“Endless Strength! / Your love authored life / when You spoke that one Word. / You’re the One who ordered / order, created / Creation, Your own / way.” Hildegard of Bingen, trans. Carmen Acevedo Butcher
Friday, October 18, 2024
Dear church,
We had beautiful days this fall, picture-perfect days… and we had very little rain. My garden looks dry at this point. I don’t keep up with watering as much as I should since there is little left… a few tomatoes, mostly of the cherry variety, a good number of peppers and a few small butternut squashes that still try to get bigger before the frost hits… There is Swiss Chard that loves the cooler fall weather. Amazingly, the one red-hot pepper bush is still a picture of fecundity in the middle of October, but then it doesn’t need much water. My garden this year produced an abundance of cucumbers, so many that I not only shared with other people but pickled for the first time. The tomatoes were delicious as always. And blackberries were so numerous that Peter made blackberry jam when he was still here earlier in the summer. In the spring, I often spend the little free time I have in my garden, especially between April and June, during the beginning and height of the growing season. It is important and soul-nourishing for me to be in touch with creation as it presents itself around my home.
Nature - or creation, as we call it with a nod to our faith, must be experienced. The theologians who try to define and integrate creation into their philosophical belief systems usually sound a bit awkward and stiff. Poetry is better suited to describing the wonder of creation. Poetry doesn’t claim to know it all, and Hildegard, the medieval saint from the fertile Rhine Valley, does a good job praising God in all of creation, finding words that hint at the great mystery of it all (see quote above). I believe this is the century when we will gain a new appreciation for the created world, if only out of sheer necessity. (If we don’t, we are probably doomed.) So, look at your plants and the colors of fall and the stars whenever a clear night sky gives us the opportunity, and give thanks for this amazing gift of life and creativity.
At church, we have another busy weekend ahead of us. On Saturday morning we will gather for coffee at the church (8:30 a.m.) It is BYOB time (Bring your own Breakfast). Afterwards a group will clean up the dungeon and another group will work on the fall clean up in our historic cemetery. Everyone is invited to join us. For teens it is an opportunity to get service hours. On Sunday, Pastor Carlson will offer Part II of the presentation about Mary Magdalene. The First Holy Communion kids gather for their second class at 8:30 a.m., the confirmation kids gather after church in the youth Group room. And the St. Peter’s bell choirs will bring us a musical offering.