Fall. Letting Go and Worship

Most of the time we think of falling as a bad thing. Falling down and getting hurt. Falling down because we trip over things (this is where the Greek word skandelon comes into play, where we get the English word scandal). I once even fell down up some stairs at a colorguard event in front of my instructor who was seated with a bunch of other instructors. But in reading the scriptures, there is a type of falling down that is not seen as a bad thing.

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Florida, especially the further south you travel in the state, doesn’t really have the season of ‘Fall.’ Maybe a tree here or there will lose some flowers or leaves; but, it’s just not really a thing. However, the act of ‘Fall’ can be summed up in two movements, ‘letting go’ and ‘relying on/worshiping’ God. There’s a great little comic strip by Charles Schulz, the guy who created the Peanuts characters. In this strip Snoopy happens upon a leaf that is falling. The dog dances as the leaf descends slowly down to the ground. When the leaf finally lands, the dog says, ‘Thanks for the dance.’

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Throughout the gospel narratives, people come to Jesus for healings, feedings, and even a chance to weep. Amongst all these times, there are a few in which we are told that the person ‘falls to their knees before him.’ The Greek word here is proskuneo: it literally means to prostrate, or worship before. All the times that these persons come to Jesus for grace, they are not just begging for something; they are also engaging in worship. Their fall is not one of failure per se; rather it is one of reverence.

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Fall is the season where trees, in particular, start losing their leaves (as the Peanuts cartoon describes) in order to better last the time to come (winter). Fall is a wonderful opportunity to join those who come to Jesus looking for God’s grace. We, like them, can let go of what is preventing us from being prepared for the time to come. Consider the hemorrhaging woman (Mt 9:20-22; Mk 5:25-34; Lk 8:43-48) who has nothing left, literally. Over the past 12 years she has spent all her money on ‘doctors’ (really just shamans) trying to resolve her situation. Why? Because whether or not it is a menstrual issue, the presentation of it as looking like one would have her ritually unclean until the issue is resolved. (NOTE, the ‘cleanliness’ has to do with the representation of the beginning and endings of life. Men too become ritually unclean after nocturnal emissions. The process of becoming clean is a bathing and presentation to show that there is nothing physically wrong.) She has let go of everything, and in that she is ready to reach out and receive God’s grace of renewed life, admittance to full community participation, and wholeness of self.

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What might we let go of this Fall? What blocks our ability to fully engage with God, others, and our truest self? What might God be calling us to let fall from our lives so that we can be ready for the times ahead that God is leading us into? How might God be calling us to a posture of worship? The Fall season is just starting; yet perhaps this is a great chance to ‘let go’ and find new ways to be a living worship FOR God so others can see and invited to join.