Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? –Isaiah 43:19

Dear friends,

A new day is dawning for New College Berkeley! After twenty-eight years of leading this ministry, on January 1st I’m passing the reins, with confidence and enthusiasm, into new hands. In 1994 the Board of Trustees participated in a new day for New College by appointing me as Executive Director and Sharon Gallagher as Associate Director. We were the first women to serve in the (previously titled) President and Dean positions. In those years, it was rare for women to lead Christian ministries like New College, and it was and has been a tremendous privilege.

The Fruit of the E. D. Search

And now, after a year-long, international search, the Board of Trustees, on the unanimous recommendation of the Executive Director Search Committee, has—also unanimously—voted to engage Dr. Tim Tseng and Craig Wong as Executive Co-Directors of this precious ministry which is about to celebrate its 45th year. This is cause for great rejoicing in the opportunities that lie ahead!

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Look, the young woman is with child and shall bear a son, and shall name him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14)

We read about the dislocated people in the Nativity story. Mary was startled by the angel’s announcement of the Messiah’s coming into the world through her. Joseph was told a similar story in a dream, and both of them set off into strange, dangerous, history-making circumstances. The Wise Men followed a star across deserts and mountains to the Messiah’s manger-crib. Sheepherders in the fields—minding their own business!—received the news from a heavenly host. All these people were given signs; and all of them were given companions as they wondered and wandered.

This seems to be how God works: strangely, for sure, yet always compassionately aware of our need for human accompaniment, especially when experiencing divine revelation.

Although [Wisdom] is but one, she can do all things, and while remaining in herself, she renews all things; in every generation she passes into holy souls and makes them friends of God….—Wisdom 7:27

“I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” —John 15:15

Dear Friends,

Jesus called us “friends.” The message of the Book of Wisdom is that even before Jesus walked the earth, divine Logos/Wisdom worked in people’s souls to make them “friends of God.”  As friends of God we become siblings in Christ, a community connected by the Holy Spirit.

I write to you now with immense thanksgiving. Knowing you in this New College Berkeley community of Christian faith and study has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. My husband Steve and I moved to Berkeley just as David Gill, Earl Palmer, and others were bringing the hope for a new college in Berkeley to fruition. We happily joined that community of people seeking to follow Jesus in thought, word, and deed. 

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, New College Berkeley spiritual directors have met with people in small, prayerful groups by Zoom. We’ve witnessed the stresses and the opportunities of this strange, isolated time; a time of great loss for many people, yet also a time of discovering novel ways of gathering together and orienting ourselves toward God.

People keep telling me this is a “murky season” spiritually. We grope for clarity, for hope, for the Light shining in the darkness. During this long pandemic season, so fraught with social unrest and losses of all kinds, I’ve been amazed that contemplative time with other people—over the phone and by Zoom—have been rich despite physical absence. You may have discovered this, too. Now that we’re venturing out from quarantine, we do so with caution and also with hope of holding onto the gifts of the pandemic.

January—the new year. The time of Epiphany—discovery and illumination. So we hope. We hope, too, for mass immunizations against the novel coronavirus and for a peaceful transfer of power in the United States. Every day I feel the intense longing for good news.

We’ve yearned toward the Holy One throughout the season of Advent, and in this new year the adventure continues. In our COVID-19 moment I’m reflecting on the fact that the word “adventure” underwent some evolution in its meaning many centuries ago. In 1200 it referred to that which happens by chance, with the possibility of wonder, miracle, and marvelous happenings. Then disaster struck and the word’s sense changed to denote risk and danger. In 1347 the Black Death struck Europe, and over the course of four years more than 20 million lives were lost on the continent, about one-third of the population. Everyone suffered. It’s no surprise that the understandings of common words would shift in grim ways. Over the course of the last year, I’ve developed an aversion reaction to the word “unprecedented.”

Advent, like Lent, is a speed bump in the galloping year, slowing us down, and waking us to deep realities. And how we need Advent in the blur of the pandemic and the rush of Yuletide. Advent and Lent are also confessional seasons and, in effect, extended Sabbaths. They exist in Kairos time, the time of reflection, of prayer, of communion.

It’s, as it were, folded time. We remember other Advents in our lives as though through a wormhole in time, and they seem near as we enter into the familiar patterns of Advent worship, even in this strange, isolated year. Perhaps especially in this particular year, we also anticipate future Advent seasons. Times of gathering together again in worship, retreat, caroling, and feasting.

All Jesus did that day was tell stories––a long storytelling afternoon. His storytelling fulfilled the prophecy: I will open my mouth and tell stories; I will bring out into the open things hidden since the world’s first day. Matthew 13:34-35; MSG

Dear friends,

When I was a child, my great-aunt Hat would gather her grand-nieces and grand- nephews around her and recite a looping tale. Brown eyes wide open and her expression mock-somber, she would recite:

High in the windy hills of Italy lived a little band of bandits.

One night as the lightning flashed and the thunder roared and the rain came down in torrents, the Captain turned to his lieutenant and said, “Sandy, give us a story,” which he did in the following manner.

“High in the windy hills of Italy lived a little band of bandits. One night as the lightning flashed….”

We squealed with delight at the absurdity, even the youngest among us knowing that—silly, Aunt Hat!—stories ought not to loop like that.

Stories need to go somewhere.

The Lord protects the resident alien,
comes to the aid of the orphan and the widow,
but thwarts the way of the wicked. Ps. 146:9 (NABRE)

Beloved, remember you don’t belong in this world. You are resident aliens living in exile, so resist those desires of the flesh that battle against the soul. 1 Peter 2:11 (VOICE)

Throughout this attenuated pandemic season, the words “resident alien” have reverberated in my mind, and I’ve sought reassurance in how God views people in such straits as beloved. We are in a strange time and place, and we are loved.

God’s grace is with us, we trust, even in a strange time of pandemic which has prevented us from gathering together in person with anyone outside of our own households. The crisis time fell within our seasons of Lent and Eastertide, bringing us through Ascension Day (when, some people are saying, Jesus began “working from home”). Now following Pentecost, we’ve entered what Christian liturgical calendars call “Ordinary Time,” days of trusting that Jesus is with us, sometimes noticing him and many times not being sure if we do.

We all wonder how we can express gratitude to God for the great gift of Jesus Christ. The shepherds in the fields received God’s announcement (annunciation) and greeted Jesus’ arrival (advent). We can do the same by opening our hearts and minds to what God is communicating to us and rejoice in the One who is always arriving in our lives.

Whoever claims to abide in Him must walk as Jesus walked. 1 John 2:6

Dear Friends,

So much in the life of Jesus happens on the road while walking—teaching,

healing, sharing meals, and encountering people from all walks of life. The

passage from 1 John 2:6 instructs us to walk, even as Jesus walked, though the

text translated into English often translates the Greek walking words (periepatesen and peripatein)

with live and lived. Both words—live and walk—offer sightlines into the life of faith.

Jesus wants to know what’s on our minds and hearts. He wants us to pay attention, too, and helps us notice our, so often unconscious, awareness of the holy in our everyday lives and in our hearts. Jesus cultivates, as it were, our sacred consciousness.

On the Emmaus road he approached the couple fleeing Jerusalem with this question: What are you discussing with each other as you walk along? They hedged in their response—after all, he’s a stranger and they’re part of a persecuted group. But he got their attention. In response to his question, they stood still and looked sad. This may have been the first time they really paused and felt the depth of their sadness. His holy listening enabled them to do so. 

Imagine the couple fleeing Jerusalem after Jesus’ death. They’ve not experienced “Good Friday” as we do, already sending Easter cards and preparing for the celebratory feast. They’re engulfed in loss, grief, and fear. 

We encounter them a few days after Jesus’ gruesome death as they’re walking to Emmaus. If Cleopas is the same person written about in John 19:25, it’s probable that the two people walking to Emmaus are Cleopas and his wife Mary, who stood at the foot of the cross with other women who loved Jesus. Remember the scene they’ve witnessed. 

A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing food from the first fruits to the man of God: twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. Elisha said, “Give it to the people and let them eat.” 43 But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred people?” So he repeated, “Give it to the people and let them eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’” 44 He set it before them, they ate, and had some left, according to the word of the Lord. —2 Kings 4:42-44 (NRSV)