A New Thing

Reading: Psalm 19, 1 Corinthians 12:12-31, Luke 4:14-21, Isaiah 43:16-21
 Preached at First Presbyterian Church Baldwin, NY, January 27th, 2013

A printable PDF file can be found here

Isaiah 43:18-19, “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old. I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?”

These were words that the prophet Isaiah spoke to Israel at a time they were going through some stormy waters, struggling to know exactly how they were going to make it through. It wasn’t the first time they had been in such a situation, and it wouldn’t be the last.

I can identify with that! I’m guessing most of us can. Life seems to lead us from one thing to the next thing. We can identify that some of the situations we have got ourselves into are mostly of our own creating. We took a wrong turn. We spoke a word in haste. We omitted to take a course of action that would have brought about a more beneficial result.
                                                                                                              
My mum used to warn me that if I ate cookies in bed then there would be crumbs and it wasn’t washday in our house until Saturday. So if I stayed in bed Sunday morning and ate cookies instead of getting up to go to church there would be crumbs in my bed all week and I just had to live with it. You make your bed, you lie in it.

Israel had more to contend with than crumbs. Defeat. Exile. The loss of identity and loss of faith. This was serious. And they didn’t see it coming, just carried on as though they were immune to the sort of problems that were common to the rest of humanity. It’s not a new story; it’s sadly all too common.

Where was the remedy? What was the solution? What were they going to do now? That’s the situation Isaiah is addressing. And in that situation the prophet offers a startling answer.

It’s startling because I don’t think it was the sort of answer that people expected or were even ready to consider. Startling because it was an answer that in many ways was not rooted in any course of action that they could take for themselves but entirely dependent upon the initiative and action of God.

Let me take you through this passage and hopefully try and draw something good out of it that can help us deal with some of the things we face in our lives. Before God can really help them God has to shake them out of their complacency. Before God can really do anything for them they had to see that their way of doing things just wasn’t going to work any more.

The passage begins with God addressing the people and reminding them of events of their history. The events of the Exodus and their deliverance from Egypt. “I am the God, who rescued you from slavery, who carried you through the wilderness, who buried those fearsome Egyptian chariots in the depths of the sea, and snuffed out your enemies like they were a flickering candle. Now what do you think about that?”

I can imagine some of them thinking, “Excellent!. God has been good to us in the past. Maybe that’s what God is going to do again. I can also imagine many of them thinking, “O.K. Here we go again. It’s time for the “Remember the Exodus speech”. Every time we get in trouble some prophet comes along and says, “Now just remember God. Turn back to God and every thing’s going to be all right. Yadda, Yadda, Yadda”.

Is that where a lot of people in contemporary America are right now? The gospel isn’t being heard because people have heard it all before. It’s good news that people have already listened to time and time again. It’s good, but it’s not really news anymore.

The Exodus had become old news to the Israelites. The basis of their history and a life-changing event that defined who they were, but... nevertheless... old news. And it’s right here that Isaiah’s proclamation kicks in. Isaiah tells them that the God who delivered them in the past is now saying, “Forget about it”.

Isaiah 43:18 “Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old”.

This is a message for people who have grown weary of the same old good news. This is a wake up call. I listen sometimes to some of the religious radio stations as I’m driving around. There’s often a stress on 'Old Time religion', on looking back to the days of some great period of history or to some particular preacher, and saying that’s what we have to get back to.

And now here’s the prophet saying “Forget about it”
But forget about it, for a reason.
And the reason?

Isaiah 43 19” “I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth”

I like the way Eugene Peterson paraphrases this passage in the “Message”. “Forget about what’s happened, don’t keep going over old history. Be alert. Be present. I’m about to do something brand new. It’s bursting out!”

A new thing. I'm glad the passage says 'A new thing' and not 'The Latest Thing'. There is a huge difference between 'What's Trending' and the kind of new thing that is spoken of in this scripture. It’s a difference that comes from the One who is speaking the Word.

When God says, “I am” it’s an indication that there’s something coming, something  that we need to take serious notice of. If I say, “Hey, here’s a new song to sing”, then the chances are that what I will offer you, may be new to you, but it won’t be anything that is going to change the face of the way music is perceived and worship is conducted for evermore afterward.

When God speaks through the prophet, about doing something new, then... take notice. Because this new thing is coming from the creative heart of God’s love.  This is not something that’s coming down a line to us as the latest trend, but an eternal word to change the way we perceive our lives.

The theologian Paul Tillich writes; “Behold, I am doing a new thing. “I” points to the source of the really new, to that which is always old and always new, the Eternal…. The really new is that which has in itself eternal power and eternal light…. That which makes life possible again, in both our personal and historical existence, a saving new, which has the power to appear when we least expect it, and has the power to throw into the past what is old and burdened with guilt and curse.” (Paul Tillich in “The New Being”).

This ‘new’ is as fresh as the first warm day of spring and as startling as a clap of thunder on a sunny afternoon. This is the 'New’ that spoke time and words and creation into being. This ‘New” is a refreshing new, a revitalizing new, a renewing new

Have you noticed how many religious words (including the word religion itself) begin with RE- something? RE-newal, RE-conciliation, RE-creation, RE-formation. RE-birth, RE-storation.

I was reading of a man who had an oak desk in his study that had become the worse for wear. He decided that he would do what he could to put it back in good shape. As this was something he hadn’t tried before he decided to call an antique dealer to see what such a process would involve. He asked, “What does it take to make old furniture like new?”

The restorer answered, “It takes imagination. Creative imagination. You have to see past all the layers of paint and chips, past the mars and scars. You have to look past all the faults in the wood and the broken pieces. You need to be able to see the furniture in its original beauty. You have to get excited about the possibilities you see beneath the surface”.

“Then you need, not a little, but a whole lot of time and energy. It won’t happen overnight. It takes time. It takes disciplined energy. The miracle doesn’t happen with the snap of your fingers.”

“The skills aren’t that hard to learn. The skill of choosing the right solution to strip it down. The skill of choosing the right sandpaper. The skill of fixing a broken hinge. But love is far more important than skill. The skills are important but not as important as the loving possibilities you have in your minds eye as you start to work.”

I can hear echoes of Isaiah in that description. Forget what it was, forget what it has become, and picture what it can be. Renew it. Recreate it. Reform it. Redeem it. Restore it. Do for it what it cannot do for itself.  We go through life and the older we get the more the chips and scars start to appear. It’s tempting to look back. It’s tempting to long for the good old days. We can become jaded and used and despondent.

Then along comes a word of God like this one. “Hey you know how great things were in the past, and how bad thing have become now? Forget about it! Don’t make that your focus. Listen up. I’m speaking a new word, a reconciling word, a forgiving word, and a recreating word. Do you want to hear it? Can you perceive it?”

God wants to go to work on us. God has a great imagination and sees the possibilities. God sees past the crud, sees past the scars, sees past the darkness, and sees past the brokenness. God strips off the old anger and hatred and fixes the broken pieces of our lives. It takes time. More time than we’d like.

But the more time we give to it, the more time we spend in prayer, in worship, in study, in service of others, the more time and energy we give to things that have lasting significance, actions reflecting love and being loved, then new layers replace the old layers, a new veneer of grace and peace starts to appears. Layers of joy and contentment and hope.

New things. Eternal things. Things that can only come to us through allowing the love of Jesus Christ to renew us and restore us on a daily basis. Things that the Holy Spirit gifts us with and inspires us to pursue.

Hear again the prophet’s word.
“Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing, now it springs forth,
Do you not perceive it?”

May God help us to live in a way
that reflects the new life of Jesus Christ.
Amen.   
                                                     
Rev. Adrian J. Pratt B.D.