SEASONS - ELUL - LIVING FACE TO FACE AND MEETING THE KING IN THE FIELD

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

On this last month of the Hebraic calendar called Elul, many of us try to focus on the past year of our lives.  It is a time to bring before our Beloved our misdeeds, mistakes, and wrong actions so that He can show us how we can make changes for the new year coming up.  If you follow the first calendar that God gave in the scriptures, the Hebraic calender, you will note that the new year actually starts in the fall.

Perhaps it is easier to imagine what Elul is all about if you look at this season the same way you would if you were preparing for a wedding.   How do these shoes work? (How am I walking?)  What veil should I wear?  (How am I seeing?)    Is my dress ready? (How have I prepared?)  Have I spoken to the groom about everything?  (How is my contribution to this relationship going?)

If you were engaged to be married, you would need to discuss all the skeletons in your closet in the time before the wedding.  You would not want your loved one to discover your deepest hidden secrets from someone else, or to be surprised and hurt by them later after your marriage.  You need to confess everything that your future spouse might not yet have heard about you, so you will know for certain that all past mistakes are forgiven and forgotten, and you are safe with the one that you have chosen to live your life with.  

You would, of course, promise them never to revisit these things.  With the love between the two of you, it is possible to begin a fresh new page of life.  This is how I have learned to speak to my Beloved, Jesus, during the season of Elul.  He knows I am not perfect.  He loves me anyway.  He doesn't care that I have sinned and made mistakes, but He does care if I do not confess these things to Him.

In the great love story portrayed in The Song of Songs, Solomon speaks of the conversation that is held between two lovers.  They are not afraid of one another.  They are comfortable enough in their love that they can speak of their faults and mistakes.  They are humble enough and so much a part of each other that one can come to the other and ask forgiveness for things done wrong because this one knows that anything they have done will have an instant effect on the other.  No sin is a sin all alone.  Every sin we commit hurts our Beloved.  

This is a time for the healing of this pain.  Healing begins with honesty and confession.  Healing always comes before joy.  It is definitely a time to say “I want to change for you and never put you through such pain again.”   The honesty, love, truthfulness of this confession only makes the bond of love stronger.  The stronger the bond between lovers, the less likely it will ever be broken.  

It is a time of the weaker seeking strength from the stronger.  We are looking up to Jesus, accepting the mercy of God and calling on Our Lord to help us be stronger.  There will be encouragement that comes from the stronger lover that will change the spirit of the weaker lover from sadness to joy; from being ashamed to being confident and sure of their love.  As our hearts unite with God in prayer during this season, together we will be capable of things we could never achieve apart from one another.    

Elul is definitely a relational time period.  It is a time to be spent totally in tune to the desires of The One we love the most, looking to see what He will show us, listening to hear what He will tell us.   If we are out of step with His leading of the dance of our days, He will help us pick back up on the beat of the dance through the rhythms of life.   It is the perfect time for bearing our souls to the only One who truly understands our souls.  He truly loves us as we are, and accepts us with all our flaws; even enough that He died for us and all our imperfections;  but He has a loving desire to help us change into the people that He created us to be.  

So, our goal at the end of the month of Elul is to begin to walk face to face.  When we seek His face and ask His forgiveness, He loves us, flaws and all.  He reaches out to us to pull us up and help us to change.  When we spend this time we can truly come to know the meaning of the phrase "I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved is mine.”   

To utter the words “I am my Beloved’s”  is to cry out to God, to communicate our love and loyalty to Him.    This is to be the activity of our hearts.  It is how our souls are speaking.  The second part; “And my Beloved is mine,’ hints to God’s activity toward us during this time.  This negates our act of listening.  Good communications involve both speaking and listening.

We speak joyfully to our Beloved during this month, not simply because we are about to begin a new sacred year, but because God is shining forth his attributes of mercy toward us.  We know that we need to use this time to atone and work on our selves, and God empowers us to do so when we approach Him humbly seeking forgiveness.

This is the time for us to express our desire for complete atonement to God.  At the end of the time, when we reach Yom Kippur, that is the time He will express His complete desire to atone us, so much so that He died to redeem us.  Rosh Hashanah is all about redemption.  Yom Kippur is all about atonement.  

There is a beautiful Jewish parable that speaks of this very act. 

THE PARABLE OF THE KING IN THE FIELD

A King returns to his city following a long absence. The city's inhabitants stream out to the countryside to greet him. When the king enters the field a new phenomenon occurs. The field equalizes everyone who is found there. Now, for the first time, virtually everyone is empowered and permitted to greet the king. All partitions which usually separate him from the populace are nullified. The king, in turn, graciously receives each and every one. This phenomenon does not take place outside the field. For, within the capital, and surely within the palace, only select dignitaries can access the king.

Is this parable not a beautiful portrait of how Jesus loves us? 

He went up to Heaven to send His Holy Spirit so that we could communicate better with Him and The Father.  So many times when we pray, we are looking up to heaven, seeing him on a royal throne, knowing His kingly power is at work constantly redeeming us, but often it seems we are at a distance, further away than we want to be from Him. We tend to see Him like a King of a city who went away.  We know He is still in control. 

We know He still exists and is coming back, but then one day He does come back!  He walks through the fields of the city.  These are the fields where the common workers toil and labor every day.  This is where they have broken the ground, planted the seeds provided by Him, watered them, weeded them, watched the crop grow to be ripe and ready for harvesting.  The citizens are so proud of the harvest that is just ripe for the picking!  They can’t wait to tell the Master about how beautiful and bountiful it is; then they look up and see Him actually walking through the fields!  They are overcome with joy!  It is Him, The One they have been laboring for all along!  He has returned!  They run to greet him.

As the everyday ordinary people run to great their King who has come down to walk in the field, they all seem somehow the same.  Their differences are not showing.  No one is more important.  No one voice is heard above the other.  All are equal in the field.  It is not formal here, like it might be in the royal palace.  No one is announced, or proclaimed.  They all just come toward Him, one at a time, each one special and unique, yet everyone sharing the same honor of greeting the King and having the King recognize them and speak to them of their own particular tasks.

 Here all feel free and comfortable to discuss the physical aspects of the harvest with the King.  Who would know more about harvesting than a King who is also A Creator?  Who could possibly know more about preparing for a good harvest?  They drink in His advice.  They sit at His feet to listen to His instructions.  They freely admit their mistakes and short-comings to Him because they can look into His eyes and see how much He loves them.  It is not hard.  They are not afraid.  They all feel safe. 

The King looks happier here, in the field amongst the people of His city, maybe even happier than He ever looks on His Royal Throne.  He is glad to be here.  Is it not what He has purposed to do all along?  He is smiling and gracious and generous.  He uses the ordinary existence in the field to explain to all the important principles of His Kingdom and here in the field the lowest realms of existence are transformed into a dwelling place for a King.  Everyone is excited to know that The King is in the field!

It is the strangest thing to think about, but even when the King is walking through the field the primary mundane matters of life must still be carried out!   It is a time for pausing, but not stopping.  It is a time of reflecting while still working.  In our daily lives we concern ourselves with many activities that are not in and of themselves holy, but these things are performed “for the sake of the King.”  Now when we see the King walking through the field, He may stop and talk to us of our activities.   We find out that “little things” are very important to Him.  He has noted everything, every action, every task that we have done during the times of the seasons before the harvest.  They HAVE mattered to Him.  He has not overlooked us, or forgotten us when we could not see Him or reach out and touch Him.  He has noticed every little thing.  Suddenly we recognize that in seeking His will in all things, we have made a part of our world His dwelling place, a place where He may come down and walk with us, even in our imperfections, even into the day-to-day activities of “the field.”

Hence, to continue looking after the field of The King in the best possible manner, during Elul we chose to put special emphasis on study of the Holy Scriptures and prayer, because even while The King is walking through His field, we recognize that it IS His field and we honor Him by continuing on with our work for Him. 

SEASONS - THE MONTH OF ELUL - A TIME OF TURNING

(Written by Sheila Gail Landgraf)

Every fall season brings us to the beautiful time of Elul.  This year the last month of the Hebraic calendar starts at sunset of August 26^th, 2014 and lasts until sunset on September 24^th, 2014.  It is one of my favorite seasons.   I usually find myself singing that old song called “Turn, Turn, Turn” made famous by a group called The Byrds back in the 70’s.  The song uses the words of Solomon in the lyrics.  They ring so true during the month of Elul. 

It is a time for turning around and embracing the love of a God who was willing to die for us.  It is a time for paying attention to a God who loved us enough to give His only begotten Son to ransom us from our sins.  It is a time of changing from a relationship of “back-to-back” and turning to a better higher place of “face-to-face” with our Creator.

I think it is this very aspect of the season of Elul that keeps the lyrics of the song and the words of Solomon on my mind and in my spirit in the early parts of each fall.  Elul is the time that teaches us the necessity of being willing to turn.

In the mystial thoughts of Jewish literature it is explained that at the beginning of the Hebraic season of Elul we are “anchor el achor” which means in English; “back-to-back.”  By the end of this season of Elul we are said to be “panim el panim” which means “face-to-face.” 

The concept could be more beautifully explained in a dance, perhaps a lovely ballet production, but since those resources are not readily available, I will try to use mere words.

Let’s paint the picture, like an artist using words:  First of all one must ask the obvious question.  How can it be that we (us and God) are back to back?  Wouldn’t this statement imply that God has His back turned to us?  Wouldn’t it also imply that we have our back turned to God?  How can we say such a thing when this is the month it is said that “The King Is In The Field” , or the God of Heaven has come down to the lowest parts of earth offering mercy and forgiveness to all who are seeking him?  Many teachings and teachers have taught us that this is the very month when God is more accessible than ever, when He is waiting for us to come out to the harvest and greet him in the “field.”  We have learned that this is a time when He is there for us waiting in the “fields” of our everyday lives.  So how could we possibly be “back-to-back?”

The concept is much easier to grasp if you think of it like this; just recall all of the old classic love stoires that you have watched in the movies.  A loving couple has to part for one reason or another.  We see them beginning to walk away from each other with their faces both turned in opposite directions.  Almost always, at some point the man turns around and looks back at the woman.  You can see in his face that he is wanting to call out her name, that he longs to ask for another chance, or beg for forgiveness, or make a way for them to still be together.  In these scenes he is always just about to speak, just about to call out her name, but then he realizes that her back is turned and she is walking away from him.  He tells himself that it is too late, that she just doesn’t care.  He thinks that there is nothing that he can do.  So he turns back around. 

Seconds later the woman turns to look back at the man.  She knows that she doesn’t want this relationship to end.  She stalls for time, walking away slowly  More than anyting she wants to say something to mend the situation, but doesn’t have the right words.  She just can’t muster up the courage or doesn’t have the strength to speak up.  She is in great dispair.  After all, why should she try to speak when his back is turned away from her?  She assumes he just doesn’t care as she sees him continue to walk away from her.

And we, the viewers watch this touching scene, sitting on the edge of our seats, hoping against hope that they will both suddenly turn around in the same second and finally realize that the other does care enough to turn and step back into the other’s arms.  We keep watching, hoping to see if maybe one of them will suddenly realize that though they both appear to be back to back, they really and truly want to be face to face. 

Sometimes we get the happy ending.  

Sometimes they both continue to walk right out of each other’s lives.  

And I am reminded every year that Elul is the time that God uses to remind us to turn.  We must be willing to turn around and face God, willing to turn around and face those who have hurt us.  We must offer forgiveness and move back into the loving embrace of the God who loves us beyond all reason.  We must find ourselves with Him once again, living face-to-face. 

It is a beautiful season.  It is the most wonderful love story ever written.