5 Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit

~John 3:5 NRSVUE

I love the fall. It is definitely in my top two seasons. It is a season of relief, as temperatures cool off from the hot summer. It is a season of change, as the colors shift from the diversity of the color green expanding into other colors on the spectrum. But it is also a season of renewal.

Normally when we think about seasons of renewal, we think of spring- when new life emerges from the cold dark winter. But for many, the fall is more of a renewal than any other time of year. Especially for our younger generations, fall means the start of a new school year. After time away from their school community at large, they enter back into the building. Many of them have new clothes and new school supplies, all showing off their latest list of favorite things. Some of them will have spent the summer growing and changing, shifting from toddlers to children, children to teens, teens to adults. Teachers, staff, and administrators come back as someone different too. They also have spent a summer away and are coming back changed because it is the natural progression of things.

Whenever I start thinking about renewal, I think about new birth or a new beginning. It makes me think of a line in “The Great Thanksgiving,” the prayer in our Communion liturgy, that says, “By the suffering of [Jesus’] life, death and resurrection, you gave birth to your church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit.”

This line from the Gospel of John shares with us a piece of the story where Nicodemus came to see Jesus. The conversation begins with Jesus telling those around him that we cannot enter the Kingdom of God, the place where God is, without being born by water and the Spirit.

But there is good news! “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life… in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16-17)

It is through Jesus’ actions that we can join in with Jesus’ baptism, hearing God cry out, “this is my child, whom I love, with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). It is through Jesus actions that we are able join in God’s promise of eternal life, of entering the Kingdom of God, and be reborn by water and the spirit.

We often make resolutions or commitments to changing ourselves at the beginning of a new calendar year. But we are not restricted to making new commitments then. So let’s make a new one now! Let us commit to living out our belief in Jesus, remembering that we walk the streets of the Kingdom of God, and have been made new.

Comment your thoughts below!

Blessings friends,
Pastor Nicole