This morning I awoke to see frost on neighbouring roofs; the first of the season.  Out come the winter clothes once more and this time I don’t expect to put them away again for many months.  Soon, no doubt, the leaves will finally fall, leaving trees bare once again.  How quickly things change.

An Autumn chill should remind us to check our winter preparations.  While our harvest celebrations enthusiastically declared that ‘All is safely gathered in’, what of our other preparations; gathering winter fuel or winter clothes (do they still fit?).  We have experienced a glorious Indian Summer but although we know winter will come, the first cold snap inevitably catches many out.  Seeing the signs we choose to ignore them; A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest^[1].  Jesus made a similar point centuries earlier.  Faced with calls for a sign to justify himself he responded You can tell the weather, but you can’t interpret the signs of the times (Matt 16:3; Lk 12:56).  The implied criticism being not so much couldn’t as wouldn’t.

Autumn frosts are a sign of the times.  This morning’s frost did not linger long, but others will follow.  It is easy to mourn the passing of summer; easy but as foolish as it is pointless.  Though I no longer relish the cold (getting fussy in my older age), I see as much beauty in a winter sun glistening on frosted branches as on any summer view.  I know, too, that winter’s rains and frost are as important as the summer sun.  Without both, nothing will grow.  Summer has only gone for a season, it will return.

We live in times of change: old certainties are no longer certain; truths no longer hold true; dreams have faded.  For many this is like the onset of an unwelcome winter, sun setting, frost forming.  Yet we should never forget that God is a master of change; the very act of creation proves it.  God, through Isaiah, promises “I am about to do a new thing …(Is 43:19); Jesus famously declares a new commandment (Jn 13:34) and that the cup he shares is the new covenant (Lk 22:20, 1 Cor 11:25).

In the beginning God created, and every act of re-creation and new creation since has been achieved through suffering, death of the old, the pains of new birth.  It is only when the seed falls to the earth and dies that it bears fruit. (Jn 12:24).  For God to do a new thing in us we must first let go the things of old.

Rev’d Philip Payne                                                                                 The Notice Sheet for 22 Oct 23 can be found here

^[1] The Boxer, Paul Simon, Simon & Garfunkel 1970