnson on the 11th Sunday after Pentecost, August 9, 2015
(Volume 5 Number 5)
St. James United Methodist Church, 321 Pleasant Valley Drive, Little Rock, AR 72212
The 19th psalm is surely one of most beloved psalms of the Hebrew bible, a song declaring God’s
glory as revealed through dual avenues. The first avenue of revelation is Creation itself, the
universe, the psalm opening with instantly recognized words, “The heavens declare the glory of
God, and the firmament shows his handiwork.” This theme of creation telling the glory of God
continues through verse six.
Beginning in verse 7, the psalmist takes us down a second avenue revealing God’s glory, the
written Word. In verses 7, 8, and 9 the psalmist employs six synonyms in praise of the written
Word (law, decrees, precepts, etc.), concluding in verse 10, after that six-sided description of the
Word, “More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter than honey, and
Drippings of the Honeycomb.” It’s that last phrase that’s been much with me, and that I’ve
latched on to for my title, Drippings of the Honeycomb.
My subtitle is The Art of St. James. I’ve wanted for some time to visit with you about the
prominence of the hexagon in the architecture and art of St. James, especially in the stained glass
in our sanctuary and etched glass in the windows looking into the inner courtyard.
In those windows, and in our architecture, I’ve long been fascinated by the geometric constancy
of the hexagon. In the beautiful stained glass on the north and the south sides of the sanctuary
there are 24 elongated hexagons, 12 on each side, and a single stained glass hexagon on the west.
Seated in the sanctuary, we are surrounded by 25 hexagons. The geometry of those shapes is
always the same but the symbols, the central motif within, are each different, a total of 42
different symbols throughout our campus, each with a biblical and spiritual message. The
kneeling cushions at the chancel duplicate those 42 hexagons in our stained glass and within the
wooden chancel itself, that same hexagon is cut into each of the 40 panels.
As I thought about the hexagonal prominence of the Art of St. James, it occurred to me that from
each symbol flows the sweetness of the Word of God, what the psalmist calls in our text,
Drippings of the Honeycomb. The key feature of the honeycomb is that bees produce their honey
and protect the Queen’s eggs within the geometric constancy of hexagons, an exquisite feature of
the honeybee’s biological engineering creating the most mathematically efficient architectural
design for storing honey. I
especially like this image for the
thought of bees in community, in
the hive, as a reminder that the
church’s sweetness is
accomplished through community.
Last Sunday my message focused
on the theme of Joining the
Dance, highlighting the hymn,
Lord of the Dance. I think it
interesting in the context of this
message to observe the dance of
the bees as they go about their
calling, what’s known as the
“Waggle Dance” of the worker
bee. This dance directs members of the colony to the fields where the nectar and pollen is ready,
the bees then emerging from the hive led by the bee’s dance. It reminds me of how the disciples
joined the Divine Dance, leave the Sea of Galilee to go into the fields which, Jesus said, were
“white unto the harvest.”
Now, let’s take a moment for a Geometry 101 class. Notice
how the chambers of the honeycomb have six equal sides.
Each of the six interior angles are 120 degrees, so that the six
angles total 720 degrees, a doubling of the circle’s 360 degrees.
The hexagons of our architecture are elongated on two of the
six sides, creating an extended vertical appearance, but it is still
a hexagon and so has a total of 720 degrees of interior angles
created by those six lines, as do all hexagons.
The doubled circle itself is a Christian symbol, and one of our
theological motifs inside one of our stained glass hexagons on
our south wall. The overlapping of two circles illustrates the
dual nature of Christ as the God/Man. The almond
shaped overlap is called the mandorla (Italian =
almond) which, when laid sideways, creates the
fish, another of the most recognizable symbols of
early Christianity.
The double circle is but one symbol of the 42 on
our campus and from each flow the Drippings of
the Honeycomb, the sweetness of the message of
God’s grace. These 42 kneeling cushions were
stitched by 40 needle pointers in our congregation
and dedicated 31 years ago (May 20, 1984), culminating 15 months of what was a painstaking
labor of love, approximately 60,000 stitches in each kneeler.
Each of the four years I’ve been at St. James we’ve had approximately 40 confirmands, and it is a
precious moment indeed when they kneeling on, and in front of, these hexagons. I was thinking,
in the preparation of this message, how they emerge as part of a colony, the church. Like the
protected eggs of the honeycomb’s hexagon, we begin to watch over then and nourish them at
baptism. It’s worth noting the hexagonal shape of our baptismal font, its 720 degrees
representing a doubling of the circle of life, our ritual declaring that they are born of Water
(Physical life) and of the Spirit (new Birth). And then, at confirmation, they kneel here and
emerge from another hexagonal shape of the chancel, ready to Join the Dance.
We don’t have time to survey each of the 42 images in these hexagons of St. James. Let me,
however, mention two. The kneeler at left below highlights the scales of justice, a declaration
that justice is at the heart of the message of redemption through atonement, and that justice
should be extended toward all. I especially love this one, needlepointed by Joyce Peck, in that it
displays the Hebrew word Din (Justice) along with the scales.
The kneeler at right above is more specific to St. James, the Handbell kneeler, needlepointed by
Felix Thompson (the only male among the 40 needle pointers!). It calls our attention to the
significance of music in the worship of God. St. James has been noted across the nation for our
handbell programs, growing through the early years under the leadership of Martha Lynn
Thompson. The glory of God has been, through the bells, shared with our congregation and far
beyond. These are just two golden chambers of the 42 on our campus, and from each of them
flow “Drippings of the Honeycomb.”
I’ll only share these two, but I encourage you to look around you as you walk down the hallway
and look into the interior courtyard, or as you mediate in the sanctuary. These images inside the
hexagons offer you an opportunity to “taste, and see that the Lord is good.”
Oh, one more thing about the kneelers. As you can see above, the Fleur-de-lis design on the
sides of each kneeler creates a circle where the kneelers meet. Each hexagon of 720 internal
angles, in other words, is bracketed by circles of 720 degrees each. Kneeling here, geometry
itself is offering praise to God, declaring our birth, both of Water and Spirit.
I offered this message in our new Worship Center in last evening’s Saturday worship service, and
noted that the Worship Center was itself constructed as a hexagon, which any aerial shot of our
campus reveals. Also, at Entrance One at the Kirkpatrick Welcome Center, you walk under a
beautiful, richly colored, arched stained glass window. The center attraction of that window is a
golden hexagon with the cross in the midst, emerging from the hexagonal gold as a “Dripping of
the Honeycomb.” It’s also worth noting that each of the doors into the foyer from outside and
into the sanctuary from the foyer, has an elongated hexagonal stained glass feature, and even our
lighting fixtures above are hexagonal.
Amazed to discover all these St. James hexagons, I went into the large and spacious Senior
Pastor’s office thinking it surely hexagonal. It’s not. It has five sides, not a hexagon but a
Pentagon. (I wonder if there’s a message in there somewhere?)
So you see, we are surrounded in this sanctuary by art highlighting this hexagonal design, and
from their symbols flow Drippings of the Honeycomb. There are 25 hexagonal windows around
us, 12 to the North, 12 to the South, and 1 in the West. But in the East, above the chancel where
we look to our origins as God’s creatures, and to our eternal home, the hexagonal pattern is
broken. Instead, lilies fill the field of the stained glass, proclaiming the resurrection.
I want you to think about that as I describe something I discovered in researching hexagons this
week. I was fascinated to discover that the form of the elongated hexagon is the traditional form
of the coffin, and that the word casket (which I have regarded as a synonym) developed to
describe the rectangular box. So a coffin
is not a rectangular box, but is angular,
anthropoid shaped, usually a hexagon
(sometimes an octagon).
Its shape may be regarded as a boat, thus
symbolizing the voyage into the afterlife.
In church architecture, of course, you are
sitting in the nave (Latin = Navis, from which we derive, Navy). Sitting in the sanctuary, we are
in the ship, voyaging through the sometimes calm, sometimes turbulent, waves of life.
Surrounded by the hexagons reminding you of your voyage, your eyes always look East, to the
place where there are no more hexagonal remembrances of human mortality, but rather the lilies
declaring eternal life.
Part of ritual I often use in funerals is the Latin, Media vita, in morte sumus (In the midst of life,
we are in death). The Art of St. James reminds of this as we gather and worship, that ours is a
voyage through life, yet surrounded by death, as witnessed in the hexagonal coffins. Yet, from
this Nave we look East, and a breaking out of the hexagonal coffin, emerging into life. Our Lily
Window in the east proclaims with joy the resurrection of Christ, and the suspended wooden
cross in front of the window is a declaration that the way to life is through the cross of Jesus.
*For more information see The Art of St. James, a book produced over 10 years ago, a project led by Jim
and Joyce Faulkner with Production Supervisor, Lesley Cooper and architectural drawings by Fred
Perkins. The lilies of our East window adorn the cover of this excellent resource.