October presents us with opportunities to be good stewards – oh, please keep reading, you know by now that stewardship is not about asking for money.  And thinking about stewardship got me to pondering:

• Fall Foliage Fanfare
  Trees put on a grand show this month. The various shades of green turn to yellow, red and orange. God’s work of abundance and care for creation is clearly visible in the trees as they undergo the process of senescence, where accumulated sugars and nutrients are sent from the dying leaves back into the tree for storage and re-use in the spring. My oh my, God is wonderful!

God expects us to be good stewards of God’s created tree; to fertilize it, prune it, compost the leaves, and give thanks to God for the life giving tree that converts carbon dioxide into oxygen we can breathe.

• Halloween
  2000 years ago, Druids recognized October 31 as the last day of the year. They celebrated the end of harvest and the beginning of a long cold winter. They believed the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead was blurred in the night of transition to the new year. According the History Channel, in the late 1800s in North America there was a move to make Halloween “more about community and neighborly get-togethers than about ghosts, pranks and witchcraft.” There was a move to focus on parties, games, food, and festive (rather than grotesque) costumes.God expects us to recognize God’s abundance given to us in the harvests of the season. Maybe this year we can dress and decorate our homes to make them more about community and stewardship, than about ghouls and evil.
• Reformation
  Good Ole Martin didn’t want to start a new religion; he actually implored people to identify as Christian, not Lutheran. Reformation gives us the opportunity to see the work we still have to do in reforming our religious practices and traditions.Jesus came to bring good news to the poor, widowed, orphaned, oppressed, captives, hungry, aliens, and all marginalized. Martin Luther called us to reform our stewardship to care for all creation and all people to effectuate Jesus’ good news. On this 504^th anniversary, we still need reforming.

Christians are called to not be conformed to this world’s ways, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, for the sole purpose of discerning God’s will (Romans 12:2.) How will you renew your faith this October?

I look forward to hearing what you’ve been pondering.

Graciously, Pr. William