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| Image by Ross Vernal |
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A GREETING
Answer me, O God, for your steadfast love is good.
(Psalm 69:16)
A READING
There is a time for everything,
a season for every purpose under heaven: a season to be born and a season to die;
a season to plant and a season to harvest; a season to hurt and a season to heal;
a season to tear down and a season to build up; a season to cry and a season to laugh;
a season to mourn and a season to dance;
a season to scatter stones and a season gather them;
a season for holding close and a season for holding back;
a season to seek and a season to lose;
a season to keep and a season to throw away; a season to tear and a season to mend;
a season to be silent and a season to speak; a season to love and a season to hate;
a season for hostilities and a season for peace.
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 TIB)
MUSIC
A MEDITATIVE VERSE
You have made the moon to mark the seasons;
the sun knows its time for setting.
(Psalm 104:19)
A POEM
Every year we have been
witness to it: how the
world descends
into a rich mash, in order that
it may resume.
And therefore
who would cry out
to the petals on the ground
to stay, knowing as we must,
how the vivacity of what was is married
to the vitality of what will be?
- from *A Thousand Mornings, by Mary Oliver
VERSE OF THE DAY
God changes times and seasons, God gives wisdom to the wise
and knowledge to those who have understanding.
(Daniel 2:21)
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Many of us are familiar with today’s reading from Ecclesiastes, which names the ‘seasons’ of our lives that mark the ways we grow and change and live in relationship with one another. The passage is set up in binaries of opposites, in part so that we can feel the keen differences among them. There are two words describing time in the passage. The Hebrew word translated as ‘season’ means a set appointed occasion. In the ancient world, a single festival could go on for days, thus becoming a ‘season.’ The word used for ‘time’ refers to experiences, events and good or bad occasions, including ‘kairos time,’ a Greek phrase that means an opportune time in which God is calling us into action.
Seasons, in a different sense, are important to Celtic spirituality, which observes the year in eight sections. Celtic seasons rely on the two solstices, two equinoxes, and the four cross quarter festivals. In the Northern hemisphere, we use some of these markers to name our own sense of the changing weather seasons. For instance, the vernal equinox is March 21st, when we traditionally mark the start of spring. Over the course of the weeks until Epiphany, we will visit all eight of these festivals in the Celtic Wheel of the Year and see how they overlap or help to inform our own Christian calendar.
In today’s music, we hear the stirring Irish classic Danny Boy, which uses seasons to describe a love lost and longed for. In our emotional lives, we sometimes experience seasons of sadness, longing and dejection that can feel hard to bring ourselves out of. What kind of season of life are you in right now? How can the coming of Jesus bring a time for change and growth?
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| Image by Jon Himoff |
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LC† Come Holy Darkness is a project of Lutherans Connect, supported by the Eastern Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada and the Centre for Spirituality and Media at Martin Luther University College. To receive the devotions by email, write to lutheransconnect@gmail.com. The devotional pages are written and curated by Deacon Sherry Coman, with support and input from Pastor Steve Hoffard, Catherine Evenden and Henriette Thompson. Join us on Facebook, and on X (formerly Twitter). Lutherans Connect invites you to make a donation to the Ministry by going to this link on the website of the ELCIC Eastern Synod and selecting "Lutherans Connect Devotionals" under "Fund". Devotions are always freely offered, however your donations help to support extended offerings throughout the year. Thank you and peace be with you!