When I was a kid, I hated the month of November.  The joys of summer and the color of fall suddenly shifted to bone chilling winds as we waited for the bus to pick us up for school on dark mornings, and when we got off the bus in the late afternoon, it was dark again.  Unlike our friends who lived in town, we had chores to do, so we couldn’t cosy up inside the house, but instead grabbed a snack and headed out to a cold barn to milk the “dirty dozen,”  the name we had for our milk cows, before dinner.  But the worst part of November happened on the weekends when my dad put me on a big tractor that pulled a huge plow, and sent me out to plow under the corn stalks in the field.  In those days, we would turn over that now frozen ground so the old crop would decay and soil would be on top for spring planting .  Farmers no longer plow the soil in current farm practices, but in my father’s day, that was the last farm work of the growing season.  It was a cold, bone chilling, miserable experience to sit on an open tractor with frozen fingers and winds that stung your face and froze your eyelids while you drove back and forth….back and forth… back and forth….

Our texts this morning feel a bit like those miserable November chores.  They reference “end times” and predict the destruction of both the Temple and Jerusalem, as well as define a time of endurance.  It feels to me a bit like hunkering down on that cold tractor seat and enduring the destruction under my plow blade while I keep from freezing my fingers off.  Have you ever noticed in your own life a season I would call a “November Faith?”  A time when hunkering down and enduring is your only option?  Perhaps many would define the longest government shutdown we have just experienced as a time of “November Faith.”  Will we make it to a new day when things normalize and the rug isn’t pulled from out of our safety nets that fuel our daily lives?  The question that emerged for me as I pondered these texts is this:  HOW DO WE LIVE THROUGH WHAT IS TEMPORARY WITHOUT LOSING WHAT IS ETERNAL? 

Life is quite a ride, isn’t it?  All three of our grown children are hunkered down right now, doing challenging careers, working to make ends meet and raise children and grandchildren that thrive in a world that pulls families in all kinds of directions.  Dale and I remember those years well, and empathize with their challenges as well as cheer on the "endorphins" of accomplishment that fuel their busy years.  But we are no longer going out on that tractor of life’s enduring chores, and November looks a little different to us now.  

I am noticing things in this season I used to overlook.  When I rise, I notice the illumination of slanted light that rolls across our yard. Light that awakens the night sky and glows on the horizon so that the trees seem to dance and play into a new day.  I’ve been drawn to the amazing cloud formations of November skies.  Huge, billowing clouds with dark and heavy shadows, yet saturated in color that pops when the sun breaks through.  The other day I was drawn to Lake Superior by a silver, shimmering layer of crystals that literally danced all over the waters, and then skimmed across the tops of the waves when a cool breeze blew over the water.  Sudden gusts of November winds stir up dying leaves and send them sailing across my sight as if to say, “I’ll see you later.”   And now that the leaves are gone and trees reach bravely for the sky, I can see my neighbor’s homes tucked here and there along the palisades and hills, and it reminds me that we are not alone, but surrounded by so many others whom God loves and calls His children.

HOW DO WE LIVE THROUGH WHAT IS TEMPORARY WITHOUT LOSING WHAT IS ETERNAL?  The texts that speak to me today are from Malachi and our Psalm.  Malachi is a little known book of the Old Testament.  It’s actually the LAST book, and the final words of the OT before the gospel narratives of the coming of the Christ lead us into the transforming NEW Testament.  Imagine how the words of Malachi must have been heard by those Israelites who had known so much destruction, so much bondage, and the struggle to rebuild and start again and again.  I think of Gaza…a city in ruins and in mourning, yet enduring with a courageous vision for peace and rebuilding of lives that have clung to hope.

“See, the days are coming…” says the Lord through the prophet Malachi.  BUT…the SUN OF RIGHTEOUSNESS SHALL RISE, WITH HEALING IN IT’S WINGS.”

What is his point?  I think it’s a clear bell of hope, ringing into the struggles of November faith, reminding all who have ears to hear and eyes to see and hearts that seek, the GOD WILL BE THE AGENT THAT DETERMINES OUR FUTURE, AND BECAUSE OF THIS PROMISE, WE CAN LIVE IN FAITH…EVEN IN NOVEMBER….AND ESPECIALLY IN NOVEMBER.

I am so appreciative of our Psalm designated for this day, for it lifts the heaviness of the “end time texts,” just like a sudden ray of intense fall light that breaks through the heavy November clouds and shines a light that glows with truth.  SING A NEW SONG TO THE LORD who has done marvelous things….who has won the victory and revealed righteousness in sight of the nations…SHOUT WITH JOY; LIFT UP YOUR VOICE, REJOICE AND SING BEFORE THE LORD, OUR ONLY KING.

The Psalmist doesn’t stop there,however,  Notice that the REIGN OF GOD extends to ALL of creation.  LET THE SEAS ROAR; LET THE RIVERS CLAP THEIR HANDS; LET THE HILLS RING OUT WITH JOY…before the Lord that is in  FULL CONTROL OF THE WORLD, and will bring equity to all people.

I don’t know about you, but I see November differently now.  Perhaps it’s my aging and slowing down…or the opportunity to simply watch life and paint what I see rather than rush out the door to DO LIFE.   I see both sides of November now, and despite the ongoing challenges, both personal and corporate that we share together in this world.  And despite the illusions of human striving  that keep us going back and forth and back and forth, somehow November lifts up faith and encourages us all to endure.  But more than endure, it opens us to SING.  to roar like the seas, clap like the rivers and sing out to the hills.  

And so, as we prepare to turn the corner in our church year and begin the journey of advent, re-remembering Christ’s coming; His birth into all the seasons that define this life, His ministry that calls us to truly CARE for one another; LOVE one another; SERVE one another rather than just ENDURE with one another…. Let us open our arms to a NOVEMBER FAITH, and testify to HOPE that doesn’t disappoint an PEACE that will come like a VICTORIOUS SPRING, giving new life and a new song to all forms of death forever.  Amen.