Glen Avon Presbyterian Church

“For the First Time”

Rev. Lon Weaver

As I was considering the New Year, a quote from a favorite book came to my mind:

We shall not cease from exploration

And the end of all our exploring

Will be to arrive where we started

And know the place for the first time.

Here, T.S. Eliot considers the journey of life in a way that combines repetition with revelation. In a sense, each of us will pass through many of the days of 2011 in which we will say, “I’ve been here before,” yet repeatedly we will be moved to observe further, “But I never experienced it this way before!” As I suggested in a recent sermon, each year gives us much of the same, but also the tremendous possibility of that which is new and profound.

I think we can prime the pump of time to experience more of those possibilities. Our theme for the year is “Let Your Life Speak”. It is a Quaker saying that invites us to explore more deeply what we are called to be and called to express in our lives. The book for the upcoming all-church “read”—the opportunity we have to read a significant book together from mid-January through late February—is This I Believe. It’s a book that helps us to put our finger on that which few of us take the time to do: examine what values and truths drive each of our lives? Put another way, the book pushes us to reflect on how our life is speaking to the world. If you’ve not asked this before, it’s time to put the question. This is a golden opportunity for you to gauge the quality of your life, to probe into what it means, and to open up to the surprising possibilities for a deeper way to live.

In Psalm 42:7-8, we read these words:

“Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the LORD directs his love, at night his song is with me— a prayer to the God of my life.” (NIV)

If we ask God, “How can my life have meaning, and how can my life speak with your voice?” we will repeatedly hear the answer in the roar of the waterfalls of God’s grace. New Year’s is an opportunity to ask that question again and to enter onto the path of life with new vigor, a path we’ve trodden many times, but one we’ll experience as if “for the first time” through the experience of God’s grace.