C.S. Lewis wrote about “that first, fine, careless rapture” that lifted the Church into global significance in the worst of times. The Church had no history, except for those short years of Jesus of Nazareth, and with his leaving they might have simply faded away. But that didn’t happen. The disciples seemed to be in many ways like children on the first day of school. They were going to show up for whatever God had for them to do. Trusting that the New Year would bring them new experiences, uncover new things to learn, and certainly propel them further along to live out what life was for. They could not go back to the old fires of memory or sentiment and try to get warmth from cold ashes. There were new fires to be kindled.
That’s what Rally Day is all about. It is what a “new” season is all about. The students among us will go on to things we have not yet learned, or at least never studied in the same way. As for those of us beyond “school,” we will all hear of events and experiences that never happened before in quite the same way. Every day will be a kind of lesson, offering us insight, experience, and maturity.
Not only will the lessons and the headlines be new, so also will God’s presence. We are living out a destiny that is being revealed to us one lesson at a time. We may go back to the old familiar places, the old school buildings, so to speak, but the lessons will be new. If we had figured out some answers for the questions of last year, well and good, this coming year there will be new questions. And, as Isaiah put it so clearly, “The Lord…will be there to teach you.” (Isaiah 30:21-22) “Call on me, and I will answer you, and show you great and hidden things which you have not known,” is what Jeremiah was instructed to tell God’s people. (33:3)
It may not be the first day of school for you, but there is a way to take hold of life that can be grasped only through Jesus Christ. One of the first names they called him when he walked the earth was Teacher. Indeed.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Jansen
I really appreciated this post, especially the observation of how we tend to putter with the familiar. Reminds me of a sentence I read this week by George Eliot: "For in the multitude of middle-aged men who go about their vocations in a daily course determined for them much in the same way as the tie of their cravats, there is always a good number who once meant to shape their own deeds and alter the world a little. The story of their coming to be shapen after the average and fit to be packed by the gross, is hardly ever told even in their consciousness; for perhaps their ardor in generous unpaid toil cooled as imperceptibly as the ardor of other youthful loves, till one day their earlier self walked like a ghost in its old home and made the new furniture ghastly."
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