R&V In the Word: Hope is in Autumn

Read Isaiah 61:1-11 NASB

“For as the earth produces its sprouts, 

And as a garden causes the things sown in it to spring up, 

So the Lord GOD will cause righteousness and praise

To spring up before all the nations.” 

Isaiah 61:11 NASB

In the liturgical church calendar, it is the Season of Creation, a special stretch of days during Ordinary Time that has been set aside by the Pope to honor, lament, and advocate for the health of our common home. 

It’s also election season, when the United States collectively bites its nails and waits for either salvation or the apocalypse to begin, depending on which candidate wins.

In the Northern Hemisphere, September is a month of winding down. The summer garden is letting go of its last fruits. Oak trees are dropping their acorns. Our spruces have produced their last round of pinecones. Bees are putting the finishing touches on their honey hives.

In some sense, autumn seems like a strange time to celebrate the Season of Creation. This season often feels like one of conclusions as all things make their march toward the bitter and barren winter months. In the midst of all these endings, the hope for creation seems far off. 

In the same sense, if you aren’t a follower of Christ, the election season’s alignment with fall feels just about right—might as well roll out the red carpet for the end times! 

But September is also the perfect point in our seasonal calendar for the church to honor the Earth. We are a people who ought to be well acquainted with the cycle of suffering, death, and resurrection. Rather than the end, autumn is the beginning of that cycle. Whether in politics or creation, fall is not the end of the story.

After all, fall is when people plant spring bulbs.

As people of the Living God, we have the hope of resurrection and the promise of restoration awaiting us after our winding down to winter’s long sleep. In the meantime, God has invited us to take a page from creation’s handbook and keep planting what is promised to bloom in the coming kingdom—righteousness and praise.

Watch the squirrels as they stow away acorns. Without even knowing it, they are planting their children’s children’s future homes. We can be even more deliberate than these. Now is the time to sow the seeds of righteousness, so that in the coming months, years, and decades, righteousness will bloom like a well-tended garden. Hope is in autumn.

Points of Reflection

1. Isaiah 61:8 talks about how God loves justice and hates wrongdoing. How do you see God calling you to pursue justice in your community or the world around you?
2. In the autumn of life, when many things seem to be winding down, how can you still plant seeds of righteousness and hope in your community or personal life, trusting that God will bring growth in His time?

For the Kids

1. Verse 11 says that God will make things grow like a garden. What are some good things that you can help grow in your life or at school, like kindness or love?
2. Sometimes we don’t see the fruit of our actions until much, much later. How can you trust God to help good things grow?

Action

Sowing seeds of righteousness now requires preparing good soil. What is cluttering up the garden of your life that needs to be pulled to make room for greater goodness to reign? A couple of months ago, our family began a social media detox, and it made space for so much more joy and mercy to flourish. In this season of contentious elections and divisive speech, maybe the Lord is inviting you to unplug from the news or social media and make more garden space for righteousness to grow. Planting righteousness is all about the way we live our lives, according to God’s will—with love, compassion, gentleness, respect, fairness, and kindness. That extends to both our human neighbors and our plant and animal neighbors. Ask God to examine your heart, your mind, and your daily actions for ways that are out of alignment with God’s righteousness.

Reading

I’m celebrating the Season of Creation by offering up daily prayers for creation on my Substack, Palace in Time. Let’s lift our eyes to Jesus together to enlarge our hearts for the world he has given us.