October 9, 2024

O, glorious season! Beautiful fall! Amazing autumn! “God changes times and seasons.” (Daniel 2:21)

Do you have a superlative for our recent days and nights of weather? I turn to the Psalmist who writes, “Let everything that has breath praise God. Hallelujah!” (Psalm 150:6) Yes, Helene wreaked havoc and destruction in the southeast. Milton threatens Florida as I write. And, it is beautiful here in Indiana.

The creator God holds all of this in God. The mystics call each of us to hold the paradox of creation and all that creation brings in tension with itself; to hold both sorrow and joy at the same time, fear and hope, pain and ease. A poet writes, “Hold paradox casually because it always dresses formally for the Ball of Change.”

The psychiatrist Carl Jung gave us the concept of enantiodromia for our lexicon. Enantiodromia is the introduction of change into life or into a system. It is the tendency for all things to change into their opposite. Nothing remains the same. Everything evolves into something else. Christ brings peace and also a sword of division and separation. As followers of Christ, we work for peace and also seek to separate those parts of systems that bring injustice, hurt, and sorrow. We divide to make whole…

Rev. Eric