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“Those who cannot learn from history are condemned to repeat it.”

People frequently hear this well-known quote by George Santayana, a Harvard philosopher in the first decade of the 20th century. It sounds a warning bell consistent with one of the Root Values of the Ten Commandments.

The fifth commandment calls us to “honor your father and your mother.” This means more than just being nice to mom and dad. It calls us to tend our legacy, to know our history, both personal and communal. It calls us to take to heart the story of our life’s journey, and the story of the covenant community in which our lives are grounded.

New beginnings are full of risk and unanticipated challenges. The Lord promises to be with us in the new beginnings of our lives. We experience the Lord’s presence more fully as we learn to be with one another. The Resurrected Christ makes himself known to us as we extend grace to one another and support one another through rough moments in our lives.

We know this, in part, because the scripture bears witness to this truth. But we also know this because it is the experience of our lives. Every new beginning confronts us with situations that are unfamiliar. This is what makes the beginning new. We step out into unfamiliar territory.

But beginnings as such are not unusual at all. As a matter of fact, there is nothing more familiar to us than beginnings. Every morning is a new beginning. If we live the seven-day cycle of Sabbath keeping, every Sunday is a new beginning. Every life includes a series of mile-stones -- new beginnings -- that define the journey of our lives.

Ancient Israel understood its history with reference to the first new beginning of its experience. That is, every new beginning Israel understood in the language of its liberation from slavery in Egypt. Throughout the course of its existence Israel continued to look back to that time when the Lord delivered them from the hand of the Egyptians.

Consider today’s reading from the book of Isaiah. The prophet says,

Thus says the LORD,
who makes a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty waters,
who brings out chariot and horse,
army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
they are extinguished, quenched like a wick. . . .

Whatever else may be happening, the prophet remembers that the same Lord who parted the Red Sea at a moment when the Egyptian army was bearing down on Israel, can part the challenges we face in the new beginnings of our lives.

Jesus faced the cross with this same confi dence. The Lord who parts the Red Sea, is the same Lord who makes a way in the sea of death and a path in the mighty waters of eternity.

Learn from history. With the Lord present in our lives, we are not condemned to repeat history, we are blessed to see the power of God at work in the new beginnings of our lives every bit as much as the power of God was at work in the lives of those who have gone before us.