From the Pastor
Dear Friends,
This week I was walking the dogs along Bedford Road, crunching along and watching the dogs get excited about the scent of leaves even I could delight in. The autumn leaves were doing their October dance in the cool, breezy sunshine, and I felt a rush of a seasonal sense of gratitude. Fall is the time for Halloween, harvest, crisp colors, cornucopias of plenty, and feasts of Thanksgiving. We’re gathering in our stores for the winter, and though there will be lean times ahead, right now is a good time to be aware of our abundance. For a kid, Halloween is one of those holidays of abundance; the one night out of the year, even beating out Christmas, when there’s actually more candy than you can eat. For the adults, Thanksgiving is our time of awareness, when we gather with our dearest ones in a festival of food and family, and we all go around the table and say why we’re grateful to God.
This is also Stewardship season in the church, not because it’s harvest time, but because the fiscal year starts in January, and we need to put together an operating budget. Somehow “bringing in the sheaves” is a more romantic reason, isn’t it? Well, it’s certainly appropriate to link Stewardship and Thanksgiving. In fact, we’ll be bringing in our sheaves in the form of pledge cards on Sunday, November 12, to offer them to God, and celebrating our bounty and gratitude on the 19th, just before we feast on Turkey Day. One gratitude I have is for stewardship season itself, because while the world struggles with war and violence, in our warm, privileged sanctuary at KPC, we‘ve been inviting our celebration of time, talent and treasure. We have so much, and what a gift it is to be able to give of ourselves to the world in need! Thanks be to God, who knows that we are blessed in the giving.
“Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the LORD of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.” Malachi 3:10
All too soon, we’ll be into the holiday season, which demands much of our passions—and for that matter, our time, talent, and treasure. To move through it with joy, let’s spend the fall meditating and praying about our limitless abundance. Whatever our material circumstances, whatever our trials and tribulations, the state of our bank accounts, or the tempests of our emotions, if we place our faith and spirits in the energy of God’s holy, loving grace, we have more than enough. Notice the dancing leaves. Sit in your home and be aware of your comfortable surroundings. Eat with relish from your full pantry. Crunch through the leaves with your dogs, hold your children close, and cherish all the beautiful souls the Divine as put in your life.
Each day this month, spend some time thinking about what’s good and right in your life. Keep a gratitude journal. Every time you feel something missing, remember one or two things you do have. Together, we will be gathering our stores for the lean times, bringing our tithes into the storehouse, and we will feel full of heaven and earth, knowing that in God there is no lack. See if God will not pour down overflowing blessings upon us!
Love and light,
Martin
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