On Rhythms and Seasons
Thanksgiving, Oct 10, 2010
• Opening hymn – In Thanksgiving Let us Praise Him #557
• Greeting time
• Welcome/ announcements/ intro – Steve
- family service – activity packs available
- CLM on Wednesday
- Worship night – Nov. 6; STEP Bolivia fundraiser Nov. 13
Intro:
This past week I’ve been reflecting on how our experiences of life no longer really follow the natural rhythms of our world – in some ways they are the opposite. That is not a complaint, more of an observation, and one upon which some reflection may prove insightful. It certainly helps us understand the context and thus meaning of numerous passages of Scripture, and this leads us into ways to live.
What do I mean? Well in our culture, fall tends to be a time of beginning, which follows our summer which tends (or intends!) to be a season of rest and holiday and relaxation. This is not the pattern of nature, not the way God created our world, where fall is a time of harvest, of culmination and not of new beginning, which follows on the heels of the hard work of spring and summer. After the fall comes winter, which is when our natural world retreats and rests.
Those of you who come from a rural background understand these rhythms better than us city folk, trained and experienced in a world with a different rhythm and within a culture that doesn’t really practice even the cycles of beginning, working/waiting, harvesting, and then resting. We live in a culture promising and demanding constant progress, ever forward, onward and upward, higher and to the right. But such is not the natural rhythm of life.
And so the “Thanksgiving Season” seems sometimes a little out of place to us. It is this festival we all enjoy, and it awakens us to the important discipline of reflecting on our blessings and being grateful for all that we have, and we know it is a harvest festival, but that is all a little removed from our daily experience of life in a world where we eat fresh fruit and berries all year long, where vegetables are canned by someone else at harvest time and available whenever we want at the grocery store, and where fall is not a time where all the hard work of the past year shows itself in a tangible result.
Again, this is not a complaint so much as a depiction of reality.
Service Overview:
So in the light of that, Pastor Sue and I have devised a worship experience for this morning attempting to recapture the seasonal rhythms, reflect on various passages of Scripture that relate, and move through what I believe are the God-breathed rhythms of life. They will lead us towards fall, harvest, celebration, and thanksgiving. It will be a different “flow” than normal, but we pray it will be an experience that leads us all in the major point of this morning: to give thanks to God our Father for all that He is, and all He provides.
Opening Prayer: Steve
• Winter (resting/dying)
John 12: 24 I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels—a plentiful harvest of new lives. 25 Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. 26 Anyone who wants to be my disciple must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me.
Winter:
We begin with the season of winter. Most of us don’t really like winter, it is cold, dark, difficult to get around, and dreary. Why would God design our world with this season? Why can’t it be spring and summer and fall and then spring again, why do we have to suffer through long dark nights and -38 degree temperatures?
Why did God create this season of no activity, of dormancy, of hibernation? Why can’t life always be growing – steadily, predictably, consistently?
I think it is because God knows of the balance between work and rest, between productivity and regeneration, between pouring out and drinking in. Continued, steady, predictable, consistent growth is the religion of capitalism, not Christianity. God created a rhythm, which (according to John 12) begins in death, and that death produces many new “kernels”.
There is a spiritual truth to winter. We need periods of rest, of “Sabbath”, which God created and intended for us to experience in a weekly cycle and in a more broad sense in a seasonal cycle. We need times when we can stop our constant striving and working and simply be in the presence of God, experiencing Him, worshiping Him, loving and being loved by Him, we need that in a weekly cycle. If you and I don’t take those regular break times we lose our creativity, our joy, our perspective – we end up resembling our culture instead of our Lord who calls us away from our regular “work” and into a space created to once again fix our eyes on Jesus so that as we go back into our work we do so recognizing that we are ambassadors, children of the King, with a way of living in hope and power that meets the deepest needs of humanity.
Second we need to embrace those seasons in our lives which are like winters – that may feel difficult, or dark, or cold – and we need to rest in those knowing that as God “puts to death” some things, like the kernel of wheat, that time can and will produce many new things. Our suffering is redemptive.
- Lament/confession
Leader: Lord, we embrace the spiritual season of winter.
All: We long to experience your great compassion in the midst of our suffering.
Leader: Loving Father, as we grieve the loss of people we love, help us understand the loss you suffered when your Son died on the cross.
All: Father, help us receive your love.
Leader: Jesus, as we grieve brokenness in our relationships, help us understand your grief over the brokenness between God and humanity.
All: Jesus, bring reconciliation.
Leader: Holy Spirit, as we grieve the loss of a job, or loss of health, or the loss of dreams, help us understand that you are making all things new.
All: Holy Spirit, strengthen us with hope.
Leader: Lord, we embrace the spiritual season of winter.
All: Help us put to death all those things that keep us from following you completely.
Leader: Forgive us for placing our selfish desires and ambitions above the needs of others.
All: Lord, have mercy.
Leader: Forgive us for placing progress and productivity above living in the natural rhythms of work and rest that you have designed for us.
All: Christ, have mercy.
Leader: Forgive us for depending on our self-sufficiency instead of wholly trusting in you.
All: Lord, have mercy.
Leader: Lord, we embrace the spiritual season of winter.
- Hymn – O The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus #211
Leader: Lord we embrace the winter. When winter turns to spring we embrace the new season.
• Spring (planting/awakening)
Mark 4: 3 “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed. 4 As he scattered it across his field, some of the seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it. 5 Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. 6 But the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn’t have deep roots, it died. 7 Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so they produced no grain. 8 Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”
Spring:
We celebrate as winter gives way to spring, as the warm breezes begin to melt the snow and the sun feels warm again, as the days grow longer and new life breaks through the ground. There is a sense of victory as we survived the winter, a sense of relief, a sense of emergence and awakening. Something new can grow again.
In the natural world, spring is a time of hard work. After winter, some things need to be repaired, some things that didn’t survive need to be cleaned out, soil needs to be prepared. It is a time to prune, to plant, and to battle the weeds that sprout first and threaten to overtake. It is a season for diligence, as newly planted and newly budded and newly born things require greater care. And in the natural world, it is a time of investment. All that hard work does not yield results for another two seasons.
There is a spiritual truth to spring. As Christians we do believe in new life, in victory over death, in resurrection, and I see that re-enacted in nature every spring, and that is cause for thanksgiving and celebration. It enables us to live with hope and with purpose, to have a perspective on life different from that of the majority of people around us living without hope or purpose, perhaps with an attitude of just seeking pleasure for today and little thought to investing great time and effort in something that may not “produce” for two more seasons.
In Jesus’ parable, the spiritual truth that applies to us is this: our role, our job, all our hard work, is rooted in obedience and trust. Jesus explains the parable, teaching that the “seed” represents the God’s Word taken to others by “the farmers”, by which Jesus means you and I. Now our job is not to force growth, and not to be stingy with the seed. Especially because as we live out this truth we don’t know, and don’t need to know, what kind of soil we are scattering on. The reason for that is that there is no limit to the amount of seed, so we can be generous.
We want everything to grow, and so does God. But the responsibility for that growth is not upon your shoulders or my shoulders. It is upon God’s shoulders and the shoulders of those who hear. I find that liberating.
And also challenging. Are we, in keeping with the metaphor, keeping the seed in the bag? Hiding it under the bed? Hesitating to share it because of some fear of rejection? The parable tells us it isn’t about us. The farmer doesn’t get chastised, reprimanded, or punished for scattering seed all over his land even though some is “wasted” and doesn’t grow. But I think he would be if he wasn’t scattering seed.
We need a deeper love for Jesus and a deeper love for others, that demonstrates in our way of living and explains with our words that Jesus is our Lord and there is a better way to live. And then wherever the seed grows, we celebrate.
- Response
Leader: Lord, we embrace the spiritual season of spring.
All: We long to experience the new life that you have provided for us.
Leader: Father, your creation is magnificent!
All: Awaken our souls to your beauty!
Leader: Jesus, your resurrection is powerful!
All: Awaken our souls to you, Christ in us the hope of glory!
Leader: Holy Spirit, you empower us and send us out into the world that you love!
All: Awaken our souls to your mission!
Leader: Lord, we embrace the spiritual season of spring.
All: We long to help others experience the new life that you have provided.
Leader: We scatter the seed of your love generously.
All: We trust that you will help it find fertile soil.
Leader: We gently care for the tender shoots that spring up from the ground.
All: We trust that you will cause them to grow up strong.
Leader: Lord, we celebrate the joy of new life!
All: Awaken our souls to your beauty in others!
Leader: Lord, we embrace the spiritual season of spring.
- Hymn – I Sing the Mighty Power of God #59
Leader: Lord we embrace the spring. When spring turns to summer we embrace the new season.
• Summer (waiting/hoping)
John 15: “I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. 3 You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me.
5 “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. 6 Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. 7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! 8 When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father.”
Summer:
Spring leads to summer, the rush and work of spring planting transitions into time for care and nurture, as the days become hotter. It is a time for vigilance, for adjustment, and for protection. And while there are some great efforts we can (and do) go to in attempting to provide optimum conditions for growth, like irrigation and pest control and weed control, summer is by and large a season of growth over which we have little control. It becomes a season of waiting, hoping, and trusting.
This waiting, hoping, and trusting is intensely spiritual, this (I think) is the spiritual truth of summer. God grows. God produces. God manages. And our needs will be met. There is a spiritual truth to summer.
I see a beautiful balance here, because we are not to be passive bystanders yet we are not in control. We wait, but not passively. We hope, but not passively. We trust, but not passively. We are active in our waiting, active in our hoping, and active in our trusting. All the while understanding that the end results are not in our control, they are in God’s control. And that is a good thing.
Jesus describes for us the shape that activity should take: “remain in me”. Stay close to Jesus. Constant conversation, time in worship and service, prayer and scripture and spiritual reading and conversation, being with the poor, using your spiritual gifts, seeking love for God and love for others ahead of every other consideration. Stay close to Jesus, and “produce much fruit”
Applied to our lives, this very closely resembles for me the role of prayer. We share that for which we are thankful, and that for which we are waiting and hoping and trusting. Let’s do that now.
- Corporate prayer
- Hymn – Great is Thy Faithfulness #43
Leader: Lord we embrace the summer. When summer turns to fall we embrace the new season.
• Fall (harvesting)
John 4: 34 Then Jesus explained: “My nourishment comes from doing the will of God, who sent me, and from finishing his work. 35 You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe[e] for harvest. 36 The harvesters are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits both the planter and the harvester alike! 37 You know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. 38 I sent you to harvest where you didn’t plant; others had already done the work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.”
Fall:
We move to the fourth and final season, that of fall. (time permitting, I might ask someone who grew up on the farm to describe briefly the feeling and experience of fall in the natural rhythm), otherwise I’ll adlib a sentence or two about the time to gather.
For Jesus the fall and harvest season is another demonstrator of spiritual truth. “The fruit they harvest is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits!” This is the point, isn’t it? The work of spring and summer must yield a result, which in turn then sustains through the winter until things begin to grow again.
Spiritually, our lives are to bear fruit, this is plain over and over in Scripture. Those fruits are described as characteristics which the Holy Spirit produces in us as we create space. In John 4, though, there is a different aspect of the Kingdom of God that is the heart of the analogy – “people brought to eternal life”. I want you to notice that the roles are differentiated between planter and harvester – not the normal case in an agricultural society where you would normally harvest the crops you planted, and thus you could claim sole ownership and enjoyment. In Jesus’ analogy, the labor is divided and the joy multiplied because of the cooperation, and this is the Kingdom of God. All of God’s people, united in the goal of lifting Jesus up, letting some plant and others harvest, and trusting God for the fruitfulness of the harvest.
- Prayers of Thanksgiving
Leader: Lord, we embrace the spiritual season of harvest.
All: We offer our prayers of thanksgiving to you alone.
Leader: Father, we praise you for the many creative ways you pour out your love into our lives.
All: Thanks be to God!
Leader: Jesus, we praise you for humbling yourself and dying on the cross so that we can be reconciled to God.
All: Thanks be to God!
Leader: Holy Spirit, we praise you for raising Jesus from the grave and giving us the hope of resurrection.
All: Thanks be to God!
Leader: Lord, we embrace the spiritual season of harvest.
All: We offer our prayers of thanksgiving to you alone.
Leader: We praise you for empowering us to work in your fields.
All: Thank you for inviting us to work at your side.
Leader: We share and celebrate your joy in reconciliation.
All: We share and celebrate your joy in new life.
Leader: We share and celebrate your joy in growth and fruitfulness.
All: We share and celebrate your joy in the harvest.
Leader: Let the whole earth rejoice and celebrate!
- Offering
- Hymn – Come Ye Thankful People, Come #559
Conclusion:
Time to make this a little personal. What season are you in, spiritually speaking? Are you in a “winter”, where your major tasks are repentance, honest lament, and faithfulness through suffering? Or maybe you are in a “spring” season, with a flurry of work of preparation and of planting and cleaning up and with a renewed optimism. Perhaps a “summer”, waiting and hoping and trusting, and doing so actively. Or maybe this is a “harvest” time for you as you see some of the spiritual things you have planted bear fruit for the Kingdom of God.
The season you are in is not so important as the truth that to be healthy we must continually be moving through the seasons. If you have been stuck in a winter for a bunch of years, something is wrong. And if you’ve never experienced a harvest, and you just keep planting and planting and nothing ever grows, maybe there needs to be a step back and a conversation with Jesus about what is going on. You get the point.
God designed a rhythm for our lives, and it is good. We need to have seasons of rest, of beginning, of waiting and hoping and trusting, and of enjoying and celebrating the results of our work. Let’s embrace that rhythm and purpose, and live it as the people of God.
• Closing hymn – Now Thank We All Our God #556
