Dear Friends,
As I write this letter, there is no shortage of bad news floating around, so let me share a good and joyous piece of news, for us as a congregation. More than two decades ago Velma Samson came to us to fill in for Debbie Fasanello while Debbie took time off to give birth to her son, Joey. Beginning in November Deb will finally be ready to return on a very limited basis. About once a month she will be playing and providing leadership for the choir, in order to give Velma an occasional break. This “job sharing” arrangement promises to meet the needs of both of these valued leaders in our worship life and to provide us with ongoing quality in our music program. I am deeply grateful to both of them and to the Consistory for developing this plan and I believe that the blessings will be great for all of us.
Looking forward to November is always difficult for me, but even more so than usual this year! Part of the problem is that Debi and I will be in Europe on a long planned, long deferred vacation, for two weeks, to celebrate our 35th Anniversary, which was 16 months ago. We will be returning at about the point you are reading this letter, so I am looking “in a mirror, dimly” as I anticipate November. However, a greater part of my struggle is the diversity of November. Should the emphasis be on Thanksgiving, with all of life measured and gratitude given to God? Or should we pay more attention to the choices of politics, especially this year, and the intersection between our faith and our votes? Is this the month to think of Church Budgeting and the often awkwardly painful gap between all that we do with the resources that God has given us, and all of the opportunities that God has placed around us? Should we be looking at the seasonal changes of November, as the bleakness of winter begins to form on brown lawns and barren tree branches, prelude to the darkness of the Advent themes, before the light of the world explodes around us?
Or is it all of the above? Perhaps the unique holiness of November is that it brings us the needed reminder that life and faith are rarely simple. This is the month when the choices we make reveal the things that we believe, and the things that we believe dictate the choices that we make. Life doesn’t have neat little compartments and it is in the creative stew of changing political and financial and physical and spiritual realities that we live. And in those same changing, evolving realities God joins us, as the single constant in our lives, our history and our universe.
If we have learned anything this fall, with the evaporation of wealth and the alteration of dreams, it is that Yogi Berra had it right: “Predicting is a funny business, especially where the future is concerned”. I know that most of us have experienced some significant changes in our thinking, and savings, during the tumultuous activity in the economy. Once again October has been a pivotal month for fiscal drama, so my prayer is that, once again, November will be the month of the healing that comes through Gratitude to God for the gift of life.
Shalom,
Jack
