With the beginning of the new school year just two days old, many find themselves at a in a whole new environment with a whole new set of challenges and joys. When children experience stress, usually the whole family needs some time to readjust and sometimes has to face that fact that things may never be the same. New teachers, a new grade, perhaps new classmates, or a new schedule, a different building, all those things require energies and present challenges.

Most of life is about new beginnings, a fresh start. Sometimes we are ready for a change, tired and bored with things as they are, we look forward to the next step in life. Sometimes we hang on to the familiar and cling to what we know because it is easier and more comfortable.

Much of the religion of Jesus’ day had gotten bogged down in the familiar. The traditions had become so important that in many respects God’s word had been forgotten.

The Message Translation of Matthew 15:9 gives us Jesus’ quote of the Old Testament Prophet, Isaiah, “These people make a big show of saying the right thing, but their heart isn’t in it. They act like they’re worshipping me, but they don’t mean it. They use me as a cover for teaching whatever suits their fancy” They had forgotten the “main thing” was to remain the “main thing”. Letting tradition and the status quo become the core had polluted their entire purpose. Jesus was calling for a fresh start, a new beginning.

When we have been church members for many years it is easy to get used to doing things the way they have been done before. While it is true that some congregations work out procedures and practices that work for them, they can soon be reduced into doing things the easy way. Often the easy way is not the most effective way of being the church. Jesus talked to his followers about traveling the most difficult, the narrow road, and said that following him involved carrying a cross. We would rather have a motorized cart for carrying what need carrying, and don’t like the negative image of life’s challenges described as a “cross”. We try to re-invent the church into becoming a social institution geared at taking care of society’s needs while neglecting the needs of our souls.

The simple truth is; we need to be connected to God. We find the church has no meaning apart from God’s intended purpose. When we make the church less, we are really short-changing not only our God, but ultimately ourselves.

At the beginning of this school year, let’s all consider a fresh start in regards to how we see our faith. Let’s look for opportunities to develop new beginnings in our relationship to God and to the world around us. Let’s go to the Bible-bookstore and pick out a book that would encourage us to grow in our faith and in our faithfulness. What is the “main thing” about our life and worship? Are we going after that which is minor as a cover of what is really happening to our faith?

The new beginning is waiting for each of us. It may take some readjusting. It may mean that we abandon some of our old ways of thinking and our old practices, but it offers new blessings and a richer relationship to our God.

No student wants to keep repeating the same grade year after year. Students are challenged to a fresh start to continually develop their knowledge base and experience. From that ever upward-reaching practice comes a brighter future. Why are we so content to keep repeating the familiar in terms of our faith? How much growth and progress has that brought to us?