Sunday, October 23

On this commitment Sunday, I have been thinking about challenges, growth and about light.

It is a season of challenge. Fall is at its height, which means of course that winter is approaching.  Under blustery skies, we know as all Canadians do that winter is coming.  As happens so often, recent events have presented challenges to many of us.  Andrew's announcements this morning included references to several deaths and other illnesses.  Health crises, legal and political inequities surround us and the world simply does not unfold as we think it should.  Problems defy easy answers.

With its dramatic shadows, fall is a season of fascinating light. This morning, I loved how the colours of the fall, at their height in the trees, were echoed in the colours on the "flames" waved by our children as they all danced back into church. I loved the sunlight flooding through windows and doorframes, the sunshine a timeless reminder of  the warm presence of light in our lives.

Somewhat paradoxically, fall is also a season of growth. Today's bible readings referred to growth, about planting seeds in all the soil, about cultivating and nurturing seeds of knowledge. In the car on the way home, our backseat was occupied by an intense debate about whether the burning bush was actually burning or whether this was, as my seven year old said, " a trick of the light from God's voice being in the bush." Four little voices chimed in their views on the subject and those elder of us in the front seat were amused by this, our children's first theological debate. It is exciting and also a relief to see our children growing, in body and in faith, and also a wonderful thing to see the numbers of children in the congregation of St. Andrews growing too.

The growing dusk of a fall Sunday seems to me a very appropriate time for commitment. Because, when there are no challenges, commitment isn't a challenging choice. But commitment to light is seems to be the only path to growth.  And commitment is valuable precisely because it is a challenging choice to move forward on a path guided by meanings where, as Andrew noted, as Steve Jobs noticed, though he was so creatively blessed before his untimely end, things so often don't seem to go right.



Rebecca