Message from the Pastor - Autumn Beauty
In the northern hemisphere, the beauty of Autumn is all around us. Leaves are changing from greens to vibrant reds, vivid yellows, and warm browns. Trees are dropping leaves, revealing the design of their branches. The sunsets and harvest moons shine forth with brilliance.
Squirrels are scurrying to find walnuts to hide in trees or bury under the soil. Geese are flapping their wings and honking, as they fly south. Plants are releasing seeds to the ground. Yet Jack-O-lanterns are still pumpkins in the field – waiting to be picked and set aglow on All Hallows Eve.
The smell of pumpkin spice lattes and smoky bonfires permeate the air, which is crisp, cool, invigorating the soul.
Autumn is a time of breathing in the glory of God, holding it for a brief moment, and then exhaling it to the ever-changing universe – singing or chanting, “Holy, holy, holy. Everything is holy.”
Autumn fills us with awe, yet yearns for us to change, to turn, to let go. This might evoke a sense of melancholy or sadness for some. We don’t want to change, we would prefer a perpetual summer. We don’t want longer nights and shorter days. We don’t want to acknowledge that another season of our lives has gone by. We don’t want to let go of summer, and its metaphor of perpetual growth. We don’t want to open ourselves to winter’s inevitable death.
We forget the interconnectivity of all the seasons, and of Jesus’ assurance, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it can only be a single seed. But if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24). We forget that something is happening under the surface. In the words of mystic Thomas Merton, “There is in all visible things an invisible… hidden wholeness.” Darkness and light, death and new life are held together in possibilities planted for a season yet to come.
The beauty of Autumn beckons us to change; for unless we change we remain trapped forever in yesterday’s ways. Like leaves on a tree, it longs for us to turn and return to God.
This fall, breath in the glory of God all around you, and invite the Holy One to help you to change, to turn, to let go. It will look different for each one of us. It might be turning from callousness to sensitivity; from apathy to interest; from talking to listening; from retaliation to forgiveness; from self-centeredness to compassion; from pettiness to purpose; from tearing down to building up; from dividing to uniting; from isolation to community; from turning away to turning toward.
During this beautiful season, may you turn toward God, singing “everything is Holy.”
Donna