It’s been three weeks, since we’ve turned our calendars from September to October. In another week or so, we’ll be turning them again to what some refer to in these parts as the month of Novembrrrr!
The seasons are going over all too quickly, unless you’re referring to that time of the church year known as “after Pentecost” or the “common season”. Unlike the autumn, with its full spectrum of bright and spectacular colors, we’ve been stuck with the same common green paraments on our altars, pulpits and lecterns. It’s been that way since we took down the fiery reds of Pentecost, last June 6th.
Looking in the mirror and straightening my stole, I count the Sundays until the violets or blues of Advent are on display. Like Kermit the Frog, I finding myself sighing “It’s not easy wearing green – AGAIN!”
Did you ever stop and think that the Pentecost season is the only one long enough to celebrate the birthday and half birthday of the Christian Church? And since it’s an extended time of infusion and empowerment, I’m wondering if the Christ, in whom we center our lives, prefers it to be that way.
As preparation for his Ascension into Heaven, Jesus offered these words of comfort and blessed assurance, support and encouragement to his disciples in John 15:26-27. “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father, he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.”
In other words, at our time of greatest need, or when we’re trying to help others in their times of greatest need, the Holy Spirit of the Living God will descend upon our hearts. And we, in turn, will be fully equipped to do uncommonly great things, with all those gifts, talents and resources that our Heavenly Father has so generously provided.
We are not and will never be left alone in this world, to fend for ourselves. This is a message that you and i should never get tired of hearing, no matter the season it us, or whatever liturgical color we happen to be wearing.
When the “Gales of November” that Gordon Lightfoot sang about in his song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, “came early,” our neighbors across the streets built a fire and invited us over to warm our hands and our hearts with fellowship and good conversation.
It was like a celebration of what the birthday and half-birthday of the Christian Church can and should be like – neighbors of diverse cultures, creeds, doctrines and traditions, huddling together, sharing stories, keeping safe and secure in the warmth of Christ’s love and the abiding presence of his Divine Helper.
And when the flames begin to subside, all we have to do is throw a few more logs on the fire, rub our hands together, and feel the snap, crackle and pop within.