Dear Edwards Church Community,
It is October in the valley: time for apple cider, pumpkin bread, orange and red leaves, emptied fields and other signs of changes that are always underway but appear now in their seasonal expression. During the pandemic I became a more avid hiker, regularly walking around Fitzgerald Lake, Mineral Hills, Sugarloaf Mountain, trails of the Holyoke Range, or just around the streets of Florence center near my home.
On my neighborhood excursions I have acquired a deeper admiration for the gardeners whose work I regularly walk past. Some are precise with a clear design. Others cultivate a more natural look. But walking down the same streets year after year, one cannot help but appreciate the care – whatever its aesthetic – that goes into making things grow. I especially cheer for those who manage to have something in bloom all the time for months in a row.
The attention given to soil conditioning, composting, and other unglamorous aspects of gardening was eye-opening to me, when I first learned where all the colors get their life. How naïve I was, thinking that dirt was dirt, needing only a little fertilizer and water. Now when I see a well-kept garden, I have more appreciation for the patience and labor given to make the best conditions for healthy growth.
In seminary a chaplain from Dana Farber Cancer Institute shared a painting from his office. It showed a lush jungle setting of dense growth, complete with exotic flowering plants, tall leafy trees, and a few vines. Rays of sunlight penetrated the dense jungle canopy to illuminate the scene. Dedicated to caring for the most seriously ill cancer patients and their families, he kept this reminder in his office that the foundation of all the life in the picture was the life that had gone before, which had literally become the jungle floor.
In 1977, two years after his wife Katherine had died of cancer, E.B. White edited a collection of her columns about gardening and related matters. She had hired him 50 years earlier, when she was the first fiction editor at The New Yorker magazine and he an aspiring young writer. He wrote about her approach to life and to gardening. In both she had a commitment to being well ordered, even as she sat near the opened earth, well dressed but a bit wrinkled, with a helper holding an array of bulbs to be planted:
As the years went by and age overtook her, there was something comical yet touching in her bedraggled appearance on this awesome occasion – the small, hunched-over figure, her studied absorption in the implausible notion that there would be yet another spring, oblivious to the ending of her own days, which she knew perfectly well was near at hand, sitting there with her detailed chart under those dark skies in the dying October, calmly plotting the resurrection.”1
The reality of the resurrection we celebrate at Easter is as present and enduring in October as it is every other day of the year. It is happening on Halloween, All Saints Day, Thanksgiving… Just as Christmas happens every time we open our hearts to the glorious reality of the incarnation, Immanuel, God with us. Whenever we recommit to letting the God we get to know through Jesus grow in influence over our lives, when we invite the same Spirit that was in him to be expressed in more of our choices, then it is Christmas all over again.
This October, may you engage in a little “plotting the resurrection,” looking for ways to enrich the soil of your life, being selective about what you choose to cultivate in the growing season to come.
In faith, with hope, for love,
Michael
- E. B. White, “Introduction” in K. S. White, Onward and Upward in the Garden.
From the Minister of Faith Formation
Dear Beloved of God,
Ah, Autumn – that time of year when the air cools, birds migrate, landscapes are dotted with pumpkins, mums, asters, corn mazes, the foliage begins to turn, colorful leaves begin to blanket the earth, tree branches form open frames for views unseen when leaves covered them, and if we listen closely, we hear acorns falling to the ground. The light of day grows shorter and our circadian rhythm changes.
In their book The Circle of Life: The Heart’s Journey Through the Seasons, the authors write: “Autumn is a wondrous metaphor for the transformation that takes place in the human heart each season. When we notice a subtle change of light outside our windows, we know the dark season is near. Everything is being prepared for winter. It is a season that evokes nostalgia and speaks of connection and yearning, wisdom and aging, transformation and surrender and most of all mystery. We are encouraged to let things flow on into some new life form just as the earth is modeling these changes for us.”1
As Autumn calls us in from summer’s playground, I invite your reflection on one or more of the following:
What are the leaves that must fall from your life in order for you to
experience greater transformation?
What needs to be harvested in your spiritual life?
If you were to choose a scripture passage with an autumn theme, what text
would it be?
Personally, I have been feeling the strong desire to harvest/cultivate a deeper relationship with God. Having been accepted, in November I will begin an eight-month virtual program through the Shalem Institute titled Heart Longings: An Invitation to the Contemplative Path. The program consists of monthly Saturday gatherings in small groups, readings, a couple of papers and spiritual direction. The monthly gatherings are book ended by weekend retreats. I am sure some aspects of this spiritual journey will weave its way into my ministry with all of you.
One of the many things realized by those of us engaged in faith formation in our churches during the last two and a half years of Covid is that some of the “leaves” of church school need to fall for the journey of faith to be transformative. To be sure, we will still have church school, it just may look a bit different.
“Who Am I? Who is God? Who is Jesus? Who Is the Holy Spirit? What Is the Church? What is Prayer? What Is a Saint? How Do Care for Each Other, for Creation?” These are just a sampling of questions in a curriculum titled New Directions for Holy Questions. Each question, itself a chapter, consists of the retelling of a Bible story, a spiritual practice, and a justice related story. The intergenerational possibilities in church school, worship, youth group, confirmation, and home settings are exciting. Michael, Jeff, Melissa Mattison, Jim Stokes-Buckles, Sandra Rossi, and I are exploring how we might “harvest” this curriculum to deepen and even transform our faith and spiritual journeys as well as our relationships with one another. Imagine having conversations around some these questions and accepting that there may not be a “right” answer. Do I sound excited? Have I piqued your interest? I would love to hear your thoughts! If you are interested in looking at a copy of the curriculum, please give me a call!
An important note: Church School and Youth Group will begin October 9 with the question:
Who Am I?
Blessings of this harvest season to you all,
Deb
- Rupp, Joyce & Wiederkehr, Macrina. The Circle of Life: The Heart’s Journey Through the Seasons. Sorin Books, IN 2005. Pg. 168 & 169.
To read full SPIRE click here.