|
The Times They Are A-Changin’
Living in Houston this time of year requires a discerning eye. Despite thermometers that linger in the 80s, as Bob Dylan once said, “the times they are a-changin’.” The signs are there; you just need to know where to look.
The sun is still hot, but its position is shifting noticeably lower in the sky. The leaves in the trees aren’t turning brilliant fall colors, but their branches are teeming with birds in migration. To notice the change from summer to autumn in Houston requires prayerful openness to the subtle fingerprint of God’s movement in our world.
Subtle changes are happening in our Church calendar year as well, giving us hints of what is to come. Incense rises as we commemorate the Feasts of St. Michael and All Angels, All Souls’ and All Saints'. The Sunday Gospel readings jar us with parables of God’s righteous judgment, and the Daily Office readings take us deep into the Bible’s “spooky parts.”[1] The Collects we pray proclaim that Christ “came into the world that he might destroy the works of the devil” and will come again to make us “like Him in His eternal and glorious kingdom.”[2]
This period of transition in our Church calendar points us to Christ the King Sunday at the end of November, when we celebrate God’s cosmic reign over all things and expectantly await the beginning of a new Church year in Advent the following week.
When we are awake to these signs of transition, we fully participate in the rhythm and splendor of the dual calendars that mark our Christian lives. The great gift of the Church year, specifically, is its invitation to not just mark and marvel at the grand narrative of God’s redemption of all things, but to participate in it. Just as we participate in our planet’s journey around the Sun and its corresponding seasons, we participate even more in God’s cosmic story of salvation, told through the Church calendar year.
So, go outside today. Notice how the light looks different. Notice the unfamiliar song of a bird in migration. See the signs of seasonal transition and thank God for being alive to witness it.
But don’t stop there. Inwardly digest the coming weeks of Scripture, prayer and worship that take a turn towards what our medieval Christian ancestors called the “Last Things” – death, judgment, heaven and hell. See the signs that “the times they are a-changin’” and thank God for being wonderfully caught up in His plan to make all things new.
[1] With Angels and Archangels, Dr. Matthew Boyleston.
[2] Collect for Sunday, Proper 27, Book of Common Prayer, p. 236.
| 
