This dog is so bummed! He was going to come to church today for the Blessing of the Animals, but it’s raining and now he has to wait another week. But is he blessed anyway? Read on and see!

Call to Worship (John Updike)
Into every life a little rain must fall.
Rain is grace; rain is the sky descending to earth.
Without rain, there would be no life.

Unison Prayer
As we say goodbye to summer,
Help us, Lord, to welcome the fall.
As we move from one blessing to another,
May we embrace the beautiful transitions.  Amen.

Words of Assurance: Joel 2:23, NIV
Be glad, people of Zion, rejoice in the Lord your God,
for he has given you the autumn rains because he is faithful.
He sends you abundant showers, both autumn and spring rains, as before.

The Lord’s Prayer
Our Father,
who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread;
and forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil;
for thine is the kingdom,
and the power,
and the glory forever.
Amen.

Opening Song: Natalie Grant, “Praise You In This Storm”

Scripture: Isaiah 40:6-8, Good News Bible
A voice cries out, “Proclaim a message!”
“What message shall I proclaim?” I ask.
“Proclaim that all human beings are like grass;
they last no longer than wild flowers.
Grass withers and flowers fade
when the Lord sends the wind blowing over them.
People are no more enduring than grass.
Yes, grass withers and flowers fade,
but the word of our God endures forever.”

Sunday Sermon

Part One: Rained Out
Last weekend, the Western Michigan football team seemed to have won the greatest game in their program’s history, an upset against Michigan State, until the referees put one second back on the clock. Michigan threw a Hail Mary and won the game. The entire sporting world was upset. Everyone was blaming the refs: the TV, the internet, the fans, even people who don’t watch football. But Western Michigan coach Lance Taylor had a different message for his players. After the game, he told them that sometimes things weren’t going to go their way, and they had a choice of how to respond. The way they chose to respond would speak volumes about their character and eventually help to determine not only their prospects in life, but their happiness. This message, because it is so rare and against the grain, became a news story in itself; but it’s not a new message, because we can find it everywhere in the Bible.

Last week my family was visiting and we planned to go to Sunken Meadow Park. We had the choice of going Monday afternoon, right after they arrived, with a slight chance of showers, or waiting until Tuesday when the forecast said that it would stop raining at 10 and start again at noon, giving us a small window of safety. You can guess what happened. We went on Tuesday, and within a minute of putting our towels down, lightning flashed and the beach was evacuated. Instead of going home, we decided to wait it out on some covered benches, and eventually got to go in the water. And even though it rained on us again, playing catch in the water in the rain with my nephew and some other local children turned out to be the highlight of the visit.

This isn’t something we could have seen coming. If you were to tell me (or anyone, really) that they should go to the beach in the rain because it would be awesome would look at you like you were nuts. Of course, those who follow these sermons remember that I had just gone to the beach in the rain the week before, so I had an inkling that it was possible. This is not to say that we should have gone ahead with the barbecue and the blessing of the animals in the rain, because nobody wants to eat a wet burger. And think of the cats! But it does mean that today, inside, doesn’t have to be that bad, and may even end up better ~ we just don’t know.

What do we do when our plans are derailed? We might be disappointed; we might get angry or sad; we may even take it out on someone else. In this case, it’s tempting to blame forecasters or even God, because rain is an act of God. And we could pout and stay grumpy all day. But what would be the point? This is still the day that the Lord has made. If we need help recalibrating, the easiest thing to do is to take a piece of paper, draw a line down the middle, then on one side write the things that are not going our way and on the other the blessings we still have.

Habakkuk writes,
Even if the fig tree does not bloom
and the vines have no grapes,
even if the olive tree fails to produce
and the fields yield no food,
even if the sheep pen is empty
and the stalls have no cattle—
even then,
I will be happy with the Lord.
I will truly find joy in God, who saves me.

Habukkuk was probably all right with a rainy day.

Part Two: What Endures?
One of my projects this year is to play everything in my CD collection and see if I want to keep it. People always ask, “Are you ever going to play all of these CDs?” The answer is yes. But I’m not keeping all of them. It’s sobering to remember how many times I spent $15 on a CD in order to get one song, not to like any of the other songs, and then to get tired of the one song I liked! So if I still like the CD, I keep it, and if I like only one song, I download it and dispose of the disc.

If you’ve ever done this with CDs or records or books or toys or dishes or anything else you collect, you’ve come to the same conclusions. Some of the things that once gave us joy no longer give us joy. We often accumulate things with no practical or emotional value and hold on to them for no apparent reason. Most of us have bought a piece of clothing that we didn’t like, but we didn’t want to go through the hassle of taking it back, so we kept it because we spent money on it, but we also never wore it. This is probably a good time to mention that St. Paul’s has a thrift shop, no questions asked – just leave donations on the doorstep – and that Santaport is coming up for quality non-clothing items. This mid-sermon commercial was brought to you by Santaport – coming November 21 to a church near you!

While going through my possessions, I always return to the same question: what endures? What songs endure, what books endure, what memories endure? And here’s where today’s Scripture comes in: “Grass withers and flowers fade, but the word of our God endures forever.” Another Scripture reads, “Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, his love endures forever.” It’s amazing to realize that I’ve been reading this book almost my entire life, and that not only am I not tired of it, but that it keeps revealing new insights and new revelations. That’s why the Bible is called the Living Word. I can look at a passage that I’ve known forever and still find something new in it. And not only that ~ knowing that the Lord’s love endures forever is a counterbalance to all of the things that are always changing. To quote a song our band sings, “It’s constant in the trials and the change; this one thing remains ~ your love.”

Part Three: Seasons
Those of us in the Northeast have a blessing that those who live in Florida do not. We have the seasons, and the lessons they bring. Some people might like a little less snow, or slightly longer summers, but others find a way to cherish every season, because they help to amplify today’s lesson: that the way to navigate life’s disappointments is to shift from one blessing to another, or as The Rolling Stones sing, “You can’t always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you just might find you get what you need.”

There is great value in looking forward to something. One advantage of having today’s event rained out is that we have another week to look forward to it! In the same way, every evening is a sneak preview of fall: the temperature drops below 70 ~ tonight’s low is 57 ~ and we can see the squirrels gathering their nuts, but there’s no sense of urgency. The earliest snow ever to fall in New York was in 1876, but the average first snow is December 13.

From the fall, we learn that all good things must come to an end, but that new good things await. Today is the first Sunday of NFL football, and it’s raining, so that works out really well. As of this morning, both the Jets and Giants are undefeated, so hope spring eternal. The Knicks will be back soon. I am almost in the mood for hot apple cider with a cinnamon stick, but I’m not rushing it. The fall festivals will soon begin. I don’t want the leaves to turn, but when they do I change my mind. I don’t want the sun to set earlier, but when it does, I rediscover reading in the late afternoon.

Fall is but one season in a cycle. Life doesn’t end when the ocean grows cold, just as worship goes on even when it rains and just as God loves us, even when we turn away. In one sense, we might say, “Fall is when people come back to church because they run out of other things to do,” but in another we might say, “Fall is when people come back to church and remember how good God is just when they need it the most.” Fall reminds us that we too are finite, like the flowers and the grass, but that one day we too will change, and that we need not fear that change, for God is constant, and his love is eternal.

Summer and winter and springtime and harvest
Morning by morning new mercies I see
All I have needed thy hand hath provided
Great is thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me. Amen!

Closing Song: United Pursuit, “Seasons Change”

Benediction
May we learn to adapt:
to pivot from one blessing to another,
without losing our sense of grace.
Amen.