Changing leaves, dropping temperatures, pumpkin patches, apple cider… there’s so much to love about October. Yet this is also a wistful time. Many people – myself included – admit to feeling nostalgic, contemplative, or even depressed as the shadows lengthen, the days get shorter, and the onfall of winter looms. Hope mixes with heartache. Joy and sorrow intertwine. It is a season of groaning beauty.
That’s how I often think of the Christian faith, too: as a life of groaning beauty. Romans 8 says that all creation groans like a mother in childbirth, yearning for adoption and redemption. We know that things are not yet as they should be. Grief and conflict are familiar bedfellows. We struggle and sin. And yet Jesus has made a way for us. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us. And the Father’s love will win the day. The leaves may fall now, and the snow may come, but new blossoms will soon spring forth in our hearts and in the world like rays of light from an empty tomb. This we believe and hold onto.
As October begins, I will be starting a new sermon series on the book of Jonah. Most of us know Jonah because of the really big fish that appears in the first two chapters. But it’s about so much more than that: mission, vocation, identity, prophecy, judgment, mercy, love. This short, Old Testament book contains quite a lot! And at its heart is a life of groaning beauty: one man living, obediently and disobediently, before the face of God. I invite us to read Jonah together over the next two months. It’s only four chapters – you could read it every day, if you’d like, or at least every week.
In addition, I hope you’ll join us on October 6 for a “Bless the Building” service as we celebrate our Cornerstone Campaign. We will gather following worship for coffee fellowship in the church pavilion to give thanks for all the progress we’ve made, to ask for God’s blessing on the future of our new ministry space, and to give tours for those who’ve not yet been inside the renovated Mary Jay Patten Center. It will be a great time to reflect, dream, and celebrate.
Finally, I want to remind you to look at our church calendar for other events coming up in the next few weeks. The Black Mountain Home for Children, Youth, and Families is hosting their annual Fall Festival on October 12, and the Hospitality Committee is sponsoring a Ladies’ Tea on October 26. Our study of The Great Divorce continues and, of course, Sunday School and worship take place every week. (You can find out more in this newsletter or on our church website: www.sylvapres.org.) I hope you’ll join us as we practice life together in this season and beyond – trusting the Lord to lead the way.
Yours in Christ,
Blake