A New Year

It is springtime in Berkeley. Just about everywhere the trees are in full bud and many are in flower. The rains seem behind us, more or less, and the days are crisp and clear. My favorite time of year. Everything is new, even the semester.

It is also the beginning of lent, a good anglo-saxon word for spring. Another season of renewal, of prepararion for the Feast of the Resurrection.

So, today, Ash Wednesday is all about renewal, and about the preparation for renewal.

Many of us at GTU wore red today, to mark the celebration of Chinese New Year. Our Bishop, Allen, relaxed the fasting regulations to provide for appropriate celebration of the day.

In the book of the Revelations, God is heard to say from his throne, "Behold I make all things new."

Springtime, Lent, New Year, its exciting that all of this happens at the same time in real-time this year. The Feast we are preparing to celebrate through our long lenten discipline is one of universal renewal. The Death and REsuurection of Jesus begins a process that will undo all our littleness and failings.

This year, as we journey through Lent to Easter, let us remember that God makes all things new, even us.

2 Corinthians 5:17

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.