Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
–Robert Frost
Each year it is my delight to write to you a letter asking you to make a financial pledge to our church. It is an honor to reflect on the gifts of our life together and to thank you for the community we have here. I offer this year’s meditation on God’s constant goodness even in the face of the reality of our experience of so much darkness, trusting that in response not to me, but to God, you would make your pledge of support to the ministry of God’s love for this place and the world.
Frost’s beloved poem, ‘Nothing Gold can Stay’ refers to humankind’s fall in The Book of Genesis. The early church wisely called this the felix culpa, the “fortunate fault,” for without it, humanity would be stuck in the Garden of Eden with no future. The felix culpa was Adam claiming freewill on behalf of all humankind. Life is too wonderful and interesting, the myth suggests, not to be on a grand adventure. While God is indeed angry that Adam broke the only rule given them, God’s anger is muted. God curses the serpent who lured them into eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And God puts conditions on the newly born human freewill. Significantly, God does not curse humanity! Instead the ground receives God’s anger and Eden sank to grief.
This moment of Eden’s sinking to grief marks the height of myth. Humankind is freed and the relationship between humans and God becomes an adult relationship of love with responsibility. For God’s part, this love is not pollyannaish. It is not a love that looks away from evil, but a love that judges it and then provides a new day. Eden sank to grief, the dawn (our infancy, our unformed conscience) goes down, but it goes down, to the day – to day-light, to life lived with the potential for fullness and the awareness of extraordinary gifts, the beauty and wonder of which we are continually discovering and rediscovering.
By the time you receive this letter much of the gold that has re-appeared this month from beneath summer’s green will have dropped to the ground, preparing the soil for next spring’s gold. Because nothing gold can stay, love’s promise is maintained; the world is always new and our responsibility in it always vital and ongoing.
God’s story with us is a story of the utterly unearned free gift of love calling us into the new day. It is also the story of God’s calling us to be loving, helpful and generous. For us to continue to be this vital place of worship, a beacon of light on the hill, a sanctuary of great music and poetry, art and prayer, I ask you now to respond to that call with your own loving generosity.
I hope you will join me in making a considered, prayerful financial pledge to the Waterbury Congregational Church for 2025. Please fill out the pledge card below and return it by Sunday, November 10. Your generosity will make a tangible difference in our ability to maintain this beautiful place of worship, to maintain our worship hopes and to continue to be a golden light of hope in our community. Your support is deeply appreciated.
Love,
Peter
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In response to the privilege and great joy of bearing witness to God’s ever-renewing love for all of creation, I/we intend to give this offering in support of the ministry of the Waterbury Congregational Church, UCC during the next fiscal year, January 1, 2025 to December 31, 2025.
Amount to be given: $__________________ 口 Weekly / 口 Monthly / 口 Other _
Name:_____________________ Email address:__________________
口 Please contact me about giving a pledge to the church through distribution of an investment account.
Signature: