The beginning of wisdom is this: get wisdom,
and whatever else you get, get insight.

~ Proverbs 4:7

 The Invitation of New Beginnings

Every August, I feel a shift in the air. While for many it is the return of school routines, for post-graduate-school me, it has been about a quieter sense of turning. A new beginning is unfolding. Even if our days no longer involve classrooms, desks, and textbooks, the season still carries the promise of fresh starts, sharpened curiosity, and the chance to discover something new.

Whether in a classroom or a sanctuary, new beginnings invite us to keep learning – about ourselves, about one another, and about God. Faith and learning have always been intertwined. From the earliest days, God’s people have been both students and storytellers – passing along wisdom, asking hard questions, and trying to live more fully into the love that God calls us to. Learning is about what happens when we open ourselves to growth, and our faith does the same thing. It invites us to stay curious, to keep asking what God might be teaching us, and to thrive in the spaces where we don’t have easy answers.

Theologian Parker Palmer reminds us, “The human soul doesn’t want to be advised or fixed or saved. It simply wants to be witnessed – to be seen, heard, and companioned exactly as it is.” This is what learning and faith do best. They remind us that we are seen and beloved as we are, and they help guide us toward who we are becoming.

This Sunday at our Festival of New Beginnings, we’ll celebrate the many ways Saint John's continues to be a learning, growing community. You'll get an introduction to opportunities for this Fall. Our upcoming contemplative retreat will help us build practices to support our selves and our world. Our book discussion on Richard Rohr’s The Tears of Things will invite us to wrestle with life’s fragility and God’s compassion. Our weekly Bible Study will gather folks to reflect together on scripture. Our intergenerational book club will bring together youth and adults in the same conversation. And our class on “How Food is Grown” will connect our everyday lives with God’s creation. Alongside these are the small groups that meet throughout the year – including men’s and women’s groups, knitters, Sunday School classes, and more – all spaces where community, conversation, and care bring new depth to our studies.

This year, I am wondering if the invitation of the season is not only to begin again, but to begin curiously. What questions have you left unasked because you thought they were too simple – or maybe too big? What new practice might open you up to God’s presence in a new way? What conversation might become a place of growth?

As this season shifts, may this new beginning be not only for students but for the whole community of faith. To walk with Christ is to remain open – open to learning, open to transformation, and open to God’s renewing Spirit.