Dear Friends,

One of my favorite writers of contemporary hymn texts is Brian Wren. A poet and minister, he has over the last 30 years written an extraordinary number of hymns that have become contemporary classics, and will long endure. We will sing one of his hymns this Sunday, When Christ Was Lifted From the Earth.  But I think of another of his hymns as we approach this Sunday – This is A Day of New Beginnings.

We will be looking forward this Sunday to a new year. But as I write these words on September 11, I also know that this is  a time of looking back. Today may bring many memories, and a  reawakening of pain and grief. Looking at current events, we may also feel deep frustration or pessimism that there is nothing new being done to bring about a lasting peace.

At the center of our life, however is the One who proclaims, “Behold, I make all things new.” All things. Our pain, our grief,  all that is familiar to us and all that is strange and new.  Brian Wren expresses that truth this way:

This is a day of new beginnings,
time to remember and move on,
time to believe what love is bringing,
laying to rest the pain that’s gone.

For by the life and death of Jesus,
God’s mighty Spirit, now as then,
can make for us a world of difference,
as faith and hope are born again.

I encourage you, today, and this Sunday, to see what God is making new. What is God making new for you in the midst of any pain or uncertainly?  What is God making new for you in that which is familiar – in a hymn that you know and love? What is God making new for you as we recite the ancient but ever new words of the Nicene Creed? And what is God making new for you in the most familiar face you may see, the dearest friend you may greet?

I am so eager and glad to return to this time in our church life, and I pray that all of us will remember these words of Brian Wren:

Christ is alive, and goes before us,
to show and share what love can do.
This is a day of new beginnings;
Our God is making all things new.

Faithfully,

Tom