Good morning.

 

Welcome to the 2018-2019 school year at St. Christopher’s School. What a glorious morning it is for us to gather in this space to officially commence a new school year. Welcome to all of our students, faculty, and staff, and to the many parents here to celebrate and worship alongside us. It has been an excellent opening week here at St. Christopher’s, setting the stage for an outstanding year to come.

 

I want to offer a special welcome and thanks to the members of the Class of 2019. Thank you, gentlemen, for your early leadership of the student body, and thank you, also, for spending time with our Kindergarten boys, members of the Class of 2031, and for escorting them in to our service this morning.

 

Seniors, the next time this many of us will gather here on the Terraces will be to celebrate you and your many accomplishments upon your graduation from St. Christopher’s just over 37 weeks from now. But, let us not go there yet, for there is plenty to do and much to learn between now and May 24, 2019.

 

Let us turn our attention to this day, this glorious day shared with magnificence from the Grace of God. Let us offer our thanks for this God-given beauty but also for the hands and hearts of the women and men who helped make this moment possible.

 

Let us thank Mrs. Brown in our Chaplain’s Office and Mrs. O’Connor in our Development Office; our outstanding maintenance team; our chaplains Revered Edwards, Reverend Steed, and Reverend Torrence; our musician Mr. Covington; our sound technician Mr. Jump; and especially our student leaders Will, Charles, and Jeffrey. Will you please join me in thanking all of these individuals for their service today and every day?

 

In Charles’ scripture reading for us this morning, from the Old Testament’s Book of Isaiah, the Prophet tells us to “Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing!”

 

It is an accessible reading, encouraging and even liberating. Who wouldn’t want to avoid dwelling on the past but, instead, to focus on this present moment and what the future may hold? When I think of past events, of course I turn to happy memories, moments of which I am proud, but I also think of disappointments, failures, times in my life when I was not my best self.

 

As someone who loves the study of history and someone who indeed believes that events and people of the past set the stage for the present and the future, I struggle with taking too literal an interpretation of the passage we heard this morning.

 

We cannot, truly, “Forget the former things,” can we?

 

At this same service one year ago, I challenged all of us to think of ourselves as stewards of this St. Christopher’s community. I told you that none of us owned this school, this campus, or our programs, but that each of us was also more than mere passers-by, lease-holders of the trust that is St. Christopher’s.

 

No, we are stewards, caretakers, and it is our solemn responsibility to take what others have built for us in the past, to preserve it and strengthen it for future Saints. We should, as the Greek proverb suggests, plants trees whose shade we will never know.

 

But here is how I reconcile and make sense of Isaiah’s encouragement not to dwell on past matters. Isaiah, and God, are forward-looking, they are progressive. Of course, the past does matter, it provides context, but it does not shape our destiny. And that is the key distinction.

 

We, each and every one of us, will shape the course of the coming school year. Will it be extraordinary, average, disappointing, or some combination of these attributes, in different ways and in different moments through the year? I cannot say for sure, but I do know that each of you, each of us, will have a hand in shaping the destiny of St. Christopher’s in 2018-2019.

 

To our students, know that what you have done here before, or at your former school, if you are new to us, does matter today. It has set the foundation for who you are and what you are capable of at this moment in time. But, the past does not define you. You can be, you will be, different from who and what you were before. You will make new friends, excel and struggle in new and different subjects, you will have new experiences and grow in ways that you can barely fathom at this time.

 

A new school year is a moment of opportunity, of new beginnings, and a chance for each of you, regardless of who you were in the past, to become the best and most beloved version of yourself imaginable, all made possible through God’s grace and through the love and support of everyone gathered around you this morning.

 

How fortunate we are, all of us, to teach and to learn in a time and a place that provides for limitless renewal and opportunity.

 

It will be a glorious year, together. Amen.