Dear Friends, Can you feel it? There’s a change in the air, the weather, the social climate and even our own bodies. The harvest is safely gathered in, the kids have settled in to their new school year and we’re hunting up sweaters and jackets and boots. Bikes and boats are being put into storage. We’re at a time of endings and beginnings, a hinge time between two things joined at a particular point. This Sunday is just such a point: the Last Sunday after Pentecost. It’s a bridge from the great, green season of Ordinary Time into the 5 seasons that will make up the Year C School of the Lectionary. How appropriate that this year the national feast called Thanksgiving falls between the ending of one season and the beginning of the next, a hinge between two halves of the year.* If we can manage it, let's find time to reflect, to examine the relationships and experiences we’ve harvested and stored in our barn since May, we will likely find many rich, nourishing treasures. Reflect: Who brought you joy? Who encouraged you? What was the most beautiful thing you saw this summer? What was the best sound you heard? The best smell? Now give thanks for each and all of those. Give praise to God for crafting the spaces, creatures and people who so creatively share it with us. Say “thank you” to people who have shaped your experiences and outlooks. Very intentionally, find one action you can do to make the world a better place and do that as a way to “pay it forward" in gratitude. We're crossing from summer into winter, from reading from the Gospel of Mark to that of Luke, from practice time to being schooled again through the feasts and fasts. It’s our moment on the bridge between one coast and the next. A liminal space, neither here nor there. The perfect time to pause. Rejoicing in the time of transition, |
Jo Gantzer Associate for Parish Ministry *Ordinary Time this year was 27 weeks long and the Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, Lent, Easter cycle lasted 25 weeks. |
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