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New Year's in September
By the Rev. Lee Woofenden
Bridgewater, Massachusetts, September 12,
1999
Readings
Genesis 1:14-19 The
great lights to mark the days and seasons
And God said,
"Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the
night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let
them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And
it was so. God made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day and
the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in
the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the
night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And
there was evening, and there was morning, the fourth day.
John 4:31-36 The
fields are ripe for harvest!
Meanwhile Jesus'
disciples urged him, "Rabbi, eat something."
But he said to
them, "I have food to eat that you know nothing about."
Then his
disciples said to each other, "Could someone have brought him food?"
Jesus said,
"My food is to do the will of the one who sent me, and to finish his work.
Do you not say, 'Four months more and then it will be the harvest'? I tell you,
open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. The reaper is
already drawing wages and harvesting the crop for eternal life, so that the
sower and the reaper may rejoice together."
Arcana Coelestia
#37 The change of the days and seasons
The statement
that the lights will "serve as signs to mark seasons and days and
years" contains more secrets than can be presented at this point, even
though in the literal meaning, there seems to be no secret at all. For now, I
can say only this: When it comes to spiritual and heavenly things, change takes
place both on the large scale and on the small scale, and is very much like the
changes that take place throughout the day and the year. Changes throughout the
day are from morning to midday, from then on to evening, and through the night
to the morning. Changes in the year are similar, from spring to summer, from
then on to autumn, and through winter to spring. These bring changes in the
temperature and amount of daylight, and therefore in the fertility of the earth.
The changes that take place in spiritual and heavenly things can be compared to
these changes in nature. Life without change and variation would lead to
sameness, and therefore to no life at all.
Sermon
And God said,
"Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the
night, and let them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let
them be lights in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth."
(Genesis 1:14, 15)
Hello again,
everyone! (Well, not quite everyone--there are several who could not be here
today for our opening service.) It's great to be back, starting another year at
our church. This will be my fourth year with you, and I don't know if you're
feeling it, but I'm feeling that this year promises to be one of growth and
change in this church. And in that spirit of change, I've decided to change the
time that we celebrate New Year's to . . . today! Let me be the first to
say, Happy New Year! (I considered throwing confetti at this point, but
reconsidered when I realized that if I did, I'd probably have to clean it all
up!)
Now this may seem
to be a strange thing to do. But I experienced an even stranger holiday switch
this summer. I was on my way to the Post Office in Middleboro, humming along
with the church bells that were chiming out a melody, when I suddenly realized
that here I was, walking down the sidewalk in my shorts and T-shirt on a hot
July afternoon, humming "The First Noel"! When I got back home and
told Patty about this strange occurrence, she said, "Oh yes, the church
thrift shop is having a "Christmas in July" sale. So if their church
can celebrate Christmas in July, our church can celebrate New Year's in
September! And in fact, yesterday was Rosh Hashanah, which is the New Year on
the Jewish calendar. So that's another excuse for celebrating the New Year at
this time.
But the real
reason I want to celebrate New Year's today is that in our church year, the New
Year comes, not after Christmas, but in the fall, when summer schedules end and
regular services and Sunday School start up again. This is the time that
congregations gather together again and begin the worship, activities, and
programs of the church year.
As we begin this
new church year, then, let's take a look at where the cycles of seasons and
years, months and days came from. We do not have to look very far; their origin
is in the very first chapter of the Bible, in the Creation story--which we will
be learning more about next week in our first Sunday School session. We read, in
an expanded version of our text:
And God said, "Let there be
lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let
them serve as signs to mark seasons and days and years, and let them be lights
in the expanse of the sky to give light on the earth." And it was so. God
made two great lights--the greater light to govern the day and the lesser
light to govern the night. (Genesis 1:14-16)
The very first
thing to notice here is that the seasons and the days and the years are created
by God. And God does not create things just for the heck of it, but in order
to accomplish definite divine purposes. So why did God create the changes of the
seasons and the days? Swedenborg helps us begin to answer this question when he
writes, "Life without change and variation would lead to sameness, and
therefore to no life at all" (Arcana Coelestia #37). That's a
challenging statement! Sameness leads to no life at all? Let's think about it.
Here in the
temperate zones, we're used to major shifts in the weather from the warmth of
spring through the heat of summer, to the coolness of fall and the coldness of
winter. And many of the plants and animals that live in parts of the world that
have these major seasonal shifts depend on those changes to complete
their life cycles. Deciduous trees renew themselves by dropping their leaves
each fall and growing a new crop of leaves in the spring. Many mammals renew
themselves by hibernating through the winter, giving their bodies a long, nearly
complete rest, so that they can make a new start in the spring. Even the insects
have life cycles adapted to the seasonal changes so that they winter over in
cocoons or in underground nests, gradually germinating next year's hatch of new
insects. And many of these plants and animals that are adapted to these great
seasonal shifts cannot survive in the tropical climates, where there is not such
a big variation in the seasons.
But what about
those lush, tropical areas? They don't have the kind of seasons we do, and yet
they seem to survive just fine in such "sameness." Yet even though
their seasons may be more subtle, they still exist. In many tropical areas there
is a rainy season and a dry season, and the plant and animal life is adapted to those
variations. In some warmer areas of the world, there is a fall crop and a spring
crop. The summer is too hot, and the winter too cool for the crops to grow well
at those times. And the same variations of day and night exist in the tropical
areas as in the more temperate climates. Everywhere, life depends on the
variations of day and night, and of spring, summer, winter, and fall.
If we think
further about Swedenborg's statement that "Life without change and
variation would lead to sameness, and therefore to no life at all," we
realize that change is part of the essence of life. Consider it. What is the
difference between a rock and a kitten. Yes, the kitten is a lot warmer and
fuzzier! But even more basic, a kitten grows and changes over time, whereas a
rock stays mostly the same. In fact, things that are not alive are characterized
mostly by erosion and decay, whereas things that are alive experience not only
erosion and decay, but growth and development. That is what makes them alive
rather than dead.
Even in a
relatively stable adult animal or human being, there is constant change as long
as life continues. There are the gradual changes in our bodies that take place
as we mature and then age. There are the weekly and daily cycles of labor and
rest, sleep and wakefulness, eating and eliminating wastes. There is the
moment-by-moment cycle of breathing in and breathing out, and always the
constant, rhythmic beating of our heart. Without these, we cannot continue to
live. On an even smaller scale, within our bodies there are those amazing
processes of the blood carrying oxygen and nutrients to each cell in our body,
and carrying away the waste products that are no longer useful. Some cells are
dividing and multiplying; other cells are dying and being reabsorbed. Change,
renewal, and growth are the constant companions of all life.
Yet as astounding
and unfathomable as this intricate, living web of nature is, there is an even
more astounding and unfathomable level of life. For as Swedenborg tells us,
every type of change, growth, death, and rebirth that we see in the world of
nature around us and within our own bodies is an expression of still more
amazing processes of change, growth, death, and rebirth that happen within our
souls, and in our communal life with one another. It is not only the life of
plants and animals that depends on constant change, but also the life of our
souls and our communities. If sameness in the world of nature leads to no life
at all, than sameness of spirit would just as surely lead to spiritual
death.
This can be both
an unsettling teaching and a comforting one. On the one hand, we humans tend to
be more comfortable with sameness--with our usual paths and our usual
routines--than we are with continual change. Change is scary. Change means we
can't do things the way we're used to doing them--that we have to learn new
ways. Change means that things will never, ever be the same again. And our
tendency toward nostalgia causes us to look back and think that the way things
used to be is better than the way they are now. If only things could have stayed
the same as when I was growing up, and everything was wonderful and carefree!
(Of course, they weren't very carefree for our parents!)
And yet, that is
not the way life is. And it is good that it is not the way life is.
Because just as with plant and animal life, sameness leads to deadness. We are not
the same as we were when we were children, or teenagers, or young adults, or
middle aged. And it is good that we are not the same. Because we have
grown. We have grown in our understanding of the world and the people around us,
and that means we can treat both the world and our neighbors better than we did
when we were younger and less understanding.
We have grown
through difficult experiences of facing sickness and death among our families
and friends; we have grown through struggling with personal and financial
difficulties, through struggling with our parents, our children, our brothers
and sisters, our friends, our lovers. And because of that growth, we are able to
weather hardships and setbacks that would have crushed our younger selves. We
are also able to help others through their pain and their struggles in ways that
our younger selves could not have done.
And as we look
back at the ways we have grown through our life's spiritual summers and
winters, our spiritual days and nights, our faith tells us that as our
life continues on from this point, we will continue to grow through all the
pleasures and the pain, all the sorrows and the joys that our life still holds
in store for us. For we know that it is God who has created us to be living,
changing beings--beings that do not just sit there like a rock, gradually
weathering away, but beings that change and grow through every new and
different circumstance that we encounter.
It is in that
spirit that I invite you to celebrate with me this New Year that we are now
beginning together as a church. Just as each of us individually goes through our
spiritual summers and winters, our spiritual days and nights, we together as a
church experience our times of lying fallow and wintering through the slow
times, and our new springtimes of growth and renewal. As individuals, we can
each look back at our lives and see the growth that has taken place through it
all, and look to the future with faith that God will bring about new growth in
the life ahead of us. In the very same way, we as a church can look back at the
times of struggle and the times of renewal in our church, and see the ways we
have grown as a community of faith. And we can look forward to this new year,
and all the years to come, with faith that through our present and future
labors, God has a rich harvest of spiritual growth awaiting us--a harvest of
growth in love and wisdom; a harvest of new kindness and new ways of being of
service to one another and to our community.
"Do you not
say, 'Four months more and then it will be the harvest'? I tell you, open your
eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. The reaper is already
drawing wages and harvesting the crop for eternal life, so that the sower and
the reaper may rejoice together" (John 4:35, 36). Amen.
Music:
In the Meadow
© Bruce De Boer
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