I love fall! I love the colors bursting out everywhere, and the leaves raining down on the ground and on us. So many people look at this time as dying; the flowers, the trees… I read somewhere that the changing leaves are actually coming into their true colors – all the reds, oranges and yellows are the truest colors of the trees, finally emerging. Perhaps this is also a time for us, too, to learn to let go of what is not true, and bringing forth the colors we are meant to display to the world. Things are passing away, all the time, and things are being born anew. This is something else I love about this season, too. We are Resurrection-People! Death, will happen, must happen; but it no longer has final power over us. This is the season of Already, but Not Yet.
Fall marks the end of one liturgical year and the coming of a new one, and we are preparing for that, as well. With the coming Advent on December 1st we enter year C, and the new liturgical year begins. Fall is the time of preparation; the time of letting go, a time of making room and making ready for what will come in the year ahead.
Personally, this Fall takes on special meaning for me. It marks the mid-point of my time here at St Thomas. A year ago, I had just arrived and was just beginning to learn about the ministry of this congregation, as a whole and of its individual members. And the year has seemingly flown by! As I think about the coming year and the coming end of my time here at St. Thomas there is that mixing of emotions that come for so many with the coming of Fall; sadness and excitement, the desire to hold onto what is known and the preparation to discover what is new and life giving. Already, but Not Yet.
I look forward to the year ahead with wonder and excitement. Wondering what I will learn and how I will grow in God’s love and service, alongside the people of St Thomas. I wonder what I will be called to let go of and what will burst forth in its place. I wonder about the blessings that will shower me, and you, in the coming Liturgical Year.
May it be so!
Martha+
